Carter's legacy
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.
He did, after all, describe himself in Berlin as a "jelly dough nut".
Jimmuh Cah-ter no contest.
1. jimmy peanut carter
2. bill raptist clinton
3. lb thief johnson
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?
With ALL that is going on in our country and the world, the last question on my mind is who is the worst prez. And it certainly is NOT President George W. Bush!
The idiot author drones on and on about 19th century presidents that most of us never think about. Only gives a cursory glance at two 20th century presidents and makes a brief mention of two others, one in the only favorable thing to say about the man and the other in a derogatory remark. Lyndon Johnson who would go to bat for black people -and- Bill Clinton's zipper disease
Which brings us to Bush II.
HUH? Where's Woodrow Wilson (WWI), FDR (WWII), Truman (Korea), JFK (VN), LBJ (VN), Cartah (rise of islamofacism), BJ (repeated unanswered terrorist attacks).....?
Worthless!
The ONLY thing wrong with "W", is his view on the Border. Jimmy Carter, is by far, the WORST president.
Well, He helped the Islamofascists get thier start in Iran and he was very philanthropic with the Panama Canal...
Mine too. But FDR's economy was the worse in history.
After reading "FDR's Folly" I switched my thoughts on worst ever and moved FDR to the top (bottom?) just ahead of Carter and Clinton. Here is a comment on the book:
“Admirers of FDR credit his New Deal with restoring the American economy after the disastrous contraction of 1929—33. Truth to tell–as Powell demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt–the New Deal hampered recovery from the contraction, prolonged and added to unemployment, and set the stage for ever more intrusive and costly government. Powell’s analysis is thoroughly documented, relying on an impressive variety of popular and academic literature both contemporary and historical.” –Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate, Hoover Institution
Truly the worst bottom feeders are: Buchanan, Wilson, FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, BJ Clinton and finally, Jimmuh on the very bottom. Even worse than these idiots would be Hiltlery or Hussein Obama and we must hope that neither make to the WH ever, even as guests or tourists.
No, that question only tends to be on the minds of short-sighted "journalists" who have nothing of value to write about and a time schedule looming. It's a canard at best, and assumes the worst of the man while appealing to his enemies. The rest of us are wondering if the Dems are going to **** us with an attempted tax hike, higher fees, and ending the previous tax breaks which have galvanized the economy.
Carter's legacy
You beat me! Great minds think alike!
His faith keeps him sane. The left hates him. The media hates him and part of his base thinks he failed them. I agree with you he was dealt on oe fht ugliest hands and I dare anyone in politics and Hollywood to tell me what they would have done in that situation. It's very easy to be an arm chair quarterback. As for me, I am standing by Pres. Bush. He is doing the best he can with what he was dealt. I do differ on immigration, but then again, that's another huge, unpopular problem! God bless Pres. Bush and God Bless America is what I say!
Yep, Carter certainly is an easy popular choice for the worst President ever, but from a historic perspective it seems to me LBJ's 'great society' notions have had a greater tragic effect on our nation and it continues to this day. Carter was simply ineffective, LBJ was a nation killer whose negative legacy will outlive both Carter and the bent one for foreseeable generations.
I don't expect liberals to like Harding. He is the only president in modern times to substantially reduce the scope and cost of the federal government, which had balllooned under the Wilson administration. He also led our country out of a severe depression.
What a leftist scumbag! The most controversial time in our history, when Truman (A Democrat) ordered the deaths of several million civilians, when they fire bombed Tokyo and then later nuked two major cities in Japan, wasn't even mentioned. Was it fair that this idiot also mostly focused on Republicans? He briefly mentioned one Democrat. Sadly, the ignorant populist public won't know the difference and will believe this garbage to the last period. This country is in deep trouble!
I'm going to beg leave to disagree with all you guys nominating Jimmy Carter, if you don't mind. I really think Slick Willie was actually worse. One item will suffice.
When Three Mile Island looked like it might still go south and experience the same kind of "China Syndrome" meltdown (eerily described just a few months earlier by the Jane Fonda movie of that title) that Chernobyl suffered later, and people for 100 miles around were biting their nails, Jimmy Carter, the old Navy nuke, walked into that control room, and all the crap just stopped. No more second stories, no more guessing games and theories. He just walked in and started looking at their instrumentation boards, and I suddenly realized he was providentially the only President in U.S. history, and possibly the only elected official in the United States, who was competent to read those boards for himself and not be BS'ed, hoorawed, or stampeded by jacked-up, stressed-out engineers trying either to minimize or exaggerate things. When the President walked into that control room, you could feel the relief from end to end of the country. People could trust his judgement, and his "micromanagement" tendency was, at that one four-dimensional intersection, precisely what people wanted and needed in that control room.
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, has never done anything in his entire life except BS people -- and he doesn't want to!
Not that I'm a big Carter fan, or that I think his presidency wasn't one big disappointment and policy mistake after another, capped off by the monumental mishandling of the Iranian fanatics. But he still looks like Rushmore material to me, every time I compare him to Slick Willie.
MHO. Flame on!
You'd also have to say something, then, about FDR, who also did a lot to subvert the country's political culture and legal structure. He had U.S. vs. Miller, in which he sent the Solicitor General to argue against a dead brief on a table -- that was a typical Roosevelt set-up -- in order to get the outcome he wanted. Who knows what FDR did to get Social Security declared constitutional by the Supreme Court, one Associate Justice swung like a rusty gate and gave it to him -- and Roosevelt commented on the justice's "friendly" change of mind to a visitor. He also was responsible for the expansion of the Commerce Clause and for the construction of a large standing army in time of war. He also had Pearl Harbor on his watch, and ugly assertions that he had done his utmost to precipitate it. And on and on.
Roosevelt, after all, was the template that guided LBJ later on.
How can anyone write an article of this nature without using Jummah Kawtah as the milestone? The epitamy of the perfect bad example.
Strangely balanced for The Nation. Perhaps they're setting the bar low for endorsing Hitlery since Nader says he'll run if she's the nominee.
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