As frightening as it is to say this, George W. Bush isn’t alone with his rank of being a horrible president. I thought it would be fun to look at some of our other presidents throughout history to demonstrate that we actually have a long history of bad presidents.
This list is a simple complication of various “worst presidents” lists I’ve come across. I looked at all the data that they provided, compared a few of the lists, and created my own (though they are similar to the others).
A few lists also included Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon. I purposely didn’t include those people because I really wanted to focus on older presidents. We know enough about those presidents.
10. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
Probably one of the least politically attuned people to ever occupy the White House. Having served a 40-year career in the U.S. Army, he was recruited by the Whig party and won in 1848 to become the first president never to hold and prior office. He was a strong critic of secession and some claim that his opposition of what became the Compromise of 185o–which began to undo the Missouri Compromise–might have precipitated the start of the Civil War.
He died only a little more than a year into office.
9. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
Hoover was elected at the eve of the Great Depression. During and after World War I, he ran massive relief operations in Europe. When the Depression started, he lowered taxes and started various public works projects to try to create jobs, but continually resisted in providing relief. The homeless jokingly declared their make-shift shanty towns Hoovervilles.
Probably one of Hoover’s biggest marks against him was that he was a poor communicator. He often came across as mean-spirited and uncaring. Probably considered his greatest policy blunder was the support and signing of a law (a tariff law) that fueled international trade wars and made the Depression even worse.
8. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
While not as bad as some of the other presidents, Grant saw widespread corruption and scandals in his term. “My failures have been errors of judgment,” he said after his second term, “not of intent.” To be noted though, Grant himself never profited from the corruption but he did not take a firm stance against those involved in the corruption and failed to react even after their guilt was established.
When critics complained, he vigorously attacked them. His biggest fault in judgement was his inability to choose qualified people to serve with him. He picked people who were colleagues from the war instead of going with people with more political experience. He alienated party leaders by giving many posts to his friends and political contributors rather than supporting the party’s needs. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control.
Oh, and he was also believed to be anti-semitic.
7. William Henry Harrison (1841)
Now, was Harrison a bad president? No one was ever able to find out. Harrison’s greatest claim to fame was defeating the Shawnees in 1811 at the Battle of Tippecanoe. When sworn into office, he delivered the longest inaugural address in U.S. history. He came down with pneumonia that made his 30-day presidency the shortest in U.S. history.
6. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
Yet another person who shifted from the vice president position to president, Millard came into office after Zachary Taylor died one year into his term. He supported the Compromise of 1850. Fillmore’s actions may have averted a national crisis and postponed the outbreak of the Civil War, but it was peace bought at an unconscionable price. Because the Compromise of 1850 delayed the secession, slavery continued spread quickly throughout the South.
5. John Tyler (1841-1845)
Never elected as president, he took over after William Harrison died only 30 days after being sworn into office. Tyler began his political opposing Federalist ideals. But once he became president, Tyler opposed everything his adopted party stood for, including a national bank. The entire Harrison-appointed cabinet resigned, and Tyler had to fight an attempt to impeach him. His one triumph: establishing the principle that a vice president who succeeds to the top office has no less authority than an elected president. No small accomplishment when most of his own party despised him.
4. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
From U.S. News and World Report, “his fervor for expanding the borders–thereby adding several slave states–helped set the stage for the Civil War.”
Read my blog post Franklin Pierce and George W. Bush to learn about him. No need to repeat myself, right?
3. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
Johnson is famous for fighting with radical Republicans in Congress over a host of reconstruction measures for the newly freed African-Americans. In addition to vetoing renewal of the Freedman’s Bureau and the first civil rights bill, he encouraged opposition to the 14th Amendment. An increasingly nasty power struggle—in which Congress wrongly attempted to strip him of certain constitutionally delegated powers—resulted in the first presidential impeachment and a near conviction.
2. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
Instead of speaking about Harding, I’ll let his own words do the talking. “I am not fit for this office and should never have been here.” Harding was an known womanizer noted for his affability, good looks, and implacable desire to please. Once in the White House, the 29th president busied himself with golf, poker, and his mistress, while appointees and cronies plundered the U.S. government in a variety of creative ways. (His secretary of the interior allowed oilmen, for a modest under-the-table sum, to tap into government oil reserves, including one in Teapot Dome, Wyo).
Stress no doubt contributed to his death in office, and he either died from a stroke or from a heart attack.
1. James Buchanan (1854-1861)
Buchanan rejected slavery as an indefensible evil but, like the majority of his party, refused to challenge it. In his inaugural address, the 15th president tacitly encouraged the Supreme Court’s forthcoming Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Congress had no power to keep slavery out of the territories. More damaging to his presidency was his unwillingness to challenge those states that declared their intention to withdraw from the Union after Lincoln’s election. Sitting on his hands as the situation spiraled out of control, Buchanan believed that the Constitution gave him no power to act against would-be seceders. To his dying day, he felt that history would treat him favorably for having performed his constitutional duty.
Sources: U.S. News and World Report - Wikipedia - The Independent
If this was a 12 man list, where would Carter and Nixon be?
I’d probably place Nixon in the Top 3.. and Carter.. he’d come in 11th or 12th.
He wasn’t as bad as he really didn’t do anything.
Carter was bad for what he let happen, rather than for what he did. As a humanitarian first and a failed president second, Herbert Hoover was Jimmy Carter in reverse.
Carter should have turned the Shah over to the Iranians to face trial. His problem was not breaking with the criminal actions of his predecessors. But the idea that he was one of the worst presidents, even recent presidents, when we have had people like Reagan, Clinton, and Bushes 1 and 2 in office is ludicrous.
Bush has been quite the busy bee earning his rightful place as worst president in US history. Do not deny him his due. A partial list of his misdeeds (in no particular order) includes:
Failing to appreciate terror threat in general & specifically ignoring memo “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the US”
Failing to catch the man most responsible for 9/11 attack-Bin Laden
Pulling out of military operation in Afghanistan prematurely.
Preemptively attacking Iraq which posed no direct threat to our security leading to deaths of 3,800 US soldiers -& counting
Causing deaths of 700,000-1 million Iraqis -still counting
Neglecting to act to prevent loss of lives related to Hurricane Katrina.
Causing Iran to be much more powerful
Contibuting to the increase in number of Islamic extemists
Pushing for elections that put a radical group, Hamas in power
Helping give rise to the world’s largest mercenary army- 1 that is subject to no laws - in essence a Republican Guard
Breaking US FISA laws
Spying on Americans
Suspending habeas corpus
Using the Dept of Justice to pursue political purposes
Turning a budget surplus into the largest deficit in history.
Neglecting to act on global warming crisis
BUSH SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED IN HIS 1ST YEAR!
1. Woodrow Wilson for selling us out to the international bankers. 2. Harry Truman for dropping the bombs. He wasn’t called Dirty Harry for nothing. 3. George W. Bush, wow, too much to list, but lying, pre-emptive war, Patriot Act, Military Commision Act of 2006, spending, inflation, just to name a few.
Mark wrote:
“He wasn’t as bad as he really didn’t do anything”
You have got to be joking.
You dont remember all the criminals being released from CUBAN prisons and mental wards and being sent to the USA (subsequently causing riots and cities / shops burning…) because of JIMMY CARTER?
He also was responsible for the Terrorist Organizations we are now facing: His private / secrete funing in ‘79 created, trained and funded what we now consider the TERRORist Threat against us.
He was one of the biggest MORONS ever elected. Unlike George Bush, I do not think he was corrupt or had a bad agenda, just stupid and easily manipulated…
Matt Love wrote:
I CAN UNDERSTAND HOW CARTER AND CLINTON COULD BE CONSIDERED AMOUNG THE WORST US PRESIDENTS AND GOD HELP US IF HILLARY IS ELECTED BUT HOW CAN YOU THROW REAGAN IN THAT BOAT.. HE IS AMOUNG THE BEST THIS COUNTRY HAS HAD. EVEN BUSH.. BUSH HAS HAD IS SHARE OF PROBLEMS BUT STILL A GREAT PRESIDENT.. HE DID NOT ASK FOR THESE CERTAIN EVENTS TO UNFOLD DURRING HIS TERM. HE PLAYED THE HANDS HE WAS DELT AND AS AN AMERICAN I FEEL SAFER AND WE HAVENT HAD ANOTHER ATTACK ON OUR SOIL… HOWEVER WE AS A NATION ALONG WITH THE HELP OF OUR ALIES HAVE HELPED FOIL SEVERAL ATTACKS ON OUR SOIL AND YOURS.
IT’S JUST NOT HIM MAKING THESE CHOICES, THERE ARE MANY. THERE ARE CERTAIN POLICIES THAT CAN EFFECT A JOB FROM BEING DONE QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVLEY… IF THIS WAS THE 1940′S THIS WAR WOULD HAVE BEEN OVER THE WEEK IT STARTED IF WERE FAUGHT WITH THE POLICIES OF YESTERYEAR WE WOULD HAVE KILLED MANY INICENT LIKE WWII BUT BEEN DONE 5 YEARS AGO. POLICIES HOLD US BACK NOT PRESIDENTS. TO BLAME ONE PERSON FOR THE MISTAKES OF MANY IS JUST AS REDICULOUS AS A CANADIAN MAKING BIEST COMMENTS ABOUT OUR COUNTRY’S
ELECTED PRESIDENTS
When evaluating a president you have to weigh the good they did against the harm. That’s why I wouldn’t put Reagen or Clinton on the list of the top 10 worst. You can’t pin the blame on Carter for the current terrorist problem. That one goes to the beloved Eisenhower for giving the nod to the CIA to depose the popular & democratically elected Mossadegh in 1953. (Without a doubt, Carter should have turned over the Shah to the Iranians though. Dumb move on his part. I wouldn’t put him on this list though.) “W” definitely makes the list, as does Nixon! What about LBJ? What I wish for is presidents who think really hard before getting involved in other governments. We almost always live to regret it…