Worst Presidents: A Survey of Major Polls
Reader Comments
George W Bush
I wondered why Dubya didn't show up on your list, but now I know. You're taking the average of 5 polls, 3 of which were taken before Bush stole the 2000 election.
Bush is the ONLY president to condone torture.
'Nuff said.
He is the worst president ever, and as Chris Rock says, that includes PTA presidents, presidents of the local Rotary Club, etc...
Please Grow Up
Obama has't been President for 250 days. He didn't get us into debt, war and all the other nonsense that we've spent the last 8 years in. Bush gets full credit for that.
All you people who expected him to solve everything before Easter, be realistic. It took 8 years to get into this mess, it's going to take more than 20 days to get out of it. And if you still have a problem in 2012, you can always run for President yourselves. Lets see how you do, with people judging your every move and desision.
Side Note -
Bush should really be on this list. Starting a war that STILL is not over yet, causing this financial crisis, screwing up healthcare and so many much more.
What about Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Obama
Woodrow Wilson has to be in the top three worst presidents of all time, slimly beating Obama and FDR. Let us start by admitting Wilson is the father of Liberalism. Enough said there right! Look at FDR and the massive expansion of government and brainwashing of the nation. Speaking as a historian, this guy was a joke. And just look at the first bit of Obama's tenure. 9 trillion in debt, horrific foreign and domestic policy, shreading of the Constitution (which he calls "an obsticle"), Messiah complex, awful understanding of what America is. Please, let me stop now because I can go for hours on this loser.
To the Carter bashers...
...and to everyone else who passionately feels that a recent president must be on this list:
It's really easy to hate a president whose administration was in your own lifetime. You have firsthand memory of both that president's screwups. If you could remember some of the disasterious presidents we had during the 19th century, you would see why our recent presidential failures look good by comparison.
In his last days in office, Buchanan let the southerners loot the army's weapons for use against us during the civil war.
Andrew Johnson's inconsistent (and insane) reconstruction policies are a big part of the reason that we still feel the scars of the civil war 150 years later.
Ulyses Grant was oblivious while his old army buddies looted the treasury on his watch.
Carter and Nixon may have been bad but they weren't this bad.
The top three worst presidents
1) Obama has to be the worst president ever. He has spent more of America's money than all the other Presidents combined, committed treason and is a traitor against the people of United States of America, and most importantly his agenda is for his own self-interest or self-gain to be THE world ruler. A very power hungery and evil person.
2) F.D.Roosevelt is the person whom obama has modeled his presidency after. Destroying the constitution of the United States of America for personal gain.
3) A three way tie between L.B.Johnson, J.Carter, and B.Clinton. Pick your own reason. But, before you do, research with an open mind and you might see the truth.
God, family, and then country is the proper order that our forefathers set so we would not have the chaos we have today. We are now a nation with out honor and integrity, void of intelligence and wisdom, looking for a hand-out and waiting for someone else to assume our own responsibilities. This is what these worst presidents have promoted, to bring out the worst in people.
Nixon not among the worst
Polls are just that, opinions, and it's difficult with even the most thoughtful process to average five different polls, all with a different constituency and methodology. This, in addition to the total unreliability of "rating" presidents within our lifetime, makes the Nixon result unreliable at best. Fifty years from now, Nixon will be considered average or better.
Another observer noted that Jimmy Carter should have made the top 10; I would agree based on what I know now (but, again, he is too recent a president to dispassionately evaluate). He failed in Iran, he was a failure as a communicator, he allowed the country to get into a "malaise" in part through lack of leadership, he accomplished little and the voters rejected him after only one term. While Nixon made serious mistakes, was paranoid, and was impeached, he was a serious student of foreign policy and helped confront the Soviet threat (beginning the line that allowed Reagan to declare victory over them) and opened the door to our most important trading partner, China, and as another writer noted, he got us out of Viet Nam that Kennedy and Johnson got us into. Further, Nixon has been called the greatest school desegregator in history and did much to promote racial equality and healing during his presidency.
The Ten Worst Presidents
This poll cannot be take seriously without Jimmy Carter being listed among the top three of the worst ever. Nixon rated worse than Carter? Nixon should not be on this list for one clear fact: he stopped the war in Viet Nam which was brought on by Kennedy and screwed up further by Johnson. Under Jimmy Carter we had no plan for high oil prices, double digit interest rates for home loans, thousands of farms and businesses failing every week! Why do you think it was so easy for Reagan to win 49 states and boot Carter out of office? Carter is among the worst presidents ever!
Obmaa
obama is the worst president in US history, compared to hover. Hover would be Fdr compared to him. He spending trillions of dollars that will create fewer then 1,000 jobs.
An attempt to dress up Dubya's abysmal record
Well, no prizes here for recognizing this for what it is: an attempt to dress up George W. Bush's horrible 8 years - the worst President ever. The more I read US News and World Report, the more I think it is just another right-wing rag.
Worst
I'm not sure what "worst" means, but if it means "manifestly incompetent" then
"W" leads this melancholy parade.
