Barack Obama, the worst U.S. president in history?

Ben Quayle Arizona’s GOP 3rd Congressional District candidate

Until last Wednesday, I had never heard of Ben Quayle. While watching CNN that day, a goofy looking and Gomer Pyler(ish) sounding individual appeared on TV directly facing the camera and began by saying, "Barack Obama is the worst president in history, Quayle's generation will inherit a weakened country," he also added that he wants to "knock the hell" out of Washington. At first, I though it might have been a preview of an upcoming Saturday Night Live skit.

Quayle is the 33 year-old son of the former famously infamous Vice President, Dan Quayle, under George H.W. Bush. What I actually saw on TV was Quayle's provocative ad, aimed at voters in Arizona's 3rd Congressional District ahead of the Aug. 24 GOP primary. Quayle, who is a lawyer and managing director of a Scottsdale, Arizona, investment firm, has never held an elected office.

In a crowded race of about 10 contestants, he seems to be ahead of the pack, as top fundraiser. He has raised over $1 million with help from former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. It is reported that George H.W. Bush and Barbara also raised money for Quayle at their home in Houston.

One of Quayle's rival, Vernon Parker is accusing him of "renting a family." On one of Quayle;s campaign mailers, he is shown with his wife and two young daughters, with the words, "We are going to raise our family here." Problem was that he and his wife have no children; the girls were his nieces.

Campaigning on a religious, conservative and "family values" platform, Quayle is alleged to have written for a racy website. When asked about his connection to the website DirtyScottsdale.com, he denied it; but is now admitting that he wrote for the site. The website's founder, Nik Richie, said Quayle used the alias "Brock Landers," the name of a character from the 1997 movie "Boogie Nights" about porn stars in California, and wrote lines such as: "my moral compass is so broken I can barely find the parking lot." Quayle denied that he had a column under the byline, "Brock Landers." The website, now known as TheDirty.com, recently reposted the 2007 entries. Quayle, an apparent selective amnesia sufferer said he couldn't recall what his 2007 posts involved or when he made them.

"Good way to start the campaign," Leno cracked on the "Tonight Show," reminding the audience of Quayle's lineage.

These recent incidents resurrected memories of daddy Quayle's goofs as vice president. His famous blunder was the misspelling of the word 'potato' to "potatoe" at an elementary school spelling bee; another goof was when he addressed the United Negro College Fund, whose slogan is "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". Quayle said, "You take the UNCF model that what a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is," and questions about his military service – or lack thereof. Daddy Quayle's vanished off the political radar after his political career ended with the GOP one-term loss in 1992. Today, daddy Quayle heads a multi-billion dollar private equity firm, and is president of Quayle and Associates.

On the issue of Mr. Obama being the worst president, my response to the so-called religious, conservative and "family values" Quayle is for him to do an unbiased comparative analysis of the past ten U.S presidents to determine which one of them accomplished the most within the same time as president Obama's presidency. By the way, Mr. Quayle, do not forget to include in your research who was the worst vice president in U.S. history.