With a new presidency recently inaugurated and a controversial one left behind, many Americans are looking back and evaluating the presidents of the past. Ranking the presidents is not just a futile dinner table exercise. Historians have made a serious effort to rate the men who have led our country, using complicated charts, extensive polling, and hours of bi-partisan study. Below are the ten Commanders in Chief that are most often listed as dismal failures.
No one remembers Taylor for anything. He was just about the do-nothingest president America ever had.
John Tyler ran as a Whig but once he took office, he became something else. He was one of only two presidents (Andrew Johnson is the other) to have no party affiliation. Tyler was also a strong defender of slavery.
Fillmore, like his successors, Pierce and Buchanan, contributed to problems that caused the Civil War by backing the 1850 compromise that allowed the spread of slavery.
William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in history. Then, he caught pneumonia and died. His nomination seems a little unfair, since he didn't die on purpose.
During Reconstruction, Johnson opposed Congress at every turn, vetoing civil rights bills and
This president zealously expanded the nation's borders, adding several slave states, setting America's feet on the path to Civil War pandering to the rogue South. He was the first president to be impeached.
Buchanan sat by and did nothing while the Civil War loomed on the horizon. He did not challenge the spread of slavery, or the Confederate states that later seceded.
Grant's presidency paved the road to hell. Despite all of his good intentions, the 18th president served in a government loaded with corruption.
One word: Watergate. The wiretapping of Democratic National Headquarters will forever taint the Nixon presidency. No one denies that his presidency was a failure, but he was a good politician whose paranoia, bitterness, and pettiness brought him down. He also had great success with his foreign policy, which leaves many history students scratching their heads. What do you do with a bad president who did some good?
Stick him somewhere near the bottom of the list.
Most historians agree that Harding was the worst president of all. He mostly played poker and drank. Meanwhile, the Tea Pot Dome scandal erupted and his Secretary of the Interior later did time for his involvement in that scandal. Besides that, Harding was inept and indecisive.
There are other Presidents that sometimes make the list: Jimmy Carter, for example. Liberals and Conservatives both have lists of their own, but those lists hardly differ. As for President George W. Bush, many historians believe that history will find him near the bottom of the list. At least he'll have company.
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Comments (31)
Um, kind of missed..
Hint:) this is the bloodtrail...
FDR..) tens of millions
IKE..) millions
LBJ...) JFK, his own sister & millions more.
IKE.
Responsible for 685,000 in o.p. keelhaul alone.
Opinions differ. While one may consider a President worst, others may see the President as good. That staff should post such a controversial article on a dating site is very absurd. It is shameful. I would suggest that staff should not be involved in posting any political article that is controversial and capable of inciting comments that appear to be racially biased. For instance, one comment said Nixon is a saint compared to Obama. The comment is very naive and lack any knowledge of history. If the comment knows history, it would have known that Nixon couldn't even finish his presidency. He was forced to resign, because he (Nixon) was going to be impeached. Thanks to President Ford, who pardoned him. Otherwise, he would have been in jail or of some sort. And that the press called him a CROOK.
He by his direct orders demolished any hope to reimplant the southern area of Iraq by any kind of plants..the percentage of 65% of the land's soil become misery tainted & unsuitable of cultivation...George W. Bush is a criminal & should be convicted of his crimes against the Humanity, he's a real Barbarian, Savage,& Cruel brutal Criminal.
To our detriment, objectivity and real reporting by the mainstream media has given way to a propaganda machine. Were that machine to be unplugged everyone would see this guy (as well as most of DC) for the criminal that he is.
Lets not forget the American lives and their countless famalies that he destroyed. He and his generals with his cronies in the fed etc, etc created the mess the world finds itself in. What Obama took over was a self disctructing distasters. Sad how now so many blame him for not doing more when, lets face it, he has limited power to do what his heart and mind tell him is right and needed.
Thank God some Americans eyes are opening to the corrupt disease that is USA politics.
Take your country back people.
You have lost your place as the Christian Leader of the world
(Funny CS would have a picture of "W" at the top, with an inference.)
Hopefully Obummer's small business tax passes...call it karma.
Pierce wasnt' the first president impeached, it was Andrew Johnson.
Also Zachary Taylor only was in office only 16 months because he died from gastroenteritis. He supported and encouraged California and New Mexico to adopt an anti slavery constitution and helped them get state hood. He also helped to stop the spread of slavery in the west even though he was a southerner and had slaves. The south hated him for it.
I'm not a Republican but Nixon gets a huge bad mark against him when he did lots of good too. During a very trying and nasty time he made peace with China and Russia, was the first to make an arms agreement with Salt!, and also did many good things in regards to the financial structure of the u.s., mostly during his first term.
Pierce was not a good president but he had an incredibly tragic life with all 3 of his children dying very young; the oldest and last was his son which was killed in a train wreck right before he became president. He actually became an alcoholic due to his wife also blaming him for it, saying that due to him wanting to be president, it brought on a curse on his family that took his children. He never really recovered.
George W. Bush has to be one of the worst in history and it isn't close. Bringing our countries finances back 80 years, taking away several civil rights legislation, twice decreasing benefits to military personnel and taking us into a war through lies, shows how bad he was. Many think he's a criminal.
I guess you forgot George W. Bush, or maybe he should be mentioned in the top-list of the best war dictators ever on this planet. WE Europeans, will remember him and his war crimes against other nations. The bulshit oil and selfish excuses to interfere disrespecting United Nations, as well as his enviromental policy. Reminds me Hitler instead of a uniform, just a white shirt.