Worst President in history ?

[XxSephirothxX]

Hoover gets a bad rap and wasn't really at fault for the depression as much as everyone thinks he was. He waited too long to try to fix the problem, but he's blamed way too much for something he couldn't really control.
Andrew Jackson was a pretty crazy guy, but he wouldn't qualify as one of the worst presidents. I'd have to say that title would belong to one of the forgettables.

[The Redneck]

The Shah of Iran was an incredibly brutal regime. To say that Carter was a bad president because he 'betrayed' them is absurd. Judging by that statement, it certainly seems that you would be willing to support a dictator of a foreign country in exchange for a good economy and cheap oil.

Actually, the Shah of Iran was deposed for its progressive reforms--perhaps you've noticed that his replacement doesn't exactly spend his time dancing in fields of flowers with his adoring subject. So perhaps you could drop the accusations in exchange for actual debate on the matter?

[edczxcvbnm]

Clinton gets to be on the bottom for that? :laugh:

He did a lot of good. You complain about high taxes? I say at least he got us into a surplus that was needed. You either have to cut spending(which was not going to happen) or you raise taxes. It is going to have to happen again after W is out just to get us out of the massive hole he has made.

All those other things are piddly in comparision to what others have done. He is far far far away from the worst there has been. Not the greatest but far from the worst.

[CloudSquallandZidane]

Andrew Johnson, he totally mishandled the reconstruction of the south, and practically patted the KKK, Jim crow laws, and the slavery then known as share cropping on the back. A strong President wouldnt have let the South get out of control again. It was disgraceful.

Abraham Lincoln, who invaded and annexed the Confederate States of America, engaged in brutal repression in his own nation, ordered Sherman's March to the Sea, and ushered in the most brutal rape of a nation that the United States--or most other nations, for that matter--have ever engaged in.

Good lord, man... Are u an American or a Confederate. Or do u just forget the rapage of the African-American people the Confederates fought so hard to defend.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose actions prolonged and worsened the Great Depression, and added to Stalin's power, causing problems that it would take decades to solve and cause untold repression before then.

... Wasnt it his policies that brought of out of the depression, wait u dont have to answer that because i know if u talk to any economist its yes. Maybe he shouldnt have set the new deal and just left 13,000,000 people, who were out of work when he entered office, to starve, instead of giving them jobs. (sarcasm)Oh, and social sercurity that was horrible, set us back 10 years, huh... (/sarcasm)

[The Captain]

"First of all, Reaganomics pulled us out of a recession. Ask someone who was around when Carter was president about the "Misery Index"."

I disagree with you entirely there, but that's also due to the fact that we have established we travel in very different circles.

Worst President, would probably be Nixon, who set politics, the government, and the governments relations to its own citizens back a good 30 years. Even today, the vast majority of the citizens of this country are still untrusting of the government, and much of it is linked back to Watergate.

Also on the list of what I'd call Sub Par Jobs By Presidents:

Warren Harding
Andrew Johnson
Franklin Pierce

W's legacy is still up in the air. If, and it's a very big if, Iraq becomes a stable democracy, it could trigger a great wave of change, but if it falls completely into chaos or the insurgents are not beaten down, it may be just another war that had mixed intentions and few real net gains.


As for those on the other end of the spectrum in my opinion:

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, and Teddy Roosevelt

Kennedy's Presidency didn't last long enough to get a truly accurate view of everything he planned to do, Reagan's policies made him the second most polarized president ever, second only to our current occupant, but both had qualities that raise them greatly above the likes of a Nixon.

Here's a poll conducted in 1996 by 30 Historians which rates the Presidencies:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...hlesinger.html


Take care all.

[Raistlin]

Abraham Lincoln, who invaded and annexed the Confederate States of America, engaged in brutal repression in his own nation, ordered Sherman's March to the Sea, and ushered in the most brutal rape of a nation that the United States--or most other nations, for that matter--have ever engaged in.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose actions prolonged and worsened the Great Depression, and added to Stalin's power, causing problems that it would take decades to solve and cause untold repression before then.

...Wow. I advise you to not put your complete faith in radical websites and the odd book and read a few history texts from more objective sources. If FDR had not put his economic changes in place, WWII wouldn't have gotten us out of the Depression(especially the ones concerning the stock exchange and credit - the biggest reasons for the Depression in the first place). I'd also like to point out that after FDR and Truman, we were already well on our way out of the Depression, well before Reagan.

While I do think Bush is a horrible President, probably in the top 5, he was not the worst.

Andrew Jackson: think Kerry's a flip-flopper? This guy was so much worse. The main reason this guy was nuts is that he completely disregarded a Supreme Court decision and forced the Indians around Georgia to pick up and make the "March of Tears" to the west. He was creditted to have said, "Let Marshall enforce it," or something similarly abominable. He gets my vote for worst president.
Also, on the Tariff of Abominations: Jackson originally got this made a bill solely to make Quincy Adams look bad(because Adams had beaten Jackson at the last election). On the next election, Jackson won because he said he'd repeal the Tariff. When he got in office, he didn't. Talk about underhanded, dirty tactics. He even betrayed his own party(which is why even The Redneck doesn't like this guy).

Andrew Johnson: comes in at #2, this guy completely ignored the South after the Civil War. Instead of reforming the Union, he let the South become poorer and even more lawless. He was impeached on a technicality, but not convicted.

Herbert Hoover: This guy comes in at #3 not for any specific action he did; in fact, the past two Republican Presidents were probably much worse(and would have done much worse in his place), but Hoover had the misfortune to be the wrong President at the wrong time. He did nothing to cause the Great Depression, but he sure as hell didn't do anything to end it. He kept spouting that private charities were responsible for helping the poor, starving families, and was quoted to have said, "If people were dying of starvation, I'd give money to the states." This was after thousands had already died. Refused to hand out government "charity" and only reluctantly lent some money to the states.

Now, for Presidents that I think did a marvelous job:

Lincoln
Teddy Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt


Presidents I like even though they weren't spectacular(because they were put in a tough spot or just had a lot of bad luck):

Truman
Grant(a hopeless President, just because he was too honest for Washington).
Kennedy

[XxSephirothxX]

Andrew Jackson, whose "Tariff of Abominations" nearly started the Civil War 30 years early.

This wasn't passed by Jackson at all.
1. In 1824, Congress had increased the general tariff from 23% to 37%, but wool manufactures still wanted higher tariffs.
2. In the Tariff of 1828, the Jacksonians schemed to drive up duties to as high as 45% while imposing heavy tariffs on raw materials like wool, so that even New England, where it was needed, would vote the bill down and give Adams another political black eye.
a. However, the New Englanders spoiled the plan and passed the law (amended).

[Gnostic Yevon]

Abraham Lincoln, who invaded and annexed the Confederate States of America, engaged in brutal repression in his own nation, ordered Sherman's March to the Sea, and ushered in the most brutal rape of a nation that the United States--or most other nations, for that matter--have ever engaged in.

First of all, CSA was never officially a seperate nation. It was a rebellion. And quite frankly I can think of many worse "rapes of nations than Reconstruction. Namely being a Satilite state of the USSR (oh you no like Stalin? -- off to Siberia), or part of the Japanese Empire during WW2 (hint hint the army took "comfort women", and made them sex slaves). Sherman's March was only to force the south to surrender. Reconstruction wasn't the greatest thing ever, in fact it was just more or less taking money from the South and transferring it to wealthy bankers in the North. At any rate, Lincoln was dead before Reconstruction, so any fault would lie with Andrew Johnson.

[fire_of_avalon]

Coolidge.

And yes, there have been presidents other than the ones who are made historically prominent because of events surrounding their time in office. And Coolidge IS the worst. He didn't do anything but fish, and he made himself a lame duck when he was first inaugurated by saying nothing would motivate him to seek a second term.

Just because someone doesn't handle a crisis doesn't mean their merits and demerits can be overlooked.

[DocFrance]

I believe all presidents, even the "bad" ones have done at least one thing good and effective deed during their presidencies, except for one: William Henry Harrison. He did absolutely nothing as president except catch pneumonia and promptly die.

[Strider]

I was going to say the same thing that foa did, but my history was rusty and I didn't want to be wrong.

[Raistlin]

Andrew Jackson, whose "Tariff of Abominations" nearly started the Civil War 30 years early.

This wasn't passed by Jackson at all.
1. In 1824, Congress had increased the general tariff from 23% to 37%, but wool manufactures still wanted higher tariffs.
2. In the Tariff of 1828, the Jacksonians schemed to drive up duties to as high as 45% while imposing heavy tariffs on raw materials like wool, so that even New England, where it was needed, would vote the bill down and give Adams another political black eye.
a. However, the New Englanders spoiled the plan and passed the law (amended).

Jackson still was the one who schemed to have the Tariff of Abominations passed in order to lower Adams in the eyes of his party, and Jackson won the next election on the basis that he promised to repeal the Tariff, and didn't. He then went on to ignore Supreme Court orders, illegally remove the Georgian Indians, and a whole bunch of other things that I can't remember off the top of my head.

[XxSephirothxX]

I think Andrew Jackson was a horrible person. But I just wanted to point out that wasn't a bill he passed as president.

[Raistlin]

He didn't pass it, but it was still his bill. Bloody bastard.

Oh, another bad one: Rutherford B. Hayes, who bribed the South to get him elected. "Hey, South, elect me and I'll remove the last vestiges of order from the south and you'll be left to your own devices. Now, slavery's illegal now, so don't be taking advantage of those poor black fellows. I'm not actually going to pay any attention, so it'll be on your honor. Have fun trying to rebuild all by yourselves! I'll be busy up here doing sod all."

Kinda like Andrew Johnson, but more political and double-talking. He wasn't as spiteful as Johnson, though.

[Jojee]

I believe all presidents, even the "bad" ones have done at least one thing good and effective deed during their presidencies, except for one: William Henry Harrison. He did absolutely nothing as president except catch pneumonia and promptly die.

I was going to say what he said