Outgoing President George W. Bush will never win any popularity contests, but he may not have been our worst president when compared to that other war-time genius, Lyndon Johnson.

Bush pushed us into war based on manufactured intelligence. Johnson put us in Vietnam based on an imaginary torpedo attack on a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. In each case, thousands of young Americans were killed, and American taxpayers paid for a useless war.

The most blame we can apply to Bush is gross stupidity and yielding to the influences of an evil vice president and foreign lobbyists.

His alleged motives included oil, removing threats to Israel and freeing Iraqis from the grip of a brutal dictator. (Many Iraqis are now free, but others are both free and dead.)

Johnson, although certainly not stupid, was morally corrupt. In addition to enriching his Texas cohorts with steered Vietnam construction contracts, Johnson engaged in an incredible number of extramarital liaisons in a townhouse in Georgetown where he was entertained by a continuous parade of young women.

When one of them, described by the press as having "bee-stung lips," was about to go public with her memoirs, she was killed in the crash of a small plane off Ocean City, Md. Because the plane burned and exploded, the cause of the crash was never determined. Fortunately, the pilot was able to parachute to safety.

Johnson was accused of orchestrating the assassination of President Kennedy because Kennedy was planning to dump him in the next election. His guilt was not established.

Bush has not been accused of extramarital affairs or assassination plots and is therefore more likable than Johnson.

(Drop those shoes!)

Earle Hightower

Pinehurst