WORST PRESIDENT EVER (vote)

8/12/2005

[hang 'em]

Who is/was the WORST U.S. PRESIDENT EVER? Carter? Clinton? Make your choice and state your reasons.

[359Henrie]

Not bad.

[Boiling point]

And don't forget Wilson was also responsible for the Federal Reserve system.

[PoorMuttly]

William Jefferson Clinton and his self-appointed co-president wife, from whom he took orders, and sought protection.

Chosen for "obvious reasons."

[spinestein]

[George has totally ignored OBL for four years]



This is a tough claim to make stick because it's not falsifiable. Just because he hasn't been found doesn't mean he's being ignored; unless you think it's easy to find one person who could be hiding in any of 20 or so countries or who could even be dead and buried.

It also doesn't make logical sense for the president to NOT try to find him because at the very least it would be incredibly great PR. What possible reason could he have for ignoring him? Unless there is a plausible motive for this there's no reason to believe the claim.

And President G. W. Bush the worst ever? More corrupt than Clinton? More fiscally irresponsible than Lyndon Jonson? More kowtowing to international thugs than Carter?

[WKUHilltopper]

1. Jimmy Carter (probably the worse in the entire US history. Nearly single-handedly brought down the US economy with prime rate of 21.5% and sky high interest rates. Totally lost and un-Presidential. Meant well, but fell short by a mile.)

2. Calvin Coolige

3. Herbert Hoover

4. (tie) Nixon/Clinton

[billbears]

Well this isn't hard. The first Republican President, whose actions led to the eventual destruction of the Republic

[spinestein]

[The Northern troops called themselves Union as that is what they were fighting for. They didn't call themselves liberators or the abolitionists. Same for the Confederacy. They were fighting to establish a new nation based on local sovereignty. That is why they called themselves Confederates.]


Assume that this is 100 percent correct and that Lincoln instigated and prosecuted the Civil War for the sole purpose of preserving the Union.

Please explain how the Union side winning the war and the United States remaining whole is a bad thing. Alternatively, explain how the Confederates winning the war and seceding from the Union would have resulted in a more desirable outcome.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The Union had a deed. The ground was bought and paid for. Sorry but that does not wash

True, but the only property rights that the Confederacy was ever passionate about was the right of its elite to hold other humans as property.

[spinestein]

I notice that the reason posters are choosing Jimmy Carter as the worst president ever is because he is "inept" or "incompetent" or "stupid".

I disagree with this assessment for one simple reason. His administration was a perfect example of what you get when the government implements the socialist (Keynesian) economic policies and also the pacifistic foreign policies that were fashionable at the time with the country (and still are today with the Democratic Party and the intellectual elite).

It seems to me he "competently" helped his fellow Democrats in congress pass the intellectual elite approved agenda that in just four years brought this country double digit inflation and unemployment, a negative five percent real rate of growth, contempt from both our enemies and allies around the world, and a general feeling of "malaise" (admitted by Carter himself) among the U.S. citizens.

For anyone who thinks that G.W. Bush is a bad president, just remember that both AlGore and John Kerry promised to competently and with nuance bring us the exact same policies as Jimmy Carter, and but for the difference of a few electoral votes we'd be reliving those policies again today.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I only wish that LBJ had been half as incompetent as Carter. Given Carter's world view, his ineptitude was his most beneficial quality.

[luvbach1]

It's Jimmah Catah. He was horrible as president, and has not redeemed himself as an ex-president. He should have stuck with Habitat for Humanity instead of turning to inane and anti-American pronouncements on foreign soil.

[Age of Reason]

WORST PRESIDENT EVER

Everyone after George Washington.

[TheSarce]

I too struggle with the decision, my nominees would be Clinton, Carter, LBJ, FDR, and maybe Woodrow Wilson (regrettably, I'm not enough of a history buff to go much further back than that, I'm sure cases can be made for others). All have had terribly damaging legacies that we suffer the consequences of to this day. And while I think Clinton's legacy may turn out to be the bloodiest/deadliest in the long run thanks to his technology transfer for Chinese money, I still end up voting for Carter by a nose:

Clinton inflicted his damage largely as a by-product of advancing the cause of Bill Clinton (Hillary is another story ideologically, but we're talking actual Presidents here), same story for LBJ--but Jimmy Carter enacted his damaging policies because he thinks AMERICA IS THE PROBLEM. For example, Carter didn't give away the Panama Canal for some grand personal legacy, he gave it away because he thought we didn't DESERVE to control it. We were selfish to expect good things in his world view, we weren't sacrificing enough. Jimmy Carter was (and is) terrified of American Exceptionalism, and worked his butt off to undermine and weaken it every chance he got.

In such a tough contest with so many qualified candidates, that's what gives Carter the edge for me.

[birbear]

I'm going with LBJ, Carter, Clinton.

[birbear]

Or was the cold war good for business?

Good question. Would we have a defense industry if it wasn't for the cold war?

Something to ponder

[The Red Zone]

Hoobert Heaver?

[Colonel Kangaroo]

1.Woodrow Wilson 2.LBJ 3.Carter

Wilson's administration was when the real damage was done to federalism. If no Wilson, then no FDR, no LBJ. Plus his arrogance in disregarding the Senate in the peace treaty led to all sorts of sad consequences.

[The Red Zone]

You really have to come up with a weighted scoreboard to objectively rate these things. Clinton was tops in blatant immorality, right in the Oval Office. Nobody can beat Carter for incompetency, shoot 99% of Freepers would be able to make better foreign policy choices than he did. Nixon was, whatever his GOP virtues, a paranoid cheat.

[tertiary01]

Woodrow Wilson.... and his income tax. Making all the liberal crap to follow possible..