The Worst President, your thoughts?

[Nowhere Man]

Who would you say are the worst Presisents, top 3,top 5,top 10 doesnt matter. I will give my top 3. Hoover. He pretty much allowed the depression to happen. Although it wasn't really his fault, Hoover just screwed up big time. W. He forced us into Iraq and allowed Dick Cheney and Carl Rove dictate policy. Lastly Geant, not only was his admin. corrupt, but he was the President that mostly oversaw reconstruction, probably the worst thing to ever happen to the U.S. As a matter of fact I would put Grant above Hoover.

 

[Danoz]

Who would you say are the worst Presisents, top 3,top 5,top 10 doesnt matter. I will give my top 3. Hoover. He pretty much allowed the depression to happen. Although it wasn't really his fault, Hoover just screwed up big time. W. He forced us into Iraq and allowed Dick Cheney and Carl Rove dictate policy. Lastly Geant, not only was his admin. corrupt, but he was the President that mostly oversaw reconstruction, probably the worst thing to ever happen to the U.S. As a matter of fact I would put Grant above Hoover.

Tough question, but I'd have to go with these three-- excluding short-term or largely forgettable presidencies.

Herbert Hoover is a clear choice. He was apparently a rather poor speaker, was largely disliked and came across as mean-spirited toward the poor. He refused to support any kind of radical stimulation of the economy.

John Tyler is hard to keep out of the top three. He was an avid supporter of slavery and was responsible for making the country's divide even worse (noted for abandoning his platform after becoming elected). I would put any slavery-supporting president on par with him (Buchanan, Pierce, Fillmore).

Richard Nixon is a tragic figure in my opinion, but his actions forever stained the modern presidency with scandal. His arrogant disregard for ethics makes him a very poor president.


--- As for George W. Bush, while his presidency was abysmal, I don't think you can examine the past presidents and even place him in the top 10. For all his shortcomings and the terrible reactions to 9/11 (Iraq) and Hurricane Katrina, his administration is also responsibly for the largest foreign aid initiatives ever conceived and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). His administration would also have unprecedented diversity. Not defending it at all, but there were far worse presidents in the scope of U.S. history.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I read an absolutely excellent book on this very subject not too long ago called Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty by Ivan Eland. I pretty much agree with his bottom five presidents, so I'll quickly quote what he had to say....

WORST (#40):
Woodrow Wilson

It can be argued that Wilson screwed up the entire twentieth century and beyond. U.S. involvement in World War I was instrumental in causing a violent twentieth century for the world. As a result of the two world wars, the Russian and Chinese revolutions, and civil wars and conflicts spawned by the Cold War - most of which can be traced to U.S. entry into World War I - the twentieth century was by far the bloodiest in world history. Approximately 110 million people lost their lives in war in that century.

Even in the twenty-first century, people are still losing their lives in conflicts (for example, in Iraq) indirectly generated by the United States entry into World War I.

Such U.S. meddling overseas led to permanent big government at home. Wilson's only positive accomplishments were his reluctant support for women's suffrage and tariff reduction.

Even before World War I, however, Wilson had dramatically changed the Democratic Party from a Jeffersonian party of small government and military restraint overseas into a part of big government and profligate armed intervention aboard. The war also allowed Wilson to engineer an unprecedented government takeover of the domestic U.S. economy - a model that was later repeated during other crises, such as the Great Depression and World War II.

NEXT WORST (#39):
Harry Truman

Truman is one of the worst president ever because of his over-the-top reaction to the Soviet Union and his initiating of a long-term activist Cold War posture; his pioneering of a nontraditional interventionist foreign policy during peacetime; his institution of the military-industrial complex, which helped lead to a large peacetime standing army for the first time in the republic's history; his precedent-setting refusal to get a declaration of war in the unnecessary Korean War that disturbed the constitutional system of checks and balances; his commencement of the institutional imperial presidency; his laying the seeds of Middle East wars; his scary threat to draft striking workers; and his unconstitutional seizure of private industries. His modest achievements in civil rights didn't come close to balancing out his horrendous revolutionary trailblazing in these other policy areas.

NEXT WORST (#38):
William McKinley

William McKinley used a war to greatly strengthen the presidency. ... [The] Spanish-American War began America's quest for a trans-world empire.

Reluctantly going on the gold standard was McKinley's only unadulterated achievement, but it was a significant one and is the only thing that prevents him from being the worst president in U.S. history. McKinley's bad precedents were monumental - planting the seeds for an eventual U.S. international empire, for an excessively strong modern presidency, and for a permanently expanded role for the federal government.

On a personal basis, McKinley, like Truman, was a nice man and was well liked by almost everyone. Even after he was mortally wounded by an assassin, McKinley said, "Don't let them hurt him." But, also similar to Truman, McKinley's policies ultimately led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

NEXT WORST (#37):
James K. Polk

Polk... [promoted] policies that limited government and fought inflation during his term. [However,] he started the Mexican War just to steal territory from a weaker country. Polk's Mexican War and other aggressive land-grabbing policies led to a significant expansion of executive power, which would lead ultimately to big government in the future.

NEXT WORST (#36):
George W. Bush

Bush's presidency was one of the worst of all time. The most obvious reason is that he invaded another country for no legitimate reason and enmeshed the U.S. in a costly militaristic quagmire and civil war. But that is not the most important reason. Worse, Bush tried to expand the powers of an already imperial presidency to a breathtaking extent - severely undermining the balance of power among the branches of government enshrined in the Constitution and riding roughshod over the civil liberties of American citizens and foreign nationals alike. In addition, the increase in domestic spending during his term was the largest since Lyndon Johnson.

He advocated bad policies and demonstrated horrendous operational incompetence. The disastrous and expensive (in casualties and money) nation-building projects in Iraq and Afghanistan were only exceeded in catastrophic results by Bush's expansion of executive power and theft of the civil liberties that make the United States unique. Bush had almost no accomplishments to offset such policy foibles. Bush was thus one of the nation's worst presidents. But he was not the worst president the United States has ever had because James Polk, William McKinley, Harry Truman, and Woodrow Wilson presided over wars or Cold Wars with even more pernicious and dangerous effects.

Bush's gargantuan bailout of the financial industry, which could cost taxpayers 2.3 trillion dollars, entailed unprecedented government intervention in the country's financial system and another expansion of executive power. It brought the U.S. closer to socialism - the nationalization of private companies during peacetime - and Mussolini-style corporatism - with the government owning shares in the troubled firms. Lastly, the bailout involved welfare for the rich, as the government acquired the authority to buy bad debt en masse. Like Herbert Hoover, Bush flooded a market replete with credit with even more credit. This move will likely exacerbate and deepen the global financial meltdown that was caused by many financial institutions' risky loans, and which were encouraged, among other factors, by earlier bailouts.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The list of worst Presidents is very long - Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet - even the worst of the American Presidents are good when compared to many present and pass Presidents elsewhere in the world.

 

[trekkerguy]

1. Bush
2. Old Bush
3. Reagan

 

[RJDiogenes]

Grant and Nixon are the obvious choices, and are both certainly at the top (or bottom) of the list; but, in terms of long-term damage done, Reagan is easily the worst.

 

[SPOCKED]

1. _____________ (placeholder / unfinished first term)

2. FDR (who would still be president today were it not for that pesky human lifespan)

3. Hillary Clinton

 

[Skywalker]

1. _____________ (placeholder / unfinished first term)

Reagan's first term ended in 1985.

 

[Roger Wilco]

1. The muselman socilist
2. The only US president besides Lincoln unanimously ranked in the top3 in all legitimate scholarly surveys about this going back decades
3. Someone who never was president

Yes, that makes sense.

 

[Gepard]

Between this and the other thread, I think SPOCKED is taking the piss here. At least, I hope so.

 

[iguana_tonante]

^ I wouldn't be so sure.

 

[mimic]

1. Buchanan
2. Johnson
3. Harding

I think it's hard to argue with #1.

 

[1001001]

Reagan
Hoover
Bush II

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I used to try and defend President Buchanan, but it's next to impossible. He got the nomination literally because he wasn't in the country for the previous three years. He did next to nothing to try and solve the tensions in society and what he did do a) made things worse and b) were unethical/borderline illegal.

So I'm going to go with:

Buchanan
Harding
Grant

I'm not listing the Presidents that expanded the imperial presidency or expanded government. You may agree or disagree with their policies, but they were generally strong leaders. It takes a true lack of accomplishments mixed with complete incompetence to make the top of the list.

 

[Small White Car]

Richard Nixon is a tragic figure in my opinion, but his actions forever stained the modern presidency with scandal. His arrogant disregard for ethics makes him a very poor president.


--- As for George W. Bush, while his presidency was abysmal, I don't think you can examine the past presidents and even place him in the top 10.

Interesting, because I'm a liberal and even I can see some merit to Nixon. I wouldn't put him in the worst 10 list at all.

And Bush W.'s biggest fault was giving Wall Street the green light to destroy the world economy. Hoover let bad things happen on his watch, Bush went out of his way to help them happen.

That alone should warrant inclusion on any 'worst 10' list.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Bush accomplished things. I think he did them poorly and was beset by grave errors, but I think that makes him a mediocre President, not a bad one. I guess I can see top 10, but not top 5.

 

[Hoser]

Jackson, Hoover and Bush.

 

[Franklin]

To me, it's not about whether or not I liked the president's policies. I look at it two ways: 1) Did he advance or set back politics? 2) Did he leave the country a better place than when he entered office?

1. Andrew Johnson. Absolutely the worst man for the moment. Every other bad president is a distant second to him, in my opinion.

2. Nixon. Intelligent, ruthless, vulgar, and vile. Still a fascinating man.

3. Harding. For a lot of things, and especially for making "normalcy" a word.

4. Buchanan. The CSA would exist today if he had been president during the Civil War.

5. George W. Bush. Even when the partisanship dies down in a generation or two, I don't think history will be kind to him.

 

[FPAlpha]

The list of worst Presidents is very long - Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet - even the worst of the American Presidents are good when compared to many present and pass Presidents elsewhere in the world.

The people you listed are presidents by name only.. they were more like dictators or simply abusive madmen and i'd not even begin to rank Bush jr. in their vicinity.

Personally i rank Nixon and Bush jr. as the worst ones because of their uncaring attitude about the letters and the sprit of the law for their (perceived) greater good.

Bush especially gets mentioned for his abysmal governing skills mishandling almost every important project he had control over and who has led the US into a very deep hole from which it will take decades to crawl out of if ever. I also credit him with accelerating the poison in the US political landscape by elevating the fringe elements of his party to important status just so he could win the election.

Nixon was just a crook and had the decency to step down when it became clear he was on the ropes.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

A few other names that are worth consideration:

John Quincy Adams
Martin Van Buren
Franklin Pierce
Chester A. Arthur
Gerald Ford