Who was our most underqualified president?

Question

Bush sucks sure but he was a govenor. Were there any presidents who were not elected to office completely underqualified for the job?

Raygun in what horrible alternate universe was Quail president?

Answer 1

Going back in history, you can't say Andrew Johnson was qualififed, as he had absolutely no formal schooling. His wife taught him to read and write. He was just the sucker who was veep when Abraham Lincoln got his head blown off. And he was chosen as veep because he was a War Democrat who valued reunification over all else.

And Warren Harding was hardly qualified, but he was married to a very ambitious woman named Florence. She reportedly said, "Well, Warren, I have got you the presidency; what are you going to do with it?" He was quite miserable during his abbreviated term (he died in office, supposedly of food poisoning).

Those are two who come to mind.

Answer 2

Well, using the current criteria of the cognescenti and literati you have to put Harry S. Truman in that category. He only had a high school diploma. He came from a state with a wickedly corrupt political machine. And he replaced a man on the ticket in 1944 who was from the left wing of the Democratic Party. When he sought the Presidency in his own right in 1948, the leading media man of that era (H.V. Kaltenborn) said on election night that Truman would go down to defeat. In this day and age the NYC-based media would be after him like the torch-bearing villagers in the "Frankenstein" movie.

Answer 3

You have to remember he was the Governor of Texas, the Governor of Texas has very little legislative power, it's a figure head position. Yes Bush is unqualified, and may be the most, but you have to say Reagan had no qualifications either. I still have to go with Bush, it really appears that his family bought his way through school the military, and into political office. I think it was Reagan that called him that creepy guy that never had a job in his life.

Answer 4

Wilson sure made the biggest mess of things during the peace thready of Versailles 1918 -1919, not even Bush comes close

Answer 5

Let us not forget Gerald R. Ford, who wasn't even elected as President OR Vice President, but rather stumbled into the position the way he fell down stairs.

Answer 6

Bush II is pretty bad, but I would have to put Carter above him on the under qualified scale.

I have had enough of southern governors as president thank you (Bush II, Carter, Clinton)

Answer 7

Bush 43.

Answer 8

The Anarchist in me says,"All of them".