Bush is Worse Than Hitler

Of course, despite the fact that George W. Bush was by far the worst president America ever had, and certainly the worst human being ever to hold that office, most historians would agree that he was not as bad as Adolf Hitler.

George W. Bush, self portrait

Hitler was responsible for the deaths of nearly  20 million people.  Bush, despite his reckless disregard for human life, didn’t hit one tenth of that number.  They both believed in torture but Hitler had far more people tortured, and in more imaginative ways.  Hitler’s reign ended in the total ruination of Germany.  Berlin, by the end of the war, was a pile of rubble.  Bush may have brought on the collapse of the American economy but nobody bombed New York, except for that one time.

So, as much as I despise George W. Bush, I must admit that Hitler was worse – but not as a painter.

Watercolor by Hitler, cca. 1908 (age 18 or 19)

The painting you see here by George Bush is actually much better than I expected, from a guy who can barely put together a coherent sentence in his native language,  but it’s not as good as any of Hitler’s.  If Hitler had had a little more talent, he might actually have made it as a professional painter, even though he pretty much limited himself to landscapes – not exactly a people person, you know.  (If Fidel Castro had had just a wee bit more athletic talent, he might have made it into pro baseball – he had a tryout with the Washington Senators – and Cuba might still be the Las Vegas of the Caribbean)

I doubt very much that George Bush was ever going to make it as an artist but, like I said, they’re not as bad as I expected.  They’re better than I could have done.  Anyway, they are out there now, thanks to a hacker named Guccifer, and it’s a good thing that they are.

If you are an actor or an athlete or some other famous person whose actions do not affect the rest of mankind, I can understand that you have some right to privacy.  But people who are presidents, prime ministers and heads of large corporations make decisions that affect the lives of other people – millions of other people – in profound ways.  We have more than a right, we have a need to find out as much as we possibly can about them.

A person’s paintings can tell us a lot about them.  Especially if they didn’t think they were going to become public.