Michael Collins

But, wait a minute! Wouldn't that title go to president number 43, George W. Bush? He attacked a nation that never threatened us. The attack and occupation of Iraq resulted in over one million dead Iraqi civilians, tens of thousands dead and injured United States soldiers, and a cool three trillion added to the federal deficit. (Image)

If not Bush for the worst ever slot, what about number 31, Herbert Hoover? He fed the country a rosy scenario as the country entered the Great Depression. Hoover's statements and actions were as harmful as they were delusional. Just say no to Hoover too.

Obama takes the title hands down. The worst ever president doesn't refer to the personal or moral qualities of the person in office. In that case, there would be no contest at all. Number 7, Andrew Jackson, codified acts of genocide against entire nations of Native Americans through the Indian Removal Act.

The worst president title belongs to President Obama because his actions and inactions occur at a time when the future of the nation and the human species are in the balance. Had Bush followed Obama, Bush would take the title. But, it's President Obama who leads at a time when intelligent, positive policies are mandatory and mistakes intolerable.

What's the Obama record?

The president took the evisceration of the United States Constitution under President Bush and pushed it to new levels. The Snowden releases show that the Obama National Security Agency had access to the private communication of innocent citizens and business throughout the country. Mind you, they "don't look at the contents," just the patterns of communication. But, we all know that's a big fat lie. The constant collection of private and business communication on this level is an Obama administration innovation.

Obama's actions make failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork a prophet. At not so long last, as Bork argued, there is no right to privacy.

The Obama administration stepped into the mess of the 2008 financial collapse created by the Bush administration and Congress. Voluminous data was uncovered showing wrongdoing and probably illegal behavior on an epic scale that cost trillions in wealth and millions of jobs for citizens.

How many of the Wall Street and big bank high flyers have been investigated and prosecuted?

The perpetrators from the past catastrophe are still in charge of their too big to challenge financial institution, still cooking up new schemes to screw the public. It's an assured disaster waiting to happen … at our expense.

The president oversaw the sabotage of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit. Documents released by Edward Snowden show the U.S. delegation ignoring the goal of the summit to generate system change to prevent climate change. The parochial interests of the U.S. were served by inaction. China and India were allowed to do their damage with tacit ascent by the U.S.

Failing to act earnestly, intelligently, and promptly on climate change represents spectacular and deadly negligence. The leaked draft and official report of the International Panel on Climate Change shows that worldwide catastrophes in food supply, precipitation, drought, and extreme weather will begin by the middle of the 21st century and reach a peak by 2100. The word is that science has issued a final warning.

What has been done to marshal a worldwide effort to meet this challenge? Nothing.

What are the costs of ignoring the challenge to life as we know it? Horrible beyond imagination.

Seeing to it that the Bush attack on the Constitution continued and expanded, ignoring the perpetrators of the greatest financial theft of citizen wealth in history, and fiddling around with petty politics while the world heads toward global catastrophe represent an unassailable resume for the title worst president ever of the United States of America.

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