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1. Van Buren
2. Cleveland
3. Coolidge
4. Jefferson
5. Tyler
6. William Henry Harrison (did no harm)
Worst:
1. Lincoln
2. FDR
3. Wilson
4. Teddy Roosevelt
5. L. Johnson
6. Buchanan (had John Brown killed)
Would you please explain Van Buren and Tyler? I am intrigued by your list.
I agree with 5 and 6 on your worst, I would have them at 10 and 1 respectively, Wilson on neither, and Jefferson is on my best list. Coolidge, I am not sure either. Didn't he suffer a nervous breakdown from the stress of being president?
There were arguably some big problems with JFK. Bay of Pigs fiasco, got us into Viet Nam, etc. Womanizer, druggie, bugged MLK, etc.
I can see good and bad with JFK. He was a patriot, staunch anti-commie, and NRA life member. In execution he was lacking, much like GW Bush 40 years later.
JFK was also one of the last presidents (if not THE last) to have any sort of vision for this country. He said we'd go to the moon and come home safely; we did that. That took leadership and commitment. We have no grand ambitions anymore.
6 Carter The weak leadership and wimpy foreign policy set the seeds and groundwork of the Islamic terror problems we have today.
This is really naive. You can trace our problems in the Middle East back to at least Eisenhower and Operation Ajax in 1953. Carter at least tried to broker peace between Israel and Egypt.
1. FDR
2. Lincoln
3. Washington
4. Reagan
5. Teddy
6. Jefferson
Best
Reagan, Coolidge, Washington, Lincoln, Cleveland, Jefferson
Honorable mention to Goldwater, who would have been on the list had he won election
Quote:
Worst:
1. Harding
2. Grant
3. Buchanan
4. Nixon
5. Pierce
6. A. Johnson
Worst
Obama, Carter, Wilson, JFK, FDR, Johnson
Not a one of them respected the constitution except JFK. JFK was an otherwise pretty good president, but he was the source of public sector unions. That was an unforgivable action, one that even the statist FDR opposed, that earns him a spot as one of the worst presidents despite his otherwise decent record.
Honorable mention to Teddy Roosevelt, who would have made the list had JFK not opened the floodgates to the corruption and waste spawned by public sector unions.
Would you please explain Van Buren and Tyler? I am intrigued by your list.
I agree with 5 and 6 on your worst, I would have them at 10 and 1 respectively, Wilson on neither, and Jefferson is on my best list. Coolidge, I am not sure either. Didn't he suffer a nervous breakdown from the stress of being president?
Van Buren kept us out of war, cut spending (in actual terms, not just the rate of growth), and prevented the national bank from coming back. Later ran and lost as an anti-slavery candidate.
Tyler, being #5, wasn't as good, but again prevented the national bank from coming back into existence, resisted tariff increases for awhile, and kept the country in relative peace.
Wilson was President in 1913, which is the worst year in our country's history IMO (income tax and Fed came into existence). Got us into WWI, and was President when the Treaty of Versailles was formulated, which is one of the reasons why Hitler was able to come to power.
Coolidge cut taxes, kept us neutral, and generally didn't expand the gov't, and was President during some pretty good times. Had he been president during the crash, he would have taken no action (unlike Hoover, who increased spending by 70%), and the Great Depression would have looked more like the recession in 1921, which lasted a little over a year.
I think Carter and LBJ are often underrated, carter ended to open war against Isreal and didn't do anything awful domestically, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis really was not rooted in his Presidency, but back in the 50s, and he continued the lull in the Cold War Reagan Ended.
LBJ did civil rights acts and entitlement reforms so Domestically he is in the top 2-5, intrrnationally he is not so great, but hardly the Worst president (or in the Bottom 6)
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