This isn’t meant to be opinions, I’m just curious as to which presidents in history were extremely unpopular in their time.
I vaguely remember learning in high school that a lot of people back in the day weren’t really huge fans of Mr. Lincoln.
But what about James Buchanan? Or President Taft? Were these old-time presidents as reviled as a few of some more ahem modern presidents?
Like to give a nominal rating, like lowest approval rate ever or something? Other it belong in GD
Other than that it belongs in GD :smack:
Did your teacher mention there was a war?
Maybe he did…something about a mild skirmish in the Middle East or something. I don’t really remember.
I do remember that Mr. Lincoln was more moderate and so most of the Radical Republicans hated him as much as the southerners did.
That’s not even remotely true.
Ok, I was misinformed. No need to get all huffy.
Can anyone here actually name a president who was disliked by many people in his time?
Herbert Hoover.
Lyndon Johnson.
Abraham Lincoln.
Jimmy Carter.
Ronald Reagan.
Just off the top o’my head.
Statistical approval ratings are available only from FDR forward. Of that group, Jimmy Carter probably had the lowest approval rating of any modern president. Here are the approval ratings found by the Gallup Poll for the last five presidents in June of their re-election year:
Jimmy Carter (1980): 31%
Ronald Reagan (1984): 53%
George H.W. Bush (1992): 38%
Bill Clinton (1996): 52%
George W. Bush (2004): 48%
More statistics from Gallup:
I would suggest Andrew Johnson, who would have had his detractors under any circumstances, but wound up in a totally untenable position. If his party had been stupid enough to run him in 1868, he probably would have gotten about 2 votes.
John Tyler might be right up there - he was equally hated by the Democrats AND the Whigs (and the Whigs were his own party).
Franklin Roosevelt was utterly despised by a large number of people (although I doubt it was anything near a majority) – so much so that they would only refer to him as “that man in the White House.”
Here’s a previous thread about this. There’s a really good post by dorkbro that contains a lot of information.
Upon skimming, it seems that Nixon and Jackson stand out.
Folks we have a winner. Andrew Johnson was the first president impeached and it actually went to a vote. His job was saved by one vote. Fact is he was actually just doing mostly what Lincoln would have done, so maybe Lincoln isn’t such a bad answer. 
Johnson did what Lincoln would have done except hardly anyone liked him to begin with and he was drunk at his VP inaugural.
I can’t believe it took 14 posts before Nixon even got a mention.
Andy Johnson was a target of the Radical Republicans in Congress. That does not necessarily mean he was roundly hated by the people at large across the country. Similarly, Bill Clinton was targeted for impeachment by — again — extremist Republicans in Congress. His popularity among the people held up nevertheless, as the impeachment was seen as a cynical political power move.
As soon as I saw the thread title, there was no question in my mind which president topped the list hands down: Richard Nixon. Anyone old enough to remember the Watergate years will not be able to forget the national nightmare that man plunged us into.
According to Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary, Lincoln’s chances for re-election looked pretty slim until one of his generals (I forget which one) won a major battle in the South. So it would seem that Lincoln wasn’t really all that popular, even in the North.
I can’t believe I haven’t seen more of Richard Nixon in this thread. According to The Book Of Lists, Nixon topped several “most hated man” lists, beating out Hitler in several of them.
According to the Gallup Poll, Nixon’s job approval rating (total term average) was 49%, while his successor Gerald Ford’s was 47%, and Carter and Truman tied at 45%.
I was alive during the Watergate thingy, and remember no such cliché as a “national nightmare”. The Civil War was a national nightmare; Watergate Nixon gave Nixon nightmares, no doubt, but for most people it was that damned thing that kept pre-empting daytime programming.