Two-time Pulitzer winner Michael Ramirez bends his mind today towards the concept of historical presidential stature … and he has to bend more than his mind, as he expresses in this editorial cartoon for Investors Business Daily.  In fact, Ramirez has to do a deep-knee bend in order to capture the predicament of Barack Obama when measuring up to the giants who preceded him in the office, and guess who else Ramirez finds down there?

Assessments of comparative stature are always tricky in the short run.  It’s difficult to know how history will treat a President and how one leader’s actions will reverberate in the decades ahead.  It’s even more perilous to make assessments while a President occupies the office, as those who start off with controversial actions may be vindicated later, or perhaps rise to the occasion of a crisis to demonstrate real leadership.  Unfortunately for Barack Obama, a series of crises have exposed him as incurious, disengaged, and apt to outsource leadership more than demonstrate it.  In that sense, Ramirez may well be unfair in this depiction … to Jimmy Carter.

Ramirez has a terrific collection of his works: Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion, which covers the entire breadth of Ramirez’ career, and it gives a fascinating look at political history.  Read my review here, and watch my interviews with Ramirez here and here.  And don’t forget to check out the entire Investors.com site, which has now incorporated all of the former IBD Editorials, while individual investors still exist.