Celebrated journalist Helen Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. The current one, she says, is the most frightening.

“9-11 was a transforming event for the United States and the whole world, but no reason for us to lose our soul,” Thomas, 85, said Tuesday before a packed audience in Kansas University’s Woodruff Auditorium.

She received standing ovations – both before she spoke and after.

For nearly 60 years, Thomas covered the White House for United Press International. Now a Hearst Newspapers columnist, she is known as the the first lady of the White House press corps.

On Tuesday, she blasted President Bush, criticized Congress and the press, praised the strides of women, and reflected on more than half a century covering the White House.

An unabashed liberal, she said Kennedy was her favorite president.

“I feel that he was the most inspired,” she said. “He gave us hope for a better world.”

Her takes on succeeding presidents:

Lyndon B. Johnson knew where all the bodies were buried and knew every man’s price on Capitol Hill.

As for Richard Nixon, he “always had two roads to go, and always took the wrong road.”

Gerald Ford, she said, restored confidence in the White House following the Nixon administration, but his pardon of Nixon did not sit well with voters.

Thomas said Jimmy Carter deserves the Nobel Peace Prize he won in 2002.

Following Carter, Ronald Reagan turned the country to the right, Thomas said. His philosophy was every man for himself.

“He left a conservative legacy that still prevails in the United States today, and in Kansas,” Thomas said to laughter and applause from the crowd.

George Herbert Walker Bush successfully conducted the Persian Gulf War, but a slow economy hurt his chance of holding onto office, she said.

Bill Clinton worked for peace in the world, left a budget surplus, but tarnished the Oval Office with his shenanigans.

“I think he missed a chance for greatness,” Thomas said.

As for President Bush, Thomas could not mask her exasperation.

She described him as autocratic, secretive and buffered, at least for a time, by comatose reporters and toothless lawmakers.

Thomas said Bush doesn’t hold enough news conferences, and at the few sessions he does hold, he answers few questions and only those from hand-picked reporters.

Thomas said she reads national newspapers today with a box of Kleenex because the news is so tragic.

Touching on the issue of gender equity, Thomas said women have made great strides, but she wonders why they had to in the first place.

“I don’t look back in anger,” she said of the treatment of women. “There are a lot more mountains to climb.”

Thomas’ latest book is “Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House.”

She delivered KU’s Emily Taylor & Marilyn Stokstad Women’s Leadership Lecture.