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.
1. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
No one remembers Taylor for anything. He was just about the do-nothingest president America ever had.
2. John Tyler (1841-1845)
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.
3. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
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.
4. William Henry Harrison March 4- April 4, 1841
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.
5. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
During Reconstruction, Johnson opposed Congress at every turn, vetoing civil rights bills and
6. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
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.
7. James Buchanan (1857-1861)
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.
8. Ulysses S Grant (1869-1877)
Grant’s presidency paved the road to hell. Despite all of his good intentions, the 18th president served in a government loaded with corruption.
9. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
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.
10. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
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.