Best/Worst US President.

In My Humble Opinion
21

The best to get significant legislation that changed our lives for the better: LBJ but he fucked up on foreign policy.

The best to get us thru war: FDR

The most decent humanitarian: Carter [I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him several times.]

The rogue’s gallery:

Richard Nixon for acting like many African Presidents by flaunting the law for his own political benefit.

Ronald Reagan for putting the US in heavy debt and shifting power/money to the wealthiest 2%

Schrub for successfully dismantling our constitutional rights [Patriot Act], for channeling our anger and justified revenge for 9/11 against terrorists to a completely illogical enemy in Iraq, for shifting more power and money to a smaller clique of petro buddies, for squandering our surplus and creating another big deficit, for lying to the American people, for centralizing Federal govt decision making rather than promoting decentralization, for promoting policy decisions based on religion and not evidence-based science, for promoting Christianity in policy when our basic legal framework separates church from state, for bankrupting state and local govts, for alienating our strongest allies in Europe and Russia while increasing hatred in the Islamic communities, for allowing Israeli politicians to totally erase any possible peace process or peaceful outcome of the Israel/Palestinian conflict, for buying off the pharmaceutical companies with his $15 billion President’s Emergency Relief for Aids program, for sealing presidential records that prevent historians access to his father’s files, for stealing the last election, for use of his AF One for election campaigning and making us pay for it… gosh, that’s one hell of a list and I’m not done yet. That’s enough to make my argument.

Interestingly, there is an equal split between Republicans [rogues and thugs] and Democrats [leadership]. My colors are showing.

22

U-S-History.com

Prior to Pres. Arthur, every postmaster, justice of the peace, and customs inspector got fired when the other party took over.

-kdeus

23

The fact of the matter remains that the “liberal media” (ha!) never got on Reagan’s case for all the crap he did wrong during his presidency. It was a corrupt, fiscally irresponsible disaster of the first order. With the announcement of him having Alzhiemers, everybody really layed off. It’s going to be nearly a year before the media starts to get comfortable addressing the real, long term problems he created.

We have had 3 abyssmal presidents in the last 70 years: Nixon, Reagan and Bush II. Nixon’s damage was mainly short term. The later two have killed the future of our country.

24

Worst presidents: John F. Kennedy , followed (closely) by Lyndon B. Johnson. Kennedy was unbelievably incompetent, and a VERY sick man for most of his term. In fact, his indecision at the “Bay of Pigs” cost the lives of several hundred cuban patriots, and may have been the result of abuse of drugs (provided by his physician, Dr. “Feelgood”). After this disaster, Kennedy plunged into Vietnam…and his successor (Johnson) got into a useless war that would claim over 60,000 American lives…and cost >$200 billion.
The best: George Washington, followed by Calvin Coolidge. Washington’s achievemnts as president wereimmense…he made the US a credible country. Coolidge had the great sense NOT to jump to conclusions. His caution and reluctance to get involved would be a good lesson to any future presidents.

25

Calvin Coolidge? That’s an, umm, interesting choice. Could you expand on that a bit, just to satisfy my curiousity? Please?

26

Amen, ftg, amen. Reagan’s legacy is the position that yes, there is a free lunch and we’re going to eat it. Prosperity can be purchased by stealing from our grandchildren.

Best: Abraham Lincoln. He faced challenges that dwarf that of any other president, the only one coming close would be FDR.

Worst: We’ve had some real stinkers recently, only history will tell us which is the worst. I give the nod to George W. Bush over Ronald Reagan. Both put our seed corn on the table and called it prosperity, however Bush will forever be remembered for that cataclysmic failure of a war in Iraq.

27

Thanks, man…and, would you believe, I don’t think I really know anything about American history, because I’ve been studying British history for the last ten years!

28

I can’t believe we’ve made this far into the thread without anyone mentioning U.S. Grant. He’s usually held right alongside of Harding on the worst ever lists.

I do Believe George W. will be added to that duo in the future. His presidency has been a crushing failure.

For the best you have to look at Lincoln for his preservation of the union (in spite of incompetent generals and horrific losses) and his freeing of the slaves. F. Roosevelt triumphed over the depression and WWII. Of course, any president in his shoes would have dealt with both problems, but Roosevelt’s New Deal was inspired and his holding out on the war (despite his personal hatred of Hitler) in order to ensure he went in with a united country was a wise move.

As for most underrated, I’ll take Woodrow Wilson. For most overrated, Reagan. I felt that way long before his death and the ensuing media hype declaring him as one of the all-time greats. Some “liberal” media! Thomas Jefferson should get some consideration as well. He was invaluable to our country as a statesman, but his presidency was not at all a triumph.

29

While I do agree that FDR was the right man for the job at the time, the facts about the Depression are a bit murkier than commonly believed. Can’t find a cite for it at the moment, but I recall one economist saying that, statistically, the worst year of the Depression was 1937, and that while the New Deal gave people hope, if it hadn’t been for the advent of WWII*, there’s no telling when the Depression would have eased up.

*starting in early 1940, when U.S. industry started getting orders for lots of war materiel.

30

I generally agree with John Carter of Mars’ assessment above, but I’ll add my own:

Best:

• George Dubya the First - as pointed out above, he, as the first President of a modern democracy, set the mold.
• Abraham Lincoln - dealt with both the huge question of the extent of federalism as well as putting an end to slavery. And held together the Noble Experiment at a time when there were still reigning monarchs.
• Teddy Roosevelt - held steerage at a time when the U.S. came on to the world stage.
FDR - got us through WWII.
• Ronald Reagan - finally prosecuted the Cold War and jump started a moribund economy. Brought hope to a weathered country.

Also ran:

• Woodrow Wilson - high ideals - but he just couldn’t pull them off

Possible:

• George Dubya the Present - for recognizing and attempting to deal with the current biggest threats - if he has a second term we’ll see how he does - I’m glad he doesn’t cave easily - if not, perhaps we’ll never know. So far we’ve seen a resuscitation of the nose-diving Clinton economy he was handed as well as the strong response needed to the Islamist attempt to steer the world.

Worst:

• W. G. Harding - a perrenial favorite.
• William Jefferson Clinton - may well outpace Harding in the long run.

31

Disclaimer: I am not an American, and my American presidential knowledge is 20th century and later.

Eh, it takes a whole lot more than three idiots to bring a giant like the US to its knees, but I agree with the gist of your post. Nixon was a smart man and a good diplomat, but he was an unbelievably dishonest bastards above all. Reagan had charisma and contagious enthusiasm, but he completely sold the GOP to the rich and the religious right. On top of that, he drove the US to the brink of financial meltdown. Bush Jr… well, I guess I don’t have to elaborate on that one, my opinion’s well documented.

So, the three worst:

  1. A joined for Reagan and Bush Jr., both for acting out of the wrong interests, bad ideology, and sheer incompetence.
  2. Nixon, for indeed being a crook.

The three best:

  1. Bill Clinton
  2. FDR
  3. Jimmy Carter

No offense intended by the opinions above. :slight_smile:

32

The worst President was Buchanan. You can say what you want about Harding, Grant, or whoever, but at least they didn’t lose a third of the country. The New York Times said it best in his obituary:

33

Grant did have a few positives, though.

My man’s gotta be James Buchanan for worst. George Bush got the USA into Iraq? Buchanan fiddled while the Civil War brewed. Buchanan damn near lost the country. The Civil War trumps Iraq fifty times over.

For best, I guess I would have to go with Lincoln or either of the Roosevelts.

Most overrated is Kennedy, by a huge, huge margin. Reagan may be overrated by some now, but some people also hate him. It will take some time before a general impression of his administration takes the shape of history.

Most underrated, I’d probably go with Eisenhower.

34

Worst Democrat in my lifetime: LBJ, by a landslide. Not only for Vietnam but for the design and implementation of Great Society programs which in combo with Vietnam did things to our economy that enabled Republicans to brand Democrats with “tax and spend” for 40 years.

Best Democrat in my lifetime: Clinton. The inverse of John Carter of Mars’s sense of Jimmy Carter, I do not think I would like Clinton personally, but he did mostly good things at the helm. Having lots of mediocrity to be compared to (Carter, Kennedy) makes it a pretty easy call.

Worst Republican in my lifetime: GWB in a split decision over Nixon. The Republicans have put some real stinkers into consideration during the last half-century, but while Nixon constituted a grave threat to domestic democray on multiple levels his fiscal and foreign policies were not half bad and he was by no means incompetent. GWB, on the other hand, is a solid candidate for the worst in the nation’s history, although I don’t know enough about Hayes, Harding, Jackson, US Grant, Fillmore, and other possible nominees to make that call.

Best Republican in my lifetime: Another close call, as the Republicans have also put up some solid leaders and effective politicians (seems like the Republicans have the extremes and the Democrats tend towards mediocrity?), but despite a second season of significantly reduced effectiveness and some things I’ll never forgive him for on the economy, I’d pick Reagan over George HW Bush, a mostly non-ideological manager with good sense who got unfair tagged with the aftermath of Reagan’s economy. Reagan is overrated and Bush senior is underrated, but ultimately Reagan anyhow.

Best If-Only Candidate Who Didn’t Get Elected: Goldwater, with honorable mention to Gore.

35

Jimmy Carter was a hell of a President if you can ignore soaring inflation rates, incredibly high interest rates, and a total mishandling of the Iran situation. Great guy, weak leader.

Anyway, my top three Presidents are, in no particular order:

George Washington. He took a job with absolutely no precedent and set the standard.

FDR. In spite of his futile spending in his attempt to get us out of the Depression and his inane court-packing attempt he was a hell of a wartime President.

Richard Nixon. He passed the ABM Treaty, started the SALT talks, got us out of Vietnam, and started us down the road to detente with the Soviet Union and China.

And now, the worst Presidents:

Richard Nixon. Funny how I think he’s both the best and the worst, eh? Well, in spite of his foreign policy successes, he really screwed the pooch with his endless paranoia, culminating with the Watergate scandal.

Bill Clinton. Some of you wish for a return to Clintonian prosperity, and so would I, but that prosperity was due no matter who the President was. Tack on the accounting scandals that festered under his Presidency and ultimately manifested themselves under Bush, and I think it was a very hollow prosperity in the end, one that should have been sustaining except for his hands-off, look the other way approach to the economy. He was looking the wrong way in almost every case. Add on to that his unmitigated sleaze and you have someone who, by all objective standards, was a lousy President.

LBJ. He escalated Vietnam to a full-scale war and yet did everything he could to insure that we would lose it. He did pass the Civil Rights Act, but more than balancing out that positive was the endless race rioting, police brutality, and wanton lawlessness that he made little to no effort to stem. The inane Gun Control Act of 1968 didn’t help, either.

I didn’t include the Do-Nothing Presidents like Harding or Grant, because while they presided over some serious scandals they were otherwise unremarkable as Presidents. Comparatively speaking, stuff like Teapot Dome was small-time stuff.

36

You may laugh, but “Silent Cal” was the ONLY president who ACTUALLY shrank the size of the Federal Governement! Sure, Clinto CLAIMED he did (the Feral payroll actually INCREASED under him). Coolidge shrank the governemnt (and the burden on the taxpayers) by a simple expedient…he refused to allocate funds for office construction! Under Coolidge , the War Department (now Dept. of Defense) shrank from 1200 to 200, the Dept. of Agriculture was cut in half.
If we could only GET RID of half the Washington boobocracy…what a savings!
No wonder Reagan had a picture of Coolidge on his office wall! :eek:

37

Best: Abraham Lincoln

Worst: Either U.S. Grant or Bill Clinton

38

Well, except for that whole white supremacy thing…

39

Best of the bunch: Jefferson.

Worst of the bunch: Buchanan

20th Century-

Best: FDR, it pains me to say. The father of creeping socialism in the US

Worst: LBJ, for the reasons others has said.

40

Best

  1. Washington
  2. T. Roosevelt
  3. LBJ

Worst

  1. Hoover
  2. Harding
  3. Andrew Johnson