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Carter was not good, but also not the worst. He inherited a poor economy and he faced a very challenging situation with the hostage crisis. He actually started the military build up that Reagan is given credit for. Hard-liners like to slam Presidents for not standing up to ur enemies. Well, when USSR invaded Afghanistan, Carter punished them by slapping on the grain embargo. That turned out to be very unpopular at home because it hurt US farmers.
Based on approval ratings, Nixon, George W Bush and Truman were worse than Carter, and all four much worse than Obama. However, many historians consider Truman to be great. The invasion of Iraq in 2002 was easily the most disastrous decision ever made by a US president.
Carter doesn't come close....pretty average and not even in the contest for worst.
There are a lot of horses in that race: G. W. Bush, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding, Grant, Pierce, Nixon, Reagan. It depends on your standards and politics. Most agree Buchanan was the worst, historically. Even in the popular opinion polls Carter almost always beats Nixon. Reagan will be judged as poor over time.
I'm surprised that Eisenhower often is listed as among the worst in popular polls but among the best by scholars. Does he need to be rehabilitated in public perception? I like Ike....mostly.
Carter was bad, so was GWB, Obama is in the running. LBJ was a horrible war leader, Obama seems to have borrowed his play book. Ford was a flatline. We have had a number of bad presidents, we tend to dwell on the most recent ones.
Carter doesn't come close....pretty average and not even in the contest for worst.
There are a lot of horses in that race: G. W. Bush, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding, Grant, Pierce, Nixon, Reagan. It depends on your standards and politics. Most agree Buchanan was the worst, historically. Even in the popular opinion polls Carter almost always beats Nixon. Reagan will be judged as poor over time.
I'm surprised that Eisenhower often is listed as among the worst in popular polls but among the best by scholars. Does he need to be rehabilitated in public perception? I like Ike....mostly.
You didn't mention Hoover. He has always been blamed for the Great Depression, probably unfairly, but he could have done more to pull us out of it. I've done some reading on Grant, who is fascinating. He was humble, unassuming, honest, a great general, helped the country heal after the Civil War and fought for the rights of both blacks and indians. Unfortunately, he was a somewhat weak president, and others took advantage of him, causing scandals which ruined his legacy.
Eisenhower I think just flies under the radar for most Americans. The 50's were a feel-good time with no major crises, so it's hard to point to any great accomplishments of Ike as president.
You've got to admit Reagan's ability to support Saddam Hussein, sell arms to Iran, get into a dirty war in Central America that caused thousands of civilian deaths, laugh at the poor in the US, lie and fuel corruption, invade a couple of countries and get involved in one of the biggest financial disasters ever (the Savings and Loan Crisis) while being admired by the average American for his "fight against Communism", his "good looks", his "smile" and whatever.
For all that and more, he is one of the worst. But his ability to make himself look good to the public while screwing things up big time was unbelievable. When he died, even The New York Times praised him!
Of Presidents in my life time (born in 1949), the worst presidents were George Bush II (for bringing us to the brink of depression), followed by Carter, followed by Nixon (although at least Nixon had some foreign policy triumphs), and then the hype that was Reagan (I do appreciate your summary, above).
I was trying to figure out the rationale in selecting Obama as the worst.
Then I remembered... you're right-wingers. There is no rationale.
Exactly.
And that's somewhat of a problem with this thread. Most Republicans will cite Democrats as the worst as a Pavlovian response. Most Democrats will cite Republicans as the worst as a Pavlovian response. There's a lot of drooling (rather than dueling) going on in this thread.
Worst president in our recent history was G.W Bush.
Worst economy, threw us into wars we shouldn't be in, completely disrupted the Middle East, now leading to the largest refugee crisis since WWII, Great Recession right under his watch, not to mention that he even spoke like an idiot.
Frankly, I'm shocked the guy isnt in jail.
Jimmy carter had stellar job growth to say the least. He holds most records for job growth in our country's history.
The reason Dubya isn't in Jail is because the Dems were trying to rescue America from a complete economic collapse in 2009 and had other priorities to attend to.
Dubya & Cheney are guilty of War crimes invading IRAQ.
You didn't mention Hoover. He has always been blamed for the Great Depression, probably unfairly, but he could have done more to pull us out of it. I've done some reading on Grant, who is fascinating. He was humble, unassuming, honest, a great general, helped the country heal after the Civil War and fought for the rights of both blacks and indians. Unfortunately, he was a somewhat weak president, and others took advantage of him, causing scandals which ruined his legacy.
Eisenhower I think just flies under the radar for most Americans. The 50's were a feel-good time with no major crises, so it's hard to point to any great accomplishments of Ike as president.
Eisenhower actually did something wonderful for our country. He started the interstate road system. He did it so he could move troops from one coast to the other coast in a matter of days. But where would we be today without this system of transporting.
Carter doesn't come close....pretty average and not even in the contest for worst.
There are a lot of horses in that race: G. W. Bush, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding, Grant, Pierce, Nixon, Reagan. It depends on your standards and politics. Most agree Buchanan was the worst, historically. Even in the popular opinion polls Carter almost always beats Nixon. Reagan will be judged as poor over time.
I'm surprised that Eisenhower often is listed as among the worst in popular polls but among the best by scholars. Does he need to be rehabilitated in public perception? I like Ike....mostly.
Agree about Carter. He gets a bad rap imo. Carter got the ball rolling for our economic recovery by deregulating.
Wonder why you picked Harding? We recovered from a depression that was very short because of his insistence that government stay out for the most part. Taxes and spending were lowered tremendously to accomplish this.
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Eisenhower
