How do you rate Pres. George W. Bush compared to past U.S. Presidents?

He is a pretty good President, because he sticks to his guns even through the controversy!!

Unfortunately, he is one of the polititians who don't mind handing our country over to illegal immigrants. Except for that, he is pretty damn good!!!

Ok ... let's look at the President before Bush ... Clinton ... aside from lying and telling people that Monica didn't blow him what did he do that was so bad ... hummmmmmm .... let's see .... be the first President EVER to leave office with a budget surplus ... YES ... a surplus. Go to the one before him ... Daddy Bush. He wasn't that bad and I'm betting that he thinks his son was a disgrace. How about Reagan ... hope I'm not going to far into the past for you ... Reagan was a great President but if you really want someone to blame for the troubles we have now he deserves as much as Bush Jr. Before Reagan ... who was it ... do you even know? (It was Carter ... BTW) the country was in a mess ... government regulation over everything was choking out business so what does Ronnie Ray-Gun go and do ... he gets rid of as much government regulation that he can hoping that Wall Street will work on the "Honor System" and police itself ... too bad that the people on Wall Street and Big Business don't have a clue what the word "Honor" means. The whole mess came full circle under Bush Jr. and he did nothing to stop it but take us to war because of a bunch of lies and make this country the laughing stock of the world. There is a simple pattern here ... all regulated makes a mess ... no regulation makes a mess ... can't anyone see the middle ground here. Government has to have a finger in the pie but it can't have it's whole hand in the pie ... that's what Obama is trying to do. Be nice if people who came on this forum knew just what the hell they are talking about ... to much to hope for though I guess.

Richard Nixon was controversial not because of a war (in fact, he got us out of Vietnam) but because his government was full thugs and outright thieves like Spiro Agnew. Lyndon Johnson was controversial, even though he instituted some great social reforms, because he got us further involved in Vietnam (which began under Kennedy). I don't know of any other president that has been so harmful as George W. Bush, he has done absolutely nothing good in social terms, he is the figurehead for a whole crowd of thieves, he has done whatever possible to destroy constitutional guarantees, international treaties and the credibility of international organizations and he has sent thousands of americans to die and to kill in a war for the profit of his pals in the oil and arms industries. He is unique.

He's certainly in the bottom. We are in a new chapter of American history today; no president has ever instituted policies that have divided the populace of the country so much. It's part of the Bush/Rove strategy: design social and military policy to pander to the ultra-conservative evangelical base, their support will be enough to create a lasting GOP majority in the US government (of course, they were wrong on that one, as on so much else!). The current polarization of the population was designed to happen through these policies, and it is something that is unique (unfortunately) in American history.

On this count, Bush goes down as the worst president in history for making ideology and the narrow self-interest in preserving power the basis for his presidency rather than pragmatism, reality, and responsible leadership the entire country can follow (not to mention his lies, wars, torture, secret prisons, abrogation of responsibility after Katrina...). He was the wrong man in office at the time of 9-11, simply not up to the challenge of understanding the nuances and complexities of global politics, and history will not look fondly on his misadventures.

bush in my opinion ranks in the bottom 5 because of the fact that he is the first US president to start an unprovoked war. The closest is the spanish American war and at least they blew up one of our ships! and his making a mockery of the constitution

the other four would be

Buchanon: led to the civil war

Grant: incompetitent as a president, a drunk and led a corrupt administration

Harding: same as Grant

Nixon: Watergate although at this point I would rather have him the W!

I agree with most of the less extreme answers - GWB is by far not the worst President we've had nor is he the best.

On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being Jimmy Carter, and 10 being Ronald Reagan, I would give him an 8.

Worst president in US history. I think that answers the question quite succinctly.

I would say he's in the lower top 10

Best President since his father!