Who's the Worst President?
Kenneth ·
Jun 21, 2011 at 5:33am
And why?
Here's my list:
- Barack Hussein Obama. An economic idiot, devoted to transforming America into a socialist basket case, while turning his back on our allies and encouraging our enemies.
- Woodrow Wilson. Ushered in a Progressive agenda that has been a cancer on the body politic ever since.
- George W Bush. His compassionate conservatism led to an explosion in the cost and size of government. His belief in the neoconservative foreign agenda has been a disaster.
- Jimmy Carter. Aside from his economic fecklessness, his foreign policy gave us the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Though revered for his leadership during World War II, his expansion of the power of the Federal government has left Americans far less free than we were before he came on to the scene.
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
You've got to put LBJ in the top five. How many presidents can mismanage a war so badly that they can't run for a second term?
May '11
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Your list skews heavily toward the 20th/21st century. How can James Buchanan not make a list of the five worst presidents?
Jul '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Um...because I didn't want offend our gay members?
Jul '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
It's really hard to pare it down to five. LBJ certainly belongs nearby, as does Richard Nixon.
I would have put Abraham Lincoln in there, too, but I've exceeded my monthly fistfight quote.
Jan '11
Re: Who's the Worst President?
I don't know enough about the subject to comment - however my uninformed view is that it's too early to judge the legacy of GWB, and that FDR should rank higher on the list because of his interventionist policies that throttled economic recoveries - and have subsequently misled many Americans into thinking that the US government can spend and regulate its way to prosperity.
Dec '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
5) Woodrow Wilson. Our first fascist president before Mussolini invented fascism. Fascist is a strong term, but I mean it in the sense of using the power of the state to institute a command economy.
4) FDR. Our second fascist president who openly admired how Mussolini made the trains run on time. He also established the pattern of subsequent Democrats being a supposed friend to the "forgotten man", while corrupting the very concept and making government dependency at least acceptable, if not respectable. Citizens have been shrinking into subjects ever since.
3) Nixon. The Republican most likely to dabble in command economics. And then he created the biggest crises in confidence in government in modern times. On second thought...
2) Jimmy Carter. Our third fascist president without the charm or competence of the first two. He also holds the number 1 slot for worst ex-president ever at the moment, but I'm hoping he falls to number 2 in 2012.
1) Barack Obama. Our fourth fascist president with all the attendant bells and whistles. The right race to set back all the progress in race relations over the past 50 years. Capricious, arbitrary, lawless, petulant, smug, economically ignorant, incompetent...
May '11
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Don't forget that LBJ gave us the "Great Society". Viet Nam crossed up several presidents from JFK to RMN. The Great Society was all LBJ's. We may never fully recover.
Aug '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
I'd say Woody Wilson and FDR are the two worst... don't know in which order.
Maybe Wilson should be first, since he set the Progressive precedent -- and because maybe (I suck at military history, so I can't be sure) FDR partially redeemed himself in handling WWII (but then again, maybe not).
True, LBJ gave us the "Great Society" -- which has done so much to make society less great by rewarding social pathology and relatively penalizing the poor who behave themselves. But on the other hand, LBJ was just following Progressive logic to its natural conclusion, so he's lower down on the list for me. As is Carter -- and perhaps Obama, too, by that logic.
Nixon belong somewhere on that list, as Western Chauvinist notes.
I would also say that I don't admire Teddy Roosevelt very much. For one thing, antitrust regulation has not accomplished its purpose, to my mind, seeing as how smaller firms are paradoxically more vulnerable to antitrust litigation than larger firms. Also, if TR was the one who set the Progressive precedent, then he should be high up on the list.
As for W, time will tell. Maybe he was just mediocre.
Edited on Jun 20, 2011 at 2:31pmAug '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
How about the guys that were impeached ? Andrew Johnson damned near botched the Civil War victory and Bill Clinton completely besmirched the culture, cheapened the office, and let Bin Laden get away. Nixon empowered the press by his errors, that may have been the worst of all, as they brought us Obama.
As for your fistfight quote, the month is only 2/3 over and Bush was just a stalking horse for the Tea Party. Now back to the wines of Pakistan..........
Nov '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Warren G. Harding. I presume no explanation necessary.
And a tip o' the hat to Ulysses S. Grant, despite a brilliant military career.
Jun '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
The actively bad and the cluelessly incompetent:
Actively Bad:
1. Obama, beyond question. Arrogance, self-absorption, and amateurishness is hard to replicate.
2. Woodrow Wilson. Academic authoritarian. TR was an early adopter of progressivism, but Woodrow showed us the dark side.
3. LBJ. Lousy war leader and screwed us with the Great Society.
4. FDR. MIxed reviews. Decent war leader (though he owed much to George Marshall). His insane economic policies began the short march to the welfare state.
Clueless Incompetents.
1. Jimmy Carter. Attacked by a rabbit, screwed up Iran, author of the stupid idea that long gas lines constitute the moral equivalent of war (no it's not). He wins as worst ex-president. Anti-Semitic (anyone who cozies up to Arafat, Chavez, and Castro is dangerously naive.
2. (Tie) Buchanan and Andrew Johnson. With bookends like these, Lincoln had to look good.
3. Nixon. Though a bad president, his painful insecurity was a bit endearing.
Can't agree. Not as bad as some say, and any man who writes one of the greatest war memoirs while suffering from cancer so as not to leave his family penniless gets a lot of credit.
Aug '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Tabula , Didn't USGrant get some pretty deft help ? Shouldn't we be thinking active avoidance of this list in the future , or aren't the stakes high enough ? Do we fatalistically anticipate the fall ? (is that Hubris ?) It is a leap forward into the frying pan ?
Nov '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
tabula rasa:
Can't agree. Not as bad as some say, and any man who writes one of the greatest war memoirs while suffering from cancer so as not to leave his family penniless gets a lot of credit. · Jun 20 at 3:44pm
Although I agree he had admirable intentions toward his family, Grant exercised poor judgment in response to the Panic of 1873 and the following depression, and his presidency was plagued by appalling corruption and scandal in regard to his appts.
I agree with you and MFR regarding FDR and Obama. The former ignited the slide into socialism and the latter fueled the fire.
Feb '11
Re: Who's the Worst President?
I'll place "Preventing another terrorist attack on US soil" above screwing up the federal budget, thank you very much. I can't find another job if I'm dead.
Jun '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Elizabeth Dunn
tabula rasa:
Can't agree. Not as bad as some say, and any man who writes one of the greatest war memoirs while suffering from cancer so as not to leave his family penniless gets a lot of credit. · Jun 20 at 3:44pm
Although I agree he had admirable intentions toward his family, Grant exercised poor judgment in response to the Panic of 1873 and the following depression, and his presidency was plagued by appalling corruption and scandal in regard to his appts.
I agree with you and MFR regarding FDR and Obama. The former ignited the slide into socialism and the latter fueled the fire. · Jun 20 at 4:17pm
Probably good points re Grant. Since he seemed like a really good guy and I don't remember the Panic of 1873 (I must have still been quite young), I was willing to give him a pass. I do remember Obama's recovery summer(s) and his one-man crusade to revive the personal pronoun. If he'd only go third person, he would be the most obnoxious president as well as most incompetent.
Jun '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
You mean it's lemmings to the sea time? Crap.
Jan '11
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Elizabeth Dunn: Warren G. Harding. I presume no explanation necessary.
· Jun 20 at 3:06pm
Harding gave us Coolidge, that alone counts as repentance towards a whole host of misdeeds.
Jul '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Huh? Preventing another terrorist attack, while allowing 100,000 immigrants each year from Muslim countries? Remember the Fort Dix Six? And the Times Square Bomber?
The only reason we weren't successfully attacked is because these guys were helpless, moronic, mopes.
Jul '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Pike Bishop
Harding gave us Coolidge, that alone counts as repentance towards a whole host of misdeeds. · Jun 20 at 8:22pm
Who gave You President Reagan?
Jul '10
Re: Who's the Worst President?
Jimmy Carter
Pike Bishop
Harding gave us Coolidge, that alone counts as repentance towards a whole host of misdeeds. · Jun 20 at 8:22pm
Who gave You President Reagan? · Jun 20 at 8:43pm
William F Buckley, Jr.