By Berl Falbaum

For the second time in eight years, the fans of our 15th president, James Buchanan Jr., should be celebrating.

Why? Once again, he was not rated the worst president in U.S. history by a group of American historians.

The first time came in 2021 and the scholars voted once more that Buchanan has been rehabilitated from that “honor.”

Who was rated the worst? Take a guess before you read the next paragraph.

I assume it wasn’t hard. Yes, Donald J. Trump. Indeed, it is the third time Trump has been rated at the bottom in such a poll.

I sought reaction from followers of Buchanan to ask if they were commemorating the new rating. But I could not find any; no Buchanan fan club. Perhaps that will change now that he is no longer at the bottom of the presidential heap.

I started to call Trump’s staff for a comment on the latest rating but decided to save time and just report what Trump would say.

“The polling was rigged. These historians are all Democratic left-wing Marxists who are destroying our country with such polls. We have to take our country back from these historians.”

And, to pour some salt into Trump’s wounds, Joe Biden was rated the 14th best president.  

The survey was conducted by Justin Vaughn, an associate professor of political science at Coastal Carolina University, and Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, and was based on 154 responses from academicians across the country.

Now, we would like to follow up on the Outstanding Hypocrite Award (OHA) which we launched in a recent column.

If you recall, we named three winners at that time. We also asked for nominations from our readers. We received three excellent suggestions discussed below. (Keep them coming.)

The first of the three recommended for the OHA is Senator J.D. Vance, the Republican from Ohio. He was a never-Trumper, calling the former president an “idiot,” but turned into an always-Trumper when he ran for the Senate.

He is the author of the best-selling book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was lauded by liberals and conservatives alike. I wondered what the fuss was about and read the book. I found it condescending, patronizing, and mean-spirited. It argued, overall, that poor people had no one to blame but themselves; they need to pull themselves up by their [nonexistent] boot straps.

The second nominee for an OHA is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.  

When President Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court about 10 months before the election in 2016, McConnell, then majority leader, blocked a vote on Garland, stating that whoever won the election should have the privilege of the nomination.

Yet, when Trump nominated Amy Comey Barrett to the court only about three weeks before the election in 2020, McConnell rammed her confirmation through the Senate.

The third recommendation involves House Speaker Mike Johnson. He supported a bipartisan bill which included financial aid to Ukraine and Israel and more stringent border policies.

Then, apparently pressured by Trump to oppose the proposed legislation and avoid giving President Biden a win, he—as his hometown newspaper in Kentucky, The Advocate, editorialized—“flip-flopped,” and proudly proclaimed the Senate bill would be DOA when it arrives in the House.

Regarding the OHA, to be fair, I also received criticism for creating the award.  I was charged with not knowing the meaning of the word “hypocrite.” Some people, my critic argued, just change their minds.

Since I welcome different points of view, I went back to do some homework.

First, I re-researched how most Republicans viewed Trump in the 2015-16 campaign.

Here just a few of their characterizations: They called him a sniveling coward, a race-baiting religious bigot, a cancer, a kook, the world’s biggest jackass, a pathological liar, a serial philanderer, and a sniveling coward. Yes, this all came from Republicans. Senator Lindsey Graham, who now hangs on to Trump like a Siamese twin, told Trump to go to hell.

Then they “changed their minds” and embraced him while deciding whether to recommend him for sainthood to Pope Francis.

If that were not enough, they did a 180 on the 2020 election, first stating he lost it before arguing he actually won it by capturing all electoral votes. On January 6, many in the GOP said Trump was responsible for the insurrection before proclaiming he joined the Capitol police in trying to control protestors.

In my research, I also noticed when confronted with their “change of minds” they either denied ever criticizing Trump, could not remember doing so or dodged the question by talking about introducing legislation that would make littering a felony. They did not seem very proud of their reversals, implying they understood the meaning of “hypocrisy.”

Thus, after much reflection, I think it would be hypocritical of me to cancel the award. Moreover, an “Outstanding Change of Mind” award just doesn’t seem to have the proper zing or oomph and I don’t think it would do the trick.

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Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of 12 books.