as the worst president in American history.

Those were the days.

… hovers over all presidencies since.

Since today we’re pretty much reaping what he sowed, he still deserves a special place in our hearts and spleens.

… that the news media was a giant sac of pus (a handful of still troupin’ good guys and gals notwithstanding).

Because that was the last Independence Day before this…

That October 13, 1988

The Second Bush-Dukakis Presidential Debate

SHAW: On behalf of the Commission on Presidential Debates, I am pleased to welcome you to the second presidential debate. I am Bernard Shaw of CNN, Cable News Network. My colleagues on the panel are Ann Compton of ABC NEWS; Margaret Warner of Newsweek magazine; and Andrea Mitchell of NBC NEWS. The candidates are Vice President George Bush, the Republican nominee; and Governor Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee. (Applause)

SHAW: For the next 90 minutes we will be questioning the candidates following a format designed and agreed to by representatives of the two campaigns. However, there are no restrictions on the questions that my colleagues and I can ask this evening, and the candidates have no prior knowledge of our questions. By agreement between the candidates, the first question goes to Gov. Dukakis. You have two minutes to respond. Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?

Later in that same campaign, Ted Koppel slipped us a convincer by further unmanning Mike Dukakis with “you just don’t get it.”

At least, long after it could do any good, Koppel came to regret that. But he was part of a new school of “journalism” who saw the Fourth Estate this way:

This is an industry, it’s a business. We exist to make money. We exist to put commercials on the air. The programming that is put on between those commercials is simply the bait we put in the mousetrap.

I’m sure he’s not the first newsman to admit it’s ultimately about the Benjamins, but the 1988 campaign was where it came into view that there was no longer a complementary purpose, a sense of integrity and civic responsibility.

I miss hating Richard Nixon as well as Ronald Reagan. It is amazing how each successive Republican president makes his predecessor seem like a statesman by comparison.

seriously, that photo made me laugh out loud. thnx.