Good History Makes Bad Poetry

I've been reading the book on George Washington in the American Presidents Series. There's a chapter on the chasm that grows in his first administration between Hamilton and Madison. It's a succinct masterpiece on the birth of the elemental factions in American poilitics. It still amazes me that you can follow this thread to today. Hamilton gave us the American military industrial complex. Madison gave us the Bill of Rights. That's the story in a nutshell.

Real as a Ten-Dollar Bill

George Washington invaded Lynn
while Alexander Hamilton
assumed the funding of its sin.
Its factories were overrun
with overseas commodities
but Jefferson’s soliloquies
impressed nobody and a nurse.
James Madison was adamant
about the power of the purse
yet overlooked the peppermint
potentials in his cup of tea.
We looked to Joltin’ Aaron Burr
to speak in strong pentameter;
he missed by just a single foot.

Gregory Perry 2004

Now my question is this: is this a bad formalist poem or a bad postmodern poem. No cheating: just a bad poem is not an option.