Who's the worst U.S. president ever?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Berzerker


Easy if this construction wasn't on federal lands. The Constitution allows the feds to build what it needs to maintain a navy, a postal system, and military infrastructure, etc., not make work programs just to employ people.

The Constitution doesn't say that the Federal government can't either. Furthermore most of the work done by the CCC was on Federal parks, interstate riverways, and interstate roads. Previous administrations had built parks, levees, canals, roads and other public works without raising the Supreme Court's wrath.

[Dis]

Originally posted by David Floyd
So many bad ones to choose from, so few good ones.....

The three I hate the most are the ones Berzerker already brought up - FDR, Lincoln, and LBJ, probably in that order, for their efforts in shredding the US Constitution. For example, Lincoln's decision to ignore the Supreme Court in Ex parte Merryman strikes me as one of the worst abuses of power in the history of the Presidency - far, far worse than anything Nixon did.

Franklin Roosevelt violated the Constitution so regularly, the only way his New Deal became Constitution was through his threats to pack the Supreme Court. SCOTUS began to see things his way more often after that Court Packing mess, but the timing of the decisions against FDR vs. those in his favor is sort of telling.

Put another way, without FDR's threat to pack the court (an abuse of power up their with Lincoln's Merryman decision in my book), most of his legislative programs that had not already been found unconstitutional would undoubtedly have been found as such.

FDR also was conducting an illegal undeclared war against Germany, and trying to do anything he could to get the US into the biggest bloodbath in history, otherwise known as WW2.

Lyndon Johnson also pretty horrible - his war on poverty was not only not all that effective, but also mostly unconstitutional. Almost as bad was his decision to get us heavily involved in Vietnam - whereas, if JFK had lived, we quite possibly would have pulled out - and then his insistence upon micromanaging the war once we got into it. Although I can't stand LBJ, he does at least have the dubious virtue of not being as bad as Lincoln and FDR.

Woodrow Wilson is also pretty high up on my list of "worst Presidents" - not only did he get us into WW1, but he also played imperialist games in the Caribbean and Central America, and once we were in the Great War, his administration quelled dissent everywhere they could find it, and created a propaganda of hate against the Germans - in some ways, Wilson stirred up more hatred against the Germany of WW1 in the US than FDR was able to stir up against Nazi Germany, in my opinion. Wilson's administration actively prosecuted ANYONE who disagreed with the war, the draft, or any measures in support of either - people actually went to prison for saying they felt that the war or draft was wrong.

Andrew Jackson also particularly stirs up my ire, not only for his treatment of the Indians, but also the fact that he was perfectly willing to ignore the Supreme Court. See Worcester v. Georgia - essentially, SCOTUS struck down the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and Jackson refused to uphold SCOTUS's verdict.

poverty in the U.S. was cut in half under LBJ. 'nuff said.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Oerdin
When all is said and done Bush will likely be in the bottom 1/3 due to his poor economic leadership, poor international relations, and for the lack of equal justic and equal rights under his administration.

hate to say this, but you are wrong. while most of us "academics" know he's terrible, most of the population think he's great.

President's who preside over crisis such as wars alway are looked upon favourably. Such as FDR. And Bush is credited for his strong response to 9/11.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Ned


Poor pay no taxes.

Ruined our foreign relations? Bull.

How did he screw up in Iraq?

I'm poor and I pay taxes. Only poor that have many children do not pay taxes.

[Dis]

Jimmy Carter's presidencey had to have been hilarious. I was alive back then, but was too young to understand what was going on. You'd never see **** like this now days. President's own brother pitching beer. Although Bill Clinton's brother in law was notorious for something (can't remember now). What is it with democrats?

check this ad out.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'd have to nominate Taft. He was pretty horrible it looks like.

Are you nuts?! Taft was one of our best Presidents. Busted twices as many trusts as TR is half the time. He also supported the Amendments for an income tax and direct election of Senators. He got a lot of things done. Great man too .

hate to say this, but you are wrong. while most of us "academics" know he's terrible, most of the population think he's great.

And the "academics" write history. Harding was beloved in his era. Now he's reviled, because the historians saw through the popularity.

[Mr. Harley]

However, Carter's brother simply sold beer. If we are going to use guilt via siblings, how many Presidents have brothers who have been convicted and served prison time. Hint, hint - I know one . Go google Neil Bush. Then again look at Harken Energy. The difference between Neil and George Jr. is that Neil got caught.

[RGBVideo]

Billy Carter only sold beer, hmh?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Dissident
President's who preside over crisis such as wars alway are looked upon favourably. Such as FDR. And Bush is credited for his strong response to 9/11.

The intial response in ousting the Taliban government was good but, as usual, follow through from Bush has been lacking. It's going on four years since 9/11 and the Karzai government still only controls the city of Kabul. There is no national army worthy of the name because our hand picked puppet government doesn't have the resources to build one and we won't pay for one to be constructed. That alone says the moment we leave that government topples.

Can anyone say with a straight face that situation is being handled even remotely well? The second major problem is that Bush has totally screwed up the war on terror to the point that we are now much less safe then we were on 9/12/01 or 9/10/01 because we now have a much larger group of people violently pissed off at us now because of the invasion of Iraq. If the goal is to stop terrorism and catch the people who caused 9/11 then those military units would have been better spent in Afghanistan securing the countryside and search for Osama and Mullah Omar.

[SpencerH]

Jimmy Carter stands head and shoulders above the others as the worst president (during my lifetime). Thats not to say he was responsible for everything that happened in those years, but he was not a decisive leader.

[Pax]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Jimmy Carter stands head and shoulders above the others as the worst president (during my lifetime). Thats not to say he was responsible for everything that happened in those years, but he was not a decisive leader.

It's funny that you say that. I would think that if some people blame Clinton for not reacting to AQ/OSL in strong enough terms then you would have to blame the Reagan/Bush admin's for 80-92 for their support/training of the "freedom fighters" who have now been reclassified as "terrorists" That would make reagan the worst president. Especially when you take into account the shady dealings of the Iran-contra affair and etc.

[Dis]

and Reagan did not respond to the marine barracks bombing. bad president.

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by Dissident
President's who preside over crisis such as wars alway are looked upon favourably. Such as FDR. And Bush is credited for his strong response to 9/11.

That only applies for wars that we win- we don't hold all our Vietnam era presidents highly.

[Dis]

we won in afghanistan, and we won in Iraq.

[DinoDoc]

we don't hold all our Vietnam era presidents highly

*cough*JFK*cough*