Obama 'The Worst US President Since WW2'

It is Independence Day tomorrow so time for an American story. It is official, in a poll done by Quinnipiac University 33% of US voters registered Obama as 'the worst US President since WW2'. Not like we needed a poll to say that anyway.

Obama is having a very bad time at the moment with dodgy international decisions over the current situation in Iraq and mixed messages coming for the US economy. This news should not come as any surprise at this moment in time then. In the same poll Obama was given a -15% rating on 'handling the economy', -10% on 'foreign policy', -18% on 'healthcare', and -7% rating on 'terrorism'. At least he is doing better than Ed Miliband.

Even worse for President Obama is that 45% of American voters said that it would have been better if Mitt Romney had won the 2012 elections, with 38% disagreeing. Furthermore, 54% of voters do not believe his 'administration has been competent in running the country'. Although Obama has to stand down in 2016, I'm sure he is very pleased to know that those voters who put him over the line in 2012 now believe they made a terrible decision. I wonder what people would say of all those 'hope' posters now?

Other Presidents of the United States that received a lot of votes for the title of 'worst US President since WW2' were George W. Bush, with 28%, Richard Nixon, with 13% of the vote, and Jimmy Carter, with 8%. 

However, in more positive news, the late Ronald Reagan looking down upon the world must be very happy with his legacy. 35% of American voters think Reagan was 'the best US President since WW2'. Clearly ending the Cold War and running a decent economy during the 1980s still goes down well with American voters. Nut this should come as no surprise as Reagan carried 49 out of 50 states in the 1984 US Presidential elections.

I'm sure Obama is very pleased with these results. Maybe history will look kinder on him. Maybe.

Happy Birthday Milton Friedman

Today is Milton Friedman's 101st Birthday. He was one of the most influential economists in the world who doggedly advocated the introduction of free market capitalism across the world in order to make people better off. He noted that the best thing for the state to do was to retreat from public life as much as possible. With such economic arguments the holes in Communism and Socialism were easily pointed out.

Long live the Free Market Economy.

He also pointed out the one big killer in holding back economies and thus people's lives, inflation. His ideas were a great influence upon the thinking of President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Both of them followed a policy of monetarism which aimed to cut inflation by cutting the supply of money, a policy which saw Britain lead the world.

Here are a few of my favourite videos of him.    

Quotes

Now that my Blog is back to the normal colour have you noticed something different? Well look on the side bar and wonder at the political quotes in pictures. Do you like them? Well if not tough because I do, I'll keep changing them every so often however so you're not bored. Here's a collection of some of them that did not make the first cut.

For all you Republicans out there I have included some by my Favourite American, Ronald Regan. Whenever people point to Obama and say how popular he is or how he won a landslide in the 2012 elections just remember this.

 This is a landslide!

Winston Churchill is another much quoted figure. From wise wit on drinking ugly people's whisky to being a genuine believer in the free market. Winston is a great man. Did I mention he also saved the World?

Lady Thatcher is also another person hailed for good quotes. From what I've heard from people who actually knew her she was actually very good at these one liners.

Always Remember this however.

Happy Birthday Ronnie

I’d just like to say one big happy Birthday to Ronald Reagan who would have been 102 today. Considering how old he actually was  when doing the job, he showed quite a lot of youth and energy as President notably showing up Gorbachev several times. Why however should we be praising Ronald Reagan? Well I bet most of you know roughly already but I'm going to give a brief synopsis of why he’s one of the greatest Presidents of all time.

Reagan was a lover of the free market, personal freedom and his own country. America’s economy grew significantly under Reagan, through a period of prosperity that Republicans keep going on about today. And you know they are right to say that if you deregulate businesses, cut taxes, and most importantly shrink the state the economy will expand. Furthermore, Reagan tackled the world wide inflation problem in the US by reducing the money supply whilst in Europe they decided to begin losing their own economic freedom by pinning their currencies to the Deutsche Mark. The greater economic freedom led to more personal freedom, something Ronald Reagan rightly believed America should stand for. He was very proud of this and consequently very proud of the US. It was said of him that he was always happy and looked like that at any moment would turn around to say ‘God Bless America’ and truly mean it.

Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War. Although others helped, the primary reason why we don’t have the USSR and Marxist-Leninism around anymore is because of this chap. The Soviet Union was a mess of the state in 1980 when Reagan became President, it was backward in every way. But the country had a stable system of government just like North Korea is now. Ronald Reagan hated Communism and knew that if the world did not act it would still be around for many years to come.

The best thing about how Ronnie dealt with this problem though is that there wasn't a shot fired in the European hot zone. He challenged the USSR to an arms race knowing that the US could win economically without there ever being a war. Indeed, Reagan started STI not a weapon but a destroyer of weapons, for the use of peace only. Reagan also helped set the tone for the USSR.

There are some things I do think Reagan got wrong. I'm not sure that in Afghanistan he was paying much attention to who exactly he was arming. Nor do I think with such ferocity should he have attacked central and South American Communists because it has partially led to US-phobia (although there is some elements of jealously there). But long term thinking on what were smaller issues in the 1980s is hardly a very fair criticism when giving an overall verdict for Ronnie.

However, I believe it is a bit of a myth that Reagan was a massive social conservative, seen as a positive and a negative by some. I doubt if he were a politician today Ronald Reagan would have the same ideas about gay people, rape and the Bible as some Republicans have. He was certainly not a nutter.

But was Ronald Reagan good? Yes, he was great. I feel to celebrate the great man we can legitimately get on our Stetsons and listen in to Luc Chignell’s country and western show on URN (Saturdays 11-1). But after that make sure you take them off, we’re British unlike you Luc.