Who was the best & worst Presidents over the last 50 years?

Question

And briefly say why...

Answer 1

Reagan the Best by far
Carter the Worst by far

Answer 2

Best - Eisenhower : The Interstate Highway Act and Operation ******* (the last time the Feds did anything about illegal alien invaders).

Worst - Jimmy Carter : Withdrawing support for the Shah of Iran thereby allowing it to become an Islamic theocracy. And not forgetting 18% interest rates, recession, inflation and the Panama Canal giveaway.

Answer 3

From the answers I see there aren't many here who know much history. FDR wasn't President in the last 50 years. Also I doubt some of the responders know more than a couple of Presidents and so they only go on those they know. I like Ike. He was the last true moderate Republican and less partisan than many since him. The worst, obviously and by far is the current occupant of the White House, George W. Bush.

Here is how I rate them overall:
Eisenhower
Reagan
Kennedy
Johnson,L
Clinton
Bush, 41
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Bush 43

Answer 4

Best, Ronald Regan for obvious reasons.

Worst, JFK
1 Abandoned Cuba freedom fighters
2 Tried to re-segregate the military in Oxford Ms.
3 Resisted Martin Luther King's civil rights movement
4 Adulterer
5 Kennedy administration backed a coup against the government of Iraq headed by General Abdel Karim Kassem
6 Few of Kennedy's major programs passed Congress during his lifetime
7 Campaigned telling of what the country should do for it's people and on inauguration said: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
8 Never revealed that he had Addison's disease.
9 His womanizing makes Clinton look like a nerd.
10 Antagonized the Soviets to the brink of planetary incineration.
11 Escalated a war in SE Asia making it the longest in history.
12 Refused to censor Joe McCarthy a family friend.
13 Engaged in nepotism.
14 Consorted with known organized crime figures.
15 Implicated in the death of Marylin Monroe.

That's the short list. He got it all done in just 1000 days. Imagine if he served a full term or two?

Answer 5

1st any president who is in office and living doesn't qualify for rating at this time. That is how historians have done it in the past and should.
So out of the running are Carter, Clinton, Bush Sr, and GW Bush.

Worst has to be FDR. He is as close as this nation came to having a dictator as we every had.
1. His depression recovery programs didn't work it was WWII that brought us out.
2. He created big government and the idea we are to be dependent on government for all our needs.
3. He rounded up all the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, took away their belongings and put them into camps but not the Germans.
4. He sent a ship load of Jews back to face the Holocaust
5. He had all the mail in coming and out going into the US censored.
It goes on from there.

The best president would have to been what follow Truman.
He wasn't PC and was straight shooter the last honest and direct up to including Ford.
After which I would be violating my original premise and not going to do that.

Answer 6

Best - Bush!
Quote:
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt <-------- Pay attention whiners!!!! That's why he is Numero uno! Go Bush!
Worst - Not whining on anybody.. All are good mens. Served thier country and salute to them all! Long live the USA!!!!

Answer 7

Best and worst in the last 50 years, I would say FDR was the best but of course that was a bit more then 50 years ago, I can't even default to Truman as that too was more then 50 years ago. So let me give you my assessment of the Presidents of the past 50 years.
George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George H.W. Bush
Ronald Reagan
Jimmy Carter
Gerald Ford
Richard Nixon
L.B.J.
John F. Kennedy
Dwight Eisenhower.

First of all you can eliminate JFK from both best and worst list possibilities as he simply was not in office very long.

If it wasn't for the controversies of the Nixon administration he very well could be at the top of the Best list. Sadly his administrations greed and hunger for power doomed the good of the policies.

Ford was in office a bit longer then JFK but his administration was highly ineffective in administering any policies.

As with the current Bush administration H.W. Bush's administration had a major focus on foreign policy and little to nothing in terms of domestic policy. The economy was horrendous, the country was in recession, there was no control of government spending and H.W. Bush eventually was forced to go against his campaign promise and raise taxes.

L.B.J's administration was riddled over the policy in Vietnam as well as excessive government spending. Though the economy was doing well at the time, the success of the domestic policies was overshadowed by the overt foreign policy.

Jimmy Carter's administration was overall highly ineffective. Carter's tough stance on spending conflicted with Congress head on. He had little of a domestic policy outside of controlling inflation and government spending. Carter's foreign policy was fairly effective, that is until the Iran Hostage Crisis.

You can't mention Reagan without mentioning Reaganomics, or as George Bush called it "voodoo economics". The economy plummeted early in the Reagan administration then began a steady rise. However in my opinion the long and the short of it all relates to the fact that the US was the largest creditor in the world until Reaganomics where the US became the largest debtor in the world. The Reagan economy did little for middle or low class citizens who were also experiencing mass job losses.

As for the best President of the last 50 years I would say it has to be Eisenhower or Bill Clinton.

Clinton controlled government spending, oversaw an economical boom in the USA, which was experienced by the majority of Americans in all classes. Clinton also oversaw the greatest global peace efforts witnessed.

Eisenhower expanded FDR New Deal programs initiated a government program most Americans utilize everyday in the Interstate Highway System, he oversaw the de-segregation of public schools, championed the Civil Rights Act, installed justices of both conservative and liberal viewpoints including some of the most influential Supreme Court Justices in History. His foreign policy was tough but based upon global peace.

I will have to select Dwight D. Eisenhower as the best President of the past 50 years followed closely by William Jefferson Clinton.

As for the worst, well I believe Bush, Jr will be that president but let's wait until his reign is over. For now we will say there is a tie for most ineffective presidents including Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

Following Henry VII lead I will try to rank all Presidents of the last 50 years.

Dwight Eisenhower
Bill Clinton
Richard Nixon
Ronald Reagan
L.B.J.
John F. Kennedy
George H.W. Bush
Jimmy Carter
Gerald Ford
George W. Bush

Answer 8

Probably not many people will think to say this, but I'm going to toss out Gerald Ford. Why? First of all, because he was not a religious fanatic from the South, but rather a decent Episcopalian. Hey may not have taken huge historical actions, but neither did he disgrace the office which, these days, is an accomplishment in itself. Also, his wife was open and honest about her alcohol struggles and tried to do something about it.
Kennedy didn't live long enough in office to have a complete record.

Answer 9

Best Eisenhower
Worst GWB

Answer 10

Reagan = Best

Carter = Worst