Thursday, February 26, 2004

The other presidents were just as bad

There's a piece to this effect making its way around the Bushosphere - I even got a fragment of it - goes more or less like this:
...
Let’s look at the "worst" president and mismanagement claims.

FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did.
...

Truman finished that war and started one in Korea, North Korea never attacked us...

John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire...

Clinton went to war in 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...
The readers at Making Light analyze it and its origin. Apparently it was first posted at FreeRepublic, wasn't "from a paper in Durham, NC" as it [now?] claims to be, presumably is anonymous because what's in it is by and large untrue.

Long thread, but quite interesting.

a good summary is this one ("This response was compiled today from information found on the internet and from citizens around the country... The facts have been checked, and links (text in red) are provided so you can see for yourself & make your own decision. The opinions, mine and others', you can take or leave.")

TNH speaks:
I've been trying to track this down. It gets interesting. As you've seen, it's spread all over the place, never with proper attribution, and no one's taking credit. What's even more interesting... is that the earliest appearance of it I can find was posted on FreeRepublic.com, 08 February 2004, by someone posting as "Keen-Minded" who appears to be one of the site's proprietors....
(also some fascinating reporting of FREEP community dynamics)

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