While Reagan’s hostage negotiations may have been reprehensible, at least the goal was worthy (not that I’m any sort of Reagan apologist, mind you). Out of all of Nixon’s sins, attempting to order the FBI to lay off the Watergate investigation alone ranks him at the top of my list. The only goal there was to save his ass.
Not that my opinion should mean much to anyone. I can’t even quote correctly…
I would pick Harding too. He only saved getting his sorry arse kicked out of the White House by dying. Teapot Dome was really only the tip of the iceberg, but it was a big iceberg.
It’s been rumored by many that his wife, of all people, hastened his death by surreptitious poisoning.
Is Clinton being mentioned because of having an affair or is it something else?
Didn’t FDR and Eleanor both have their other halves living in the White House (IIRC I saw this in a docu and am very willing to be proved wrong)
I always find it silly that sexual peccadilloes are treated so seriously.
Nixon, Reagan, Harding–for reasons previously stated.
Looks like Bush the Younger has a shot at being in the top 10 on the list of morally bankrupt Presidents.
… substance above decorum… :smack:
The hamsters ate the post I was correcting!
tcdaniel:
Even Teddy Roosevelt? I think he breaks from that mold.
Clinton, and not for the sex stuff. The man’s charector is equitable to the curd what thrives on the underside of municipal toilet bowl rims, in my opinion.
Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore.
Grant? Really? Harding, sure, but keeping in mind I haven’t read a comprehensive history on him as a politician, but the general impression I’ve always gotten is “rigidly incorruptible personally, surrounded himself with scoundrels.”
Anyway, in the spirit of IMHO, I’ll say…LBJ. He used skinny dipping as a lobbying tool. Swung an ugly stick. Yick.
Uh, I meant to convey my belief that Grant, not Harding, was rather incorruptible…
Not being familiar with Teapot Dome or the scandals of the Grant administration, I think I’ll stick to the past 70 years. Within that timeframe:
Nixon’s the one.
[sub]That was his 1968 campaign slogan.[/sub]
Runners-up: gotta like the current occupant of the White House. With respect to Reagan, I think the moral bankruptcy was more among his crew.
I must admit I don’t understand the bit about Carter cozying up to dictators. Before Carter, postwar US foreign policy had strictly been to oppose the USSR and cuddle up with every anti-communist strongman in the Third World, no matter how nasty they were to their own people. Carter broke from this and made human rights a consideration in his foreign policy, for which he was widely ridiculed by conservatives.
I can understand how someone would think negotiating with certain dictators was morally bankrupt - I disagree, but I can see it.
What I didn’t get about Mr. Moto’s post was “ignoring established rules concerning ex-presidential decorum.”
I don’t see how that could be construed as amoral. Indeed, a de facto American value is not given much whit to decorum.
I’d go with Nixon first, because he was more competently evil than Harding, and because he didn’t have any decent goal. His evil ways were to an end of subverting the democratic process.
What could be more morally bankrupt for the office of the president?
I’m only speculating, but a good number of people, including liberals, despised Clinton because he seemed to have no political backbone. He wouldn’t stand and fight for what he believed in. At times it appeared he believed in nothing at all.
Believe me, I understand and sympathize with folks who are sick of the current resident of 1600 PA Ave. I can see disagreeing with his politics and rushing headlong into a questionable war.
But heck, morally bankrupt? Are you serious? Even if you count starting a questionable war (of which this one is debatable), he doesn’t top that list. And we just haven’t seen the level of corruption in his adminstration that we have seen from many others. So you can disagree his policies but I don’t think that you can question his moral fiber.
And not just question it - morally bankrupt implies a compete lack of moral strenght. Harding would make it. Possible Nixon. I’d like to see Clinton on the list but that’s stretching it. Including W is really, really stretching it.
Harding wasn’t so much intentionally evil as morally bankrupt.
As President, he probably violated all the top ten commandments and some below that. His presidential resume should also include large helpings of professional indifference and personal laziness.
About the only positive thing one can say about Harding is that he weighed less than Taft.
I won’t pretend to know anything about American History (check location), but there has to be at least one president who supported slavery. I’d like to think that that would move you up the list awefully quickly.
Not being too familar with all the scandals in the 1800’s, I’ll stick to more recent Presidents. Nixon, Clinton, maybe Kennedy.
Clinton’s sexual pecadillos were small change compared to selling his nation to the Chinese to get reelected.
He should have faced a firing squad for that.
He is the only President I know of to commit what could be considered an act of treason for personal gain.
The Clintons (both Bill and Hillary) have always considered themselves to be above the American People. I also don’t believe there has ever been an American President who held more contempt for the people he served.
Seriously, were you around during the Nixon administration? I don’t want to defend Clinton, but his contempt for the American people was peanuts compared to Nixon, IMO.