Eric Foner, professor of history at Columbia, plays professor of contemporary affairs in today’s Washington Post, where he displays the nonpartisan objectivity and supreme judiciousness that is a hallmark of the modern academy.

“Historians are loath to predict the future,” he writes. But there’s loathing and then there’s loathing:

In his first six years in office [Bush] has managed to combine the lapses of leadership, misguided policies and abuse of power of his failed predecessors. I think there is no alternative but to rank him as the worst president in U.S. history.

A companion article, by Vincent Cannato of the University of Massachusetts-Boston, actually tries to be level-headed (and succeeds).