Who in your opinion was the worst US president?

The one who refused to acknowledge the English King’s supremacy over the Colonies.
So basically, all of them.

It depends on which day you ask, but generally speaking and in descending order from very bad to worse, to REALLY worst:

- Warren G. Harding
– George W. Bush
– George W. Bush

Dubbaya.

George W. Bush over Nixon.

Stupid is worse than evil.

People seem to like my Nixon impression, but it really loses a lot in just the printed word. Alright, anyway…

“I…am not a crook…”

“Pray with me, Henry…..PRAY with me !!....”

James Bucahanan. He did nothing in office.

W, Nixon, Reagan.

Isn’t it awful that we have several from whom to choose. I have to go with one who served during my lifetime, and that would be George W. Bush. I was there when Nixon stepped down; and while I don’t condone his actions as a leader, at least he (sometimes) conveyed a sense of intelligence and authority, which were wholly lacking from Junior Bush, IMHO. I was often embarrassed that Bush-boy represented my country.

Both Bushes and Junior was the worst of them. Jimmy Carter runs a close third.

Barrack Hussein Obama . Or is it Barack Hussein Obama?

“I’m the decider, and I decide what is best.”

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.”

“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”

“They misunderestimated me.”

George W. Bush.
Ronald Reagan.

Dick Cheney -
Warren G. Harding
Ronald Reagan.

The piece from the BBC website can be read here, interesting stuff.
As for my opinion, like I suggested in my topics Dubya was a complete head of a dick, but Reagan ran him a close second.

I’ll limit my answer to presidents who served during my own lifetime. I know that there were plenty of clunkers during the 19th and early-20th centuries, but lack enough knowledge to form opinions.

Worst: Baby Bush
Close second: Reagan

Reagan.. Between his handling of the AIDS/HIV epidemic and “Trickle-down culture of greed” he has probably killed more people than Bush.

Yep, George W. Bush. Nixon was selfish and brutish, but dedicated to the preservation of the nation. Hoover gets too much of the blame for the great depression. He made matters worse when it began, but he didn’t cause it.

I say Reagan for the same reasons as @johnpowell.

Ronald Regan. He started this whole “government IS the problem” idea and we as a society have been going downhill every since.

Personally, I found Clinton’s personal issues to be a major embarassment for the nation.

@KNOWITALL Embarrassment to who? The majority of the world thinks we were ridiculous to care so much about his affair and waste time on it.

If I limited it to presidents in my life time the pool would be too small to pick from.

Harding wins the loser pool.

Hard to get to much objectivity on current or recent Pres I haven’t been happy with any of them and it would depend on what one considered important.

@JLeslie The whole thing, the lying, the dress/ details (cigar), Hillary and Chelsea’s pain, all of it was disgusting from the leader of our country. Of course him looking into the camera and telling the American people he did not cheat was pretty ballsy, too, liar.

@JLeslie
I can confirm that. No one here cared about Clinton’s knobslobbering.
What we took and take issue with were the two illegal wars, the torture, the american caused global recession/near-depression, the droning and now the global espionage. (by the way, I bet 1€ that if the only thing snowden uncovered were the espionage against non-american countries, no one in america would be making a peep.)

Indeed, a blowjob from a intern is way worse than killing 100K people in a unjustified war. It is awesome, you just confirmed all my stereotypes about Republicans.

I’ve been reading up on some of the presidents that popped up into this thread at the ecxeption of Bush. Was gonna nominate him, and I still stand by that, but Ronald Reagen is sure up there as far as crappy presidents go. Check some of this shit out.

It’s funny that many many people would list Reagan as one of our best Presidents. I don’t get the adoration for him. I dn’t think he was all bad, no President is, but the cult-like following for Reagan is very odd to me. Literally, it is like they are blind to anything negative he did. I don’t get that sort of blindness from people on the far left or far right.

@Symbeline Not only AIDS as far as public health goes, but he also wanted our Surgeon General to lie about abortion harming women. Bush was just ignorant about science, and he admitted to his conservative feelings, some based in his religious views. I just can’t be angry at Bush about that, as much is it bothers me. Reagan wanted our chief Medical Doctor responsible for the health of our nation to flat out lie. Surgeon General Koop wouldn’t do it. It was only one of several rifts between the two.

Bush does come in a close second for me though. Going to war and cutting taxes at the same time I find so incredibly irresponsible. The national debt bothered me under Reagan, worse under George W, and it bothers me under Obama also.

The Bush’s… Bushes… however you say it.

As far as I am concerned, it is a toss-up between Reagan & the Bushes. These Presidents were an absolute DISASTER for America.

Ronald Wilson Reagan. Good ol’ voodoo economics wins it for me.

Americans I know say Barack Hussein Obama is worst.

While Clinton did catch a lot of trouble for his tryst in office, JFK was the Bonemaster in Chief. It was beginning to catch up with him when he was assassinated. Suddenly he was canonized. He was mediocre at best as a president. LBJ was pretty bad and ran a quite corrupt White house, not unlike our current President.

@Shinimegami :: Do you know that when you copy and paste Barack Hussein Obama you instantly destroy the argument you aren’t smart enough to actually make.

Cheers folks, good stuff.
Speaking as little Johnny foreigner, I can’t conceive how Obama can be thrown in the mix here.
Choosing the current prez, who has buckets full of charisma, if nothing else, seems petty minded & smacks of sour grapes.

@Shinimegami & @Aster: Do you mean براك حسين وبامة ؟
;)

I didn’t like Reagan, and in fact I think he should have been impeached. That said, W. was a lot more destructive to the Constitution than Reagan, who was no slouch at that himself. Yes, Obama has his moments here.

@filmfann: Which action of Reagan’s merited impeachment in your view?

I’m guessing Iran Contra. I’ll be curious to see what @filmfann answers though.

I agree. Iran/Contra. Despicable.

@johnpowell You’re entitled to your opinion as are the rest of us. Just remember, we vote, too.

scary, is it not?

I think the worst in my lifetime was W, for more reasons than I wish to revisit. But at least his dumbness gave us a few laughs:

1) “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.”

2) “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”

3) “I hear there’s rumors on the Internets that we’re going to have a draft.”

4) “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.”

5) “You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.” —to a divorced mother of three.

6) “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”

7) “They misunderestimated me.”

8) “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”

9) “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

10) “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

Number nine was pretty classic.

and accurate.

The next one.

Lyndon B Johnson comes to mind despite his reputation as a humanitarian. Ronald Reagan comes to mind, and I’m still not sure why has a cult type following amongst those who classify themselves as conservatives. W is up there too in my opinion, and I was angry that Ford left Nixon get off. I never reviewed many other past presidents so I’m not sure about quite a few other ones.

I suppose LBJ lands in the middle of the pack somewhere. He is lucky to be remembered for his civil rights legislation, and not just for farting long and loud in a crowded elevator, just to irritate the reporters (which it is said he’d done many times….)

LBJ more than made up for his good actions for reasons that I don’t feel like getting into here, and it wasn’t just Vietnam either. Personally I have more respect for Nixon (and I know he was no angel) than Johnson. Nixon was actually one of (if not the best) presidents we ever had concerning enviromental issues too, while W may have been likely the worst enviromental president America ever experienced.

@bookish1 Indeed, I feel Reagan’s actions during Iran Contra were illegal, and impeachable.

@filmfann Carrying on negotiations with a hostile foreign power while still a private citizen. Aiming the negotiations at securing political office for yourself and defeating an incumbent president; and ignoring the harm to the nation due to the deal. If that isn’t treason, then there is no such thing as treason. It was not only an impeachable offense, it could be a capital one.

@ETpro Since those actions took place BEFORE he was President, he would have wiggle room.
The Iran Contra fiasco was so blatantly illegal he should have gone to prison, but no one wanted to send old likable Ronnie to the big house, the bastards.

@ETpro Didn’t Jesse Jackson pull a stunt similar to that? And Dennis Rodman? I don’t think either was trying to usurp the authority at the time nor the present. Neither was prosecuted and very little press was made of them. Clear back to the nonsense Jane Fonda pulled back in the day. I don’t think she was prosecuted. I think it hurt her career though.
Iran Contra was little different to our funding anti-Castro forces only more sneaky.
Politics is a dirty business, everybody gets dirty when they play, just often they try to keep their clean side pointed at you. lol

@majorrich They both talked to an enemy, but they came WAY short of cutting a deal to hold US citizens longer so they could unseat a president and win a presidential election, and guaranteeing a deal exchanging US funds for arms to overthrow a democratically elected foreign leader. Not even close.

Iran/Contra was also far from the trivial league of funding the anti-Castro forces, ineptly as that was done. You are comparing apples to orange-painted dirty bombs.

Unless there was a rift in time you guys are remembering wrong. A quick google reveals this all occurred in 1985. Jimmy was WAAY out of office and building habitat houses by then. Records indicate these were different hostages being held by Muslims in the North of Iran. The deal was brokered through Israel who would sell the weapons to the moderate factions who were holding 7 hostages. Then we were supposed to re-supply Israel for what they sold. Things went wrong and Ollie re-brokered the deal to divert the proceeds to the Contras (the illegal part of the deal). All told, maybe 2000 tow missiles and 18 hawk missiles were involved. Both systems were obsolete at the time.
No dirty bombs were involved. Just outdated ordinance. AND the amount of money was kind of a pittance compared to what our current muslim in chief is freely sending to Far more hostile forces.

@majorrich Reality check. Almost no one here is talking about Jimmy Carter. Ollie North broke the law, then Reagan tried to cover it up. Reagan may have had deeper involvement, but the decision not to investigate closed the door on finding out. Obama is not a Muslim.

Ron came after Jimmy. In an earlier post you said..
Since those actions took place BEFORE he was President, he would have wiggle room. The Iran Contra fiasco was so blatantly illegal he should have gone to prison, but no one wanted to send old likable Ronnie to the big house, the bastard

You yourself alleged that Ron was in cahoots and negotiated that the Tehran hostages not be released in order to affect the 1980 elections and made the tie between that and Iran Contra. I am responding to that allegation. If the release of the hostages was held up, Ron was not ever accused nor tried in the media (circus) for it. As far as the Iran Contra business, did I not say that Ollie broke the law. Ron allegedly did not know about it, and there was never proof that he did. And our muslim in chief has on numerous occasions said outright that he was indeed a muslim. Not that that is a bad thing. Muslims aren’t any different than any other religion. It’s the fringe wackos that will get you. We will save his wacky lawbreaking for another topic.

Obama is not Muslim.

He is also the most ‘transparent’ President ever. I wear a masonic ring because I am a Mason. Barry wears a ring that’s apparently declarative and has for many years. Now, I may be mistaken. This was forwarded to me and I don’t really know if it is a wacko site or not. (There are a lot of them out there) I have been wrong many times and probably will be many times forever, but this looks pretty non-made up. But all this is far afield of the OT. I still think LBJ was the most crooked President ever.

I did respond to another comment regarding Reagan’s trying to stop the hostages release before the election, which was before Reagan was President. I am not stating a tie in between that and the Iran Contra scandal, which involved different hostages.

@majorrich My father was a mason (and a past master), and when he died I was given his masonic ring. I occasionally wear it, as a rememberance of my father. It doesn’t mean I am a mason.
I am unconvinced regarding what the inscription on the ring may mean. I remember a few years ago a tennis shoe company tried to market a new line of shoes (I think they were called Fire), and many got upset because the fire design looked like an Arab inscription.

@majorrich I’m speaking of this. And if you’re going to insist Obama’s a secret Muslim, I’d respond that the evidence for the October Surprise Conspiracy is FAR stronger than your assertion.

@majorrich Snopes says the ring thing is false.

@majorrich : And why would it matter if he were a Muslim?

Not only is he NOT Muslim, Obama has stated over and over that he IS a Christian. I agree with @bookish1 that it does not matter, but besides that it is a matter between only Obama and God. I don’t think it is really any of our business.

I rethought the question. LBJ tried to get me killed while I was in Vietnam so he tops my list. I was a true Republican, even held a local office, until I say the convention where they selected Reagan. It was the whitest, most narrow minded television that I had ever seen. The next day I went to the court house and changed my registration from Republican to Democrat.

I am amazed at my forethought It was Reagan that started on the road to where we are today!

Why oh why to people go on about Obama being a Muslim? First, it sounds so horrifically hateful against Muslims. I realize if he was lying that would be worth investigating, but aside from that, it just sounds awful to keep bringing it up. I don’t have a problem with someone seeing information and questioning it to get the facts, but too many people just assume it is true because they want to believe it so badly. I guess they think if he is Muslim that is synonomous with wanting to destroy America. It’s very conspiracy theory-esque. Second, his religion should not matter; this is America. Third, why not stick to things he has actually done that one finds disagreeable and argue facts and his policies. For example: I don’t like that he talked about closing down Catholic schools in Ireland. WTF? That is shocking and surprising to me. I don’t like the debt has gone up so much under him. People don’t need to make shit up. I guess not only atheists can’t be President, Muslims can’t either. It’s shocking a Mormon made it so far. I don’t think a candidate’s religion should matter, although I do care if they are a religious fanatic in any religion.

@JLeslie : I think it’s a distraction and a sign of insecurity. Confusing the loss of hegemony with the loss of all political or social power.

The “birther” movement and accusations of Obama being a Muslim makes me think of how Spain was really obsessed with the specter of “crypto-Muslims” and “crypto-Jews” in the 15th century.

The U.S. has a long and vigorous history of nativism, and this is just a contemporary manifestation. Since September 11th, we have elided “Muslim” with “foreigner” and “terrorist.” Calling the president a secret Muslim is akin to saying he is not an American and is destroying our country.