[Huck]

Well, IIRC, Adams and Madison were both one-termers. Adams, again, IIRC, gave us Chief Justice Marshall, who removed any doubt there might have been about the supreme complete and final power of the SCOTUS. He also gave us the alien and sedition acts, which are historically ignominious. Madison as president flip flopped on the national bank (was against it before he was for it) and flip flopped on standing army (against it, then for it) and I would say having the White House burned to the ground during your term in office is not exactly a benchmark of excellence :-)

Adams was a bad president because he was a big gubmint Federalist. Madison was simply a weak executive. h

[Vigilanteman]

For the record, John Adams lost re-election in 1800 because he tried to make the federal government too powerful. The mood of the country was such that they cut George Washington a little slack (Shay's Rebellion, Whiskey Rebellion) for doing the same thing because he was loved by all Americans. But they drew the line with John Adams when he merely tried to extend some of the same Federalist policies. By today's standards, John Adams would still be a right wing radical states rightist.

As for James Madison, he was handilly re-elected in 1812, right at the start of the war. The Federalists ended up getting blamed for the burning of Washington two years later due to their tepid support for the war and never ran a candidate for national office again. Far from being a weak executive, Madison did a yeoman's job of uniting the country and ensured we had great presidents for the next 20 years after he left office.