Huh? Unless I've overlooked something, all you've posted are anecdotal recollections.
And you haven't even done that.
Mind you, I'm not asking that you prove your anecdotal recollections. I also recollect people calling Bush Hitler and the like. Just like I recollect people calling Obama a commie and an Islamist sleeper agent.
And you have to ask yourself, are those people calling Obama a commie and an Islamist sleeper agent otherwise rational?
If so, that's ODS.
If not, then they're just your ordinary nutcases. Remember, xDS is the acute onset of paranoia (i.e.,
irrational fear) of
otherwise normal people at the mere thought of x.
Show me someone who's otherwise rational who goes all foaming at the mouth at the mere mention of - and
only at the mere mention of - Barack Obama, and I'll concede that person has ODS.
BPSCG said:
Actually, that would be Carter.
varwoche said:
Even if this sophomoric dodge is correct (I don't think it is),
Ah. Well, you stated as established fact that Bush was the worst president. My equally unsupported claim that it was Carter is, OTOH, a "sophomoric dodge."
you continue to overlook a valid point: It is natural that there will be more hostility towards a president who is widely perceived as a massive failure, who started an optional, prolonged war, and who led the country into economic collapse (Bush) than a president who is generally perceived as successful, who did not start an optional, prolonged war, and who led the country into economic boom (Clinton).
...and then you go on to compare Bush's treatment not with Carter's, but with Bill Clinton's. Move the goalposts much?
If Carter was not the country's worst president, he's certainly a strong contender. It takes little editing of your case against Bush to turn it into a case against Carter,
viz: "...a president who is widely perceived as a massive failure, who stood watch while the Soviet Union sought to expand its empire and while Iran held Americans captive for over a year, and who led the country into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."
Of Bush and Carter, one left Washington to the childish taunts of people who hated him with a blinding passion. The other left quietly, because his political enemies were adults, and not afflicted with Carter Derangement Syndrome.