Best and worst American president? why?

Question

Best and worst American president in your opinion ... and why SPECIFICALLY?

Answer 1

Best American President - George Washington, for doing ONE thing
(stepping down). He could easily have turned the role into a life-time
gig and think what this country would have been. He wasn't particularly
adept, but he was sufficiently honorable to do the right thing at the right
time.

Had he not, we would have been essentially a monarchy. He was a
class act.

Second best - still gotta be Lincoln - even if you hated him at the time,
you had to respect him. He inherited a country in the process of
disolution and ultimately forged (yes, through war) a true, coherent
country.

FDR and Harry truman both have to get an honorable mention here
for their handling of World War II and the depression.

Worst? Unfortunately, you end up distinguishing inept from corrupt, here.
You also end up using faulty history - since you KNOW that the good
stuff that would allow you to really judge what the President (vs. his
administration) did wasn't written down for public consumption.

However, I have to think that that title goes to Richard Nixon. He did
a lot of good things ("Only Nixon could go to China"), but he did
fundamentally try to circumvent the government hierarchy as laid out
by the Constitution. Its important to recall that he won office with
LANDSLIDE victories and started out very popular with the Republicans
in office. His behavior brought a generally friendly House of Representitives
to the point of impeachment - so it isn't only me who thought so.

There have been lots of other Presidents who have had unfriendly
Congresses try to impeach him, but he had the friendliest until the end.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt gets a dishonorable mention for trying
to stack the Supreme Court by adding judges to it that would vote his
way. However, he did it in the open.

I am completely ignoring any of the living Presidents (or Reagan).
I don't believe we have the perspective to really judge them with
respect to the history of the Presidency - and besides, I don't think
you want me to get into a 20 page rant...

Its not an illusion - FDR gets both an honorable mention and a
dishonorable one. Whatever else he had, he had hutzpah!

Answer 2

Teddy Roosevelt was my favorite;
Was a war hero
Established the National Parks
Established the NCAA
Fathered the US Navy
Pushed through the Pure Food and Meat Inspection laws
He overcame enormous obstacles to build the Panama Canal
Was a Nobel prizewinner, a physical culturalist, a naval historian, a biographer, an essayist, a paleontologist, a taxidermist, an ornithologist, a field naturalist, a conservationist, a big-game hunter, an editor, a critic, a ranchman, an orator, a country squire, a civil service reformer, a socialite, a patron of the arts, a colonel of the cavalry, a former Governor of New York, the ranking expert on big-game mammals in North America and the President of the U.S.
He spoke softly and carried a big stick.

Worst, William Henry Harrison. He did absolutely nothing in office

Answer 3

The best President is by far George Washington. He the leader of our revolution against Britain. He governed with honesty and fairness. His actions in the early years of our nation solidified the Constitution as a working model for the basis of government. Every President after him owes their own Presidencies to him, for without his courage, wisdom, and integrity, there would be no United States of America.

The worst President was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is often credited with ending the Great Depression with the implementation of his "New Deal." This is in fact, not true. Only World War II was able to put the economy back on tract. The only thing the "New Deal" did, was to turn this country into a welfare state. The programs under his plan were necessary for the times, but have been proven outdated and broken. Welfare is now an abused program that perpetuates the poverty it is supposed to alleviate. He was also the first U.S. dictator in power. He would have been President for many more years if not for his untimely, yet tragic, death. Who knows how much further into socialism he would have dragged this country. It is due to him that the Federal government is full of many useless bureaucracies. People like him because he offered jobs to people, but those jobs were paid for at the expense of tax payers. Furthermore, none of those jobs did anything to bring the nation out of the Depression. Their only purpose was to give a false sense of security to people in need. It was only the war that did anything good for the economy on a large scale. If Japan had not attcked Pearl Harbor, the country would have remained in a state of depression for many more years.

Answer 4

Best - Abraham Lincoln - he kept the country together during its darkest hour.....theoretically, he freed the slaves

Worst - George W. Bush - Liar, Thief, Babykiller, Mass Murderer; Took a balanced budget and in just two short years turned it into the largest deficit in history; vetoed funding for stem cell research which could have saved thousands of lives and eased the suffering of thousands or more; helped divide the country like it hasn't been divided since the 1960's; started a needless war in Iraq to settle a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein; was responsible for no significant legislation; sold out the country to Big Oil and the Christian Right and made this country which was once the most respected in the world, a laughingstock. There are more, those are just the highlights, or should I say, lowlights.

Answer 5

Best: FDR. He was rugged and had his mind in the right place with the new deal. Also, he did a TON for conservation of the land and animal life, which is, honestly, the most important thing globally a leader has control over.

Worst: The big G.W.B. Why? For making the U.S. the ONLY country in the UN to not have signed the Kyoto Protocol for absolutely NO reason. Among other things, of which I am sure you know of since you asked a political question and seem intelligent.

Answer 6

Even though they were close together I feel that Clinton was the best Redpublican Clinton did more for business and strangled the Government regulatory network that was set up back when there was a Democratic Congress. NAFTA, GATTm and the telecom give away are examples of Clinton's republican advancements.

And Raygun had early onset Alzheimer's when he took office. His wife and her astrologer Joan Quigley ran the show while the CIA and the likes with Oliver North were starting wars all over the world.

Beside voodoo economics this was a bad time for America.

Go big Red Go.

Answer 7

Best -- FDR
Worst -- George W. Bush

FDR came into office in the depths of a depression, in the midst of national crisis and despair. He implemented many programs that got the country working again and started Social Security. He inspired confidence.

George W. Bush came into office at a time of optimism and unprecedented growth and he inherited a surplus. After 9/11 he enjoyed an overwhelming sense of national unity and international approval and support. By the end of his first term every ounce of good will and good news had evaporated, he bankrupt the nation and partisan bickering is the norm. Bush has taken advantage of every loophole in the Constitution consolidating power at every turn and creating a brewing Constitutional crisis. He started a war based on false information with planning and execution so poorly managed that there is no end in sight and the cost of $300,000,000 of borrowed money goes up by the minutes. He has failed at every endeavor he has attempted including his time in office as president.

Answer 8

I think the best was President Abraham Lincoln because he had to make so many tough decisions and ultimately kept the Union together even though it was at a cost. I think the worst was President John Quincy Adams. I can not think of one thing he contributed during his presidency. Maybe he did, I am just not aware of them.

Answer 9

best: andrew johnson. after the civil war, even though he knew the south deserved to be punished he put those feelings aside to get on with the reconstruction of the nation. he was impeached and lost the presidency for his convictions.
honorable mention: john kennedy-set in motion the civil rights act which would lead to the voting rights act, established the peace corps.
teddy roosevelt-turned america into a super power, established national parks system to preserve natural resources.
worst: calvin coolidge. he slept through most of his presidency and ignored obvious signs that led to crash of '29 and the great depression.
honorable mention: herbert hoover-actually worsened the great depression.
george w. bush-fell asleep at the wheel, blamed the whole world, and started a war to cover his tracks. a war which he and his cronies are profiting from mightily.

Answer 10

Worst -Blow*job BUBBA Clinton and Jimmy Carter

Billy Boy was too busy cigar plugging and getting some pleasure under the table to take care of a gathering threat. Jimmy Carter is just a plain crackpot appeasing degenerate.

Best - Abe Lincoln - Very unpopular during his time b/c of the civil war, but he kept the USA together and ended slavery.