Posted on 02/12/2007 6:33:02 AM PST by presidio9
A question that seems to be on everybody's mind these days turns out to be: Is George Bush the worst President in American history?
But how do you judge? Is he the most morally disgusting? The worst mangler of the English language? Ever since the atom bomb was dropped, we've had a whole string of bozos who cannot pronounce the word "nuclear." How much should that count against them?
Is John Tyler, our tenth President, a candidate for worst President? Some people who have never heard of this guy have heard of the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." Well, Tippecanoe (William Henry Harrison) lasted about a month in office before he died of a cold contracted while making his inaugural address, and the rest is non-history. Tyler is best remembered, if he is remembered at all, as the President whose entire Cabinet, save one, quit on him. Please do not confuse him with Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President, easily Tyler's equal in forgettability.
Is the most forgettable also the worst? Men like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Benjamin Harrison (Tippecanoe's grandson) were more politically brain-dead than really bad. But not so with James Buchanan, No. 15, who was President from 1857 to 1861. Aside from being a dull, unimaginative, dray horse of a politician, he was the President whose cowardice in handling the South and slavery ended the remotest possibility that the United States would be spared the horrors of the Civil War.
The consequences of Buchanan's political poltroonery were long-lasting and dire, as contrasted with those of Warren Harding. Harding (No. 29) has won many Worst President contests because he had three or four truly stinky crooks in his administration to go along with an otherwise outstanding Cabinet. He was a slob with a drinking problem, and he was also afflicted with Bill Clinton's zipper disease. Since booze was illegal when he was President (1921-23), getting smashed in the White House made him a not-so-great role model — not that much of the country was paying attention since all the other adults in America were doing the same thing at the local speakeasy.
There is a great story about Harding in the closet making boom-boom with his girlfriend, and of his wife being restrained by the Secret Service guys from rushing in and exposing the President in the flagrantest of delictos. But worst President? Not so much.
Others proposed for the worst list include Herbert Hoover, James Madison, Ulysses Grant and Richard Nixon.
Hoover, Democratic propaganda to the contrary, did not cause the Great Depression nor was he indifferent to his people's sufferings. A brilliant, decent man, he was absolutely the unluckiest President.
Madison, the fourth President, justly called the Father of the Constitution, fits anyone's description of a great man, but he loused up the presidency by going to war against England in 1812 with no Army and not much more of a Navy. His foreign policies were so hated in New England that the young federal republic he had done so much to start almost blew apart. Worse was to come. Madison could do nothing when the Brits occupied Washington, D.C., and burned down the White House. But in the long run the consequences of his mistakes were minor, so he cannot have the "worst prexy" horse collar put around his neck.
Grant was too noble a man to be the worst anything. He had some crooks in his administration, but, like Harding, he had nothing to do with their corruption. On the plus side, he was the last President until Lyndon Johnson who would go to bat for black people.
As for Nixon, it's still too early to tell. Too many people still living hate him or love him. The decision on that strange, baggy-faced man belongs to Gen X and beyond.
Which brings us to Bush II. It's also too early to tell, but if first signs mean anything, he has got a lot to answer for. We know he is responsible for the death of a lot of people who never hurt him or us. We wonder if he has so disturbed the entire Middle East quadrant of the globe that years and years may pass while the people there and the people here suffer for what he has done. Will we get habeas corpus back? Will the thumb screw become standard operating procedure, or will it be returned to the Middle Ages whence George Bush found it?
One of the criteria for being worst is how much lasting damage the President did. Buchanan, for instance, did more than words can convey. With Bush II the reckoning is yet to be made.
What do you have against Garfield? He was only in office six months, and half of that time he was fighting for his life after being shot by an assassin...there isn't a lot to judge him by, but I'm not aware of any major blunders on his part...other than going to the train station.
Conjecture, but possible. Thirty years earlier, Andy Jackson told the fire-eaters in Charleston that he would personally hang those who advocated disunion, and Old Hickory's reputation was more than enough to make even the crazies back down because they knew damn well he would hang them. Buchanan reputation didn't evoke much in the way of fear, and in fact, he was even reluctant to dismiss known secessionists in his cabinet such as his Secretary of War. They also considered Lincoln to be a "country bumpkin" who would could not get the "pasty-faced" Yankee mechanics to fight. Essentially, the secessionists had convinced themselves that they could get away with secession with out paying a price. (And no one at that time on either side had any idea how horrible that price would be.)
And BTW, if you want to date the first shots of the Civil War, I'd suggest that Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s could qualify, and most certainly the the firing on the Star of the West in January of 1861 which Buchanan had sent to reinforce the Federal troops in Charleston.
bump for later
I hadn't heard the story of Carter and Three Mile Island. I'd say he probably stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night before.
C-A-R-T-E-R
I'd rate LBJ as having done the most damage, what with his War on Poverty's destroying the black middle class.
Put his mishandling of Vietnam on top of that and no one comes close.
Jimmy Carter was exceedingly inept and emboldened the Muslims to think they could take us down. That war continues.
Clinton really didn't do anything, so he didn't do any long-lasting harm.
“Von Hoffman was in Afghanistan and predicted that the United States and its allies would be defeated shortly after the fall of Kabul. Shortly thereafter the Taliban went into full out retreat and the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar fell. Columnist and blogger Andrew Sullivan created a parody Von Hoffman Award which he gives out for egregiously bad predictions.”
Going to Three Mile Island wasn't Carter's idea, and he didn't go until Walter Cronkite had been calling it the end of the world for several days. This was probably the only national emergency that the man was ever qualified to handle, and he almost screwed it up in spite of himself. Providence my ass...
Jimmy Carter gets my nod for the worst President ever. It was Carter who set the stage for destabilizing the middle east when he forced the Shah of Iran out and allowed Khomeni to return to Iran ushering in the new age of the mullahs. Hence all of the problems we now have today are his responsibility.
Back up your statement. For FDR I offer social security, numerous other social programs funded at taxpayer expense and the start of the modern welfare state we have today. For LBJ I offer the "war on poverty & great society" which to date have cost between 1 and 1.5 trillion dollars, not to mention mismanaging Viet Nam. Jimmah is an inept bumbling fool who never met a totalitarian regeme he didn't like, but in terms of overall damage to the country and assaults on our freedom, I think these two stand pretty high
The only idiots who think Bush is the worst President ever are the ones who have no concept of how prosperous we are compared to any other time in our history.
I give you Iran, soon to be armed with nukes. Game over.
I won't say GWB is the worst Pres., there are many who have a greater claim to that distinction, but I do believe that without 9/11 he was a one-termer like his dad.
Well phrased.
The Nation is a Communist rag.
No, that would be Clinton or Carter. Take your pick.
BINGO! You won the prize. It is due to Carter's total incompetence that we are in this predicment today. If he had done the right thing - reduce Tehran to a smoking ash heap - we would not have these problems today.
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