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I haven't spent much time wondering what George W. Bush, whom Helen Thomas, Keith Olbermann and Al Neuharth have declared our worst president ever, will do after his presidency. I know what I will do - try to forget him though it won't be easy considering the damage he has wrought on this country.

What should he do? Hang his head in shame. A man who is so clearly worried about his legacy, will have plenty to worry about after he is out of office. There will be plenty of demons to exorcise. Surely the more than 20,000 American casualties from the unecessary Iraq war will weigh on his mind, no? What about the more than 100,000 dead Iraqis? Perhaps some day it will bother his conscience that to achieve all this death he had to violate international law, never mind the U.S. Constitution as well.

No? What about all the dislodged folk still living in trailers in the Gulf Coast? Perhaps that's enough for the worst president in our history to hang his head in shame. Great job, Brownie.

Not enough? Perhaps the systematic erosion of our civil liberties, the abuses of presidential power, the blind loyalty to incompetent hand-picked incompetent appointees like Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzalez would be enough.

How about eavesdropping on American citizens or bringing torture back into vogue? Cooking intelligence to start a war? Approving every conceivable measure that is detrimental to the environment, such as, oh, for instance, blowing up mountain tops in West Virginia for coal?

None of it may be enough. You have to wonder if the man even has a conscience.

No wonder more and more people have joined the ranks of those who consider his presidency the worst ever. Eighty-one percent of 415 historians polled in 2004 deemed the Bush presidency a failure. Since then, things have generally gotten worse.

Bush should hang his head in shame. And he shouldn't even wait till his presidency is over. It's time to atone.

Learn more about this author, Pedro Pereira.
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