With the passing away of Ronald Reagan today, the news stations everywhere are saying lots of very nice things about him, and why shouldn’t they? He’s the first President I remember, and he always seemed like a good guy, and hey, he helped bring down Communist Russia (that was a good thing, as we see it). Lots of people interviewed who knew him said that he was the greatest President we had, which is of course, an opinion.
So, for those of you who have a bit more understanding of history, or those who just feel they know a good deal about the subject matter, who would you say was the best and the worst President the US has every had, and why?
In a spirit of seriousness, George Washington was the best. Always aware that he was setting precedent every time he moved, he set tones and attitudes without which our fragile republic would likely not have survived.
It is too soon to say whether the incumbent will rank as the worst. If I’m still alive in 30 or 40 years ask again. As of right now, I’d go with Harding or Nixon. Probably Harding, as Nixon did have some very solid accomplishments vis-a-vis Russia and China.
Well I think there’s good reason for Theodore Roosevelt being on Mount Rushmore. In fact I think he was the greatest President of the United States. I could list his accomplishments, beliefs quotes, etc but just do an internet search about him. He did a lot !!!
Worst, I’d say Harding. (That makes two votes for Warren G).
I have to disagree. Harding was corrupt and ineffectual, but was mostly harmless. He was a whore for big business, true, but he didn’t get anyone killed unnecessarily.
I’ve said that the current administration is the worst since McKinley’s, but I’ve come to believe that I’m being unfair to McKinley. McKinley was also a whore for big business, and led us into the Spanish-American War on bogus grounds. In McKinley’s defense, however, one must recognize that the yellow journalists of the time had more to do with drumming up support for a war than McKinley did.
Compare and contrast with GWB and his cohorts (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, et. al.), without whom our unprovoked assault on Iraq would never have taken place. It’s killed thousands of people, wounded tens of thousands, and alienated our allies (at a time when most of the world was actually rooting for us, astonishing as that seems), and has probably caused a tenfold increase in the number of loonies who are willing to blow themselves up in order to kill as many of us as possible.
Add in the biggest deficits in history, the attempted gutting of our environmental protections, the relentless chipping away at civil liberties, the suppression of scientific opinion that doesn’t happen to correspond to the adminstration’s preconceived notions, etc., etc., and you’ve got what amounts to a tough act to follow.
To find an administration worse than the current one, you’d probably have to dig further back into the 19th Century, and I freely admit that I don’t know enough about most of those earlier administrations, particularly those of nearly-forgotten Presidents, to pick the worst loser (quick, tell me something, anything about the Arthur Adminstration - no fair Googling!).
Chester A. Arthur was elected to two non-consecutive terms. Ummm, …, He was Republican? Ummm, …, that’s all, I think. Oh, was he the one that had an illegitimate child? His opponent used my favorite campaign slogan ever: “Ma! Ma! Where’s my Pa?” “Gone to the White House! Haw! Haw! Haw!”
Now I’ll go Google.
Good points, all, Early Out. I have an innate instinct to let time tell the tale. I rarely go with the tidal wave, whether it is movies, books, or politics. I will wait until my emotions have cooled before I decide what I think about something. As a general rule.
Chester “Chet” Arthur was an ineffectual stooge of the Roscoe Conkling machine from NYC who got named to the Garfield ticket to appease Conkling. After Garfield’s assassination (by Guiteau, who, BTW, may have known Arthur in passing), Arthur did squat as Prez, essentially turning into a sort of Party Central. Those who feared that Conkling was going to take over the nation breathed a sigh of relief.
As for Harding, I disagree that Harding was “mostly harmless.” It was Harding himself that appointed and abetted the activities of Albert Fell, the first cabinet officer to be sentenced to prison; his old friend Harry Daugherty ran rackets out of the Justice Department; Harding himself approved the Teapot Dome swindle. As for other scandals, Harding fathered an illegitimate child while president, threw drunken parties at the White House during Prohibition, and generally looked the other way while his friends looted the Veterans’ Office. And he did all that in two years!
My personal opinion is that Jimmy Carter was the best human being who was ever President, but I don’t think he was really good at being President, if that makes sense.
Lyndon Johnson gets my vote for worst.
(Please note that I have no real opinion on any President who did not serve during my lifetime.)
I dunno, I don’t remember this happening when Nixon died. It seemed like everyone, press and politicos alike, were stammering for a while trying to figure out what to say about a recently deceased man that didn’t bring up the fact that he was behind one of the biggest disgraces of the Presidency in modern history…
I’m genuinely impressed with your grasp of some presidential history that isn’t even mentioned in passing in our educational system these days!
I think my “mostly harmless” assessment of Harding was based on the idea that he didn’t launch any military misadventures while in office, and that the corruption of his administration, while breathtaking in its audacity, was of the garden-variety, money-grubbing sort. I suspect the vast majority of citizens were virtually untouched by it. For those reasons, I think I’d take the Harding administration over the incumbent in a heartbeat.
Best President? That’s a very tough call. For his sheer ability to succeed in a time of almost inconceivable adversity, Lincoln has to be a contender.
Most overrated? I’ll go with John Carter of Mars on that one (but certainly not on his nominations in other categories!), and vote for JFK.
