Best/Worst Presidents?

[Sharpieman]

I saw on another thread that people listed who they thought were the best and worst Presidents of their lifetime. I thought this was kinda cool, so I'd like to see how people rate them on a thread of its own. I would also like to see people rate past Presidents that they haven't been around to see. All the way back to Washington. Just rate as many as you like, first to worst or worst to first, you can give a reason or not. Include Bush II or not, whatever. BTW, these are peoples opinions, so if someone selectively leaves something out that others think is important to evaluating a Prez's success (like Clintons fun with a cigar), it shouldn't matter because its their opinion. This isn't intended to be a debate either just a thing for fun.

[mtaystl03]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The New Deal. Period.

[Axxon]

I'll just quote my original post on this.

Anyway, we talk about best and worst presidents so here's my list, in my lifetime.

From worst to first.

1. George W Bush - I hate the asshat. I don't see much plus side really.

2. Ronald Reagan - many love him but I don't. He did his best to polarize our society and took a cavalier world view. I really didn't like this guy one bit. He's the only guy who has been president I've hated. Maybe should be #1 but as much as I hated him, as a president I think W is worse.

3. Lyndon Johnson - here's an award winning asshat. Escalated vietnam, did zip at home. He didn't even try. He is an asshat supreme and is easily amongst the worst. His only redeeming value is that the two above him were in office once I was older and therefore I'm more more critical. He may easily be the worst and if argued correctly I'd probably concur.

4. Jimmy Carter/ Gerald Ford - I love both of these guys. Neither was a good president maybe but they both served us as best as they could. They are both great guys. I could talk about successes and failures but I was proud of both of these men though neither would win any awards as president.

5. George Bush - I really love this man. He was a great president working in a difficult time. His choice here is by a nose. The man didn't get a lot of respect but handled a lot of world changes in a great way. Maybe the economy didn't exactly do well but he layed the groundwork for a world economy. He doesn't get credit for this.

6. John Kennedy - ok, he loses points for only living 21 days into my life. I understand his value and respect his life achievements but his accomplishments, minus the MM connection while admirable aren't memorable.

7. William Clinton - damn it's a close one. I had a better life under Bill and I'm not morally againsy blow jobs nor lying about them. I really want to put him as #1 and really he should be maybe. All presidents have warts, both domestically, in foreign policy and in their personal life. Bills didn't affect the country. His were deeply personal but I never felt he didn't care about me. It was great but not quite #1.

8. The winner is, Richard Millhouse Nixon - Sorry, he is my man. RMH had personal flaws and they were big ones. For me though, he was a hero. I was a child during vietnam. I can remember sincerely feeling that the war would go on forever and that I would surely die in a war I didn't give a damn about. This man ended that fear.

That alone would give him a bump sure, but he also championed detente, opening the door to normalized relations to China and brokered the first peace we had in the middle east, a feat we've never been able to really duplicate ever again. Kissinger was the cause? Sure, but who appointed him?

RMN had his faults and they were biggies but overall, his years in office were great ones. We can't easily ignore his warts and we payed for those, but how can we ignore his successes? I just don't get it. Yeah, I was a fan boy. I'm still alive. The world is more stable. All of these have been influenced by RMN. I just can't put an election scandal ( and an unnecessary one at that ) above what good he did. I'm not defending it but it just didn't matter in terms of history.

I imagine this post will piss off almost everybody but trust me, it's from the heart.

It'll be fun if we get more people playing along.

[Schmidty]

Ulysses S. Grant had the most corrupt presidency, so I suppose that could make him one of the top candidates for the worst president.

[Cuckoo]

Originally Posted by mtaystl03

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The New Deal. Period.

Yeah, he'd be high on my list of the worst too.

[CamEdwards]

but we're speaking of "in our lifetime" gentlemen.

Worst= Jimmy Carter.

Best= Ronald Reagan.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

but we're speaking of "in our lifetime" gentlemen.

I'm 163.

[dacman]

Ah, Cam

Originally Posted by Sharpieman

... I would also like to see people rate past Presidents that they haven't been around to see. All the way back to Washington...

[Bosco]

In my lifetime:

Worst = George H.W. Bush
Best = Bill Clinton

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Bosco

In my lifetime:

Worst = George H.W. Bush
Best = Bill Clinton

Never mind.

[FBPro]

Best-Reagan
Worst-Clinton(no contest)

[CamEdwards]

Originally Posted by dacman

Ah, Cam

aha!

In that case:

Worst: Grant

Best: Thomas Jefferson. Viva la Louisiana Purchase!

[Cuckoo]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Never mind.

Booooo... You edited it.

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Bosco

In my lifetime:

Worst = George H.W. Bush
Best = Bill Clinton

In other news, I stuck my thumb in my ass and discovered Jesus.

[FBPro]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

In other news, I stuck my thumb in my ass and discovered Jesus.

Classic........

[Scoobz0202]

Hey, I have to agree with Bosco. :| I'm only 17 :|

[Franklinnoble]

In my lifetime, I'd put Reagan as the best. I had an idyllic childhood, and I somehow always equate how I remember American culture with Ronald Reagan. Somehow, I just think he garnered more respect than Carter or any of the presidents who followed him.

Carter was probably the most inept, and Clinton was terribly corrupt and irresponsible... I was embarrassed to have him in office.

I think Bush 1.0 did alright, but while he did a good job handling worldwide political change, he could have done better with the economy at home - although I don't know how much you can really blame a President for the economy... just as I think Clinton gets too much credit for the economy during his tenure.... it's not as if he invented the Internet (that was Al Gore )

The jury is still out on Bush 2.0. I like how he has handled things post-9/11, but I think he's treading a fine line with the Dept. of Homeland Security, and I think he should have been more clear ahead of time on why we went to war with Iraq. He (or somebody in his administration) had to know that there was a possibility of not finding WMD's... and that really shouldn't have been sold as the primary motivation. Saddam had plenty of other reasons to get removed from power.

[clintl]

In my lifetime:

Best: John F. Kennedy
Worst: George W. Bush (which takes some doing, considering the extremely low regard I have for Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson)

All-time:

Best: Abraham Lincoln
Worst: James Buchanan

[Blitz]

Best: FDR

Worst: Herbert Hoover

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

In other news, I stuck my thumb in my ass and discovered Jesus.

Did you remove your head first? If not, that's likely what you discovered.

[Senator]

This is obviously an exercise in futility.

A trademarked FOFC trait.

[Bosco]

Originally Posted by clintl

In my lifetime:

Best: John F. Kennedy
Worst: George W. Bush (which takes some doing, considering the extremely low regard I have for Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson)

All-time:

Best: Abraham Lincoln
Worst: James Buchanan

Anyone who doesn't put Nixon well ahead of Kennedy must not have been paying attention.

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Did you remove your head first? If not, that's likely what you discovered.

If I removed my head, it wouldn't be as tight. Obviously you don't like things anally. Your wife must be pissed.

[sooner333]

Best: Reagan

Worst: Clinton

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

If I removed my head, it wouldn't be as tight. Obviously you don't like things anally. Your wife must be pissed.

His wife has others to take care of that.

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

His wife has others to take care of that.

And with that, a spike in condom sales in his hometown should be expected.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

And with that, a spike in condom sales in his hometown should be expected.

I don't use condoms. I'm so large, I have to use a Hefty sack.

[Ryche]

Best: Teddy Roosevelt
Worst: U.S. Grant - Great general, which is the only reason he became president. Warfare may have been his only talent though.

I can't judge recent presidents at all objectively, so I won't even try.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

If I removed my head, it wouldn't be as tight. Obviously you don't like things anally. Your wife must be pissed.

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to find a mexican up there. Then she'd really get pissed.

[Franklinnoble]

I don't know why everyone is capping on Grant. I thought he did pretty good in "Wild Wild West."

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

I don't use condoms. I'm so large, I have to use a Hefty sack.

I wouldn't recommend going at it without a condom. Last I checked, the crabs had formed their own colony. She didn't shave, they cut it down, formed huts. It did explain the hairy ass though.

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to find a mexican up there. Then she'd really get pissed.

That would be a hell of a way to run a board.

"How did you get into the country?"

"In some ladies ass."

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

That would be a hell of a way to run a board.

"How did you get into the country?"

"In some ladies ass."

No shit...well, not exactly true but it would be one hell of a way wouldn't it?

[The Afoci]

Originally Posted by Axxon

No shit...well, not exactly true but it would be one hell of a way wouldn't it?

Maybe that could be why all the large white ladies in Fargo seem to be married to the immigrants...

I kid. Sort of. It seems true.

I got nothing.

[Axxon]

And then Mavis mercifully reached for the x-lax.

Me either.

[Sun Tzu]

Charlton Heston baby! WOOOOO!

"You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands"

Seriously I'm not enough into politics to be able to rate presidents. I am however pretty big on US history, so I think I'm going to go with TJ.

[bamcgee]

I believe that Lincoln, hands down, was the greatest president. Washington was also very impressive - it's always difficult being the first. Both are amazing figures. Either Roosevelt also could be number one.

As far as the worst, well, lots of presidents did nothing. But the ones who really screwed the pooch were Harding, Buchanan, and Grant.

[Fritz]

Worst President ever? Without putting more effort into some of the presidents of the 1800s, where there are some excellent candidates, I would say LBJ.

Justification for my position later.

[lcjjdnh]

Originally Posted by Axxon

3. Lyndon Johnson - here's an award winning asshat. Escalated vietnam, did zip at home. He didn't even try. He is an asshat supreme and is easily amongst the worst. His only redeeming value is that the two above him were in office once I was older and therefore I'm more more critical. He may easily be the worst and if argued correctly I'd probably concur.

Personally, I have not been around long enough to really comment(18 years) on best and worst because there's not really a lot of choice or me caring as a young child but I'll do my best to make comments anyway.

Just a small comment on LBJ. You claim that he didn't make an effort to do anything at home but I think that's a bit of an unfair statement. He did have his "Great Society" plan and although he did get caught up in Vietnam, it's really fair to disregard his entire domestic policy. He pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. He also managed to get education aid upped and get Medicare and Medicaid passed. He helped institute low-income hoising laws, rent-supplement programs and gave out block grants to improve cities. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also struck down any remaining barriers which would allow voting to be descriminatory. He also set up the HUD and Transportation departments. Johnson instituted "affirmative action" as well.

Now obviously, you many not agree with his domestic policies and Vietnam was mishandled but to write him off as doing "zip at home" is a tad bit short sighted.

[Anthony]

Clinton was the best. who cares about his blowjob. at least he didn't send hundreds of americans to their deaths on faulty assumptions and bad information, costing USA millions in the process with little payoff other than some false notion of "safety", because everyone knows a war on terror will eradicate all semblance of terrorism forever. Slick Willy was in office for the best boom in economy ever, and during his administration we had 8 years of relative peace.

where have you gone, 1990's, we miss you.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally Posted by Ryche

Best: Teddy Roosevelt
Worst: U.S. Grant - Great general, which is the only reason he became president. Warfare may have been his only talent though.

I can't judge recent presidents at all objectively, so I won't even try.

As bad as Grant was, at least he wasn't Andy Johnson. His fucking up reconstruction set the nation back several generations...

[BigJohn&TheLions]

[quote=Axxon]
1. George W Bush - I hate the asshat....

2. Ronald Reagan - ...He's the only guy who has been president I've hated.

[/et more QUOTE]

ummm, am I the only one who saw a slight discrepency... Oh yeah, maybe it is all part of the same presidency. Little Georgie couldn't have been prez if not for Ronnie's gang helping him screw things up...

[Fritz]

Originally Posted by lcjjdnh

Now obviously, you many not agree with his domestic policies and Vietnam was mishandled but to write him off as doing "zip at home" is a tad bit short sighted.

His disaterous policies at home are at the center of my argument for LBJ as the worst president.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Cuckoo

Booooo... You edited it.

The over/under on his tenure here is about 2 weeks, and I don't feel like being dragged down with him.


As for the Presidents, here's what I said in the other thread.

I was born in '85, but I'll go back to LBJ. This is just the general impression I have gotten, since the 2nd half of Clinton and Bush II are the only ones I've really understood or paid attention to. I'm not going to put them in a specific order, but just give a general sense.

LBJ: Vietnam was inherited, and not his fault that we were there. But he fought the war the wrong way. If we had been doing what Nixon started doing early in his term and didn't institute a draft, we probably would have won and at least achieved a situation similar to Korea instead of 'losing' the war and having South Vietnam and the surrounding countries being overrun by murderous thugs who committed genocide. Domestically, he signed the Civil Rights Bill, which Kennedy did a lot of work on, and attempted his "Great Society" program. Civil Rights turned out good, the great society not nearly as well. Verdict: Not very good.

Nixon: Did well on Vietnam, especially with his Vietnamization program, until domestic pressure spurred by Watergate became too great and he had to cut off all aid. Also opened relations with China. The effects of realpolitik are still being felt today, and while it solved many problems short term, it may have created just as many long term. Still, because we were in the middle of the Cold War, it was probably necessary. Domestically, he was responsible for much of the actual implementation of the Civil Rights Act and almost never gets any credit. His short-term economic policies implemented to help guarantee re-election hurt the country a lot in the mid-70's. Verdict:
A decent president who unfairly has his negatives focused on much more than most Presidents.

Ford: Wasn't there for long, didn't have much to work with, and didn't do much. I don;t know too much about his time in office, but he seems to have been more of a placeholder than anything else. Verdict: In the middle. Didn't do much either way. Gets a slight bonus for playing college football as well as he did, but it is negated because he played at Michigan.

Carter: Great man. My mom once said that he was probably the only President she would trust to watch her kids. Unfortunately, that seems to be a horrible quality for a President. His foreign policy was hideously weak, and cost him the election. His humanitarian efforts after his Presidency won him the Nobel Prize, but his brokered deal in Korea has been shown to be completely ignored by the North Koreans, which exemplifies the problems with his foreign policy while in office. Verdict: Worst President on the list.

Reagan: While others were urging conciliation with the USSR, his bellicose stance helped lead to the collapse and end of the Cold War. Shifting the tax burden from individuals to corporations is often mistaken as huge tax cuts. The economy did much better under him. His wife led the charge to the War on Drugs, the worst government program in a long time. Verdict: Best President on the list, despite the War on Drugs.

Bush I: Basically continued what Reagan was doing. Unfortunately for him, jobs recovered a year too late, Perot entered the race, and he lost the election. Verdict: Solid President. Didn't have too many of his own ideas that he tried to implement, but was an effective steward.

Clinton: Promoted Free Trade, especially NAFTA, which is good for the economy. Effectively ignored the growing threat of terrorism after the end of the Cold War. Proved effective in building coalitions for Kosovo, but his casualty-averse actions after Mogadishu (pulling out of Somalia, ignoring Rwanda) were disgraceful. Domestically, he presided over the biggest economic boom in a long time, but most of that was due to technological advances. Also expanded the War on Drugs. Verdict: A good President. Near the top of the list. His biggest failing was on the growing threat of terrorism, but no one was really talking about it and Republicans even accused him of "Wagging the Dog" when he took his small action against bin Laden.

Bush II: Pre 9/11 a listless President who wasn't doing much. Afterwards, recognized that something must be done and has set out to do it. While the results will not really be known for 10-20 years at the least, I think he is on the right track. Economically, has continued promoting free trade and has made some tax cuts, which are good but tilted a little too much towards the rich. Recent indications have him starting a War on Porn, which is an even more stupid idea than the War on Drugs. Verdict: Won't be known for a while, but as of now, I feel confident putting him in the top half.

As for other ones, I think JFK gets overrated because he wasn't in office long enough for anything bad to really stick to him. Washington is unquestionably #1 on my list. I don't know enough about most other Presidents to really rank them or say too much.

[Axxon]

[quote=BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally Posted by Axxon

1. George W Bush - I hate the asshat....

2. Ronald Reagan - ...He's the only guy who has been president I've hated.

[/et more QUOTE]

ummm, am I the only one who saw a slight discrepency... Oh yeah, maybe it is all part of the same presidency. Little Georgie couldn't have been prez if not for Ronnie's gang helping him screw things up...

I noticed it this morning but didn't see it as that important to edit. Didn't think folks here would paint this into some sort of conspiracy theory. For the record I'll downgrade W to simple strong dislike and distrust. I still hate Reagan.

[pennywisesb]

reagan basically single handedly bringing down the soviet union makes him the best president of my lifetime. as for this century, FDR would have to be my choice because of the way he was able to guide the US out of the depression, and bring us through WWII victoriously on both fronts. As for the worst of my lifetime: bill clinton. the economy was starting to get better under george bush sr. and clinton took all the credit for it. also, all the corruption during his two terms was just ridiculous. the day he left office was a great day for me. as for the worst president ever, i would give the award to herbert hoover and the disaster that was "the great depression".

[lcjjdnh]

Originally Posted by Fritz

His disaterous policies at home are at the center of my argument for LBJ as the worst president.

Two comments for you and I really am interested in your response. One is what exactly you feel is so disasterous about about his domestic policies. The second one is kind of realted in that if it is simply because you don't agree with his policies, I was just saying that he did attempt to pass legislation on the domestic side and it's not like he completely forgot about home which is the feeling I gathered from Axxon's post.

[VPI97]

Lifetime
Best - Reagan
Worst - Clinton
Most apathetic - Carter

All-time
Best - Lincoln
Worst - W.H.Harrison - He was sick the whole time + it was the death of the Whig Party.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Check this out and then answer who is the worst...

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/true911.html

[Sharpieman]

I'm only 19, so it would be unfair to rate the 3 Presidents that I have actually paid attention to in order.
All-Time
Top three Best:
1. FDR- Although he had some faults he was still great.
2. Thomas Jefferson - He was the old time Clinton, loved the women, but he was a good President and my favorite founding father.
3. Lincoln - Leader during the Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation.

Worst 3 ever:
1. Woodrow Wilson -Had the dumbest foreign policy ever. His strategy during the treaty of Versailles was horrible. He greatly contributed to the cause of WW2.
2. Grant - Great military, lackluster politician.
3. Lyndon Johnson - Everybody knows he sucked.

Overrated Presidents in no order:
Kennedy: Although he helped further civil liberties, he almost caused WW3 with the Bay of Pigs conflict.
Reagan: His brilliant "Regonomics" pushed the Federal Deficit from $1 trillion to $3 trillion during his tenure.