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Charles Neu, a highly accomplished American history professor raised by one of the staunchest Republicans ever to live in Carroll County, says an easy answer in his business these days is the "worst" president one.
Which presidency is the worst in history?
To lay the ground rules, Neu says it doesn't make sense to compare 19th century presidents with modern-day commanders-in-chief.
But if one goes with a modern time frame, say post-1945 where the context is somewhat the same in terms of powers of the office, President George W. Bush doesn't fare well.
"He's easily the worst – no contest," Neu said.
Worse than Nixon?
"Oh yes," Neu said.
Charles Neu, the brother of former Republican Lt. Gov. Art Neu and the son of former 26-year Carroll Mayor Arthur N. Neu, has been with Brown University for more than 30 years, including a stint as chairman of that school's history department. A professor emeritus at Brown, Neu is currently at work in Miami, Fla., on a book on the Woodrow Wilson administration for Oxford University Press, Charles Neu is the author of six books, including two on the Vietnam War.
Neu has dedicated his life to studying great men, and he finds no greatness in George W. Bush.
"He never had much of a serious purpose in his life," Neu said in a recent interview. "He never really even had much of a business career. He's not even well-educated though he had a chance to become well-educated, but not the will to do so. And this guy ends up leading the nation? He's doesn't even have good verbal skills. He's clearly a person who doesn't read very much. You just watch him speak and struggle to find words."
Asked in a separate interview if he agreed with Neu's conclusions, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, immediately asked a question in return.
"Neu, isn't that a Republican family?" Harkin joked.
Then he quickly agreed with Neu's historical analysis.
"I think the people of this country are really beginning to realize that this president is just not up to it," Harkin said. "He's not up to the job. A lot of mistakes have been and he's kind of lacking the moral authority that people need to run this country. I kind of agree with Neu. I think Neu's on the right track."
In the interview Charles Neu recalled going to a number of state and even national GOP events with his father.
But history shouldn't be read through partisan lenses, Neu said.
"My larger concern is that I'm disillusioned not with just our political leaders but with the whole of national leadership, whether it's in corporate life or academic life," Neu said. "I think there's been a failure of leadership in this country. Leaders are not speaking out."
The system doesn't bring people of great talent or imagination to the top, he said.
"It's not getting our best people through the system, all the way to the top," he said.
Neu said money and media skills dominate, leaving little room for courage and conviction.
"I think so many of those things compromise a person's vision," Neu said. "I wish I could say we had another FDR on the horizon, even another JFK or LBJ, but we get people like George W. Bush who is, wow, talk about the decadence of the American elite."
Broadening the "worst president" debate clearly would bring Bush some serious competition. There's our own Herbert Hoover, the man on watch as the nation entered the Depression. Then we have James Buchanan, Lincoln's predecessor, and a chief executive who helped set the stage for the Civil War through what historian Sean Wilentz calls "dithering" when faced with Southern succession. After Lincoln we had Confederate sympathizer Andrew Johnson who was impeached.
Then there are obscure men whose most common mentions today are on the memorized lists of grade schoolers.
But there's a difference between bad and forgotten.
What's more, today a terrible president actually can be much more disastrous than, say, Johnson or Buchanan.
That's because the role of the presidency then was so small compared to today, Neu said.
"What the federal government did didn't affect most people," Neu said. "It was a very, very small operation until The New Deal began to kick in and then even more when the Cold War began to kick and we began to create this vast national security apparatus which is still with us today."
Woodrow Wilson's state department had around 300 people in 1913, and Wilson had a White Staff with only a few people.
"He typed out many of his own diplomatic messages on a little portable typewriter," Neu said.
Imagine where Bush would fall on the worst-in-history list, and where we'd all be, if the president did that today?
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