BLACK, WHITE OR POLKA DOTTED

I was asked a question today that took very little thought to answer. "Who is the worst leader the world has ever had?" a friend asked.

Think about it. If the entire world is included in the question, I think that one has to select Adolph Hitler, or perhaps Joseph Stalin. Both were ruthless dictators who caused the deaths of thousands of people. Hitler moved his Army against the smaller European countries, conquering them before moving on to England. He wanted to conquer Russia, but couldn't do it. He wanted to conquer the world. He wanted to rid the world of the Jewish people. He failed, and it was a triumph I still remember.

If that question had been asked of my mother when she was alive, she would have immediately replied, "Herbert Hoover." In her mind, Herbert Hoover was responsible for the Great Depression, when jobless men roamed the country trying to survive and our family depended upon our small farm to produce food for our table. I was not yet born during the worst of those years, but my family has told me horror tales of going hungry, of working all week for a piglet, of having only oatmeal in the cupboard. My sister recalls the night that she was so hungry she "went to bed to die."

But Herbert Hoover has been eclipsed as the worst President in our history. That trophy has to go to George W. Bush. This is a man who has spread his lies like butter on bread, and who has caused the death and dismemberment of thousands, if not millions, of people. He has done this for one reason, and that reason is greed. He wanted the Iraqi oil to be put onto the marketplace, and he has reached his goal. Four International Companies, Bush Buddies, have received a Sweetheart Deal for Iraqi Oil and Bush and Cheney, as well as their conniving cronies, are undoubtedly waltzing around the White House in a victorious celebration.

George W. Bush has done this with very little regard for either the people of America who pay him a salary or the people of Iraqi, who were living rather mundane lives until the invasion. Thousands, perhaps over a million, Iraqi families were displaced, fleeing the country because of the violence. It is a rare family there that has not been affected by this war in one way or another, a family member killed or torn apart by bombs, children hurt or orphaned, the elderly abandoned and left to their own resources. Does Bush care? Well, it doesn't seem to disturb his sleep. He says Iraq is fine now. He says we have won. Can we believe a word he utters?

In our country, the jobless are growing in number, the homeless are moving in with relatives or sleeping in cars, inflation has hit both the gas pumps and the grocery stores. Our American life has been torn apart, unions destroyed, jobs sent to China, illegal aliens swamping our Social Services, FEMA sitting on its hands during disasters, and our funding, borrowed from other countries like China, going to support the Iraqi War, while Bush seemingly lusts for war with Iran like a hound dog faced with a rabbit in an open field.

Yes, Bush gets the Tin Trophy for being Worst President Ever. A trophy should be made of gold or brass, or some other precious metal, but the United States cannot afford such luxuries right now, what with the dollar sinking daily and the money running out. Of course, we had nine billion that could disappear in Iraq. We have companies committing fraud with shoddy, unfinished work. We have doled out dollars to Hired Guns, Halliburton, the Sunni police....well, it just goes in every direction. If we have someone in charge of economic measures, if we do, he must have daily fits of apoplexy, unless he is another lackey, nodding and scraping his feet with compliance.

Every day, many of us try to follow this mess in the Press or on TV. We read or hear about contracts being made in Iraq, about Bush signing some cockamamie document giving him powers over Homeland Terrorists....Homeland Terrorists! He might better look in the Vice President's office for that! Do I think Dick Cheney is a Homeland Terrorist? No, I think he is a common crook. I think he is the brains behind the Iraq War, the Iraq oil deal, the whole shebang!

Now, we have John McCain, a Bush supporter, who tells us the U. S. economy is good and says Obama is the cause of the oil prices. That's stretching the truth at least a mile and perhaps more. The Fear Tactics and Smear Tactics are alive and well, and it is hoped that some ignorant fool will believe some of the muck being spread around. They are saying Obama is Muslim. They are saying he isn't patriotic. It is simply an attempt to Swiftboat Barack Obama with the standard Karl Rove methods. Can you imagine hiring that plump slimy little soul to think up dirty ads? I wouldn't hire him to clean my latrine.

I think Obama will make it. I think our people will come through for him. Maybe, just maybe, we will move from the Worst President in the Country to the Best President in the Country, a president with brains, a President who can make a speech that makes the hair on the back of your arms stand at attention and sends chills down your back, a President who will try to end this War!

It is thrilling to think of being a part of electing our first Black President. But then, Obama is half white. Well, it's thrilling to be a part of electing our first Black and White President! If he were polka-dotted, he would still be a better choice than anyone admiring the political policies of George W. Bush! Yes, Black, White or Polka-dotted, let's put him in the White House and see what he can do!