The Civil War started during Lincoln's term.

And just because I can't help myself...in a move which is practically a parody of stereotypes of Conservative America...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/douglas-mackinnon-south-secede-gay-rights-_n_6037274.html?cps=gravity

The South seceding to form an anti-gay nation named Reagan.

Yep.

Sounds about right. xD

Unless you're talking about when the states split away from the Union, then that happened during Buchanan's term for sure.

Buchanan basically put the US on the brink of the Civil War, through his own inaction, and the fact, you know, the Southern states began to secede on HIS watch.

I know all that. I guess it was the way you worded it for my confusion of what I thought you were saying.

I guess I conflate the country breaking apart with the Civil War...if you make Sumter the start of it, then obviously that's Lincoln's watch, but since the states left on Buchanan's watch, that's where I lay the blame, as it was an "inherited crisis" for Lincoln.

Blaming Buchanan for the Southern states seceding seems silly. They didn't secede due to anything Buchanan did or didn't do, unless you expected Buchanan to acquiesce on the issue of slavery to keep the Southern states in line. Secession was a force in progress for decades before it happened and before Buchanan's presidency.

Frankly, PE, there's a lot that Presidents get credit OR blame for that seems silly (the economy, for instance.)

Buchanan may have been the wrong person at the wrong time, but that doesn't mean he did a good job as President--there are other things to criticize about his Presidency as well--and so the South seceding is just icing on the shit cake.

If no one agrees with Buchanan, who would the rest of you pick as the Worst US President of All-Time?

It might help to cite those things, then, ideally some of them will be things Buchanan actually had influence over.

I don't have a submission, because admittedly, it's very hard to sit down and look at a president's term in office and isolate his influence on the kinds of major disasters that make a president the worst ever. I haven't done that yet and I don't think I have the time to do so. Might ask someone like Santa though - there are some other historians here too but Santa's the one I remembered first. iirc he focused on US history(?) so he could chime in with some authority on the matter

I am a historian!

The worst presidents in history, my own ranking:

1. Andrew Johnson is the clear winner for utterly failing Reconstruction. He wouldn't even have to be a radical republican; had he just held Lincoln's moderate views, or a measure of Lincoln's political skill, Reconstruction likely would have gone much more smoothly.

2. James Buchanan is second worst, for failing in any meaningful way to prevent the Civil War or, barring that, to prepare his successor to fight for the Union. In addition to this, he had many of the usual distasteful artifacts of the era. He was also fairly corrupt and clearly lacked vision, vetoing both the Morrill Act and the Homestead Act. The only reason he is not the worst is because, as noted, secession was a big thing that had been stewing for years.

3. Richard Nixon is third, not just for the obvious things, or his much-overrated foreign policy. He both helped to create the imperial presidency and then, in basically getting away with it (excepting his resignation) fatally undermined the notion of the rule of law and accountability. The misdeeds of the political class since 1980 can be largely attributed to this; people torture and steal and start wars with no realistic concern of punishment.

Oh of COURSE someone HAS to mention me!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States

Just sayin'.

I think Obama's historical trajectory will be cruising to just about where is his now...squeaking into the top third. We'll see how much he can execute on foreign policy during his lame duck session.

Dubya is going down in history currently as the second worst president to be elected to two full terms. Seems legit.

Johnson/Buchanan I agree with...

Nixon...Tricky Dick is riddled with major problems, but 3rd worst?

Worse than Pierce, worse than Hoover?

Clinton, Bush II, and Obama will all go down as basically the same thing in popular history: placeholders in our new Gilded Age who did very little beneficial and much of long-term harm. Bush will probably be remembered the worst (and maybe rightly), and Obama will be remembered as the first black president, but in 50 years they'll merge into a single two-decade clump, just like the post-Civil War presidents did.

threadID=966450

Thank you, obiwanobiwan. I wish I had burned those damned tapes!

In honor of Sbyvl, Calvin Coolidge.

I'd put Bush I on the list just because if he'd been a little bit more careful we would never of had Bush II.

I don't miss Sbyvl.

Herbert Hoover did a fine enough job in response to the Depression, but it was impossible to deal with. Had he been elected in 1932, he'd be remembered not as fondly as Roosevelt, but not vilified either. A lot of things we associate with the New Deal got their start under Hoover, like the Reconstruction Finance Corps. Hoover wasn't a good president, but not terrible.

Pierce was pretty bad, too. I might right now rank him fourth, though I'd have to think about it more.

In addition to other stuff, either obvious or already mentioned: Nixon started the War on Drugs. Nixon's Law and Order/Southern/Suburban strategy hurt American race relations. He failed to push for further civil rights laws. His policy in Vietnam was impeachable. He combined all the worst features of American foreign policy. He cut funding for NASA, one of maybe six good things the federal government did since 1950 that wasn't mostly about fixing its previous mistakes.

Above and beyond that, I don't think people appreciate just how harmful Nixon's example has been to later presidents.

^^^

President Nixon, sir, I've gotta ask you two questions:

1. Why'd you say all those naughty things with Billy Graham, and

2. What was it like to meet the King? (Of Rock and Roll, of course.)

Andrew Jackson is a big one to mention. Aside from the obvious matter of the Trail of Tears and the Removal act, he was sort of a violent man, and before he was president, invaded a foreign country.

1. Theodore Roosevelt
2. George W. Bush
3. William McKinley
4. Ronald Reagan

I don't know enough about the U. S. executive of the period to know whether Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler or James Polk were more to blame for the Texas and the Mexican War, but they are also up there. In any case, Andrew Jackson was an imperialist in other respects (Cherokee/Indian Removal Act). Benjamin Harrison (Hawaii), William Howard Taft and James Monroe (Seminole War/invasion of Florida) were also unapologetic imperialists. This is an incomplete list, but I think I singled out the most egregious presidents.

James Madison

Completely incompetent as a leader, utterly unprepared for war. The US didn't get annihilated because of naval commanders like Perry and Jackson. It was almost a total disaster.

Millard Fillmore is a close second. His endorsement of the Compromise of 1850 after Zach Taylor had pledged to oppose the extension of slavery in the Mexican territories set the stage for the civil war. Buchanan gets too much of the blame. The Presidents immediately preceding him set him up for failure. His speech during the Secession Crisis, I think, is one of the best presidential speeches ever made.

Actually, Andrew Jackson was also partly at fault for Florida, since he was the general that attacked the forts.

Are we judging by effectiveness/competence or actions we disapprove of?

Lol @ jece

Putin33: In my case, actions that make lives more shitty, whether of U. S. citizens or not.

phil_a_s: Yes, but I focused on the presidencies themselves. In any case, I only listed a few examples for each president or none at all. I mentioned Taft in part because of his role in the previous administrations.

Worst president? Clearly James Buchanan.

Best that isn't Washington or Lincoln?

James K. Polk gets some votes.