# 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:** 4
**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, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/61 "2011-08-03T18:02:27Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > 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. There are a set of presidents that were just the wrong man for the job at the time or the decks were stacked against them. They might have been completely average presidents had History handed them different problems to solve. Johnson may be one of them. Hoover. Carter. There are other presidents who got lucky with their eras - they governed in periods of mostly peace and prosperity. Recent examples are (IMHO) Clinton and Reagan - I think both probably have better reputations than they really deserved, simply because they got to govern during pretty good times (and maybe had they faced crisis, they’d have been great presidents). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/62 "2011-08-03T18:09:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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. If you were to take out the specific references to Katrina, Afghanistan and Iraq and just say “Disaster X,” “Country 1” and “Country 2” I would have no idea what President you were referring to. ---
**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, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/63 "2011-08-03T18:32:02Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > There are other presidents who got lucky with their eras - they governed in periods of mostly peace and prosperity. Recent examples are (IMHO) Clinton and Reagan - I think both probably have better reputations than they really deserved, simply because they got to govern during pretty good times (and maybe had they faced crisis, they’d have been great presidents). I think Clinton made it look easy. We don’t remember crises because he averted them. Mexico’s 1994 financial meltdown could have been much worse (so bad Americans would have heard of it! and it would have affected our economy!) had Clinton’s administration not been pro-active. The 2000 terrorist plot, and several plots against the WTC, were also thwarted. But the problem is that averting a crisis doesn’t stick in people’s memory the way responding correctly at the last minute does. ---
**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, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/64 "2011-08-03T18:41:20Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I think Clinton made it look easy. We don’t remember crises because he averted them. Mexico’s 1994 financial meltdown could have been much worse (so bad Americans would have heard of it! and it would have affected our economy!) had Clinton’s administration not been pro-active. The 2000 terrorist plot, and several plots against the WTC, were also thwarted. > > But the problem is that averting a crisis doesn’t stick in people’s memory the way responding correctly at the last minute does. I also remember when all the conservative pundits were saying a new war in Korea was about to break out because Clinton wouldn’t be able to stop it from happening. And then he did. People also forget that Clinton took office only about a year after the Soviet Union broke up. I give Bush credit for navigating through the fall of communism in Europe but there was still a lot of potential for problems in the post-Soviet world that Clinton had to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/65 "2011-08-03T19:18:04Z")
I vote for Lex Luthor and Charles Logan. ---
**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, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/66 "2011-08-03T19:26:16Z")
I have to give Bush II credit and criticism for the same decision. Stem cells. Allowing research when your own party opposes it is brave. The he shot himself in the foot by restricting it to existing lines, even though in his book you get the impression he would have dearly loved to allow full funding, and he had personal reasons, his sister died of leukemia, something which has affected him throughout his life. It was a difficult decision and one on which legacies are made and he blew it. Which is surprising as he has never been shy of making difficult decisions something I wish Obama would copy. ---
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/67 "2011-08-03T19:29:16Z")
I voted for W. because of all the presidents, he was the only one that I could see being convicted by a future jury for “crimes against humanity.” ---
**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, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/68 "2011-08-03T19:30:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I also remember when all the conservative pundits were saying a new war in Korea was about to break out because Clinton wouldn’t be able to stop it from happening. And then he did. > > People also forget that Clinton took office only about a year after the Soviet Union broke up. I give Bush credit for navigating through the fall of communism in Europe but there was still a lot of potential for problems in the post-Soviet world that Clinton had to deal with. Clinton had challenges no doubt, but these were small and the major risks from the post Soviet era had been faced and dealt with by the senior Bush. The Mexico issue in 1994 was deftly handled but he credit there really belongs to the international institutions. Korea was a case of saber rattling a new war was alwAys unlikely Clinton was perhaps the ablest man to hold the presidency since Nixon and if he had faced a major challenge I think he would have done well ---
**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, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/69 "2011-08-03T19:40:43Z")
Nehemiah Scudder. ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/70 "2011-08-03T20:07:11Z")
The blood of every soldier who has died in Iraq is on the hands of GWB. He knowingly invaded under false pretenses, and the same as put a gun to the heads of every one of them and pulled the trigger. When another President is personally responsible for murdering over 3,000 American troops, I’ll move him up to #1. Reagan is a close second for selling weapons to Saddam AND Al Qaeda, and setting the stage for the current economic collapse. ---
**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, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/71 "2011-08-03T20:18:23Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > 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. Not to mention that _blaming_ anybody for passage of bills such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted black Americans such “outrageous” rights as the right to own property and testify in court, is perverse in the extreme. Of course, for an opposing point of view, we can always quote Andrew Johnson’s courageous veto message of the same: > [@](#): > > By the first section of the bill, all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are declared to be citizens of the United States. This provision comprehends the Chinese of the Pacific States, Indians subject to taxation, the people called Gipsies, as well as the entire race designated as blacks, people of color, negroes, mulattoes, and persons of African blood. Oh, well, no wonder then. We can’t let ourselves be overrun by gipsies. ---
**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, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/72 "2011-08-03T20:20:23Z")
Goddamn. When we do these in the future can we stop at Pres Johnson or Nixon so they don’t devolve into a “Who was more evil: Reagan or GW Bush?” thread and get some good historical discussion? It’s not like we haven’t had a plethora of other threads calling for Bush to be tried for war crimes. ---
**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, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/73 "2011-08-03T20:26:14Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Not to mention that _blaming_ anybody for passage of bills such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted black Americans such “outrageous” rights as the right to own property and testify in court, is perverse in the extreme. Not that I disagree with the purpose of that Act, but pre-14th amendment, that was an extreme usurpation of federal power. Congress had no authority at that time to enact a law in an area that was purely the domain of the states. It took the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause to force states to recognize those rights and let Congress enforce them. To do so with a law was unheard of in U.S. History, put a boot to the throats of the Southern states when Johnson (and earlier Lincoln) wanted to bring them back with minimal conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/74 "2011-08-03T20:30:00Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > Reagan is a close second for selling weapons to Saddam AND Al Qaeda, and setting the stage for the current economic collapse. While selling arms to Iraq might have been a mistake, these sales didn’t amount to more than $200 million in helicopters and some arrangements for arms sales from other countries. This really isn’t much. The Iran-Contra affair was a much bigger deal. And since al-Qaeda didn’t fully evolve from the predecessor Maktab al-Khidamat until after Reagan’s term, and the impetus behind this change was the desire of bin Laden to move jihad from Afghanistan to the West - you are wrong there. There are probably lots of good reasons not to like Reagan. You picked a couple that don’t add up. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/75 "2011-08-03T20:44:33Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Unsurprisingly George W Bush is beating people like James Buchanan who let America fall into civil war. :rolleyes: Buchanan’s failures are old, old news. Bush’s failures affected people on this board directly. That will facter into peoples thinking. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/76 "2011-08-03T20:45:40Z")
I vote for Woodrow Wilson. His decision to get the US involved in WW1 was a huge mistake for the entire world. As others have pointed out, he also set back the Civil Rights movement. Reagan would be my second choice for all the reasons BobLibDem cited. Andrew Johnson would be my third. His policies and attitudes ensured Reconstruction would be a miserable failure. jtgain, if you don’t believe this, read Erik Foner’s _Reconstruction_ and get back to me. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/77 "2011-08-03T20:46:18Z")
It’s a tie for me between Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. Thanks for the Civil War, douchebags! Runner-up: Herbert Hoover and/or Warren G. Harding. ---
**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, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/78 "2011-08-03T21:07:31Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > The blood of every soldier who has died in Iraq is on the hands of GWB. He knowingly invaded under false pretenses, and the same as put a gun to the heads of every one of them and pulled the trigger. > > When another President is personally responsible for murdering over 3,000 American troops, I’ll move him up to #1. > > Reagan is a close second for selling weapons to Saddam AND Al Qaeda, and setting the stage for the current economic collapse. Why not pick LBJ (or JFK, or RMN) for sending thousands of U.S. servicemen to their deaths (and killing thousands more Vietnamese) in a pointless war? At least under Bush you had to volunteer for duty with the armed forces. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/79 "2011-08-03T21:15:50Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > The blood of every soldier who has died in Iraq is on the hands of GWB. He knowingly invaded under false pretenses, and the same as put a gun to the heads of every one of them and pulled the trigger. > > When another President is personally responsible for murdering over 3,000 American troops, I’ll move him up to #1. Okay; Lyndon B. Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242/80 "2011-08-03T22:19:04Z")
I tend to agree that these best/worst President threads shouldn’t include Presidents from the last 20 or 30 years or so. I voted Polk, primarily due to the Mexican-American War. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-worst-president/591242.md?page=5)