TO HELL WITH THE CHIEF: ON PRESIDENTS DAY, HERE’S A LIST OF THE 10 WORST
By Greater Long Beach
This is Presidents Day, and in recognition of the 44 men who have been President of the United States during the nearly 235-year history of the country, Greater Long Beach refers you to this list of the 10 worst to occupy the office, as compiled by U.S. News and World Report.
10. ZACHARY TAYLOR: A political novice, the war hero is entirely forgettable as president
9. (TIE) HERBERT HOOVER: He was known as a poor communicator who fueled trade wars and exacerbated the Depression.
9. (TIE) RICHARD M. NIXON: Though politically gifted, he will forever be associated with the Watergate scandal and his resignation.
8. WILLIAM HARRISON: He was president for all of 30 days after contracting pneumonia during his interminable inaugural
7. ULYSSES S. GRANT: Serving right after Andrew Johnson, he presided over an outbreak of graft and corruption, but had good intentions.
6. JOHN TYLER: He was a stalwart defender of slavery who abandoned his party’s platform once he was president
5. MILLARD FILLMORE: He backed the Compromise of 1850 that delayed the Southern secession by allowing slavery to spread.
4. FRANKLIN PIERCE: His fervor for expanding the borders—thereby adding several slave states—helped set the stage for the Civil War.
3. ANDREW JOHNSON: He survived impeachment after opposing Reconstruction initiatives including the 14th amendment.
2. WARREN G. HARDING: He was an ineffectual and indecisive leader who played poker while his friends plundered the U.S. treasury.
1. JAMES BUCHANAN: He refused to challenge either the spread of slavery or the growing bloc of states that became the Confederacy.
7 Comments
Nixon did too much good to belong on the list. He established the EPA, OSHA, and passed more civil rights legislation than any president in the history of the office, opened china, ended the vietnam war. He also didn’t cry when Kennedy, as historians agree, stole the election from him in Chicago and Texas.
Conspicuously absent is John F Kennedy who was responsible for the Bay of Pigs disaster, the weakening of our standing in foreign affairs which precipitated the Russians bringing him to his knees, forcing him to remove our missiles from Turkey. Let’s not forget his authorship of our famous excursion in Vietnam, his foot-dragging during the civil rights excursions, and the huge waste of time and money called “the peace corps,” with which we sent arrogant twenty-somethings to faraway lands to convince to village elders to abandon their ignorant savage ways. Lincoln’s ineptitude at running the war is well documented, as well as calling for a war in the first place with no constitutional grounds to support calling a war which turned into a mass slaughter of his own people for no good reason. Good lord what a shitty list. Does anyone crack open a history book anymore?
FYI- Eisenhower and his advisers were primarily responsible for the Bay of Pigs disaster- the operation was well underway before JFK took office- granted, he could have stopped it but his inexperienced showed.
Same with Vietnam- most feel Kennedy was going to pull out of Vietnam after his re-election.
Irrelevant, Fred, since the Bay of Pigs was Kennedy’s responsibility, and your charge of “inexperience” in no way mitigates his incompetence. Some say he was just not that bright, and was propped up by his dad after his brother Joe killed himself. Most people who liked Kennedy claimed he would have pulled out. Again… irrelevant. The war history of Vietnam would repel any intelligent person from entering that bog.
In any case, he certainly deserves to be selected as one of the 10 worst presidents. In both Kennedy and Lincoln’s case, it’s amazing what a shot in the head can do for your public image.
Stop messing around, or I’ll start talking about the Carter Administration. You’ve been warned.
“Irrelevant”
as facts so often are to the right.
cue lame snark…
JFK was also an alledged drug addict.
Jason: I’m interested in hearing your take on the Carter Admin. in your always entertaining style.
P.S., Jason: Though Nixon expanded the war before ending it, I agree with your assessment of R.M.N’s Administration.
If if wasn’t for the Watergate debacle, borne out of his ever-increasing, self-made paranoia, he would’ve gone down in history as one of America’s best Presidents.
By far and away the worst president we ever had was George Bush Jr. There is no contest for the title,