Who is the worst U.S. President ever?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by tooblue

How can you have a poll like this that does not include Kennedy?

Kennedy was awful, but gained a lot of sympathy through his assination. He got credit for how he handled the Cuban Missile Crisis, and even though I don't believe he passed the Civil Rights Act, he had an impetus in its creation.

He did start Medicare, damn it all.

[BYU71]

Kennedy is the perfect example of style without substance. Many pundits applaud him as a great President. What did he do that was so great??

I will grant an assasins bullet cut him down and therefor we don't really know how great or bad he could have been. However, based on what he did, how can he be considered great.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by BYU71

Kennedy is the perfect example of style without substance. Many pundits applaud him as a great President. What did he do that was so great??

I will grant an assasins bullet cut him down and therefor we don't really know how great or bad he could have been. However, based on what he did, how can he be considered great.

He cut tax rates during his Presidency.

[SeattleUte]

My general philosophy for what it's worth is that some presidents are fated to take the helm facing overwhelming crisis and adversity that at that point in time is probably not solvable in the short term. This describes Buchanan, Pierce, Hoover, for example. It's not clear to me anyone could have done much better than these men given the adversity they faced. Others affirmatively caused a lot of damage. This would describe Kennedy, Nixon and Bush Jr.

Still others are fated by circumstance to rise to the level of greatness where really they have no other choice. (This is more the Tolstoy model for greatness rather than the great man theory, I recognize.) WWII was thrust upon FDR but what was he going to do after Pearl Harbor, sit on his hands? It's not clear to me FDR's social programs solved the great depression; personally I think they caused a lot of damage. The United States' emergence as a super power after WWII and the naturally cyclical nature of capitalism we've come to better understand and even ephemeral economic stimulus from the war may be more realistic explanations for the end of the great depression. Ultimately, capitalism's righteousness and resiliancy, its very ethos, was bound to bring the Great Depression to an end. In many ways FDR acted counter to that ethos in domestic programs.

Anyway, among those presidents who affirmatively did harm it seems to me that Bush stands out because there is little or nothing positive to counterbalance it for which history could respect him. I've mentioned Nixon's inovative China initiative; also, despite his personal racism and bigotry, and the crimes committed by the Nixon administration that showed contempt for civil rights, his administration had an admirable civil rights record legislatively. A big difference between Nixon and Bush as I see it is that Nixon was politically sensitive and this prompted him to do some good deeds otherwise against his darker instincts. For better or worse Nixon was instrumental in bringing about the Environmental Protection Agency, probably for better.

Kennedy was corrupt and did a lot of injury, even starting us down the Vietnam road. But his civil rights record was stellar. He signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law.

I see civil rights as our nation's great calling, to rise to a higher level in the granting and recognition of personal liberties than any prior regime in history. This is why Tex says we're the most moral nation ever, because of this great calling and the extent America has gone to fulfilling it, albeit after much interruption and delay and spilt blood. Like Kennedy Bush blundered into a foreign war that will have lasting adverse consequences to our purse and morale and worldwide prestige and probably tactically in dealing with terrorist states. He also disgraced us in the field of civil rights which, again, is of overarching importance in my view.

Truman is my personal favorite in modern times. I think in foreign affairs he faced a period of great uncertainty in which precedent was of limited value, and his inovative initiatives, sometimes counter-intuitive, laid the foundation for our winning the cold war and Europe's, Japan's, South Korea's and our own continued security and prosperity. While he mired us in the Korean war, and made big mistakes there thanks primarily to MacArther talking him into invading North Korea (we tend to make a lot of bad karma for ourselves when we become the aggressors), to this day South Koreans lionize him as their savior from totalitarianism. Truman also began the civil rights tide of the next three decades that in many ways finally fulfilled the promises of the Bill of Rights. Truman's the man. Note also he came from Jackson County Missouri; isn't that the place to which Christ will return at the end of time?

[tooblue]

The only reason Slick Willy will not go down as the worst president ever is the same reason Carter is the overwhelming choice for worst president ...

Clinton preceded GWB

Carter preceded Ronny

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by tooblue

The only reason Slick Willy will not go down as the worst president ever is the same reason Carter is the overwhelming choice for worst president ...

Clinton preceded GWB

Carter preceded Ronny

Clinton was neither a bad nor good president. Staunchly mediocre.

A bad spouse, though.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by Archaea

How can you forget Carter, who couldn't do anything except give away the Panama Canal for nothing, get involved in the Iran hostage crisis, cause stagflation, and a host of other failings, all in a measely four years. People forget in how little time Carter was able to screw up so much.

I don't forget Carter. Both he and Bush get an F for leadership. They both suck there and it led in both cases to disaster in foreign policy. But I think you give Bush too much credit for the economy. Carter trashed it because he inherited a bad situation and everything he did made it worse. Bush is only saved there because fortunately he comes from a somewhat conservative economic philosophy of leaving it alone (with the exception of spending like crazy). He also inherits the Reagan legacy of letting the federal reserve do it's thing independent of the presidency, something that got Carter and previous presidents in trouble.

[BYU71]

based on one thing, the Iraq War. Don't give me the spending thing. Reagan didn't keep his promise on spending either.

It is Iraq. An unpopular war doomed Johnson despite all his great society stuff.

Americans and maybe all people want solutions and fast solutions. They can't stand the thought that something can't be fixed and fixed in a hurry. The very idea the mess we are in is preferable to what else might have happened is inconceivable.

Time has proven Carter was a bad President, time will tell us on Bush also.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by BYU71

based on one thing, the Iraq War. Don't give me the spending thing. Reagan didn't keep his promise on spending either.

It is Iraq. An unpopular war doomed Johnson despite all his great society stuff.

Americans and maybe all people want solutions and fast solutions. They can't stand the thought that something can't be fixed and fixed in a hurry. The very idea the mess we are in is preferable to what else might have happened is inconceivable.

Time has proven Carter was a bad President, time will tell us on Bush also.

I refuse to choose GW only because I think it's poor methodology to rank a sitting president among those whose terms are complete.

I think we can rest assured, though, that future history will place him in the bottom 5.

[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by Archaea

He did start Medicare, damn it all.

that was LBJ