Union Tribune Reports Shocker: George W. Bush One of Five Best Presidents in History!

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson. What do they have in common? They were all worse presidents than George W. Bush.

Today the Union Tribune editorial staff did two things.

One, it made the claim that the Bush men were tied for fifth place as best presidents in the history of this wonderful country. The other four were Washington, Lincoln, FDR and Reagan.

It's worth reviewing George's record at a very high level.

• He was the first president in the history of this country to finance a war and occupation with a tax cut. In fact, not just one war but two.
• Largely because of his willingness to defy the tradition of 42 previous presidents, Bush turned an  inherited budget surplus of $236 billion into a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion, a reversal of $1.6 trillion.
• Had unemployment gone up as much under Obama's presidency as it did under Bush's, Obama would be seeking re-election with an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent.
• 9-11 - the worst terrorist attack on American soil - occurred under his watch.
• Under Bush, the stock market dropped 25%, the biggest drop under any president since Herbert Hoover
• And lest you forget how averse president Bush was to deep thought, review real quotes from George W. Bush and his most important advisers in a blog post of mine from 2006. It is mind boggling.

Now those are some amazing accomplishments. (Take that Thomas Jefferson.) That they are the sort of accomplishments that qualify you to be one of our best presidents ever is even more amazing.

Two, the Union Tribune made the argument - accompanied with dramatic and bold visuals that literally take up the first half page of the editorial section - that Romney should be our next president.

Apparently the editorial staff at the  UT is trying to assure voters that if only Romney gets elected and does well enough to make the top five list, he, too, might leave our country in as great a shape as George W.  I'm not sure how many voters that will win over, though.

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Two other things about this list.

The U-T includes six presidents on their list of five best, demonstrating some degree of confusion about what the meaning of five is.

Also, not only are half the men on this list named George but every president named George made the list. In such complex times, one has to admire the simplicity of such criteria.