the worst President in history?

[MorganLeFey]

I found this interesting:



http://www.rollingstone.com/news/pr...5468541266&has-player=true&version=6.0.8.1024

 

[Dan Murphy]

Welcome to the DIS, Fey.

 

[HOGFAN]

perhaps one should look into the presidencies of Harding or Carter

 

[FreshTressa]

I actually think we are pretty lucky to have the privilage of being able to complain about our president!

 

[JudicialTyranny]

Interesting if you get your current events from Rolling Stone, I suppose...

 

[MorganLeFey]

Interesting if you get your current events from Rolling Stone, I suppose...

you laugh, but here's the author's CV:

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/98/q4/wilentz-bio.htm


very impressive credentials, I'd say.

 

[Planogirl]

Interesting article. I'd say that the author is quite impressive too.

Time will truly tell who the worst president will be. I think that it's safe to assume that the current one will be among the top ten at least.

 

[pdchris]

Wayyy too early to start making historial judgements. Truman when he left office was very low in the poll numbers and many thought his was the worst administration ever (some Dem's included). Yet, he is now considered a 'near great.' An opinion I hardily agree with. Eisenhower who followed him also was now judged as a very good president, but he too, has come up in the "historians" polls.
Altho, to be completely candid, I was thinking that same thought (Bush's presidency) today when I read he apologized to the Chinese president for the heckler. Hmm, a heckler who complained about the lack of religious freedom in China and Bush apologizes for the interruption?

 

[bsnyder]

Interesting? I guess, if you find a political hit piece, masquerading as some type of serious academic exercise interesting.

I found it hilarious!

 

[Teejay32]

Interesting if you get your current events from Rolling Stone, I suppose...

some of us used to

but the current events were...actual events.

 

[Planogirl]

I found it hilarious!

I thought it was funny too but for different reasons.

 

[eclectics]

I thought it was funny too but for different reasons.

Almost as funny as a Fox News editorial!

 

[bimshire]

Buckley of all conservatives don't have too much faith in Dubya. How low can he go?
33% and counting.

 

[richiebaseball]

I found this interesting:

I'm going to go out on a limb and make a bold, early prediction. George W Bush most likely will not win another term as President.

Congratulations on a job well done.

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

I haven't read the article...

I think Andrew Jackson can go down as the worst President in the history of the US. He's an awfully tough one to beat.

As for the comment about Carter- he's done a lot more out of office than in, that's for sure. He also took office during an incredibly volatile political scene. Then again, we know the family well so I might be biased.

 

[pearlieq]

I think Andrew Jackson can go down as the worst President in the history of the US. He's an awfully tough one to beat.

Seriously? I always thought he made some very valuable contributions. He wouldn't even be on my radar for worst.

Herbert Hoover is close to the top of my list. Nixon wasn't exactly a peach. It's too early to place Dubya in an historical context, but I don't think the prognosis is good...

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

Seriously? I always thought he made some very valuable contributions. He wouldn't even be on my radar for worst....

Yes, he was practically a tyrant! In textbooks, he's usually not touted as too bad. When you look at the primary sources written in that period and the political cartoons about him, the picture comes into focus. He was known for throwing people out of his cabinet and vetoing more bills than the previous Presidents combined had. He also did little when the country was heading towards Civil War; I would say he only deepened the hatred and sectionalism between then North and South (South led by SC's Calhoun and the nullification bill). We must not forget he instigated the Mexican War.... he placed troops on "American" land the governmet of Mexico didn't recognize.

An upside- he really empowered the role and office and President.

 

[DawnCt1]

Altho, to be completely candid, I was thinking that same thought (Bush's presidency) today when I read he apologized to the Chinese president for the heckler. Hmm, a heckler who complained about the lack of religious freedom in China and Bush apologizes for the interruption?

He apologized because it was the proper thing to do but his speech was about religious freedom for China and it took 3 minutes for the heckler to be removed, something, that if they wanted to, the Secret Service could have accomplished a lot quicker. More importantly, this heckler will live to tell about her experience. The worse president is Jimmy Carter and the worst ex president is Jimmy Carter.

 

[What the Heck]

I found this interesting:



http://www.rollingstone.com/news/pr...5468541266&has-player=true&version=6.0.8.1024

What is that statement about judgement before prior investigation? There is a lot that goes on in judging how well a president was, and much of it is in the classified documents that are not available until the president is long dead.

My vote for the worst president would have to be Carter, even worse than Andrew Johnson or, a closer analagy, James Buchanan. He was a nice guy that tried hard, but was too much into micro-management and he thought too hard. By the time he was done thinking through a problem, it had become 10 other problems.

Personally, I believe that when all of the documents come out, Bill Clinton will rate down very low as well, possibly even lower than Bush. Time will tell, but to judge a current president by a historian seems very far fetched. There just isn't enough background. The only available data is political, and only what can been seen (unclassified). And that is determined by the political leaning of the historian in question. Just my thoughts.

 

[Disney Gator]

I think both Bush and Clinton will, in the long run, be considered among the worst presidents. Clinton will be relegated to obscurity (who was president in the late 1990's again?) and remembered for sex scandals and his failure to do anything about terrorism. Meanwhile, Bush will be remembered for his mishandling of terrorism and a lot of made up justifications for the Iraq war.

It is hard to tell how people will view the politics of our time in 50 or 100 years though. I was a history major in college and it was sometimes interesting to read history books written in different times and see how their views of historical events changed over time. History and historians are constantly changing.