The Worst President, your thoughts?

[Franklin]

Even as a "liberal", I believe that Ford served with distinction. He had that singular role, as you said marillion, of being a placeholder: of completing the term, transitioning back to normalcy, as it were, and healing the nation. It's hard to imagine anyone doing it better, and very easy to imagine someone doing it worse. Nixon's reputation has never and will never benefit from his being pardoned by Ford. There was no way that whatever Ford decided to do on that score was going to please everybody equally, no matter what he decided. The fact that the country was able to move on in relative tranquility is a testament to Ford's leadership.

It's also a testament to him that the 1976 election was as close as it was. Ohio was decided by 11,000 votes out of over 4 million. If he had won OH along with an 18,000 vote swing in WI (another close state), he would've been elected in his own right.

 

[Maestro]

Ford is the first and only President who was never elected. All the others who ascended to the Presidency under the 25th (or under the rules prior to the 25th) did so because they were elected to be VP.

Ford replaced the VP through the advice and consent of the Congress, not because he was elected to the position. There's a big distinction between having an elected VP ascend and one who was given the job midterm by the President with the consent of Congress.

 

[Subcommander R.]

I read a previous claim that US entry into WW1 was responsible for everything bad ever happening in the 20th century. I would like to respond with: WTF?

Talk about egotism on a massive scale, the US military entry into the war came so late that it had hardly any effect on the war. And if anything, Wilson's Fourteen Points were positive (if ineffectual). Why is it that America seems to get shafted in public opinion? I'll readily admit plenty of things are our fault, but that one was just bull.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

OK so douchebaggery aside, Nixon wasn't that bad of a president.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

Way to attack me and not even read my subsequent post.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Way to attack me and not even read my subsequent post.

Yeah, sorry, but planting a couple trees doesn't compensate for causing decades of terror and death around the world.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Again, you're not trying to refute what i posted.

 

[Franklin]

OK so douchebaggery aside, Nixon wasn't that bad of a president.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

Way to attack me and not even read my subsequent post.

I wasn't really attacking you, but my remark spoke to the scale of things. It would be like having what you think is a good marriage, then finding out your spouse was cheating on you for years. Just because there were some good times, they don't negate that one big bad one.
I don't care if he brought about world peace, ended poverty, and the trains ran on time, he blatantly violated his oath of office and manipulated the government and laws for his own personal political agenda. One doesn't balance the other, in my opinion. All good goes out the window.

"Non Sed Homine, Sed Sub Deo Et Lege," Mr. Nixon. "Under God and the law."

 

[Admiral2]

My list, from worst to least objectionable:


1. Obama
2. Carter
3. Clinton

 

[Nowhere Man]

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson -- Because they were too busy fighting with each other to get much accomplished.
Ford -- Because he wasn't elected.

Really, you'd put them in say the top ten? I wouldn't. Even Adams deserves credit for averting war. I mean he did stomp on the Constition, but every President has, I might would put them at the lower end of a top 25, but that's about it .

My criteria would be did they usurp the Constition and how bad was it? Did they create larger problems with huge consequences and long lasting effects? Did they do things didn't progress the country? Did they keep equality, liberty, freedom and rights at a minimum? Did they disrupt peace? Did they ruin the economy for the long term? These things?

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

My list, from worst to least objectionable:


1. Obama
2. Carter
3. Clinton

Obama's 1st term isn't even over. How can he already be considered the worst? Please explain.

 

[Crisp Conditions]

^ They are all the Democrats who've been President in the lifetime of anyone under 40.

 

[Subcommander R.]

My list, from worst to least objectionable:


1. Obama
2. Carter
3. Clinton

Obama's 1st term isn't even over. How can he already be considered the worst? Please explain.

Political ideologist. Just ignore anyone who picks a current president. Or everyone from the same party.

 

[Nowhere Man]

My list, from worst to least objectionable:


1. Obama
2. Carter
3. Clinton

Obama's 1st term isn't even over. How can he already be considered the worst? Please explain.

Political ideologist. Just ignore anyone who picks a current president. Or everyone from the same party.

Yes, this is not about political parties or agendas, this is about bieng bad in terms of progressing the country in terms of adherence to the constitution and in terms of long term problems for the country. If you say Obama is the worst because he is a Democrat or Reagan because he's Republican, this does not count and is not valid.

 

[RandyS]

^ They are all the Democrats who've been President in the lifetime of anyone under 40.

Or those of us exactly 40. Carter is the only one of the three I wasn't old enough to vote for.

 

[Davros]

The list of worst Presidents is very long - Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet - even the worst of the American Presidents are good when compared to many present and pass Presidents elsewhere in the world.

Good point.

 

[Danoz]

Off the top of my head:

Grant
G.W. Bush
Hoover
McKinley
Jackson
Harding
Reagan

I'm a Democrat and, despite some differences, I think it would be difficult to keep Ronald Reagan off the top ten list... so I'm not sure how you could list him in the bowels of the president's list.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The difficulty with Reagan is his best accomplishments were stuff that happened substantially due to outside forces. I like to say that Gorbachev ended the Cold War because it catches people by surprise who think it was Reagan. The massive internal problems inside the Eastern Bloc had been developing for decades. There were already signs of significant opposition to Soviet control since the 60s. Once these places became a massive financial drain (which they were), there was little Soviet motivation besides prestige and paranoia to keep troops there. Once a reformer rose to the head of the party, revolution in the east could succeed.

You also can't say that Reagan started the idea of bankrupting them through military spending. Leaving aside the issue of whether Reagan had any clue that outspending would result in collapse, it was actually Carter who broke detente. Plus, in retrospect, the fall of the Soviet Union resulted in many unanticipated problems. The support of the mujahadeen gave prestige to radical Islam. There were (and still are) grave concerns of former Soviet Republics with leftover nukes that they could sell on the black market or have stolen. The Reagan administration was also marked by a massive budget deficit, a recession, and political scandals (Iran-Contra).

Don't get me wrong, I put him in the top half as well, but I think an argument can be made to put Reagan in a worst Presidents list.

 

[St. Squigolas]

The support of the mujahadeen gave prestige to radical Islam.

Also: President Wilson

 

[Snaploud]

Ronald Reagan popularized a brand of conservatism that I find repellent, so I would list him at or near the bottom of modern presidents. Of course, that doesn't put him as the "worst president ever" as there were a lot of terrible presidents before the modern era.

 

[Mysterion]

I saw a poll of historians awhile back, and what amazed my was that there were two or three presidents (Frankling Pierce was one of the, IIRC) that finished behind William Henry Harrison. Now, for whatever good qualities WHH may have had, the fact remains that he spent most (if not all) of the thirty days of his Presidency in bed hacking up phlegm and dieing of pneumonia. So, my question is this: how bad do you really have to be to finish behind a performance like that?