The full-court press of historical revisionism by Karl Rove and company regarding the legacy of George W. Bush’s presidency notwithstanding, the facts are unflinching. NBC’s Mark Murray looks at “what the United States looked like when Bush was entering office and what it looks like now as he’s leaving.”

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001)
Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)

BUSH FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 50% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 31% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CHENEY FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 49% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING
Then: 48% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

SATISFIED WITH THE NATION’S DIRECTION
Then: 45% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 26% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)

FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 — most recent numbers available)

AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 — most recent available)

U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)

(This story has circulated the Internet and appeared in my inbox a few times. It’s been verified by Snopes.com.)

During World War I, in the winter of 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, one of the most unusual events in all of human history took place. The Germans had been in a fierce battle with the British and French. Both sides were dug in, safe in muddy, man-made trenches six to eight feet deep that seemed to stretch forever.

All of a sudden, German troops began to put small Christmas trees, lit with candles, outside of their trenches. Then, they began to sing songs. Across the way, in the “no man’s land” between them, came songs from the British and French troops. Incredibly, many of the Germans, who had worked in England before the war, were able to speak good enough English to propose a “Christmas” truce.

The British and French troops, all along the miles of trenches, accepted. In a few places, allied troops fired at the Germans as they climbed out of their trenches. But the Germans were persistent and Christmas would be celebrated even under the threat of impending death. Continued

That was the top word that came to mind for more than half of respondents to a Pew survey released yesterday. Some other noteworthy results from the survey:

… the public’s verdict on the Bush presidency is overwhelmingly negative. In a December 2008 Pew Research Center survey, just 11% said Bush will be remembered as an outstanding or above average president — by far the lowest positive end-of-term rating for any of the past four presidents.

In a Pew survey conducted Dec. 3-7 among 1,489 adults, the American public paints a harshly negative picture of Bush’s tenure. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say his administration will be remembered more for its failures than its accomplishments, and a plurality (34%) says Bush will go down in history as a poor president. Fully 68% say they disapprove of Bush’s performance and most of those — 53% of the public — say they disapprove strongly. That is the highest rate of strong disapproval measured by Pew surveys in Bush’s eight years in office.

The report also noted that Bush  went from a job approval high of 86% in late September to a dramatically lower 24% earlier this month (which is actually up slightly from the low of 19% not too long ago.

But all these facts aren’t stopping the Bush team from trying to rehabilitate Bush’s legacy with diligent whitewashing and outright rewriting of history. They certainly are more optimistic about his lasting legacy than most outside observers and experts are.

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Barack Obama

In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States.

Check out Time’s coverage here.

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The Electoral College has formally elected Barack Obama as the next president of the United States, the Associated Press (via MSNBC) is reporting.

This quote from Mahatma Gandhi seemed appropriate in light of the recent discussion…

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

In an interview with Charles Gibson set to air this evening on “World News,” President George W. Bush makes a refreshingly honest admission:

“I think I was unprepared for war,” Bush told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson in an interview airing today on “World News.” “In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack,’” he said. “In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”

Unfortunately for the rest of us, an all-too-eager Vice President (and his minions) helped ramrod the unprepared President into an ill-advised war.

“George W. Bush hopes history will see him as a president who liberated millions of Iraqis and Afghans, who worked towards peace and who never sold his soul for political ends,” reports AFP (via Breitbart.com).

“I’d like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace,” Bush said in excerpts of a recent interview released by the White House Friday.

“I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I’m leaving with the same set of values.”

He may get his wish, but not necessarily exactly as he hopes for. He will certainly be remembered, but I doubt it will be a a great liberator or one he “helped achieve piece.” He may be right that his values haven’t changed since coming to Washington; unfortunately for the rest of us, those values should have been left at his home in Texas. Those values brought us arguably the worst presidency ever.

In a survey of 109 professional historians conducted last spring by George Mason University’s History News Network, 107 rated George W. Bush’s presidency a failure. Sixty-one percent concluded that his presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Here are a few of the specific comments by some of these historians Continued

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most famous and most quoted speeches in American history at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.