Who is the worst president in history?

Let me start by saying that I would love for this to be a historical - not political - discussion. That means anyone after the Berlin Wall came down is exempt because we simply don't have the historical context necessary to judge their actions.

That being said, my pick is James Buchanan. The man was president before the Civil War and did nothing - nothing! - to try to fix what was obviously a huge problem. He was a horrible waste of space who dealt with nothing and contributed nothing.

Herbert Hoover also comes to mind. His horrible management of the economy - especially the addition of more tariffs only deepened the Great Depression. Anytime the homeless name their makeshift homes after you know, it's not a good sign.

 

Ask me again in 20 years.

 

Good luck with that.

EDIT: See.

 

Yeah, I know. At least I tried. I'm a history geek so I'd love to get a discussion going without it devolving into Bush (or Clinton) bashing, but I figured it would probably happen.

 

You'll get a couple of legitimate responses from other history buffs. I'm not enough of a presidential follower to really make an educated guess.

 

Jimmy Carter, as the Simpsons will tell you, was history's greatest monster.

 

I'd agree with Buchanan. But I think Carter was worse. And I think he is an excellent human being who has done great things since he left office, but was still a bad president.

If you wanna ask another way, I think JFK is the most overrated (not the worst, but the most overrated)

 

Andrew Johnson, Grant, Harding, Buchanan and Pierce are always in the discussion.

 

Andrew Johnson, Buchanan, Grant, Hoover, Harding, Coolidge, Fillmore, Pierce...are all up there.

 

Andrew Johnson, US Grant, James Buchanan --- all worthy picks for presidents of sucktitude.

 

JandE, like you said, Buchanan did NOTHING to prevent the Civil War. He just wanted out of office so somebody else could deal with what was about to happen.

 

Yeah, I think Johnson probably takes the cake for highest level of sucktitude.