Worst Presidents: Richard Nixon (1969-1974)

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It's truly unfortunate that a gifted man can be haunted by paranoia. By no means should his presidency be admired but he made more valuble decisions in the name of the people than most presidents.

bruce rego of NY 1:35PM February 10, 2012

I absolutely hated Richard Nixon when he was alive. I sat in my car every day during the Watergate hearings, filled with revulsion for what I was hearing.
But now, I see him as a classical tragic figure whose fatal faults eclipsed his genuine accomplishments and led to his well deserved downfall. Were Shakespeare alive today, I have no doubt that we would have a major play, "Nixon I".

W. Madden of MI 3:38PM November 10, 2011

To bad he is listed as one of the worst.He has achive good things but the watergate killed him.
How come Bush isnt on this list ?!!!

AlAmmari 10:33PM September 18, 2011

It's absolutely ridiculous for Nixon to be on a list of worst presidents. He achieved detente with the Soviet Union and a relationship with China. He established the EPA and nearly got universal health care for Americans. He kept his promise to get us out of Vietnam, a war he did not start. He should be forgiven for his mistakes with Watergate. Those mistakes don't even come close to being as crooked as those made by Reagan in Iron-Contra and George W. Bush's getting us in an illegal war and supporting torture.

Tom M of NE 2:07PM September 12, 2011

No one is to blame for George W Bush's stupidity but George W Bush. "Demonization" is far too dramatic for such a simpleton. The reality is the wreckage he created would take longer than four ears for anyone to clean up.

Greg of CO 6:21PM June 19, 2011

The 1970s sure turned out to be a bad decade for Presidents. Nixon starts it off as the second worst President on the list. And the decade ends with the worst of the list. I can't believe Carter didn't make it into this article. Easily the worst President the Nation has had to put up with. A self-righteous boor, who always found a way to do the wrong thing.

Jim R. of MT 11:38PM February 03, 2011

Presidential ratings are always dubious. So Nixon was wonderful for creating the EPA, Title IX, blah, blah, blah...and he was awful for being dishonest. His foreign policy accomplishments alone far outweigh those of Bill Clinton and he was probably less deceitful. Coolidge was supposedly awful because he did nothing, and FDR and Johnson get huge accolades for expanding the role of government.
Many of these polls attempt to use "objective" criteria like: "did he accomplish what he set out to accomplish?" Much worse, some measure a president based upon how much legislation he was able to push through Congress.
If you want to spend less of taxpayer's money and regulate less, you end up near the bottom of these polls.

Art of WI 4:40PM January 27, 2011

Watergate was a turning point for this country. This is when the press realized they had the power to bring down a President. They could shape opinion, rather than being objective observers. They had a monopoly on the what news was or was not reported, how it was reported, and the inferences drawn from the choice of words.
Most Americans didn't really care about Watergate, at least not in the beginning. But the Democrats and their fellow travelers in the media saw an opportunity here to get rid of a President they loathed and damage the Republican party for decades (they thought).
The destruction of Richard Nixon gave us Jimmy Carter. The demonization of George W. Bush gave us Barack Obama. Maybe the press should go back to their responsibility as the watch dogs of government, not the cheerleaders for the left.

Linda Harward of CO 3:14PM January 27, 2011

He started the war on drugs putting millions of Americans in prison and causing a lot of issues we suffer from today. Besides that he was a liar and a control freak. Every American today is a victim of the war on drugs from the medical marijuana patient in prison all the way to the elementary school kid hooked on adderal.

Jesse Larsen of WA 5:29AM January 10, 2011