Worst President??

One of the best Financial Newsletters I have read is:

Perkins Capital Management
730 East Lake Street
Wayzata, Mn. 55391-1769

Not only a financial letter, it doubles as a news letter. Commenting on the death of Alistair Cooke, the British born journalist best known as an observer of America through his 13 minute broadcasts over BBC called “A Letter from America” started in 1946 and lasted 58 years, the letter comments on an article Cooke wrote on April 25, 2003 stating his view on Iraq:


Titled “Appeasing Hitler and Saddam” he recalled the late 1930”s when Prime Minister Chamberlain negotiated with Hitler who then proceeded to break his promises. At that time Cooke was 30, having been born in November 1908, and commented that all those involved in the Iraq debate were toddlers in 1938, and some were not even born, so how could they remember those events. He closed saying “All I know is that the voices of the 30”s are echoing through 2003”. If you recall I wrote in a recent “blog” that I compared what was boiling in the MidEast before 1993 (Attack on the World Trade Center) with what was happening in Germany in the 30’s.

This letter also comments on an article appearing in a Durham, NC local paper as a letter to the Editor:

“Liberals claim President Bush should not have started this war. One liberal claimed that Bush was the worst president in history. They complain about his prosecution of it. Let’s clear up one point: We didn’t start the war on terror. It was started by the terrorists BEFORE 9/11. Let’s look at the worst president and mismanagement claims:


FDR led us into WWII. Germany never attacked us. Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 a year. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 5800 per year.


John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam didn’t attack us. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-75, 58,000 lives were lost an average of 5800 a year.

Clinton went to war with Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden’s head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled El Qaeda, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughted300,000 of his own people. We lost 600soldiers, an average of 300 a year (Update to November, 2004, approximately 1000, or 500 per year). Bush did all this abroad without allowing another terrorist attack at home. Worst president in history?? Come on!”

Then we have;
“Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime…He presents a particular grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation…And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction…So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real…”
-Senator John F. Kerry (Dem, Ma), Jan.23, 2003