I'm not sure I consider myself "left leaning" per se -- I guess it depends on the issue. Before Bush Jr. my nomination for best president of the last hundred ye

I'm not sure I consider myself "left leaning" per se -- I guess it depends on the issue. Before Bush Jr. my nomination for best president of the last hundred years would have been Dwight Eisenhower (R) and my worst would have been Lyndon Johnson (D). Bush has likely edged out Johnson for worst. Interestingly both Lyndon Johnson and Bush Jr. were Southern Democrats. Most of the craziness about today's GOP can be traced to the fact that they were overrun with former Dixiecrats. Bush was basically a Dixiecrat who ran as a Republican. The Southern Democrat position combines everything bad about the Democrats (big government, high taxes, etc.) with everything bad about the Republicans (fundamentalism, warmongering). (Bush did raise taxes, just indirectly. Taxation equals spending as per simple double-entry accounting, and Bush raised spending and increased the size of government considerably.)