Grant may have been a weak and ineffective president but before that he risked his life to save his country which is the precise opposite of what Dubya has done.
In Bush's first term net employment in the US actually went down which is unique in American History. He's also the only president to introduce a tax cut in during wartime, and he's allowed the balance of trade to reach alarming levels.
As for the forgettable presidents, what was that dictum about the happiest nations being those with no history?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Judging from the presidents I've seen come and go in the last 50 years, the worst president in US history is probably the next one.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As always, I like to point the finger back at us...of which our worst presidents are a reflection.

2004 would be up there. But to be fair, a decent percentage voted for the slightly lesser evil...1984 was a landslide in favor of an idiot, who many still worship...But I think I'll go with 1972.

I think Andrew Jackson was a popular scumbag, but I can't rembember back that far...Any other suggestions from history buffs?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I´m afraid that when all the proof is in to support George W. Bush´s candidacy for "Worst President", there may not be a country left to grant him that dubious honor.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Bush...active alcoholic, liar, manipulator, dumb, ignorant, ...war monger. He has destroyed the credibility of the USA at home and abroad, has authorized torture of US citizens and non-citizens, denigrated and ignored the Constitution, stands for everything that is sick in the USA, and....gets away with it! Truly amazing! I pity the next president. This one is not worthy of being called: "Mr. President". He should be designated: "Mr. Scumbag".

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Interesting that the article left off a President who:
1. Closed newspapers that called for negotiations and a court case rather than going to war in his time
2. Arrested newspaper reporters without charges or trial if they made jokes about him or didn't go along with his program
3. Opened fire on unarmed demonstrators
4. Issued an arrest warrent for the head of the Supreme Court
5. Placed military tribunals in all the major cities to avoid the courts
6. In Chicago, set up a camp for enemy combatants where snipers greeted POW's by shooting any Black men who had fought for the enemy as they entered. If there weren't any, they would randomly shoot whites to keep the population in line. Food was left outside the prison to rot and the POW's began to whither away. People nearby saw and heard the horror, and signed a petition to have the food given to the POWS. Everyone who signed the petition had their home and business taken away and was placed in the camp!
7. By achieving victory consolidated power into a federal government taking it away from states. This would lead to the U.S. becoming an international power, the President never again having to ask permission from all the states to go to war, the first emergency powers acts placing the President above the law, World War 1, San Juan Hill, Korea, Vietnam- all legacies of this consolidation.
8. Promised to send all blacks back to Africa.
9. Presided over a nation that tried to hide slaves- by taking them to Canada because all industrialized states like Illinois banned blacks from entering
10. Ordered the leader of the opposition to be arrested and held without charges fearing a court battle would prove that states did have a right to leave - that man was beaten by arresting soldiers, his adopted black child covering his body was also beaten as the child yelled for the soldiers to stop. He was held in solitary confinement for 2 1/2 years before the Pope fashioned a bloody crown of thorns mailing it to the next President urging his release.

11. Is called by fellow lovers of a military government honest with no explanation as to how he got the support of Tamminy Hall in NYC, the most corrupt political machine in the nations history.

That President was Abraham Lincoln and the fact that this author must know all the above and yet admire all the above actions makes any critique of Bush just silly. To put it another way, how many newspapers has Bush closed? How many Americans were shot for participating in peaceful protests here? How many comedians have been jailed "for the duration" for telling jokes about Bush?

Shouldn't Bush be allowed to go as far as this writers hero?

Now, about what economists now think of FDR and his failed attempts to end the depression, jail people for their racial makeup, allowing spies to infiltrate our government, refuse to stop or prosecute lynching..... but that's another post......

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I recall the statement by Mark Twain: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

I began to develop some political awareness about the time of the Watergate hearings, so that I recognized that the president was involved in something that made him unfit for office to many. I harbored this opinion whenever I thought back on the administration of Tricky Dick.

Now I suppose that I am old, and look back with fond nostalgia to those happy childhood days. I find myself longing for the transparency and good governance of the Nixon Administration. In the light of "W", I find that the old man was a far better president that we knew. A real gemstone embedded in a cow pie. Oh, how I wish I could read headlines about wage and price controls, "Phase III", the "Energy Problem". I would weep to see him again, arms outstretched, with fingers in the "V"-sign.
.
OK, maybe not. I am not totally soft in the head. Still, Nixon is a veritable star in the heavens when compared to Junior.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

W!W!W!

Tom

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

WeAreWideAwakew.org/WAWA
have been accused of "hating" President Bush, but WAWA does NOT hate anyone.

What WAWA hates is apathy, ignorance, hypocrisy, governments that deny human rights and defy International Law

And WAWA is flaming angry that our Lord, Brother, Lover was hijacked by Candidate Bush -who claimed JC was his favorite Philosopher-to get elected

President Bush neglects to follow the Philosophy,

Which is:

The Peacemakers are the children of God, one must love, pray for, do good towards their enemies:

NOT bomb or torture them!



JC was never a Christian,

That term was not even coined until 3 decades after JC walked the earth.

But JC was a social justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish Road Warrior who ROSE UP/INTIFADA and challenged the job security of the corrupt Temple authorities when he taught the people they did NOT need ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God:


For God loved them just as they were: poor, oppressed, diseased, outcast, and sinners who endured under Roman occupation.


What got JC crucified was that he disturbed the status quo of Rome by teaching that the least of all were loved and valuable to God,

And that Cesar only had power, because God allowed it.



WAWA
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Contemporary history buffs have wised up on Jackson's racism and are rightfully condemning it and its pernicious results.

But as Confucius said, what is big in the back is big in front.

Jackson's sense of white supremacy led directly to manifest destiny and manifest destiny was ennobled. This is evident in the song " America" which contains such verses as "from sea to shining sea."

Without Jackson we may well be Switzerland. There is some appeal in that, but we certainly would not have become a great world power.

As we emerged as a great power other white supremacist President's, notably Wilson somehow managed to associate American power with anti-Imperialism, democracy and political equality.

Paradoxically, without America's emergence as an anti-Imperialist world power no Western nation at all would have come forth as an advocate of poliitical equality and equal rights irrespective of race.

Robert Chapman
Lansing, NY

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I really must protest Mr. von Hoffman's assessment of John Tyler.

The Whig Party was founded to counter Jackson's accretion of power to the Presidency and to return this power to the Congress. The party grandees choose Harrison as a distinguished General and Governor who would serve as a compliant executive to this plan.

Tyler, the former Governor of Virginia, the California of the time, was there to balance the ticket and attract electoral votes.

However, when Harrision died Tyler asserted great strength and assured that the Vice President would succeed to full Presidential status upon the death of the President.

Because of Tyler's immense political courage and personal force the Presidencies of T. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson were regarded as legitimate, full-fledged Presidencies.

It is not hard to imagine how entirely different our laws and government would be without these titans.

John Tyler, despite his lack of party support cannot be viewed as a weak or failed President.

Robert Chapman
Lansing, NY

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sad to say, there's plenty of shameful poop to go around about most all of our presidents, beginning with the slaveholding of the Founding Fathers (save Adams) and right up to the shafting of poor women and children and gays by Clinton. No, it's not all equal, and some of the offenders did great things simultaneously. It's a tough job, or at least it was until W took office and decided, having watched his father in a haze of booze and resentment, that the presidency was a cakewalk.

What most bothers me about Bush is that his administration has attempted to change the paradigm completely. He only pretends to struggle with difficult issues or feel pain. Cheney eggs him to new heights of arrogance and audacity while Rove and whoever works for them try to spin it. We "in the reality-based community," as Ron Suskind reported, have been reeling since the Supreme Court put them in office. What this administration has damaged most in my opinion is any authentic sense of integrity. What's up is down and what's down is up, and that any challenge to their views is intolerable, and since they have God on their side and our data in their hands, not only should we agree, there will be dire consequences to anyone who doesn't. If the Democrats don't get it together, our republic is going to be toast.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

IT's very interesting studying the presidents of the US, past and president to avoid revisionist history of a greater time, stronger morality, etc. A great book on the subject of strictly the presidential campaigns is: See How The Ran by Gil Troy. It is great to see that oftern our rose-clored galsses look to a better time in the past that often didn't exist.

Thanks for the article.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Have you forgotten starting a war on a soveriegn nation,
The creation of The PATRIOT Act, the surveillance society, turning innocent sovereign citizens into criminals, the destruction of Habeas Corpus,the re-authorization of The PATRIOT Act, the passage of CAFTA by 1 vote, exporting jobs/careers abroad. There are too many violations to mention.
Or is it that we are not seeing the Fascist/Totalitarian agenda.
Is the current government attempting to destroy the Constitution , Bill of Rights and our unalienable rights?

Any concerns are just a symptoms of these
more basic and urgent issues. If we lose the Constitution,
Bill of Rights and our unalienable right- we are no longer America. Would THAT qualify for possibly being the worst president in American history ?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Dan makes some great observations:

the lost transparenvy of government and;

the real skill and talent that Richard Nixon brought to the office of the Presidency.

It is ironic that the conservative movement, whose avowed mission is to shrink government and get it off our backs has brought increased inflation, the shrinking middle class, the security state and is now exercising its utmost power to put big brother into all our bedrooms.

Nixon's towering talents have unfortunately been misused to justify the conservatives' all out assault on heterodoxy in American life.

Nixon, this most individualistic of all our Presidents, has had his legacy misused to serve as the political foundation of a program of relentless conformism.

In my opinion, this stems from his use of illegal means, such a burglarly and money laundering to effect political benefits that he had already gained through his statesmanship.

Robert Chapman
Lansing, NY

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Not that a President has to be perfect, since they are but human, but I don't believe we've ever had a good President.

Washington may have been the closest, with Jefferson right behind him. Of course both were slave holders, and Jefferson, for all of his intellectual prowess and who should have had more compassion and should have known better, essentially stole land from both the French and the Indians. Washington did nothing to preserve the existing rights of Indians, either, and ordered the extermination of thousands of Shawano, Tslagi and others.

Kennedy, by no means perfect, did do some good with the Alliance for Progress and did show courage in dealing with a very real nuclear threat. But he further embroiled us in Vietnam, started the sanctions against Cuba and failed to take advantage of other situations that could have prevented the eventual take over of America by the right wing.

Roosevelt? No way. He rolled over while the major industrialists took over the government, causing future generations great pain and suffering and the building of a massive bureaucracy that still grows out of control.

Eisenhower could have been a whole lot worse, but he failed to act to prevent the growth of the right wing, particularly the anti-communist activities that resulted in a lot of repression, black listing and other un-American activities.

Among the more disgusting: Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, L.B. Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, daddy Bush, Clinton and dummy. Does anyone else see a trend, here?

The upshot is that we seem to be taking a long slide down hill and with one, maybe two exceptions, the current crop of Presidential hopefuls do not seem to be much better.

Skywolf.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As much as I hate Nixon's guts, I believe Bush II has this category beat; no question!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Only Shrub could turn a 71-year-old, lifelong registered Republican like me, Goldwater conservative and Ronald Reagan fan into a rabid Bush-hater.

Once an ardent suporter of George W., I flipped after finding the Rosetta Stone of White House corruption. Here are the details.

In February 2004 while researching the Internet for information about Dub-ya's service in the Texas Air National Guard, I found a falsified presidential biography that claimed he flew ANG F102 interceptors almost six years when the actual time was 27 months.

There were other misrepresentations as well – all intentional, not typos or mistaken dictation.

Of all places, the bogus bio had been published on a State Department website for the whole world to see. Everyone except the sleepwalking press, that is.

After shaking off my incredulity, it became clear the fabricated federal document had been created in 2000 (or earlier) to make Governor Bush competitive with his primary opponent, Senator John McCain. Not coincidentally, for example, the inflated flying duty covered the same time period McCain spent as a POW in North Vietnam -- from 1968 through 1973.

To validate my discovery, I called the Boston Globe. Impressed, it ran the story the next morning, on 02/28/04, under the headline, "Bush Bio on Web Inflates Guard Service," and gave me credit as the source.

To read the Globe article and learn more about the most dishonest White House in U.S. history, visit my investigative website: www.King-George.biz.

Hugh E. Scott -- Vietnam veteran, ex-USAF pilot and author of "George Dub-ya Bush, THE PHONY FIGHTER PILOT."

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

sure we may hate W, but who put him there, and who continues to let him stay? in a representative democracy, we the people are supposed to be the government. with our opinions split 50-50 over so much, it's not surprising that our elected officials are without a rudder and are letting all of us drift along into the backwaters of history, the world, and ourselves.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sadly, you missed the worst President. He didn't mean to be that,but he realized he made a big mistake when he handed the running of the country to the corporations through the Dulles brothers and the sister. That was when the Military Complex that he spoke about took over. He warned you all in his farewell speech, sadly few got it, at the time.
His name was Eisenhower.
Johanna Moren

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

In my opinion, Ronnie Reagan was the worst president.

A Hollywood actor who conned people to vote for him because he could ACT like a president should.

A proponent of the most ridiculous right-wing fantasies and wet dreams. He would have gladly started a nuclear war with the Soviets.

This was a guy--as Mrs. Jimmy Carter remarked--who made it OKAY to and ACCEPTABLE to have a "screw the poor" attitude. And as if that wasn't enough, he also f***ed the middle class by raising interest rates to un-heard of levels, made union-busting just another business tactic; while lavishing money on the military.

And he did it all with an "aw shucks!!" fake folksiness as he systematically screwed the poor while padding the oligarchy.

As bad as Bush II has been, I maintain that EACH and EVERYONE of his policies were preceeded by--and merely extensions of--things that started in Reagan's reign.

To this day, the right-wingers practically fall to their knees in tears and cross themselves at mention of his name.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"Grant was too noble a man to be the worst anything. He had some crooks in his administration, but, like Harding, he had nothing to do with their corruption. On the plus side, he was the last President until Lyndon Johnson who would go to bat for black people."

I have to disagree with this statement. Even LBJ braggged that Truman didn't have the horses to get the Civil Rights Amendment passed, but HE did.
Truman couldn't get the amendment passed and in a typical Truman move, 'integrated the Armed Forces', the only thing he could do.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The man who nearly turned America into a monarchy was clearly the worst president this country has ever had and polls of historians continue to show it. To just completely forget about him makes me doubt everything in this article.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Reagan, along with every subsequent president, is up for worst ever. They all sat by, and are sitting by, while corporatism turns patriotism into a joke.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

While the senate is debating whether they should debate an end to the war (or even a pullback), we are dbating who the worst president was (is).

I say it is Bush, and I pray he is impeached before he gets us all killed.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]