Man, that was a rocking Presidents' Day.
Good times, I guess, for federal employees. Maybe the TVA execs got a helicopter ride.
As for Monday, did you know Presidents' Day is still called Washington's Birthday by the federal government? All things considered, that seems like the best fit.
Since the days of George Washington, it feels as if the unity of the our nation has fluctuated like a teenager's mood.
Remember when W stood for the "worst"? How about when Clinton was facing impeachment? Or when wild rumors circulated that Ronald Reagan was in a coma or Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen?
Jay GreesonThere was a time that wanting to be president was noble. It was the dream job. Now, it seems like a nightmare.
Everything we hear and see today is the "best ever" or the "worst ever." This is awesome or that is awful. You get the idea, and that's not just politics, it's everything. Movies. Sports. Music - heck, country music is dreadful today, but do we really need to hear "Achy-Breaky Heart" to remind people that bad is just as timeless as grand?
In addition, we are more emotionally invested - good and bad - in the immediacy of our reactions to anything and everything, including our politics.
So of course Donald Trump - a leader in the most divisive of times - is going to be viewed as the most divisive president. So how is he being viewed 12-and-a-half months into his presidency?
According to The New York Times, which surveyed 170 members of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section, Trump is the worst president ever. The survey asked members to grade each president on a scale from 1-to-100 with 0 being a failure, 50 being average and 100 being perfect.
Abraham Lincoln got the best score at 95; Washington was next at 93.
Trump got a 12, three points below James Buchanan's average to snag last place.
But like so many things today, perspective is passed over in the moment and rewritten in history. Case in point: Bill Clinton dropped five spots since the last polling in 2014, and Andrew Jackson dropped six places in that time. Clinton potentially for his treatment of women; Jackson for his perceived bias against American Indians.
So, in the moment, Trump is viewed as the worst president on this Presidents' Day.
Is his ranking solely because of his policies? His personality? His use of social media?
In fact, the negativity of our nation - a negativity in the moment that had Obama 10 spots lower four years ago than he ranked this time - generates a great deal of the current perception of the current president.
Is Trump on par with Washington or Lincoln or the Rushmore guys? No one is saying that.
Trump's negatives are continually cast about; his positives, however, are routinely diminished, at least in the here and now. (Granted, his nonsensical social media posts are a lightning rod for everyone, and nine times out of 10, it's not for the good.)
We know winners write history - that's how Lincoln lives atop polls like this - and how Trump will be viewed five or 10 years down the road is anyone's guess.
But on this Presidents' Day, we can all agree on this: It's a much different job from the one George Washington had.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.