Worst President

TISO:

Whatever makes you happy!
Enjoy life and stick to your ideals.

 

Just to jump in:

Al Jezera causes much anger as it seems to put out biased, propagandised 'news' that makes Goebbels seem like the BBC. Admittedly we tend to rely on what other news stations translate for us to find out what they are saying...


Oh, and what were the goals of the SSSR then?

 

I have split it off...

 

I would like to nominate James Madison, the American president who declared war against the mighty British Empire in 1812, who subsequently razed Washington DC, including burning the White House.

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Nobody was home at the time so no big deal. Aside from burning the white house unopposed the Brits didn't accomplish much in the war of 1812 but managed to get a lot of their soldiers killed at New Orleans, lake Champlain, Erie etc. In the admittedly small engagements, but highly important due to the effect on morale(both theirs and ours) of the American superfrigates versus RN frigates they also took it on the chin.

 

"Nobody was home"

What a lousy excuse! What kind of primitive farmer society was this??

If there was nobody was home, than this is a bad mark for the state of defence of the country. No modern and sefrespecting country lets its capital unguarded, especially when it houses its vital institutions.

 

Ummm, in 1812 the US was a primitive farmer society.
You can pretty much blame Thomas Jefferson, who believed an all militia army and (coastal) gun boat navy was all that was required for a free democratic society.
The capital was defended, but the Brits routed the citizen militia in about 15 minutes. Not much damage done (vital institutions in Washington in 1812? The city was too new). The Brits weren't capable of holding the city.
The US pretty much achieved all of it's war aims at the negotiating table, with the exception of adding Ontario and Quebec (which was far from popular) to the US.

 

Worst = Richard Nixon
#2 James Buchanan
#3 Franklin Pierce

(Honorable mention to LB Johnson)

 

LBJ was not so bad. He was suckered into Nam, but he did a lot on civil rights ( and that took a looot of guts in those times). For Nam his only foult was to rely on his cabinet too much ( McNamara & co) at the beggining and then trusted no one (when he seen what they done) not even those he should trust.

Madison realy had to be "not the brightest of man" if he declared war on brits with such army US had at the time.

 

LBJ was not too good. Supporting civil rights didn't take that much guts in those times (unless you were in the deep south). What took guts (and stupidity) was not supporting civil rights in those days. LBJ never relied on his cabinet too much (sounds like a Bush excuse), he was always firmly in control and never trusted anyone. His Great Society programs, along with the Viet Nam war, helped ruin the US economy and fueled hyper inflation for years. It also helped create the victim mentality and "the governent must help me and make everyone equal" syndrome.

Madison is generally considered an average president.
Technically, in the US system only the Congress can declare war, a quaint 17th century notion that no US president has ever paid too much attention to when it didn't suit them. The President can only ask for and endorse a Declaration of War.
When the US declared war in 1812, the Brits were fully occupied in Europe (Napolean; their siezure of seamen from US ships to crew RN ships was the proximate cause of the war). The whole thing was supposed to over quickly. The Brits had their agenda as well, primarily limiting or preventing the US access to the Mississippi river valley and the Great Lakes areas.
The myth of the Minuteman citizen militia winning the revolution was at full strnegth. In the actual event the state militas were quite willing to protect their home states, but unwilling to invade Canada, or even leave their home states. The war was so unpopular that the New England states began to talk about secession.

 

The much overrated president Kennedy brought the US into Vietnam. Kennedy is my top three of worst presidents.

 

LBJ was smart enough to capitalise on the death of JFK to hustle plenty of Civil Rights legislation through. His 'Great Society' - well, it would potentially have worked if not for Vietnam. 2 big spending programs = stupid.

I'll go along with JFK though. More about showbiz than politics, his presidency is best summed up by 'tokenism'. And the guy is largely responsible for turning politics into a popularity contest rather than a 'who will run my country best' contest.

The Cuban missile Crisis? His brother told him what to do.

 

Civil rights legislation was going to go through with or without LBJ or JFK (although both fully supported it, no argument there). The Civil Rights movement was almost 15 years old by the time LBJ was president. As usual, the politicians caught on to what the public was thinking a little late.
I can't agree on the "Great Society", other than the vision of it. Too much government knows best, Uncle Sam will take of you. But trying to do it in conjunction with Viet Nam does indeed = stupidity. That's LBJ for you.

Kennedy overated? Definitely, but the roots of Viet Nam go back to Eisenhower at least, if not Truman (who is also high, or is it low, on my worst of list). There is some evidence that Kennedy was close to cutting out of Viet Nam, something LBJ found impossible to do.

FDR is one president that always perplexes me. Some of his actions should rate him among the worst, for example the Supreme Court packing scheme, and running for a third and then a fourth (when he was nearly dead) term.
However there is no denying his leadership and willingess to try something, anything, to move forward, wether to escape the Depression or end the Third Reich. So in the end he has to rate as a "best of" for me.

 

Worst presidents ( of the U.S. of A ??? )

..buchanan........... watched the war come
..hoover............... watched the depression stay
..kennedy............. nevermind the politics , look at my haircut !


for my money , the best

..jackson..........mad , bad and for the people
..lincoln ...........destroyed the federation and created the country
..roosevelt .......a class act , got the country to be first
..nixon ........... the best postwar strategist , cleanned up the mess of
the five previous administration .

 

Which Roosevelt?

 

FDR

 

henry fonda and martin sheen always make good presidents......

 

john voight did a good roosevelt ,
could make a good prez ( with angelina jolie on the ticket )

cancel the above ...sharon stone and angelina !!!!!