No, this isn’t about Bush.
It’s not about Clinton either.
Who is the worst president ever, and why?
Please don’t use presidents from the last 20 years. I figure we need 20 years or so to evaluate a leader such as a president. Plus, this would turn into a flame war in seconds.
I think that the worst president ever was James Buchanan. At a time when the country was nearing crisis, he screwed up badly and helped to cause the Civil War. But other than the few that everyone knows, presidents have tended to be either anonymous or forgettable, so you have a lot of choices.
James Buchanan was the first name to pop into my mind when I saw the thread title. The country was headed for disaster, and he did virtually nothing to stop it.
Harding was pretty bad. I think there’s also a good case to be made that the worst president was in fact Nixon – depending on what you think of the severity of his crimes.
Oh good ol’ Warren G.; Our worst and my favorite president:
“I am not fit for this office and never should have been here.”
“I am a man of limited talents from a small town. I don’t seem to grasp that I am president.”
Furthermore the White House would have been better described as the Delta House during his tenure as well; random hangers-on passed out on the floor, prohibited whiskey, cigars, poker games all over the place… Throw in Teapot Dome and the stage is set for the most shameful of all the presidencies. I find the Harding presidency incredibly amusing, but I’m sure the people from that time have a different opinion.
I’m not sure that you could make the case for Nixon. Nixon was corrupt, paranoid, and fairly inflammatory in some of his statements, but at least he was competent.
Poor, unregarded Herbert Hoover. So awful nobody remembers him. I’ll go out on a limb and say he was exactly the wrong president to have at a time of worldwide economic depression.
If you want, you can pin Hoover on Harding, since he’s the one who brought the Vacuous Sucking One into the White House as Commerce Secretary.
OH, and if we’re only going on one incident, though he was one of our Founding Fathers, John Adams has to be mentioned, if only for the blatantly unConstitutional and disgusting Alien and Sedition Act.
You wanna talk Unconstitutional? How about the Louisianna Purchase! Ol’ Thomas Jefferson, who was just sooooo critical of people who didn’t follow the U.S. Constitution to the letter, turned around and bought a huge swath of land in the name of the Federal Government – a power clearly reserved for the States by the 10th Amendment!
I’d say the worst president was Lincoln. It was under him that the Fed Gov went from being merely an “umbrella” government with certain delegated powers, responsible to its creator, the States, to seizing more power than had been delegated to it, and actually dictating to its creator, the States. In other words, Lincoln turned the Constitution upside down. Instead of the Fed Gov being subservient to its creator, the States, after Lincoln, the States were subservient to the Fed Gov, at least practically. but not Constitutionally.
In second place would have to be FDR. He’s the guy that started a lot of this Federal welfare bullshit, such as Social Security. And he threatened the Supreme Court in order to pass many of his heretofore illegal schemes. And he also gave away half of Europe to Stalin at the Yalta conference.
My third place worse Pres would have to be Johnson. He greatly expanded Federal welfare with his “Great Society” programs. He’s also the guy who signed Kennedy’s 1965 Immigration law which has had the affect of allowing tens of millions of third world people to immigrate into the US.
Nixon? There’s no evidence that he even knew about the Watergate break-in. His great sin was covering it up. While he certainly was paranoid, at least he was competent on the job. My only gripe about Nixon was that he was such a liberal on domestic policy.
I’d also like to add another one to Barking Spider’s list:
George Washington. This is the man that failed to recognize that the territory we now call the United States was in fact subservient to its creator, England. It’s too bad all the liberal historians rewrite history to make a terrorist like that sound like he was some kind of hero.
Me: “Nixon was corrupt, paranoid, and fairly inflammatory in some of his statements, but at least he was competent.”
Barking Spider: “While he certainly was paranoid, at least he was competent on the job.”
Barking Spider, I disagree with you on all three counts! I think that the three you mention have severe faults, but I actually even disagree with you on what the faults are, plus I think they did enough Good Things to disqualify them from the running of worst president ever. They’re on my Best Presidents list . . . but I guess this is a GD after all. I’d like to revoke my vote for Nixon and go solidly behind Harding. As far as worst ever goes, I’m not sure how many people really dispute him.
Red Menace, did you ever hear of such a thing as the American Revolution? Its when this country went from being several different colonies under the British Crown, to several different independent States. And did you know that the Constitution written by those independent States is still in effect? Just asking!
But, gee, Barking Spider, I don’t think that there was any provision for revolution amongst colonies in the Magna Carta or in other British law, so shouldn’t you be against that, too?
Unless, of course, you’re a big ol’ hypocrite. But how could that be?
Also Red Menace, concerning my paraphrasing your take on Nixon:
While its true that Nixon was paranoid, he was a very competent and able politician. A very popular one too, judging from his 1972 landslide election. Heres a guy who was vice president during the 1950s. He basicly ran the country while Ike spent all that time on the golf course.