I disagree about that last part about Wilson. His concept of “military adventurism” was so compelling that the US made an abrupt turn towards extreme isolationism right after his 2nd term ended, which lasted until umm Dec. 7th 1941. Oh, I agree that he was a racist prick, but do you put his concept of the League of Nations into the thumbs up or thumbs down category? [Concept, not execution so much, which of course didn’t work out as intended] Plus a vote against Wilson means a vote against our first woman president too (tongue half-in-cheek before someone flames me).
Now that the obvious incompetents, nonentities and crooks have been weeded out, it gets a little more difficult. I’m gonna go with Thomas Jefferson.
On the plus side of the ledger: writing the Declaration of Independence (pre-Presidency, of course); completing the Louisiana Purchase; sending out Lewis and Clark; sending the Navy to take on the Barbary Pirates.
On the negative side: being a hypocrite on slavery and Federal power (the Purchase was directly contrary to his own philosophy of limited government; the Constitution didn’t authorize it, after all); backstabbing both Washington and Adams (including funding an opposition newspaper while he was still in the Cabinet!); signing into law the bizarrely counterproductive Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts; getting so deeply into debt with his endless redesign and rebuilding of Monticello that his slaves had to be sold when he died, even breaking up slave families; failing to recognize the infant republic’s need for a strong navy (read Theodore Roosevelt in The Naval History of the War of 1812 on Jefferson’s failures in this regard - T.R. was scathing!); making excuses for the murderousness of the French revolutionary regime, and sharing confidential diplomatic papers with the French ambassador to the U.S.
A brilliant man and a pretty good Founding Father, but a vastly overrated President.
This is based solely on that one Wikipedia page that lists presidential rankings from over the years. I might have gotten great marks on the AP American History test, but I sure don’t remember much about most of the presidents.
He stole the election over Cleveland by cheating in NY and IN, and still came in with fewer popular votes. He was displaced by Cleveland four years later.
Woodrow Wilson. Because he was just plain mean. And I once lived on a van buren street so I can’t quite bring myself to auf him yet. (And I went to John Tyler elementary so that was already a bit of a wrench.)
Woodrow Wilson, he didn’t compromise on the League of Nations just because the authors of the compromise was a personal enemy of his. Also as others have said a racist bigot.
Can’t vote for Harrison because he’s generally listed second among my fraternity’s distinguished alumni. Sure, he didn’t accomplish a damn thing while in office, but he’s our president, dammit.
Look at the list in Post #373. GHWB and Clinton are both among the survivors. Only presidents never under consideration were the two who served this past January (GWB and Obama), plus the two who each failed to last a full year in the White House (W.H. Harrison and James Garfield).
President Tyler has already gone the way of all flesh, I’m afraid. The remaining Whig is Zachary Taylor, who, as I have written above, was an utterly pragmatic visionary kept from the collective memory only by the Reaper’s erring hand.
My girlfriend clearly remembers me telling her that Taylor was my favorite president. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but he is probably the most underappreciated man to have held the chair. His goals upon taking office were really quite similar to Lincoln’s; given his gravitas as a military commander, I can say that. by a preponderance of the evidence, we would not have had a Civil War if Taylor had lived.
Sorry–gotta give my props.
And don’t be too hard on Chester Arthur. As far as I can see, he was a real reformer who didn’t screw the country. That’s more than I can say for many men who’ve been in that seat.