Worst President Ever

Everyone is on the "Bush is the worst president ever" bandwagon now. Everyone outside the lunatic fringe, that is--which includes the unwatchable Glenn Beck and the Fox News legions of shambling undead. Funny how long it took for Chris Matthews to come around, and how completely his opinion has shifted with the winds of prevailing wisdom from "only wackos don't like Bush" to the current CW tack he's taking. I think Matthews had a change of heart after seeing Olberman's ratings ratchet up dramatically to the point where the upstart former sports guy was sharing the campaign coverage desk with Tweety. Shows how principled Matthews is.

Much as I'm leery of Barak Obama as a presidential candidate--I worry about his lack of executive experience and think his stardom is a bit undeserved--I will give him kudos for being forthright about his experiences with the Sweet Leaf. When asked by Jay Leno if he had inhaled, Obama replied: "That was the point." Preach on! Also, my mother--who has never pulled the lever for a Democrat in her life--really likes Obama after his appearance on Oprah. She thinks he's a serious thinker and that he's honest and appealing. My response to that: if those were her criteria for a president, how could she vote for Bush twice?

How about Obama/Clinton or Obama/Edwards as potential tickets? The former is likely more marketable--two Democrat celebrities, an African American candidate with a liberal track record and a woman on the same ticket who is a pro-business centrist--but would HRC submit to the VP slot? Only if Obama beat her soundly in some key primaries. Obama/Edwards (or Edwards/Obama) would be more ideologically palatable to me, but perhaps too left for red state America (though any ticket with HRC would be completely unpalatable to red state America). With Feingold out I don't have anyone to support enthusiastically, unless I turn to Cobb on the Green ticket, who stayed at our house in '04 and permanently 'borrowed' one of my Philip K. Dick paperbacks (and walked around with his shirt off). Perhaps Richardson/Obama, Vilsek/Obama? I don't know.