It seems a bit early to determine that Bush is the worst president in history, even if current historians think so. We won't know the full effects of his tenure for a while. I think he's been a bad president, but I wouldn't call him the worst. James Buchanan still gets my vote for that dubious title.
The rest of the ad does raise interesting questions for McCain, especially as he tries to distance himself from the president. And as the second video shows, voting with Bush 95% of the time and saying we're worse off than four years ago seems to be a contradicting message. This exchange between Davis and Wallace is the embodiment of spin.
Wallace: "If the country's worse off, isn't both the president and John McCain, aren't they both responsible?"
Davis: "Well look, if you want to talk about history, then you can make all the cases you want to make."
Wallace: "But you're talking about history -- you talk about the last four years."
Davis: "Exactly. And what I'm talking about, though, right now is what the future holds and who's got a plan to cut taxes and get the economy moving again."
Davis tries to also spin it so that if McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time in 2007, that those votes weren't related to the "current economic conditions or where we are in other places." What were all those votes about then? Is Bush right 95% of the time according to McCain, but the 5% where Bush is wrong is a really important 5%?
I fully agree regarding it being too early to assess the historical rank of the president. Even without comparing him to any other president, I think that is a more than presumptuous claim.
I really liked McCain four years ago. He has frustrated me and pushed me away in this campaign. His support of Bush's policies is a major part of that. I honestly don't understand how his moves to the right in the last two years jive with who he was four years ago.
It may be that he is a maverick, but his going in his own direction style these last few years has been alarmingly close to Bush's positions. I used to like that McCain was his own person, doing what he thought was right inspite of political pressures. After having a president who did what was right in spite of public opinion (and I believe the sense of people with a modest IQ) I am reluctant at best to have another go his own way president, particularly one whose way seems to so closely resemble Bush.
