Who was the worst U.S. president ever?

[JohnLocke]

I vote for:

#1 -- Reagan.
#2 -- Nixon.
#3 -- Hoover.

[soupkitchen]

1. Bush, 1 or 2 take your choice

[wtmusic]

2. Have you been asleep for the last two years?

Reagan doesn't come close.

[RobertSeattle]

6. Excellent point

When Freeper types do the "You Hate Bush" crap, I'd tell them I've was old enough "politically" to know that although I didn't favor Reagan or Bush I, they pale in comparison to the idiocy and arrogance of the current administration.

[formactv]

11. what he said

megadittoes, Robert!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. "was"?.....

[soupkitchen]

5. Well, W "was" the President on 9-11

[JohnLocke]

12. Funny!

[Warpy]

4. It depends on your criteria

For instance, one of the worst racists was Woodrow Wilson.
One of the least constitutionally bound was FDR.
For sheer damage done to the most people, it's hard to beat Reagan, who doubled FICA taxes on the poorest to fudge the books on what his tax cuts to the richest really cost.

Nixon was a paranoid SOB who broke laws, but he also signed the EPA into existence. He was, at worst, a mixed bag.

Hoover was just a typical, supply side moron, certainly no worse than Harding or Coolidge or any of the other corrupt, probusiness, anti worker presidents we've been stuck with.

Of course, George Weasel Bush will top them all. Not only has he equalled Reagan's damage to working people, he's equalled FDRs disregard for constitutional law, Harding's corruption, Nixons paranoia, and he's managed to leave the USA stranded with no real allies (even though governments have gone against their populations to support him).

And that's on one of his better days.

[CMT]

7. Hoover is under estimated

he actually did more than any president prior to him during an economic downturn, but I think given 3 years of junior that it will be hard to find a worst president--including Buchanan, Grant, or Harding.

[Hippo_Tron]

15. I thought most of the economic problems were Hoover's predecessor's fault

But I could be wrong.

[Catholic Sensation]

8. Nixon?

Come on, he was waaay more liberal than any of the republicans since him. He openned the door to China. He created Title IX. His vice president may be the worst one ever, but when you look at people like Reagan, Bush jr., Ford, et al. Nixon doesn't even come close.

[Beaker]

48. On opening the door to China- Look what it's wrought...

Actually, I've always thought that Nixon has been treated a little too harshly by popular history, because as you said- he was a lot more "liberal" than other repugs. But then there's the whole bombing Cambodia thing(I'll bet that the Lil' Dictator would love the chance to make Lebanon & Syria his Laos & Cambodia),
And there's also his ash-canning of the Marijuana study he ordered because it ultimately said the opposite of what he wanted & expected- The report said that it was pretty much harmless, and non-addicting.
But today was the first time that I considered the idea that perhaps Nixon's trip to China started us down the road to losing our manufacturing sector, largely to them. True, it's enabled our economy to grow- but at what cost in the long run? All I know for sure is that the second half of my life(hopefully) promises to be a helluva lot more interesting than the first.

final decision: F*** Nixon. He was a mean prick.

[eissa]

9. Oh no, chimpy MUST be on the list

at #1. Add Warren Harding for his corruptness, followed with Nixon/Hoover in a tie for 3rd.

[LuminousX]

10. Gore. The guy hasn't shown up for work yet, and it's been 3 years!

[terrya]

13. George W. Bush, followed by his ancestor, Franklin Pierce.

Franklin Pierce, whom Bush is related on his mother's side, was an alcoholic who did nothing in office except hasten the beginnings of the Civil War. A failed President, in every sense of the word.

[sujan]

14. Nixon was a genius

[eissa]

16. Wait, I forogt one!

I believe it's John Tyler (correct me if I'm wrong) -- the only U.S. president to ever renounce US citizenship (when he joined the confederate army).

[Old and In the Way]

17. A tougher question, which of the following Republicans were

best-

Nixon
Ford
Reagan
Bush
Dimson



That would be real difficult, but I guess I'd lean towards Ford (although I think he was in on the Warren Commission findings).

When put in this perspective, Dimson appears to be at the end of the genetic line for this party.

[tom_paine]

18. In spite of his tremendous service to the nation, I say US Grant

MUCH more corruption than under the Busheviks (at least as things stand now).

[kskiska]

28. I disagree about Grant

While there was corruption in his administration, he wasn't personally corrupt. Unfortunately, he wasn't cut out for politics and put his trust in the wrong people. Later in life, the same thing happened when he was persuaded to be a partner in a stock brokerage. His partners were corrupt and he died broke, even having to seell off his Civil War souvenirs. To provide for his wife, he wrote his memoirs while dying; Mark Twain published them, and they were a huge success posthumously.

[deminflorida]

36. Grant, without a doubt....GW Bush takes second place however...

n/t

[DivinBreuvage]

41. Grant? Why? 'Cuz he whipped Bobby Lee?

(just kidding)

As has been pointed out already, the scandals were not personally Grant's fault. Even so, I'd leave it to experts on his administration to argue if they've caused as much economic damage as Bush's three years have, and whether the damage from the Bush administration is going to be easier to fix than the Grant mess.

I'd say that Buchanan's collusion against democracy in Kansas, his incessant pandering to the Southern Slave Power, and his hypocrisy on the Dred Scott decision, to say nothing of his utter uselessness as the nation literally fell apart, marks him as a far worse president than Grant.

Françoise

[mndemocrat_29]

19. 5 Worst Presidents

1. George W. Bush
2. Warren Harding
3. Ronald Reagan
4. Calvin Coolidge
5. James Buchanan

[sujan]

20. Woodrow Wilson

Fucking racist.

[JohnLocke]

30. What?

Once again, never supporting your claims...

[NewJerseyDem]

31. True

However, it isn't like he was the only one. Other presidents certainly weren't very supportive of rights for blacks. Buchanan comes to mind but I'm sure others were as well.

I also have to say that I wouldn't want to judge his entire presidency on that. There is a lot of good that he did and he was alive during a different time. Most likely George Washington and James Madison were just as racist but that was because of the time they lived. I just don't think that you should judge his entire presidency on his racism alone.

[are_we_united_yet]

21. Hands down W

[snippy]

22. Bush without a doubt because of August 6, 2001.

[VolcanoJen]

24. Please educate me, snippy. Is that when he started his vay-cay...

... or something even worse? What's the significance of that date?

[snippy]

27. He was on a one month vacation after six grueling months as president when

on August 6, 2001 Bush received an intelligence briefing describing an impending terrorist attack against the United States involving one or more high profile targets and possibly involving hijacked airplanes. Condoleeza Rice explained the briefing as merely providing information on al Qaeda's historical methods used in past terrorist attacks.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/warningmemo020516.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-092001probe.story

https://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/16/195306.shtml

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/reuters051602.html

http://www.lawrence.com/forum/community_forum/msg/85022013

[VolcanoJen]

23. #43. No doubt about it.

Dubya wins the prize. He has pummeled our democracy, questioned our patriotism, lied to us, and he wasn't even freaking elected to begin with...

[samsingh]

25. bush 43 obviously is #1

Nixon 2
Reagan 3
Bush 41 4

[Faygo Kid]

26. Agreed. Bush 43 is number 1. No one comes close.

I am a history buff; always thought Nixon the worst (because of Watergate), but this is a whole new level of horror.

[Malva Zebrina]

29. Yup

the most despicable and the most stupid and absolutely the worst ever in the history of the United States, is George Bush the II.

He is absolutely an embarrassment that tops all other embarrassments-- a man who is a coward and a liar, and a man who did not actually become elected legally. In other words, he is a warmongering, AWOL, cheap coward of a lying bastard, fraud who has killed thousands of innocent people including children and babies, becuase of his inability to acutally be a human being with a sense of morals or ethics or a sense of what it means to do the right thing.

He is a monster and an evil monster at that.

[azrak]

32. My history book says

Grant hands down. If you want to read about greed and corruption check out his whole presidency. Also he had a tendency to put his enemies in harm's way. Read all sides of his beef with Custer and ask yourself why Custer died and then had his name smeared for a century.

[amber dog democrat]

35. Custer?????

I would take more issues with Durant, the Union Pacific RR and the Credit Mobilier scandal first. Custer had it coming .

[DivinBreuvage]

38. You're blaming Grant because Custer got HIMSELF killed?

No way. You know as well as I do that Custer wanted to ride into that camp on the Little Big Horn. His scouts told him it was too big, too many Indians. Custer ignored them. He could have sent for John Gibbon's column to come up to help him out, too, if he had wanted. He didn't want. He was gonna ride hell for glory over women and children just like he did on the Washita in 1868.

There's no doubt that Custer, personally, was brave enough. But he was also a glory hog, and not particularly gifted as a tactician.

As for asking yourself "why Custer died", it seems to me that these words from Black Elk, a Lakota, sum it up pretty well: "Those wasichus had come to kill our fathers and mothers and us, and it was our country."

Maybe Black Elk and that wicked ol' debbil Grant were in cahoots or something, I dunno.

Françoise

[Hell Hath No Fury]

33. So Bush II doesn't even..

crack your Top Three????

That's very telling....

[amber dog democrat]

34. Chimpie takes First Place

I can't think of any president that even comes close how bad this current president is.
From the stolen election of 2000 to a dereliction of duty in a lack of prudence leading up to 911 to presiding over the destruction of our constitutional liberites and rule of law to an illeagal war begun under false pretenses and egregiously rapacious fiscal policies that favor rich conservatives, attacks on the environment.... deconstructing the separation of church and state.... face it, the man's a fascist and not even a very smart one.

but after that I'd say

Reagan, Buchanan, Harding, Grant, Nixon, and Bush the 1st.

[mvd]

37. George W. Bush

He's broken more negative records than any other President it seems. I feel as much dislike for him as the neocons felt for Clinton.

[ramapo]

39. Bush II is #1

Easy, hands-down winner. Reagan was bad. I'd be happy with Nixon today, he'd seem like a liberal and at least he had a brain.

So...

1. GW Bush
2. RRaygun
3. So many to choose from....

[ACK]

40. Hoover

1. Hoover

2. Jackson (Trail of Tears)

3. Grant (corruption for one and all)

[SiobhanClancy]

42. Hello? The answer is George W. Bush

nobody even comes close.

[elperromagico]

43. Hoover

He was a great man as a future president and as an ex-president (did much good humanitarian work), but he was a positively dreadful President.

[Hogarth]

44. George the Second

If he's re-elected I'm going tp open a vein.

[djg21]

45. Harding/Bush 41 are equally crooked.

I can excuse Reagan:he has Alzeimers during his presidency -- he didn't mean to be evil! Harding was crook and an incompetent, and Bush is equally bad if not worse.

[elperromagico]

46. Nah. Harding was just stupid.

Bush is stupid and crooked.

[Sting]

47. Bush 2, Bush 1, Reagan, and Nixon.

[kodi]

49. buchanan, grant, bush jr

but who am i to talk, i was never president.

[fujiyama]

51. I somehow doubt

you could do any worse a job than the maniacs occupying the WH rightt now.

[fujiyama]

50. Many here

gives Nixon too much credit. His treachery and subversion of the constitution, as well as obstructing justice, breaking into Daniel Elsbergh's shrink's office, the Cambodia bombings (hey why put all the blame on Kissinger), I could go on -- definetely puts him among the worst. Plus, the EPA and title IX were passed, not because of some great sincerity, but because of careful political calculation, and if he didn't pass them himself, those bills would have been much "worse", possibly being passed at a later time.

Looking through history, there have been some horrible presidents and presidencies. Harding and Hoover come to mind, as does Reagan.

But I gotta say this administration really takes the cake. It's absolute lunacy and I would definetely place him over Hoover. This administration has shown that it will go to any length to silence and try to discredit those who criticize them. The Valerie Plame leak case confirmed it. It has proven to be financially reckless at best, plunging this nation into great defecits, while showing absolutely no concern for those unemployed. Meanwhile it has laundered millions to its biggest campaign coffers through unbid contracts to defense and oil firms. It turned a virtual blind eye to some of the worst corporate scandals in US history. It has alienated the nation's closest allies, by demeaning them and directly insulting them, showing them virtually incapable of anything resembling diplomacy. They have pandered non stop to the radical religious fantatics in this nation, while claiming to be fighting against such extremists abroad. It started a war against a nation that posed no imminent threat by knowingly misleading the nation and the world, using selective, doctored, and fabricated intelligence. etc etc etc etc. Oh, and let's not forget how he got to this office in the first place...That's right we were supposed to "get over it". (we're not done judging this administration yet. History will treat it far worse than many believe)