Presidents Who Got Too Much Blame (war, general, 1930's, Washington)

[markg91359]

None of the men I mention below will probably ever be considered some of our best Presidents. However, I think some Presidents deserve a better shake than they got. Rather, than being considered among the worst Presidents we ever had they should be considered average instead. Here are some examples:

1. Herbert Hoover. Definitely not a great President. However, too many people blame him for the Great Depression because he had the misfortune to take office just as it was beginning. The policies of Harding and Coolidge have more to do with the Depression of the 1930's than anything Hoover did. In fact, Hoover made attempts to end the Great Depression through what he called "pump priming". The RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corporation) was created to make loans to struggling businesses and corporations. He's the sort of guy who should rank about 20 from the top out of all the Presidents.

2. William Howard Taft. Taft's fat physique (he weighed over 300 lbs) in contrast with that of his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, undoubtedly did much by itself to damage his reputation. The truth is that Taft continued virtually all of TR's policies and even did a better job than TR did with some of them. For example, more antitrust lawsuits against major corporations were instituted and concluded in the four years that Taft was in office than in the almost eight years that TR served in office. Taft was well educated and an extremely good administrator. Unfortunately, these kinds of qualities don't captivate the public imagination. Taft probably deserves a rank of about 18 or 19 among the Presidents.

3. U.S. Grant. Grant is frequently bemoaned as a poor President because of corruption that occurred during his administration. He was also an alcoholic and perhaps a poor judge of subordinates. What is left out is that Grant probably did more to try to enforce civil rights for former slaves in the reconstructed south than any other President did. His Presidency marks an era of enormous growth that occurred in America. With the Civil War out of the way, there were few impediments left to America becoming the economic powerhouse of the world. He should rank about 21 or 22 among the Presidents.

4. John F. Kennedy. People either hate him or love him. I don't see him as one of America's great Presidents. However, if his term in office had not been so tragically cut short in office he might rate much higher. In the 2+ years that he was President, he has one great achievement. That achievement was the successful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Our country came very close to nuclear warfare and it was JFK's determination to avoid it that kept it from occurring. Anytime, someone wants to tell me how "immoral" JFK was because he slept with women, I come back to CMC. Substance over trivia, I say. Based on his limited time in office, I'd give JFK a ranking of about 16.

5. Jimmy Carter. Some awful rough things happened during his Presidency. We suffered through high inflation and high unemployment. Than there was the taking of our embassy personnel hostage in Iran and the following "Hostage Crisis" that lasted for over a year. There is very little that Jimmy Carter did that caused or precipitated any of these events. The inflation we suffered through was largely a product of spending and the aftermath of a war ending (Vietnam). Historically, high inflation has generally followed the end of major conflicts that our country has fought in. High unemployment occurred because the Federal Reserve was forced to dramatically raise interest rates to fight that inflation. Our country's policies for decades in Iran, contributed to the overthrow of the Shah and the Hostage Crisis. Its often forgotten, but ultimately, Jimmy Carter got every single hostage out of Iran alive. Jimmy Carter negotiated a treaty returning the Panama Canal to Panama (which needed to be done). I'd give him a Presidential rank of 22 (placing him right in the middle of all the Presidents).

[mwruckman]

You can add to the list of Presidents that unfortunately were Johnny on the spot:

John Adams,(How could anyone look good when your predecessor is George Washington, it didn't help you suceeded by Thomas Jefferson either)
John Quincy Adams (Fist man elected by the Congess meeting as a committee of the whole, not a good start)
Martin van Buren (Had to deal with a finacial Panic likely caused by Andy Jackson who killed the The Bank of the United States).
John Tyler (It was Tippecanoe and Tyler too, we got Tyler and Texas.)
Andrew Johnson (Was just carrying out Lincoln's wishes), Would they really have impeached old Abe if he'd lived?.)
Benjamin Harrison (Fist man to be beaten by the guy he beat just 4 years before)
Lyndon B Johnson (He swore that American boys wouldn't die in the place of Asian boys, and then sent 35,000 of our guys to die in Asia. )
Gerald R. Ford (Prevented us from wallowing in Watergate for a few years and we never forgave him for it)
George H. W. Bush (Won the Gulf war in 100 hours but bit the dust when confronted by the tag team of H. Ross Perot and Bill Clinton who got fewer votes than Mike Dukakis!)

These were all men who got America through some throny issues but were sent packing after one term either by the voters or their political party.

[Mikestone8]

William H Taft - Broke up more trusts than TR had done but got no credit for it.

[totsuka]

1. Hoover - He got bad advice and followed a failed idea that spending more money and high taxes will solve economic downturns.

2. JFK - He was a total failure and gets a free pass too often.

[AnnieA]

...markg.....snipped..3. U.S. Grant. Grant is frequently bemoaned as a poor President because of corruption that occurred during his administration. He was also an alcoholic and perhaps a poor judge of subordinates. What is left out is that Grant probably did more to try to enforce civil rights for former slaves in the reconstructed south than any other President did. His Presidency marks an era of enormous growth that occurred in America. With the Civil War out of the way, there were few impediments left to America becoming the economic powerhouse of the world. He should rank about 21 or 22 among the Presidents.
...snipped...
5. Jimmy Carter. Some awful rough things happened during his Presidency. We suffered through high inflation and high unemployment. Than there was the taking of our embassy personnel hostage in Iran and the following "Hostage Crisis" that lasted for over a year. There is very little that Jimmy Carter did that caused or precipitated any of these events. The inflation we suffered through was largely a product of spending and the aftermath of a war ending (Vietnam). Historically, high inflation has generally followed the end of major conflicts that our country has fought in. High unemployment occurred because the Federal Reserve was forced to dramatically raise interest rates to fight that inflation. Our country's policies for decades in Iran, contributed to the overthrow of the Shah and the Hostage Crisis. Its often forgotten, but ultimately, Jimmy Carter got every single hostage out of Iran alive. Jimmy Carter negotiated a treaty returning the Panama Canal to Panama (which needed to be done). I'd give him a Presidential rank of 22 (placing him right in the middle of all the Presidents).....snipped....

I think these two were not so good and I admire Grant in many ways but I think he just plain not up to the job.

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by mwruckman

Andrew Johnson (Was just carrying out Lincoln's wishes), Would they really have impeached old Abe if he'd lived?.)

Gerald R. Ford (Prevented us from wallowing in Watergate for a few years and we never forgave him for it)

George H. W. Bush (Won the Gulf war in 100 hours but bit the dust when confronted by the tag team of H. Ross Perot and Bill Clinton who got fewer votes than Mike Dukakis!)

Your Johnson comment requires a lot more explaining than you provided.

What too much blame did Ford get? The pardon of Nixon was unpardonable and Whip Inflation Now was just plain idiotic.

Bush 41.0 lost because of the "vision" thing and conservative Republican's and their tax orthodoxy, still don't see the blame thing.

Originally Posted by totsuka

1. Hoover - He got bad advice and followed a failed idea that spending more money and high taxes will solve economic downturns.

Which is amazing considering Hoovers record in aiding German recovery from WWI, relief policies during the Mississippi Flood of 1927. Of course his come to Jesus moment when he finally sought passage of the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, came a way too little and way too late.

2. JFK - He was a total failure and gets a free pass too often.

While I disagree, the topic is about blame.

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by markg91359

5. Jimmy Carter. Some awful rough things happened during his Presidency. We suffered through high inflation and high unemployment. Than there was the taking of our embassy personnel hostage in Iran and the following "Hostage Crisis" that lasted for over a year. There is very little that Jimmy Carter did that caused or precipitated any of these events. The inflation we suffered through was largely a product of spending and the aftermath of a war ending (Vietnam). Historically, high inflation has generally followed the end of major conflicts that our country has fought in. High unemployment occurred because the Federal Reserve was forced to dramatically raise interest rates to fight that inflation. Our country's policies for decades in Iran, contributed to the overthrow of the Shah and the Hostage Crisis. Its often forgotten, but ultimately, Jimmy Carter got every single hostage out of Iran alive. Jimmy Carter negotiated a treaty returning the Panama Canal to Panama (which needed to be done). I'd give him a Presidential rank of 22 (placing him right in the middle of all the Presidents).

The worst wrap in American presidential history.

[totsuka]

Hoover should have looked back a few years to see how the previous Presidents handled economic downturns. The recession following WW I was not solved with massive government programs, spending, and higher taxes. He was a good man, better than FDR, but made a serious mistake. I feel the media has done a hit job on Hoover and blames him for the Great Depression where his mistakes were honest mistakes where FDR set to "remake" America. It was a battle between a self-made man like Hoover vs a trust fund baby FDR.

[markg91359]

Hoover should have looked back a few years to see how the previous Presidents handled economic downturns. The recession following WW I was not solved with massive government programs, spending, and higher taxes. He was a good man, better than FDR, but made a serious mistake. I feel the media has done a hit job on Hoover and blames him for the Great Depression where his mistakes were honest mistakes where FDR set to "remake" America. It was a battle between a self-made man like Hoover vs a trust fund baby FDR.

I don't want to end up getting this removed to the Politics forum. However, you're parroting tea party propaganda. The concept that recessions can be ameliorated or ended by either government spending or tax increases is accepted by 99 out of 100 economists. Even the late great Milton Friedman who is a conservative icon accepted that fundamental tenet. BTW, if you reply by telling me casually that "99 out of 100 economists are wrong", you'd better have some kind of a credential of your own if you expect to be taken seriously.

What you refer to is the recession that occurred following World War I, when the government scaled back spending following the end of the Great War. Its become fashionable among Tea Party supporters to claim that what subsequently occurred was an example of why government intervention is not necessary to end a recession. Circumstances were quite unique at the beginning of the 1920's. No era probably saw the amount of technological change that took place at this time. Electrical appliances and radio became commonplace in American homes. The fledgling aviation industry was rapidly developing. A motion picture industry was coming into being. The private sector dealt with the issue of people being unable to afford consumer purchases by developing installment credit plans. These factors are larger what allowed for an economic recovery. Had the panic been as severe as the one in the 1930's (which involved a collapse of our banking system) recovery would have been much difficult. In any even the collapse of consumer credit plans developed in the 1920's had much to do with the Depression of the 1930's.

Economic historians could show you that since government started intervening in the economy to ameliorate recessions that both the number of recessions and their severity have been substantially reduced. If we begin with the New Deal and compare the eighty year period since it began to the 80 years prior to the New Deal you'll see exactly what I mean.

[Fred314X]

Please add James Buchanan (1857-61) to the list. He had opportunities to take actions that might have prevented the Civil War. But he sat around and did literally nothing, preferring that Abraham Lincoln deal with the situation.