Best: Lincoln/FDR/Washington, in that order.
Worst: Buchanan/Pierce/Harding, in whatever order you wish.
Okay, I’ll just re-post what I already said in the other thread on this topis:
Best: George Washington. No one else could have commanded as much respect from so many VERY different factions, and that was essential if the new government was to work. That we have a functioning republic today is largely a matter of George Washington’s sheer will, and his ability to set good precedents.
Worst: Speaking as a consistent voice of the far right, my answer often surprises people. It’s Richard Nixon, without a doubt. WHAT did Richard Nixon ever do to deserve the loyalty of conservatives? Was it his imposition of price and wage controls? His appointment of Harry (Roe vs. Wade) Blackmun to the Supreme Court? His kowtowing to Chairman Mao and Leonid Brezhnev? His mind-boggling expansion of the federal government (far beyond where even LBJ would have dared go)? His presidency would have been an utter disaster even if he HADN’T been a crook, an embarrassment and a disgrace to his country.
Best: FDR, Lincoln, Washington
Worst: Harding,Grant, Buchanan
(No particular order)
In AP U.S. History (which I took this year) we had to right reports on almost every president and rank the presidents. This is what came out of all that work.
oy- write!
I would tend to think that Pierce was worse than Buchanan. Pierce had absolutely no convictions. He has a Northerner who loved the South and was appealling to slaveowners because of that.
His biggest legislative “accomplishment” was allowing Douglas to get the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed which established the concept of “popular sovereignity” which allowed the Kansas Territory to vote on whether or not to be free or slave.
This set the stage for “Bloody Kansas” aka “The Civil War Warmup Act.”
Pierce came into office with several strikes against him. His VP never made it to Washington and took the oath in Cuba where he was trying to recover from TB, which he didn’t. His last surviving child was killed in a train accident with his parents en route to Washington for the inauguration.
And it was believed he had a drinking problem.
And when he sought renomination from the Democrats in 1856, they turned him down. The only sitting president who ever sought renomination from his party to be denied a chance at reelection.
Worst: Lex Luthor
Off topic: how was APUSH? I’m signed up to take it next year and I’m a little worried.
Is this a poll or a debate? If it is a poll, then everyone should post their opinions once(without getting snarky about someone else’s opinion), and move on.
If this is a political debate, I’m moving this thread to Great Debates.
In my opinion, Dubya will be widely thought of as a great President twenty years from now.
In my opinion, Dubya will be consistently ranked as the worst President 20 years from now.
Best? I’ll go with Lincoln, Washington, FDR
Best - Lincoln. Washington a close second.
Worst - Hard to say. I dislike Jefferson because of his hypocrisy over slavery. I dislike Andrew Jackson because of his treatment of the Cherokee. I dislike Buchanan because he fiddled around while the Union was collapsing. I dislike Clinton for his lack of morals. Harding was incompetent. US Grant couldn’t control his subordinates. Wilson was a racist. But the country survived them.
I think that Grant, Harding (somewhat) and Hoover (most definitely) have been badly judged by history. LBJ too. Kennedy is probably overrated, so is Reagan. I think that “W” is not the greatest we’ve ever had. His father was great at foreign affairs, might have been in actuality the best Sec. of State we’ve had in this century.
I hope your opinions are not being persuaded by High School textbooks. This comment is not meant for anyone, I did not even read the thread.
All presidents have had generally good foreign policies, since they have Americas interest at heart no matter what the cost to others.
Domestic policy, I think really defines the best president. Lincoln was the best. Woodrow Wilson was the worst. Some President’s just don’t have the interest of all the Americans when they are in office. Those are the ones that suck.
Best: Washington, of course. But since that is such a given, I’ll give my second-best American President, who is Ronald Reagan, of course.
Worst: Tough to say. Probably LBJ, but certainly Carter is a contender. LBJ did more harm to America at home, while Carter did more harm abroad, but both sucked.
Washington was the best. Without him, I don’t think the subject would be on the table.
My own opinion is that Bush II is the worst. I simply cannot see how anything that Bush and his cohorts do is in the best interests of the country. His only competition for shooting the country in its collective foot comes from Pierce and Buchanan. But I think that Bush is more amoral than either of those turkeys. Kennedy gets an honorable mention for nearly starting WWIII, but he got lucky, and then he died.
But my feeling is that we’ve survived turkey after turkey after turkey, and we’ll survive this one, too.
Well, the worst has to be William Henry Harrison, what a quitter.
For best, I’m going to go with Madison, who held the country together during the war of 1812, the first big test of our nation.
Tough question. While it’s fairly easy to sort folks into groups of better or worse, I don’t see anyone in either catagory who deviates from the norm enough to rate a superlative.
For those who like this sort of speculation, I gotta plug an undeservedly obscure book, Where the Buck Stops, by Harry S. Truman (published after he and Bess were dead). Since old Harry had a pretty good grasp of history, and some firsthand familiarity with the presidency, it makes for rather interesting reading.
[it’s rather freaky to think that we might, right now, be witnessing one of the worse presidencies in action]