WORST PRESIDENT POLL

[RCMerchant]

So, who do you think is the worst?
If you think Millard Fillmore is the worst-you can write that in.

[Rev. Powell]

RC, I think you probably meant Andrew Johnson, not Andrew Jackson. [edit: sorry, I see you put them both in.]

Andrew Johnson was pretty damn bad. Scholars seem to think James Buchanan was the worst. His lack of leadership is often credited as one of the causes of the Civil War. Hard to get much worse than that.

I don't think Trump should be included in the poll because he's only halfway through his Presidency. Let's look back on him in a couple years.

[RCMerchant]

I voted Andrew Jackson. Just seemed like he enjoyed killing and robbing from the Indian tribes too much.

[RCMerchant]

RC, I think you probably meant Andrew Johnson, not Andrew Jackson. [edit: sorry, I see you put them both in.]

Andrew Johnson was pretty damn bad. Scholars seem to think James Buchanan was the worst. His lack of leadership is often credited as one of the causes of the Civil War. Hard to get much worse than that.

I don't think Trump should be included in the poll because he's only halfway through his Presidency. Let's look back on him in a couple years.

Yes- I did mean to include Andrew Jackson- only because he's my personal 'worst'.
And I don't think Trump should be excluded-he's managed to become one of the most hated US official in recent memory-and I remember Watergate-and he already makes Nixon look like a Boy Scout. And it's only been 3 years.
But that's just me...whatta I know? I like peanut butter and baloney samwhiches!

[Allhallowsday]

RC, I think you probably meant Andrew Johnson, not Andrew Jackson. [edit: sorry, I see you put them both in.]

Andrew Johnson was pretty damn bad. Scholars seem to think James Buchanan was the worst. His lack of leadership is often credited as one of the causes of the Civil War. Hard to get much worse than that.

I don't think Trump should be included in the poll because he's only halfway through his Presidency. Let's look back on him in a couple years.

Yes- I did mean to include Andrew Jackson- only because he's my personal 'worst'.
And I don't think Trump should be excluded-he's managed to become one of the most hated US official in recent memory-and I remember Watergate-and he already makes Nixon look like a Boy Scout. And it's only been 3 years.
But that's just me...whatta I know? I like peanut butter and baloney samwhiches!

ANDREW JACKSON was evil; a true man of the people... and of his time.   

[indianasmith]

Jackson has been misrepresented IMO. He was a man of his time; although it was brutal, his relocation of the Cherokee and the other "Five Civilized Tribes" from Georgia and Alabama probably saved them from mass slaughter.
I strongly recommend John Meacham's bio of him to get a more balanced picture.  He was a far more complex man than modern pop culture makes him out to be.
I'd go with James Buchanan as the worst; his utter lack of leadership hastened the onset of the Civil War.
Of the ones on your list, Andrew Johnson.  He was an awful man, a hater when America needed a healer, and the worst possible successor to Abraham Lincoln.
Trump - the jury is still out, but I imagine history will not be kind to him.  But it takes 20 years to get perspective on a leader.

[indianasmith]

What does anyone have against poor old Fillmore, anyway?

[Svengoolie 3]

Good god, RC! Putting FDR on this? SHeesh, he was one of america's second best presidents. He's tied with Teddy Roosevelt.

As for worst, so far, Ronald Reagan. (SPIT!)

His regime began the death of the middle class and the ascension of a plutocracy that is turning America into the world's richest third world country. His anti union stance helped destroy organized labot in america resulting in the working class losing ground economically for 40 years. He slashed taxes on the rich and imposed taxes on social security to cover it.

He could have started a war with russia but thankfully Gorbachev was in power and more mature than Reagan (SPIT!)

His war on drugs and his closure of mental treatment hospitals exploded the american prison population. His drug policies created crack cocaine. 

While I'm no mainstream theist, if there is something like a hell i hope he's deep in it.

[retrorussell]

Glad to see Harding make the list.  The litany of scandals under his regime cannot be ignored.  Plus he cheated on his wife for many years and was a drunk scumbag.

[Allhallowsday]

Glad to see Harding make the list.  The litany of scandals under his regime cannot be ignored.  Plus he cheated on his wife for many years and was a drunk scumbag.

... and his illegitimate daughter was born in a house in Asbury Park, NJ (in a room I slept in many nights) that was owned by a friend of mine.  He used to call that room the "birthing room". 

[Svengoolie 3]

Glad to see Harding make the list.  The litany of scandals under his regime cannot be ignored.  Plus he cheated on his wife for many years and was a drunk scumbag.

... and his illegitimate daughter was born in a house in Asbury Park, NJ (in a room I slept in many nights) that was owned by a friend of mine.  He used to call that room the "birthing room".  

Grover Cleveland had the same issue.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/president-clevelands-problem-child-100800/

His enemies chanted "Ma! Ma! Where's my pa?" art him.

After he won his supporters chanted back "Gone to the white house, HAW! HAW! HAW!"

[indianasmith]

Good god, RC! Putting FDR on this? SHeesh, he was one of america's second best presidents. He's tied with Teddy Roosevelt.

As for worst, so far, Ronald Reagan. (SPIT!)

His regime began the death of the middle class and the ascension of a plutocracy that is turning America into the world's richest third world country. His anti union stance helped destroy organized labot in america resulting in the working class losing ground economically for 40 years. He slashed taxes on the rich and imposed taxes on social security to cover it.

He could have started a war with russia but thankfully Gorbachev was in power and more mature than Reagan (SPIT!)

His war on drugs and his closure of mental treatment hospitals exploded the american prison population. His drug policies created crack cocaine. 

While I'm no mainstream theist, if there is something like a hell i hope he's deep in it.

Your hyperpartisan blindness towards Reagan is stunning.
You know that most historians - people who study and evaluate our Presidents for a living - rank him anywhere from 8th to 12th out of 45?
He was the first President I ever voted for; I was and am proud of that vote to this day.
But then, you and I rarely agree on much of anything.

[HappyGilmore]

I voted for Trump here, but I just thought...I mean, what are we gauging our answers on?

I mean, William Henry Harrison was president, but only for like a month, and really didn't do anything in those short 4 or 5 weeks.  So shouldn't he, by default, take the cake on 'worst' front?

I mean, there've been others who've done terrible things, etc, but you can usually find at least ONE or TWO things they might've done that was ok. 

[Allhallowsday]

I'm disappointed, Happy.  

Indy, I feel the need to point out that Sven had praised TR.   

[Svengoolie 3]

I based my vote on who I believed harmed america the most,  and ronny raygun wins that hands down.  His slashing of the top tax rates from 70 to 28 percent enriched the rich and has hurt everyone else.  He was the first to tax social security.  His drive to deregulate everything in sight lead to one economic disaster after another. The S&L bailout (anyone remember that?)  Which we're still laying for, was a direct result of raygun's deregulation. Rich people just went into an orgy of theft after the regulations were gutted on S&Ls and taxpayers were  handed the bill. We've gone from one economic disaster after another after raygun started the deregulation ball rolling and in each case the rich got richer and everyone else got poorer.

As I said,  I don't  know if there is a hell but if there is something like it I hope that evil prick is working for minimum wage in it as a public bathroom attendant.  

And I know some sources call him a great president,  those sources tend to have a clear bias to the right.