Worst Presidents

[Shazbot57]

It seems like my posts sometimes end threads so I thought maybe I should start one.

So who are your Five "Worst" Presidents. I'll start my list off with my Number Two Pick for "Worst" President-
Drum Roll please...

#2 Woodrow Wilson - America's first truly Progressive President (with a mild nod to his predecessor Teddy R) His Propaganda PR genius Edward Bernays, was the inspiration for Nazi Joseph Goebbels in the '30's.

[Thogey]

Unprincipled

[Shazbot57]

Unprincipled

Ah, Martin Van Buren. Luckily he only won once, because once was enough!

[johnbrickner]

My five worst in no particular order are:
Richard Nixon; Gerald Ford; Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan; George H. Bush; Bill Clinton; George W. Bush; and while I would add our current president Barack Obama to this list (after life experiencing the list above directly,) I find he is performing exactly as expected.

[theo]

For the 19th Century, James Buchanan (1857-1861): A true figurehead. Did nothing as the nation slid toward civil war.

For the 20th Century, Lyndon Johnson: Fully committed us to Vietnam; Instituted the War on Poverty (Welfare, Medicaid etc) Responsible for at least 50% of the national debt.

As for the others:

Woodrow Wilson: An academic with little to no real world experience. Involved the U.S. unnecessarily in WWI.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Gets credit for pulling the U.S. out of the Great Depression but only succeeded in exponentially increasing the size and power of the U.S. Government.

Jimmy Carter: The true embodiment of hapless. Brought us the "Misery Index" The speech where he advised us to turn down our heaters while wearing a sweater was priceless.

Honorable mention: Ulysess S. Grant, Herbert Hoover, John Adams

[Shazbot57]

My #3 is FDR (even though I like Silver Dimes) for just a few of the following reasons and many more: for creating an Alphabet soup of Agencies violating the Constitution, for trying to pack the Supreme Court, for making it illegal to own gold (before raising the value of gold). Also, for creating Detention camps of American-Italians, American-Germans, American-Japanese, and necessitating the XXII amendment. Tremendous abuses of power. If he wasn't a Democrat, Democrats today would call him a tyrant and a war criminal.

[Shazbot57]

Theo stole my thunder on Jimmy Carter, but hey, great minds think alike!

My #4 is Jimmy Carter - for all the reasons Theo said and more. His handling of the US Embassy Hostage crisis in Iran, the gas shortage, 18-21% interest rates, malaise, misery index, stagflation, & for being pathetic after his Presidency ended. Everything from being a Palestinian loving anti-Semite to being just plain unlikeable. Even the other Presidents don't want to be around him. Fade away gracefully Jimmy!

[Treetop]

Ill take lincoln, wilson, fdr, johnson and clinton. I might have missed some from a lack of knowledge but from what I do know of the presidents all of these listed changed things in sweeping ways I dislike. If clinton isnt obvious it is from nafta and repealing glass steagall, as well as laying the ground for the "housing bubble".

I must say I cant understand how so many picked carter. he certainly wasnt great but as best I know didnt alter things in any dynamic ways.

Bush and obama would be 6 and 7 for me, with obama beating out bush with his race baiting nonsense. Otherwise besides a few token issues you might think they were ruling from the same platform we are just further down the track.

[Shazbot57]

While Clinton gets credit for the de facto repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed the securitization of financial products (i.e. risky loans and CDO's - collateralized debt obligations ) it wasn't the original catalyst for the housing bubble. It was more the final straw that broke the camels back. The original straw was the Community Re-Investment Act of 1977, which Carter signed into law forcing banks to give loans that never should have been made. Years of bad lending decisions piled on top of one another, culminating in the need to bundle crappy loan paper made possible by Clintons approval of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, effectively repealing Glass-Steagall. Both parties are responsible for that lousy piece of law, but it started in 1977 with the Community Re-Investment Act.

And now my #5 for worst President: Tie goes to Nixon & Clinton - who both "soiled" the Office of the Presidency.
Granted, there were other Presidents that soiled the Office, but since I witnessed it during my lifetime, it's more personal for me with these two Yahoos! It's amazing how differently the media treated each of these scandal ridden administrations. Also in modern times, a close honorary mention for #5 was Lyndon Johnson (& his Great Society). And he wondered why Americans didn't love him...
You could also throw Warren Harding in there for scandals - not because he was evil, but because his scandal plagued administration was caused by his weak will, and he was a poor judge of character.

Coming up my #1 pick for worst President of all times (so far)... Who are your picks?

[Treetop]

The original straw was the Community Re-Investment Act of 1977,

So weird somehow I had a wire crossed and thought clinton was prez during that.

[Shazbot57]

The original straw was the Community Re-Investment Act of 1977,

So weird somehow I had a wire crossed and thought clinton was prez during that.

Treetop,
Completely understandable, and you're still way more informed than the general public! If I hadn't been in Real Estate for the past 28 years I probably wouldn't have known about the CRIA either. I've watched lenders be pressured by the government into making loans in low income neighborhoods in the grand social experiment my whole career. In the 1990's & 2000's we saw the rise of NGO's & NFP's come in like ACORN, Beyond Housing, Better Family Life, NECAC, & Justine Peterson just to name a few. All designed to help folks that couldn't qualify get loans to buy houses. All noble aspirations but I believe that's what Faith based organizations and community banks are for, not the government to do thru coercion or "incentives". Bank of America, Chase, Citi, & a host of S&L's made loans in low income neighborhoods to try & lift them out of poverty. It hasn't gone so well.

[RichardPenny43]

It seems like my posts sometimes end threads so I thought maybe I should start one

Good to know I'm not the only one.

I'll say the last five, because they just keep getting worse...Hillary 2016

[Shazbot57]

And now for my #1 Choice for Worst President...
For continuous Dishonesty, trying to destroy America, and shredding the Constitution!

[Shazbot57]

So for me the worst five Presidents are:

#1 Barak Hussein Obama
#2 Woodrow Wilson
#3 FDR
#4 Jimmie Carter
#5 Nixon & Clinton (Tied)

Honorable Mentions go in no particular order to: LBJ, Harding, Hoover, Grant, Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Van Buren, ...

Wow, I'm just noticing how long the list is getting!

Who's your worst five?

[Shazbot57]

It seems like my posts sometimes end threads so I thought maybe I should start one

Good to know I'm not the only one.

I'll say the last five, because they just keep getting worse...Hillary 2016

We may have to revise the list in a few years!