It seems that everywhere one turns in American history there are mistakes made by even the greatest statesmen and politicians. My question: Who was the worst president in American history? I would easily say Licoln, because of the clearly unconstitutional, immoral, and unneccesary war he waged on the southrons. He left an entire region of his country in shambles. Well done, sir. Who agrees?

i disagree. Lincoln fought the war against the confederates because they refused to give up slavery. Lincoln was one of the greatest leaders in history, because he fought for the rights of blacks. We wouldnt have the world we have today without lincoln.

You call what he did unconstitutional, but it what he really did was support the constitutional rights of blacks.

Lincoln was anti slavery before he came into office and the Southern States already were threatening to secede from the Union. The land lords of the Southern States brought it upon themselves because they wanted to hold on to their decadent way of life on the backs of enslaved humans! The progressives of the North were around before Lincoln, they just rallied behind him. He also prevented the country from being permanently split in two, which down the road, would have been detrimental to the survival of our nation. "United we stand, divided we fall." Lincoln was a moral man who had to deal with an UNFORTUNATE war. It was not unconstitutional, but infact, supported the BILL OF RIGHTS, "That all men are created equally".

I'm not sure who the worse leader was though. I'm looking into that.

If anyone would like to discuss the root causes of the Civil War in depth, please join us in this thread: Cause of the Civil war?, Slavery?

We also had a similar topic to this one going here: Worst President recent times, Not Dubya...so who? if any of you are interested.

billy jean, that was what i said except with more big words.

Honestly, I'd have to say Reagan. His borrow-and-spend policies left us with an incredibly huge national debt that we will probably never be able to pay off.

now thats a reply i can live with.

William Taft said, "I don't remember that I ever was President." That's how much he disliked the job.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wt27.html

William Henry Harrison. The poor guy died a month into office of pneumonia.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh9.html

In the 20th century I would have to say Reagan- his borrow and spend policies- his use of the neo-cons to gain power, his flaunting of the seperation of powers and then lying about it in Iran Contra, his use of evil poeple like Lee Atwater to basically make the horrible political landscape we have today. I also blame him for much of the de regulation that has caused everything from Enron to flea bag nursing homes. His foriegn policies weren't too bad, but in the same stroke he is the one that got the islamic folks focused on us rather than isreal. There is not really a president in US history that has done so much damage at home and abroad as Reagan, so I vote for him!

My bottom five of least successful presidents would include

Andrew Johnson
Warren Harding
Ulysses Grant (by the time he left office the Republican majority was lost)
John Adams
Jimmy Carter

While Reagan ran up the national debt, one must remember how much his reaganomics theory really gave the AMerican economy a shot in the arm. I still say Licoln was the worst, and I think John Wilkes Booth was justified in his action. After all, one can and does blame ole Abe for the deaths of all those who participated in the Civil war, plus those who died in the south due to the poverty from the aftermath of "reconstruction". Climate, soil, and also industrial interests caused slavery to be more prevalent in the south; moral considerations had nothing to do with it as you who oppose my stance imply. It was simply because slavery was more profitable in the south that slaves remained to work there. Also, one must remember that Gerogia and Virginia were the first states to prohibit the further import of slaves. And if you don't think Lincoln's actions were unconstitutional, then how is the revolutionary war not? There were black regiments who fought for the southrons. It seems that rather than saving and liberating blacks, Lincoln only killed them and thrust them into a state of poverty still seen today. The worst president in the history of America.

I think Harding was the worst because he once gambled away the White House china in a card game

Brice, if you are really interested in elaborating on Civil War, it would be best take it up in my previously linked thread. That way if others feel compelled to respond about the Civil War and not Lincoln, they won't get in trouble for taking this off topic. Thanks.

Jimmy Carter...

1. Great job in Iran.
2. Great job with the economy (double digit inflation, prime rate at 21%).

What about Nixon and LBJ? I don't know much about their financial policies, but I do know about a little conflict in Southeast Asia...

I think you could blame Ike and/or Kennedy for that............
Hmmmmm Kennedy for worst leader is gaining some ground for me.

I'm still undecided.

Nixon was not a bad leader for the most part...it was only his paranoia that got him into trouble, more than likely he would have been reelected if it were not for that and the resulting scandal. He def wouldn't be my choice for worst.

Johnsen is another story...although even he has a couple redeemable aspects mostly domestic/socially speaking.

The level of historical ignorance in this thread is staggering!

One at a time:

"the resulting scandal" (i.e., Watergate) was born during his re-election campaign. Nixon was first elected President in 1968. He was re-elected in 1972, the Watergate break-in took place DURING his re-election campaign. Nixon couldn't run again, so your statement makes no sense whatsoever.


That must be why the Ayatollah's took over the US Embassy in 1979, when Reagan was simply another Republican seeking the opportunity to challenge an incumbent President. If you want to blame one President for attracting the ire of the Arabs, blame either Truman or Nixon. Truman was solidly behind the creation of Israel in 1948, and Nixon stood solidly behind Israel during the October War of 1973, when the combined might of the Arab armies got pasted, again. Reagan? sheesh.

Slavery was Constitutional. The Emancipation Proclamation (which, btw, only applied to slaves in the Confederate states, not to slaves in the Union) was unconstitutional as it deprived people of there property without due process.

You won't find that phrase anywhere in the Bill of Rights, nor in the Constitution. It is in the Declaration of Independence. Whenever there is a conflict between what the Constitution says, and the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution takes precedence, legally speaking.

My vote for worst?

#1 Lyndon B. Johnson
#2 William J. Clinton

Multiple people have mentioned Nixon and his errors but what about Ford?

I'm not talking about his tripping on the Air Force One stairs or tripping over hsi own shadow. I'm talking about his errors like pardoning Nixon. That was not really smart

I swore I'd never vote for W, but my vote in this category goes hands down George W. Bush--even though his presidency hasn't ended yet (much to my dismay).

He's managed to ring up an enormous deficit, declared an illegal war on Iraq and LIED to gain the support of the American people and has begun an arms race with N. Korea. Meanwhile, Amercian's civil right are being violated in the name of "Homeland Security", anti- American sentiment is growing like wild-fire all over the world, Bin Laden is still on the lam and the nation is becoming more deeply divided over issues like women's rights and gay rights.

But, that's just to name a few......

An arms race with Korea? Korea is Clinton's failure.

Read from 2000:

http://usconservatives.about.com/blc0926nwd.htm

Er, the Iranians are generally persians not arabs and reagan did preside over bad news in lebanon and the bombing of the nation of Libya.

I would like to add Nixon to my list he was the most dangerous president we ever had and he usually gets off easy because people don't look beyond the Watergate Break-in and subsequent cover-up to his enemies list and an orchestrated campaign of dirty tricks using various organizations at his disposal to harass his political opponents and others on his list.

I think what I said made perfect sense (tho my wording may have been a bit jumbled), don't accuse us of not knowing our history I have taken PLENTY of American History (Honors US History, AP American History, US Government, HIST157 (college level 2nd 1/2 of US hist), Law and Constitutionalism in American History).

I very well know what went on with Nixon. IF he had not been so paranoid and as a result allowed for the break in into the Dem. National Committee Office (which was as I understand it a result of his paranoia about not being reelected in late 1972 and happened in mid 1972) then he probably WOULD have been reelected *and served out his term* (I suppose technically he was already reelected when Watergate came out thinking back on dates he was sworn in in 1773 and the Watergate impeachment came out in 1974). What I MEANT in my original post was that he was at the time rather popular and would have easily been reelected without having broken into the Democratic office. The actual scandal occured BEFORE the re-election vote as you stated. I did not mean that it happened after. I simply meant that he would have been elected ANYWAY without the break in.

I looked up a link to check on my facts, here it is:
http://watergate.info/

Johnson certainly didn't help in Vietnam when he decided escalation was the best course of action.

I didn't word my post correctly. Began was not the correct word (my mind was going faster than my fingers because there were so many things running through my head as to why I think Bush is the worst leader of all time.) However, I do think that his handling of N. Korea (including calling them part of an "axis of evil") has been more destructive than anything Clinton ever did in response to N. Korea.

Don't forget RussiaGate

To think we trusted that man with our life

Bush labeled them for what they were. What parts of that article didn't drive that point home?!?!

Labeling a jar of pickles as Dill is not necessarily a bad thing....

They ARE a part of the axis of evil.

Your article was simply that. An article. I could search the 'net and come up with 100 articles from liberal websites that point the finger at Bush for the escalating problem with N. Korea. But, what would be the point of that?

Who is Bush (or any president) to decide what is evil? He has put himself on some kind of moral pedestal which has led to a deepening hatred of Americans throughout the world. Makes me wonder who really wants to be the dictator.

Anyway, this has gotten way OT. My answer to the original question remains the same.

Worst? Hmmmmm....Dubya, Hoover, Harding, Grant, Nixon, and Clinton.

I'd start off by saying FDR, he was as close to a dictator as this country ever had. His political views were very close to Adolf Hitler and joseph Stalin. I would also have to say LBJ for all the money he wasted on vietnam. Then to be fair (although I voted for him) I would also have to say George W. Bush, because the economy is terrible, this costly war has gone on much longer than it should have, and he created the department of homeland security. That was just an un-needed excuse to make government bigger, and our tax dollars have to pay for it. He signed the patriot act, so now the government can spy on us, put us in jail without access to a lawyer, they can do whatever they want now.


So there you go: FDR, LBJ, and GWB

Herbert Hoover, it was his bungling of the economy that led to the tyrannical welfare state.

The economy has cycles, and the causes of the peaks and dips are known to some degree, but still not as predictable as economists would like.
Certainly the office of President is one of the minor causes, no matter what the man does. After all, he still needs the cooperation of congress to accomplish the majority of his responsibilities. For the most part, it is the situations that arise while the man is in office, and how he responds to them, not usually anything that he had planned before he took office.

I suppose you could make a valid argument for "whoever is in office now" as the worst president ever. I suspect that had Al Gore won, we would not have been any better off today.

But i think that when it dives, voters expect the President to try to make it better again


Hoover is the worse. He didn't bother trying to make the economy better when it dived

I disagree, to a small extent. The president doesn't have all incompassing power to make an economy, but he does have quite a bit of power to break it. Juniors "borrow and spend" policy is the worse I have heard about since Hoover ignored the depression. I have some sympathy to the Paleo conservative mantra of "tax and spend is bad" but I think the policy of the current bush is far worse, possibly the worst in our history, and if he removes some of the checks and balances put in there by the FDR goverment, we will have another depression. I think Gore was FAR FAR FAR more competent to bolster an economy or work within international guidelines to combat terrorism, and am very sorry he didn't win, I think, compared to this guy, he would have been a genius.

Cheap shot, CR, but probably accurate.
If there is one peson Al Gore would vote for as worst, it would probably be WJC, as WJC's actions in office certainly undermined Al's chances. I heard somewhere, on one of the news channels, Al even got into a shouting match with Bill about that very issue, after Al lost.
Next year we may get another choice to vote for as worst.

Andrew Jackson, for breaking more treaties with the natives than any other US president, has given us much to be ashamed of.

Gerald Ford, for not being elected and for pardoning Nixon.

Bill Clinton, for DOMA.

James Buchanan in my opinion is the worst president the United States ever had. He supported the Dred Scott decision(African-Americans are not citizens and therefor cannot sue), the Lecompton Constitution, and the admisson to the Union of Kansas as a slave state. He also literally did nothing to stop the escalation of events which led directly to the American Civil War, the bloodiest war in our history. He sat back and twiddled his thumbs while the Southern States seceded and formed the Confederate States. Quick and decisive action against the would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The problem with Buchanan was that while a Northern Democrat, he considered abolitionists extremists and was somewhat sympathetic towards the secessionists.

My runners up would be:

2. U.S. Grant
3. Richard Nixon
4. Warren G. Harding
5. Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter definitely wasn't too sharp while he held office. Afterwords of course, he did great things for Habitat for Humanity. Reagan also didn't do a great job, he and his Reagonomics are one of the primary reasons this nation's debt got so high and why it's now practically impossible to get it back down again... I think his Alzheimer's was kicking in long before he ever left office to be frank.

Without a doubt Bill Clinton. Mostly because someone who was as bright and promising was that ignorant and careless. BTW...the blame for this economy falls SQUARELY on WJC not Bush.

Clinton wasn't the first president to do what he did (JFK and Marilyn Monroe). It's just that it was publicized. He had good foreign policy, dare I say far better than Bush's and he got things done. How can you ignore presidents like Nixon or Reagan or Carter and just say Clinton solely because it's more fresh in your mind and because he did something immoral (Watergate was pretty immoral too).

Excuse me? Good at foriegn policy...what drugs are you on? His lack of attention of this caused Dick Morris to quit. Methinks you need to rethink what you believe and look and see what is.

cusbilla - please be CONSTRUCTIVE in your debates on this forum.

I would also advise you to be civil. Asking a member if they are drugs merely because they disagree with you will do NOTHING to gain you any credibility here.

Ok..I am sorry if broke rules on free speech here.

What I am saying is that Clinton did absolutely nothing in foriegn policy. In fact when he was playing golf he didn't take the time to address something so important Dick Morris resigned. Read the book "Off with Their Heads" by Dick Morris...you will definately open your eyes.

I fail to see why you lambast Ford for not being elected. He came to the presidency honestly and constitutionally, unless you think it was one of those "My Fellow Americans" (James Garner and Jack Lemmon) kinda plots. Ford isn't the one responsible for Agnew's behavior!

Nixon because he betrayed the trust of the American people. A U.S. president is supposed to be trusted.

Oh, I certainly don't think it was a conspiracy. I just think it was shameful, no matter how constitutional, to have someone ascend to the presidency without a vote. To use the presidential powers he was only granted by fluke to pardon Nixon just makes it more shameful.

Well my vote would be Bush Jr. for his policies getting us into the worst deficit ever, lying to use to further his war on Iraq with the wmd lies, and not be able to catch the people he went after Osama and Saddam.

Then it would be Bush Sr. then Reagan. If you think what Clinton did was impeachable then what about what Reagan and Bush Sr. did with Iran Contra. Hmm that was a worse offense since it had something that actually was an impeachable offense.

Are you insane??? Andrew Jackson got us out of National Debt. If we would have listened to him, we would not be in the sorry state we are in today.

Here are my choices.

Woodrow Wilson - Thanks for the Income Tax pal. Also getting us into war after campaigning to keep us out is another one of my favorite things for politicians to do.

FDR - Tyrant, Socialist pig

Lincoln - Come on, the Civil was was about states rights not slavery. It became about slavery when the North started to lose and Lincoln went to Douglas for help. Let us all read our history books a little closer. Lincoln broke about every law and every rule set for a president, including the first executive order.

Bush 41 - War for no reason, crazy debts, New World Order freak

Clinton - Chinagate, Korea ballistics, Kosovo, somalia, soft on terrorism, no morals, cheated on wife SEVERAL time, illegal campaigning.

--Rob

Please avoid insinuating anyone is insane here. It is not constructive and rather personal.

Sorry, it just baffles me that a guy eliminates the national debt from 2 wars and an undeclared war with france, and someone would call him the worst president of all time. It makes no sense at all.

--Rob