Vietnam Or Iraq: Neither's Very Pretty

Knute Berger on who's worse, RN or GWB:

Bush's approval numbers have been below Nixon's a number of times, even Nixon's impeachment period ratings, but while Nixon may have scored slightly lower in approval, no modern president has scored a higher disapproval rating than Bush, according to Gallup. In other words, his negative numbers were in a zone of his own.

Tanks for knutin', Knute. Hidden behind the curtains at journalists' and historians' new favorite ugly contest is the somewhat more urgent and fateful question of which war was worse. Most arguments about RN end up being about Vietnam; ditto GWB and Iraq. If historians ever conclude President Nixon was a great commander-in-chief and President Bush a visionary who leveraged dramatic reform in a volatile region (I'm not holding my breath, but just think about it for a moment), then they'll both look a lot prettier.