Who is the worst president in history?

Harding, Pierce or Buchanan.

 

Because he rammed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, THE most important piece of legislation to pass Congress in the 20th century. Had he not let himself get sucked into Vietnam, he'd have been reelected in '68 by another landslide and he'd be regarded as one of the 10 best presidents in history. But...
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I agree if he had been smart enough to get out of Vietnam, he could have focused more on his social programs where he had many good ideas. If he would have avoid Southeast Asia, I think he'd be regarded as a very good president. Unfortunately, he didn't, the war continued to grow, soldiers continued to die and he (rightly) didn't deserve to be reelected.

 

Do LBJ's social programs, which have proven to be money pits, knock him down a peg? And while I hate to get political, if you rank the current Bush on the low end because he trumped up the case for war in Iraq, what does that mean for LBJ when you hang the Gulf of Tonkin around his neck?
I wouldn't rank LBJ among the worst, but I'm not sure he's among the best either.

 

Oh, he's definitely not among the best either...

 

I think the 20th century is fine, just nothing from the last 2 or 3 administrations.

 

My point was that if he had a good Vietnam policy (you know, the opposite of Gulf of Tonkin and everything else he did), he had some good ideas. Factoring in Vietnam he's nowhere near one of the best, and I would say bad overall.

 

Johnson's bumbling on Vietnam costs him. He constantly said one thing and did another. In his defense, his advisors didn't help him. No one, minus Clark Clifford to some extent, actually stepped up and told him the truth about how bad the situation was.

They told him what they thought he wanted to hear, or they were terrified of appearing "soft" on communism.

 

The domino theory was also taken to a ridiculous extreme in Vietnam. Unfortunately, as you say, LBJ and advisers had to worry about containment and appearing soft on communism which blinded them from doing what was right for the country.

 

Indeed. I think some in the administration truly believed that all of SE Asia would succumb to communism if Vietnam fell.

 

Ronald Reagan? Seriously? You rate him in the top fifth of the worst presidents ... very strange. Regardless of his opposition, the man still got something like 86% of the vote the second time around. The man was doing something right.

 

Aaaand they're off .....

 

I'm not looking to get in a political pissing contest or anything -- that's not my style. It's just tough to understand how one can call Reagan one of the nation's worst presidents when he was extremely successful and even more popular.