Who do you think was the worst president ever?

[jackson_dem]

Poll question: Who do you think was the worst president ever?

This is what historians think http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3120489#3120500

I vote for Buchanan as the worst with Bush a close second.

[galaxy21]

1. Nixon did a lot of good things in office, even if no one wants to admit it

Still a crook though.

[jackson_dem]

6. True but he disgraced the office permanently

[Hippo_Tron]

12. No, Nixon signed a lot of legislation that would have been overriden if he had vetoed it

When people talk about how great Nixon was they forget about the FBI harassment of civil rights and anti-war groups, his escalation of Vietnam, his secret war in Cambodia, and his installation of Pinochet in Chile. If you think Nixon was a good President, you need to read up on the Church Committee.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

20. who would you rather have?

Nixon, Bush, or Reagan?

Nixon would be far preferable. Bush the Juniorth is by far the worst.

[Hippo_Tron]

26. That's taking three turds and asking me to pick one of them

And in all honesty I might pick Bush Jr. if he had to deal with the Democratic Congress that Nixon did. Bush has been so destructive largely because he has had Tom DeLay and Bill Frist to do his bidding.

[ThomWV]

77. True, but all turds are not equal, some float to the top, some sink to the bottom.

[jackson_dem]

21. He wasn't good

He just did a few good things, unlike the others who are classified near the bottom of presidential rankings. If it weren't for Watergate he wouldn't be down there with Hoover, Buchanan, Harding, Fillmore, and company. He would probably be considered average to below average.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. No doubt it will end up being Barack Obama.

:eyes:

[jackson_dem]

11. It is hard to predict presidential performance before someone sits in the Oval Office

Predictions about Obama being "great" or "bad" are meaningless. There is no way to predict presidential performance prior to them actually stepping into the job. Even his inexperience is more of an electoral liability than a hindrance to having a good presidency.

[Faygo Kid]

61. It sure won't be Hillary

Got to be president to make the list, good or bad.

[NMDemDist2]

3. Dubya, then Rayguns n/t

[ZombieHorde]

4. These results are shocking, this whole thread is shocking.

People putting down Republicans? On DU?

[gateley]

5. Booooosh.

I don't think our country has been on the precipice of imploding like this before, has it? Has it ever been THIS BAD?

[jackson_dem]

9. Buchanan (Civil War), Hoover (Great Depression)

Other presidents like Fillmore, Harding, Pierce, and Andrew Johnson sucked but none of them caused the long-term damage that Buchanan, Hoover, and Bush did. Bush has a shot at not making it to 43rd but it would take a miracle for him to break the top 40. :rofl:

[gateley]

24. I personally think

we're THIS CLOSE to another Great Depression.

And I think it may be far worse because of how global the world is today.

During the Great Depression, I don't think so many other countries owned huge hunks of our land and businesses, nor did we owe a country like China trillions of dollars. Just think this will be the worst ever period in our country's history. And to really strap on the :tinfoilhat: I'm not certain there's even much of a future for our country as we know it.

The Civil War is hard to "top", but again, I think the end result and repercussions of our current situation will be more devastating.

[Zynx]

52. I won't pass historical judgement on a remote possibility that hasn't happened yet.

As of right now Buchanan is worse and so is Pierce.

[gateley]

63. And I'll defer to those of you who

know better than I. And do some research on those other bastards -- I obviously didn't pay attention in school. :7

[Zynx]

70. The fact of the matter is I don't see 25% unemployment, 10,000 bank failures,

a 60% decline in GDP, etc in our future. If the Fed had not intervened we could well have gotten there, but that's the whole reason the Fed is empowered to the extent it is. The primary goal of the Fed is to promote stability in the banking system.

[gateley]

73. I hope you're right --

and I wish I had the faith in the Fed that you do. I'll hope for the best.

Signed,

:tinfoilhat:

[ProfessorGAC]

83. You And Me Both, Zynx

There are enough safeguards in place to prevent another 1929. Not that this won't be a bumpy ride, but we're not going to hit the bridge abuttment.
The Professor

[terrya]

7. Bush. It's not even close.

And, god help me for saying this, but Nixon had some good accomplishments...the overtures to China and the Soviet Union, the establishment of the Environment Protection Agency.

There was nothing positive in Bush's Presidency. It was fear, a complete disregard for the Constitution and a war he lied us into.

[NoPasaran]

8. Buchanan, by a whisker

Of course, the meter is still running on Dubya.

[jackson_dem]

15. Yup. Invading Iran would seal the deal for Bush

[virtualobserver]

34. it might seal the deal for all of us

it would turn all of the networks back into 24-hr war networks.

How do you think the American people would react to a bungled attack on Iran that turns the entire world upside down?

[Faygo Kid]

10. W, definitely. I put Andrew Johnson below Buchanan. Nixon, too.

Buchanan's incompetent dithering allowed us to hang on until Lincoln. If he had actually tried to do something, he might have precipitated the Civil War early - disaster.

Andrew Johnson was a frigging racist SOB who would have been more than happy to have the blacks exterminated after the war. Grant is usually ranked near the bottom, but he kept the Federal troops in the South throughout his two terms to protect the freed slaves. And that was absolutely necessary.

Nixon extended the war in Vietnam and corrupted the Constitution.

Always great fodder for debate for us history buffs. But there's only one George W. Bush, and the scary thing is, he's not finished with us.

[galaxy21]

13. The only thing that could save Dubya's presidency now is if he found the cure for cancer

[Faygo Kid]

27. He can't even spell it.

Bush and science?

[MiniMe]

48. Maybe if he used Stem Cells he could do it

Oh yeah, um, never mind.

[Demeter]

36. Or Died of It in The next 3 weeks

[jackson_dem]

18. Good point about Grant

He was also hurt by corruption. Still I think Grant gets more of a bad rap than he deserves. He is not a top 30 president but he doesn't deserve to be down there with the likes of Harding and Johnson. Fortunately for Grant, while he is considered to have been a weak president he remains one of the most revered Americans due to his military services during the Civil War. Don't expect to ever see Bush on the $50 bill. ;)

Johnson definitely ranks down there. I can't believe I forgot to include him in the poll.

[Mojambo]

14. We're really too close to fairly judge, but the case for Bush is fucking rock solid.

Immense failures in every single aspect. Foreign and domestic policy alike.

It's hard to argue that any other president has cut such a wide ranging swath of destruction.

[MzNov]

16. Franklin Pierce was supposed to be the worst before Dubya,

and guess who is related to him??

Barbara Bush ! :rofl: I'm not kidding!! It runs in the family.

[Faygo Kid]

28. Pierce was awful, but also such a tragic figure.

His only child, his young son, was killed in a train accident before his and his wife's eyes on their way to Washington. Neither ever recovered fully. He was also alcoholic.

He and Nathaniel Hawthorne were best of friends.

[Uncle Joe]

38. I also believe, I read once, he was thrown in to the air from his saddle

coming down on the saddle horn squishing his testicles and causing him much misery for the rest of his life. I don't remember where I read it or if it's true.

Edit for P.S. I believe this occurred during The Mexican War.

[MzNov]

45. that is awful n/t

[Zynx]

51. I'm sorry, but I will not forgive his terrible performance.

[Faygo Kid]

54. Didn't mean you should.

He was a bad president. Doesn't mean we can't recognize his personal tragedy, as well. Just human interest.

[Hippo_Tron]

17. We haven't seen the long term results of Bush's policies to make that decision yet

Frankly I think right now Reagan is worse because without Reagan there would be no Bush. That is the kind of thing you can look at with hindsight.

[lpbk2713]

19. The others may have blundered around here and there ...

But Shit-for-Brains went out of his way to intentionally disrupt and destroy everything that made our government work. And that is why I want to see him and his co-conspirators do hard time in a federal penitentiary for a long long time.

[femmocrat]

22. Reagan.

It's all his fault because he started the downhill slide into the abyss we are currently mired in. And at least everyone agrees that bush is an ineffective moran. But there are still Reagan devotees and minions out there who would put him on Mt. Rushmore if they could. :puke:

[grytpype]

23. It's hard to compare a 21st Century president with a 19th Century one.

The country and the presidency were totally different then.

It's true Buchanan failed to stop the Civil War, but the presidency was pretty weak at that time. And it's hard to imagine Bush doing any better in the same situation, but that would be conjecture.

Comparing him to the more modern "worst presidents," Hoover and Harding, is a more valid comparison, and he's clearly worse than both of them.

[Hippo_Tron]

32. Someone like Zachery Taylor or Andrew Jackson likely could have kept the union together

[galledgoblin]

43. I doubt it

the break was coming, the best anyone could have done was postpone it

[jackson_dem]

Indeed, Jackson did keep the union together during the nullifcation crisis

It is true the presidency was weaker during Buchanan's time but one of the common threads between the great/near-great presidents is that they rise to the challenge at hand, even if that means increasing the power of the presidency (Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, TR, and FDR).

[galledgoblin]

25. Ronald Reagan, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Andrew Jackson should be choices

voted GWB

[Posteritatis]

53. Yeah, I was surprised at the lack of Jackson here (nt)

[devilgrrl]

66. Yes, Jackson wasn't all that and neither was Millard Fillmore

eom

[jackson_dem]

67. Jackson is considered by historians to have been a near-great/good president

Coolidge is considered average/below average. Hence they are not on the list. Harding is always ranked near the bottom but he didn't really do much damage so I didn't include him. I didn't include Reagan because Bush is basically a worse version of Reagan.

Here are historical rankings of presidents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents

[KamaAina]

29. Actually a case could be made for Buchanan

remember, Bush** is really only the Resident.

[Noirceuil]

30. Jimmy Carter was Awful....

Not the worst in history, but awful nevertheless. Double digit inflation, high gas prices, the Iran Hostage crisis, inept foreign policy, and the list goes on and on. His presidency served no purpose except to give Republicans control of the White House for 12 years. He's a great man, a great humanitarian, but a horrible President. The fact that he has endorsed Obama, tells me all I need to know about what kind of leader Obama will be.

[Hippo_Tron]

31. Presidents don't control inflation and gas prices

Inflation was due to guns and butter from the Nixon/Johnson/Ford days. Carter put Paul Volcker in charge of the federal reserve and he ultimately got inflation under control after Carter was out of office. Gas prices were due to OPEC. Carter had absolutely no control over that. Raygun got extremely lucky and OPEC collapsed while he was in office and gas prices were low.

And Carter handled the Iran Hostage Crisis in a manner that didn't lead us into a war with Iran.

He also had the foresight to warn us about how dangerous our addiction to foreign oil was. And that was in 1979. Imagine where we would be if we had listened to Carter and gotten serious about renewable energy back then instead of waiting 30 years to finally start doing what he was talking about back then. Carter installed solar panels on the White House and Raygun took them down once he was elected.

[Traction311]

71. Presidents have nothing to do with gas prices?

So I should stop blaming Shrub for the current high prices?

[Hangingon]

46. A truely nice man but a disaster as a President.

[On the Road]

33. I Voted Bush

partly because I simply don't know enough about Buchanan. Although if his inaction led directly to the Civil War, that would constitute a pretty strong case for worst.

[Demeter]

35. Bush Is The Only One With NO Redeeming Features At All

He's not even a good son and father and husband.

[galaxy21]

47. Yeah, rumours are Laura can't stand him

I think you can tell their marraige is mostly an act.

[Zynx]

50. Buchanan was nothing but a failed public servant.

He didn't have a family.

[acmavm]

37. Fucking up stuff and being an asshole are the two areas that this clown

has got covered. He has this down. Since 2000 he's been on a tear and he's done both. Non-stop. No one's ever done it any better.

[bunkerbuster1]

39. Woodrow Wilson.

Racist, war pig, got more Americans killed for no reason at all than any other President. I don't care that he was some strategerific Gene Yuss who had big, fancy-ass ideas for some prototype of the UN that never came to fruition. Guy was scum.

Worst ever.

Nixon and Bush ain't far behind, of course.

[MessiahRp]

40. Barbara Bush's relative Franklin Pierce could have made this list

But I still vote for W. I can't imagine anybody doing more things wrong. Some leaders fuck up the economy, some fuck with our civil liberties, some fuck up in war... most of the worst didn't do all three. Bush did them plus some. Worst, EVER.

Rp

[Brigid]

41. Bush, of course.

That's a no-brainer.

[YOY]

42. Pierce was supposedly pretty shitty

and a direct ancestor of W not ironically...

[galledgoblin]

44. if Hoover and Buchanan catch too much flack for their presidencies because of

the environment and tactics they inherited from previous administrations, does that mean GWB is less to blame than Reagan or GHWB (or maybe even, Clinton?!)


I personally think GWB is unique in that he did have the opportunity to turn things around, or at least maintain the status quo and let the shit hit the fan under whoever we will elect next (the Iraq War will be considered one of the greatest mistakes by a president EVER), but I want to hear some other opinions.

[Zynx]

49. I think Franklin Pierce was the worst. After all he did preside over the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Nothing in this country compares to the ravages of the Civil War.

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. I'd split this by period

modern period, George of course... hell Nixon was an excellent Presnit compared to this idiot... and Hoover was at least honest (he didn't give a shit)

of course the 19th century it is close between Grant and Buchanan...

But yes, overall, I think George will get it.

Hey, HE IS NUMBER ONE ON SOMETHING!

[Bjorn Against]

56. Bush and Andrew Jackson are running neck and neck...

Honestly Jackson should be on the list for sure. Ever hear of the Trail of Tears?

[galaxy21]

57. Hey, Jackson fought 13 duels over his wife's honour

I don't know enough to comment on him as a president, but that's sort of cool.

[Bjorn Against]

62. Well there is nothing sort of cool about the fact that he engaged in genocide...

Thousands of Native Americans died because of his actions, he may well have the worst human rights record of any American President although Bush is giving him competition.

[The Inquisitive]

65. Yea but the difference was Andrew Jackson essentially succeeded!

I mean at least he 'put them (Seminole Nation) in their place'.

:sarcasm: (just in case)

[jackson_dem]

68. Barack Obama on Jackson

Obama praised four Democratic presidents: Jefferson, Jackson, FDR and JFK. He said Jackson "took the White House back for the people." That is high praise indeed.

[gauguin57]

58. On behalf of the people of Lancaster County, PA (where Buchanan lived, practiced law and is buried)

Thank you for voting for Bush before "Old Buck." We're tired of having the crappiest president on every historian's list.

[Atman]

59. This thread is like a rock band yelling "SPRINGFIELD IS THE GREATEST TOWN EVER!"

It's a guaranteed applause-getter. Post whore! (just kidding :hi:)

.

[Fox Mulder]

60. George W Bush will go down as the worst president in history.

[Dukkha]

64. No one has done more to promote anti-intellectualism than *

He has put America on a downward trend of willful ignorance, blind apathy, and made it possible for people to be comfortable with their own prejudices against intellectual idealism and embrace low brow culture. When world leaders openly call him an idiot and a moron you know he has zero respect among the global community and had dragged America down to his level.

[Canuckistanian]

69. Don't have to wait for history's verdict. The evidence is already overwhelming.

Besides, what as yet unknown BUSH horrors are waiting to be discovered during the NEXT few decades??

Think about it - the stories WE KNOW ABOUT have all gotten past the most SECRETIVE ADMINISTRATION in history.

Unless we see smoke rising from Cheney's office on Jan. 20th, 2009 or they blow fuses from too many paper-shredders going at once, there's a LOT more to come.

[Snarkturian Clone]

72. Warren G. Harding

At least the other presidents got up in the morning and worked.

[John Kerry VonErich]

74. Truman should've been on there

since he killed millions when he didn't need to.

[ThomWV]

78. Millions?

I might give you 200,000, a hundred thousand per A-Bomb, but "millions" seems a little over the top.

[John Kerry VonErich]

79. maybe I was over the top.

oops

[MadinMo]

75. Bush.

And the historians will snicker and say, "You know, they actually 'elected' him to two terms! Maybe they all were dimwits!"

[LanternWaste]

76. I'm trying to be as non-biased as I can

I'm trying to be as non-biased as I can, but it still leads me right back to Shrub. Up until his administration sneaked in, I would have put down Harding (Teapot Dome, having a mistress committed to an asylum to shut her up, etc.), but it's difficult not to point our fingers directly at Shrub for the number one spot.

The BEST case scenario is that the largest intelligence failure happened on his watch resulting in the greatest loss of civilian life in America by an outside para-military organization ever.

That in and of itself would be the swan song for any President. But we also have Iraq, the recession, the housing crises, Enron, and the insider administration scandals (Plame, the emails, etc).

It's difficult not to point our fingers directly at this administration and present him with the ribbon for Worst President. Ever.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

80. Andrew Johnson did his best to reverse the outcome of the civil war.

Fortunately, there was a congress then that, at least, slowed down the introduction of Jim Crow and de facto slavery.

[dogday]

81. Should really add Cheney to that list as I think he dictated

more crap than Bush....

[BarbaRosa]

82. This is like asking which is worse

stepping in dog poop, stepping in cat poop, stepping in dog puke, or stepping in cat puke.:shrug: