Worst Presidents: A Survey of Major Polls

By

February 16, 2007 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (158)

Related

Ten points awarded to the lowest president on any list; nine to the second-lowest and so on

President C-SPAN, 1999 Wall Street Journal, 2005 Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 1996 Siena Poll, 2002 Ridings-McIver Poll, 1996 Total Points Place
James Buchanan 10 10 9 9 9 47 1
Warren G. Harding 7 9 10 8 10 44 2
Andrew Johnson 9 7 8 10 8 42 3
Franklin Pierce 8 8 4 7 6 31 4
Millard Fillmore 4 6 2 6 5 23 5
John Tyler 5 5 3 5 3 21 6
Ulysses S. Grant 2 0 5 3 7 17 7
William Harrison 6 0 0 4 4 14 8
Herbert Hoover 3 1 6 0 0 10 T-9
Richard Nixon 0 2 7 0 1 10 T-9
Zachary Taylor 0 3 0 2 0 5 10
Jimmy Carter 0 4 0 0 0 4 11
Calvin Coolidge 0 0 1 0 2 3 12
James Garfield 0 0 0 1 0 1 T-13
Chester Arthur 1 0 0 0 0 1 T-13

You might be interested in...

Tags:
history,
President

Reader Comments Read all comments (158)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

this is the stupidest survey ever. Who did they ask? What person on the streets would even name Harrison and Tyler? You ask any young person (or middle aged person for that matter) to name six Presidents who served within the first 100 years of the Republic (yes we are a Republic) and I bet less than 1% of them can do it. Yet, in these surveys, those two are the top worst? I cry fowl. Barack Obama should be #2, right behind Carter.

Anne Kennedy of PA 9:13AM April 23, 2013

Why didn't slick willie make the list?? what an embarrassment to our country. And he's still treated like royalty... he must have pics of a lot of people, ( not including himself)

Willy of PA 9:49PM March 11, 2013

I'm not sure Harrison and Garfield should even be judged, as both died within months of becoming president. It's impossible to say what type of president they would have been had the lived, but it's unfair to judge them against presidents that served at least one full term, or presidents that served two or more terms. They may have been good presidents had they lived, but neither did they have time to be bad presidents. I my opinion they should be exceptions to the list.

R Miller of NC 3:57PM February 26, 2013

U.S. News Weekly
Subscribe Today

Order the new U.S. News Weekly digital magazine at a special low introductory price!

advertisement

Quizzes

The D-Day Invasion

Test your knowledge of the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944.

The Kennedy Family

How much do you know about this political dynasty?

First Ladies

Test your knowledge of presidential spouses.

Presidential Pets

Get to know the furry (and scaly) members of the first family.

FDR's New Deal

How much do you know about the economic stimulus of the 1930s?

Air Force One

Test your knowledge of the president's private plane.

advertisement