Is George Bush the worst president ever?
December 2, 2005 by Richard Reeves PARIS — President John F. Kennedy was considered an historian because of his book “Profiles in Courage,” so he received periodic requests to rate the presidents, those lists that usually begin “1. Lincoln, 2. Washington …” But after he actually became president himself, he stopped filling them out. “No one knows what it’s like in this office,” he said after being in the job. “Even with poor James Buchanan, you can’t understand what he did and why without sitting in his place, looking at the papers that passed on his desk, knowing the people he talked with.” Poor James Buchanan, the 15th president, is generally considered the worst president in history. Ironically, the Pennsylvania Democrat, elected in 1856, was one of the most qualified of the 43 men who have served in the highest office. A lawyer, a self-made man, Buchanan served with some distinction in the House, served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and secretary of state
