Who Is the Worst President the U.S. Has Ever Had?

Question

Briefly explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Carter for many reasons, including gas crunch and high inflation.

Answer 2

Coolidge,Eisenhower, Carter,FDR, LBJ, Kennedy, Bush Jr, Clinton in that order. I can't breifly explain each, however the Great Depression's beginning, followed by the coup d'etat (installation of the Shah in Iran 1953), the New Deal by abolishing the Gold Standard and not capping social security (which is crippling us now), Iranian Hostage Crisis+out of control inflation, escalation of the Vietnam War, Bay of Pigs, Iraq War, malfescense in the White House and not blowing up Osama when he had the chance. I just took from 1900 to present day.

Answer 3

James Buchanan. All thoughts about the current occupant of the White House aside, Buchanan failed to deal with Southern secession, which effectively laid the groundwork and resulted in the Civil War.

Buchanan claimed the Southern States had no legal right to secede but also claimed that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them from seceding. Does that make any sense? Especially coming from a President?

Oh yeah, he also was in favor of slavery, claiming in one annual address to Congress that slaves were treated with "kindness" and that slave owners were "philanthropic".

It was Buchanan's inability, unwillingness and ineptitude at dealing with the issue of Southern secession that laid the groundwork for the Civil War.

In my mind, at least, any President who fails to deal with an issue so vital and important that it winds up leading to a civil war has to be ranked worst President ever.

Answer 4

It's hard to choose. You are asking to name the worst president based on what those presidents have been told to do by the people above them.

LBJ in that case for listening in to conversations between McNamara and JFK about pulling the troops out of Vietnam and not saying a word. Then Kennedy is shot by these people higher than the president who heard the conversation after LBJ told them and played it to them.

But that's a small matter when you consider what they have done. Do you think this current president is capable of waging a war against Iraq on his own? The puppet masters controlled his strings, the moment he became a politician.

Answer 5

Woodrow Wilson.

That man completely undid decades of progress in race relations in record time, overran the White House with partisan, cronyist attitudes, and single-handedly started the Cold War by sending the Marines to fight against the Communists in the Russian civil war.

A racist moron with no judgement whatsoever.

And I could go on. The list of Wilson's shortcomings, failures, and idiotic policies makes Bush look like a saint.

Answer 6

Herbert Hoover. Yeah, I know it's popular to say Bush now, but really, some of you guys are just so focused on yourself, that you can't imagine that it might have been worse at another point in history.

So, Hoover was the guy who effectively led us into the Great Depression. He supported poor monetary policy leading up to the crash, then supported more gov't intervention to make things worse. His biggest gaffe was something called the Smoot-Hawley Act, which was a law that prevented trade with other countries, and made the depression last much longer than it would have. The depression spread worldwide, and created the conditions that led to the rise of dictators like Mussolini and Hitler.

I don't like Bush either, but so far, things aren't that bad.

Answer 7

If you ask that, maybe you should ask people how many presidents they can name.

As a historian, I would rate James Buchanen as the worst. He did nothing as the country was spirally toward the American Civil War.

BTW. It was William Henry Harrison at Tippecanoe, not Tyler. John Tyler was Harrison's vice-president, becoming president when Harrison died.

Answer 8

We have had several presidents who have been either do nothing, lame duck presidents, or who have been bad for the country. However, Bush takes the top spot. Who knows, maybe the next president could be worse. The republicans say the economy is great, but I find that hard to believe when people all around us are losing their jobs.
Look at the housing market,.. this is not good.
We will have to wait another 5 or 6 years to see if the next president will be worse than Bush.

Answer 9

Bush jr, the president to base his entire time in office on making his supporters afraid.

Answer 10

Now I'm not a fan of GW Bush, but I'm going to say William Henry Harrison, just for the fact that he caught the flu during the inauguration and died a month later. I mean.. he was the only president who didn't get anything done (some will argue that GWB didn't get anything done either, but WHH really didn't), just for the fact that he was sick. I mean the American people were kinda screwed with that one because we voted for a president... not a vice president. I mean I haven't heard much about what Tyler did in the white house anyway!

Answer 11

Definately Jimmy Carter. Many reasons including visiting Cuba and giving a propaganda speach without United States permission, signing a bill to give the panama canal to panama, and worst of all collapsing the Iranian government, which turned Iran from one of our allies to one of our biggest enemies.