perfidy

Pol Pot was a history teacher. But Cambodia didn't have the wonderful governmental system you were snickering at. Intellectuals should never be let near the levers of power. Many politicians, for all their faults, think of people as people (or at least voters), rather than abstractions. 

Reagan had a bad effect on Pittsburgh - perhaps. There were many other problems with American heavy industry - complacency, aging infrastructure, poor management, etc. And you can't assess the man's contribution (or bad effect) on a whole nation by what happened to one city. 

Dick Cheney is not president. Read Woodward's book if you're not sure. 

Coolidge is not, repeat not, to blame for the Great Depression. What in all likelihood would have been a cyclical downturn in the economy - a recession - was made far worse by Hoover's and the Federal Reserve's idiotic response to the stock market crash. The crash was in 29, the depression didn't really get going until 31, after hoover and his administration mucked everything up. Hoover's on my list. 

Nixon, the prototypical intelligent jackass, was not responsible for Kent State. That was the fault of Gov. Rhodes, of Ohio. 

Andy Johnson nearly lost the war after we'd lost 600,000 winning it. Kennedy was a tax cutting hawkish democrat, we could use more of those. 

The Electoral College keeps the Green party from being a force in national politics. Good enough for me. 

I know you don't like Thatcher, but she isn't in the same category. No gulags, no death camps, and she was voted out of office - which no communist or fascist has ever allowed to happen. 

At least we agree on Wilson. What a schmuck.