By most accounts, Reagan was a great President. Beloved, respected and effective on many account, even if you don't agree with his politics. Bush was was successful in Iraq I, then kind of faded. Bill Clinton himself said that his Presidency didn't accomplish much. He had no war to preside over and the economy was booming on dot-com hype and reduced military spending. Bush II had an opportunity to be a great President but squandered it with mis-steps all along the way as pointed out n the article linked below. Note that the article is over two years old and was written before Obama was really in office. Nonetheless, it states truth, not opinion. And Obama? Well, he will definitely go down in history as the first Black President. the economy will recover, but mostly because of cycles, not any particular policy or brilliance. It is possible that his Healthcare plan could escalate into something really good and useful, but so far he has only taken it one small step beyond what Hillary Clinton did. He has time left, but he has plenty of opportunity to fail as well.
So where are the next great leaders going to come from? We have Tea Partiers idolizing a quitter governor of one of our smallest states. we have Democrats like Pelosi and Harry Reid who never quite figured out how to handle the power thrust into their hands. If Obama steps down in 2012, for whatever reason, what does American politics look like?
