# Who Was the Worst President? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 3, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242 "2011-08-03T00:00:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/41 "2011-08-03T13:22:16Z")
Crafter Man, he was in my thoughts. I believe his ideas in relation to world politics were fantasy. However, he may have done a lot of great stuff at home I was (and am ) unaware of. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/42 "2011-08-03T13:27:17Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Andrew Johnson, that fool caused the South nearly 60 years of poverty and misery under Reconstruction. Carpetbaggers took everything. Southern states had appointed Northern Governors for years and years. > > Lincoln had a plan to reintegrate the South back into the Union. Life would have gotten back to normal within a few years. Not to defend Andrew Johnson, and certainly not Reconstruction, but it seems odd to give Lincoln credit for this unenacted plan while not assigning him considerable blame for there _being_ a devastating war to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/43 "2011-08-03T13:46:14Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Crafter Man, he was in my thoughts. I believe his ideas in relation to world politics were fantasy. However, he may have done a lot of great stuff at home I was (and am ) unaware of. The Federal Reserve act of 1913 was probably his best and most enduring accomplishment. Of course that hardly compares to the harm his racist actions caused. He propped up Jim Crow, the KKK, and introduced segregation into the federal government (which had been mostly integrated since 1863). He may have set back the civil rights movement by 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/44 "2011-08-03T13:47:35Z")
Dubya. I would love to read a history book about him a hundred years hence. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/45 "2011-08-03T14:33:09Z")
I’m really curious what people believe Bush did specifically that make him worse than all other Presidents, I’m thinking of all the worst things people say about Bush and taking them at face value and he still isn’t worse than Andrew Jackson who I don’t rate as the worst President either. Jackson’s killing of the Bank of the United States and the decades of financial problems that caused put to shame our current financial state or anything in the economic sphere that Bush did. While it is difficult to compare the pre-industrial Jacksonian economy to the modern economy Jackson’s actions would have been the equivalent of disbanding the Fed at the height of the subprime crisis. Jackson also perpetrated one of the largest forced migrations/pseudo-genocides in the history of North America (perhaps the largest, my colonial history for the whole continent is rusty.) This was in deliberate and intentional disregard of a SCOTUS ruling. In his pre-Presidency Jackson also waged an essentially private war in Florida in spite of orders given to him by superiors. Although the Monroe administration was basically happy to capitalize on Jackson’s actions once they were fait accompli. Jackson was personally a murderer and personally perpetrated war crimes, summary executions and held quick show trials for captured British subjects in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/46 "2011-08-03T14:41:49Z")
Comparing presidents in living memory to those not in living memory is an impossible task, so I used my vote for the not-living-memory worst president in my view (Harding). I’d still say Nixon was worse than W for the living-memory-worst-president (I mean, the job description is ‘uphold the constitution,’ for crying out loud!). ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/47 "2011-08-03T14:42:45Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > John Tyler is the only President to be an outright traitor, accepting office in the Confederacy. That to me makes him markedly worse than any other President we’ve ever had. Modern observers bitch mightily about Bush as the “worst person in the history of the world” but in reality John Tyler was worse in almost every way. His views were antithetical to the existence of the United States, and that was as true during his Presidency as after. If not for his treasonous actions in late life Tyler would **still** be considered one of the 5-6 worst Presidents based on his record in office. > > After Tyler the following four are also unambiguously **bad** Presidents. > > [ul] > [li]James Buchanan[/li][li]Warren Harding[/li][li]Ulysses Grant[/li][li]Franklin Pierce[/li][/ul] > > To me, those individual are distinguished from figures like James Garfield, Millard Fillmore, W.H. Harrison, Andrew Johnson, Zachary Taylor or Martin van Buren who were highly _ineffective_ Presidents. The four listed above + Tyler essentially and through individual acts lead to the United States being worse. Guys like Garfield/Harrison/Taylor mostly made no impression on the United States because they died so quickly. > > It’s sad that I have to list Grant among the “truly bad Presidents” because his pre-Presidential record rightly makes Grant the second greatest hero of the country after Lincoln, but his incompetence as President genuinely lead to a decades long period of corruption, public distrust, and general failure in government. Grant can be seen as ushering in the ugliness of gilded age politics in the United States, not through malice, but through simple incompetence and ineffective governance. > > What’s notable is Nixon isn’t on this list despite the fact he was damn near impeached and would have been had he not resigned. The truth is, even with his gross ethics violations Nixon is still genuinely better than all the other Presidents I’ve listed as “bad.” Yep. History is not going to judge G.W. or Obama like these gentlemen. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/48 "2011-08-03T15:05:39Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I’m really curious what people believe Bush did specifically that make him worse than all other Presidents, I’m thinking of all the worst things people say about Bush and taking them at face value and he still isn’t worse than Andrew Jackson who I don’t rate as the worst President either. > [snip] > > Jackson also perpetrated one of the largest forced migrations/pseudo-genocides in the history of North America (perhaps the largest, my colonial history for the whole continent is rusty.) This was in deliberate and intentional disregard of a SCOTUS ruling. I don’t normally agree with **Martin Hyde** , but he’s absolutely right here. W, for all his many faults, was never genocidal. In fact, I personally believe the man doesn’t even have a racist bone in his body. I also believe he was a very bad President - but Jackson was a monster. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/49 "2011-08-03T15:17:54Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I’m really curious what people believe Bush did specifically that make him worse than all other Presidents, I’m thinking of all the worst things people say about Bush and taking them at face value and he still isn’t worse than Andrew Jackson who I don’t rate as the worst President either. Disastrous economic policies. Tax cuts favored the wealthy while massively increasing the deficit. Business deregulation led to a financial crisis. Increasing government spending while “hiding” it off the books. Setting government policy to benefit favorite corporations. Ignoring the evidence about WMD’s in Iraq. Going to war for false pretenses. Promoting the idea that his Presidential authority put him above the law. Giving legal cover to torture and indefinite detention. Massively increasing government secrecy from the public. Politicizing the civil service. Adding to the politicalization of the courts. Cronyism. Gutting environmental regulation. Screwing up the Katrina aftermath. Screwing up the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Imposing a political agenda on scientific research. Dumbing down and polarizing American politics. But, as his defenders point out, he never committed genocide. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/50 "2011-08-03T15:26:13Z")
Makes you wonder if back in 2000, when five Supreme Court justices elected George W. Bush to the Presidency, if any of them were thinking his legacy would one day be summed up as “Hey, at least he didn’t send twelve million people to death camps.” ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/51 "2011-08-03T16:09:39Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > The internets say the Civil War caused ~625,000 deaths… If it’s on the internets in must be true. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/52 "2011-08-03T16:24:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Easy question. Andrew Johnson, that fool caused the South nearly 60 years of poverty and misery under Reconstruction. Andrew Johnson was without question the worst President in American history, but your reply could hardly be farther off base as to the reason why. Andrew Johnson _sabotaged_ Reconstruction and thereby condemned the South to a century of lynchings and Jim Crow. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Carpetbaggers took everything. Really? They took _everything_? Even in states like Virginia that didn’t have Northern-born governors? > [@aceplace57](#): > > Southern states had appointed Northern Governors for years and years. No, they didn’t. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Lincoln had a plan to reintegrate the South back into the Union. Lincoln’s plan was completely naive and unrealistic, and relied on “moderate” white Unionists taking the lead in postwar politics and advancing black civil rights. Once the civil war ended, such “moderates” were overwhelmed by hardline returning Confederates, and the Southern states enacted “black codes” that made a mockery of emancipation and would have put George Wallace to shame. > [@aceplace57](#): > > After his death, the haters in Congress were allowed to destroy the South and reap the profits. The haters were Johnson and the Southern white bigots who overthrew Reconstruction. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/53 "2011-08-03T16:41:01Z")
Reagan and then Bush. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/54 "2011-08-03T16:42:49Z")
**Martin Hyde** , good points. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/55 "2011-08-03T16:57:18Z")
I would say that Reagans policies especially economic are to blame for a lot of the mess the US is in. On the other hand while Bush did lasting damage he is better then Reagan because he was not as blinded by ideology as Reagan was, he did for example do a pretty good job in 2008 when face with the financial crises. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/56 "2011-08-03T17:05:20Z")
I have to admit I’m disheartened so many people aren’t able or willing to look beyond recent history whenever a poll like this is posted. **Qin** , in the future you may want to consider leaving out any person who served in the last 25 years if you really want to get anything other than a knee-jerk response from people. As bad as Bush may end up being judged by history he hardly measures up to people like Jackson, Pierce and Buchanan. Having said that I ended up going with [Franklin Pierce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Pierce). Aside from being a drunk and a Northerner who came out in support of the Confederacy during the war he was responsible for the [Kansas-Nebraska Act](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas%E2%80%93Nebraska_Act), [the Ostend Manifesto](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend_Manifesto) and the resulting tragedy of [“Bleeding Kansas”.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas) He always ends up being the “winner” from my perspective. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/57 "2011-08-03T17:06:33Z")
I voted Dubya because he’s the worst in my lifetime. However, after reading the thread, the two Andrews (Jackson and Johnson) are definitely worse. I also gave some thought as to voting for **Woodrow Wilson**. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/58 "2011-08-03T17:06:42Z")
Although Bush is a rock solid choice, it was Reagan who started the Republican “yes there is a free lunch and we’re going to eat it” mantra that has been the backbone of the GOP ever since. He was the original union-buster, he was asleep at the switch when the Iran-Contra deal went down, his military adventures (like Grenada) were pointless, even his economic guru David Stockman admits that the economic policies of Reagan were fraudulent. Was Reagan as bad as Bush? I don’t think so. But without Reagan, Bush isn’t possible, the Teahadists aren’t possible, trickle-down doesn’t gain credence, and the hating of government doesn’t get to be the political standard song and dance of the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/59 "2011-08-03T17:12:47Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > the haters in Congress were allowed to destroy the South and reap the profits. Andrew Johnson was so useless as a leader that he couldn’t stop it. In fairness, he faced 2/3 GOP supermajorities in each house of Congress. He vetoed damn near every reconstruction bill and was overridden. There is not much else he could have done. It would be like blaming Obama if cut, cap, and balance passed over his veto when 2/3s of each house was controlled by the tea party. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/60 "2011-08-03T17:16:40Z")
Voted for Andrew Jackson, because of the [Trail of Tears](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_tears). Easily one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States. Harding comes second for a more general level of shittyness. People voting for Bush Jr. are lacking some historical perspective, I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242.md?page=4)