Who is the Worst President Ever?

It’s the big day! Inauguration Day! The beginning of a new chapter in American history. And how about that speech? Furthermore, how about him bumbling through the oath of office. I hope you were paying attention folks, that was the low point of this guy's presidency. Starting today Obama will set to work fixing George Bush’s mess. The big question hanging over Obama’s head of course is what he will do the other 1459 days of his first term since with a sprinkle of his magic pixie dust the recession will be over, Iraq will be won, and Osama Bin Laden will realize the error of his ways and use his trained armies to build homes and schools for the people of Afghanistan.

So while we await for Obama to enact the much needed change, I think it’s fair to turn our heads over our shoulders and look back on the presidency of George W. Bush.

A little while ago I was reading CNN and I ran across an article debating whether George W. Bush is the worst president in history. Here’s an excerpt:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/04/leading-democrat-bush-the-worst-president-weve-ever-had/

WASHINGTON (CNN) – As the nation prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, a leading Democrat is not letting up in his criticism of President George W. Bush.

“I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Reid pointed to Bush’s failed plan to privatize the Social Security program and also said Bush “has done his very best to destroy Medicare” in order support his assessment of Bush’s presidency.

Asked by David Gregory if he had any regrets about his persistent criticism of Bush, Reid responded, “I am who I am.”

“I think you just have to call things the way you see them.”

And like every article there were a plethora of comments either agreeing or disagreeing with Harry Reid’s assessment. Here was a fantastic over-analysis by a loyal CNN reader:

Grant E. in MD:
in my opinion, although he was not a very good president, G W Bush is NOT the worst president - he falls in at 3rd place behind Buchannan and Hoover. Harry Reid's sense of history is a bit distorted. But, then, he is to senate majority leadership as G W Bush is to presidency - also very bad. The Senate needs a Lyndon Johnson - very badly. And the House needs a Sam Rayburn. We have pipsqueeks running the congress. I wonder how Pres.Obama will get anything done.

You go Grant E! Put Harry Reid and his distorted view of history in its place.

But seriously, how is it that historians (and random readers on CNN.com) think they can compare the presidency of G-Dub with the presidencies of people like Hoover, Buchannan, etc? Their challenges were different and it basically seems to be a comparison between apples and oranges. That said, I opened it up to the readers for some nominations of who they thought was the worst president ever in a little poll that I call “Worst President Ever?”

The following are quotes from a few emails I received from folks in response to my query. I have organized them according to the dates of their presidencies.

George Washington (Nominated by Molly Griffin): 1789-1797


Molly: “[George Washington] set the tone for America to be environment unfriendly by chopping down a tree...”

Note: Courtney and I spotted this ad in Paris.

I have a little difficulty putting the original G-Dub in here partly because the state I call home is named after him, and of course by extension my Alma Mater. Of course, if he had anything to do with the atrocious football season UW had, then I say vote him to the top!

Martin Van Buren (Nominated by Courtney O'Neill): 1837-1841

Courtney: "At first I was going to go with the obvious worst, William Henry Harrison, who was so bad that he was only in office for a month before they off'ed him. (Well technically he died of pneumonia, but still... a month? And people wondered why I was skeptical of electing Old Man McCain!) But after researching who I always assumed was the worst president, the choice was made obvious- Martin Van Buren, our 8th president. Half of WHH's official bio is about how different he was compared to the snobby elitist Van Buren. (Granted, if you are in charge of writing about someone who was only in office for a month you would probably find anything to add as a filler to make it the 500 words your boss asked for. Actually, funny story: In 6th grade we all had pick a presidents name out of a hat to do a research project on, and I got Harrison, our 9th president, and the only information I could find on him was about 3 sentences long. After some convincing, I finally managed to get the teacher to let me choose someone else, even though she had made this huge deal about not being able to switch. Yep... even at age 11 I was a mover and a shaker who got things done. True story.) Anyways, just like this election where the Dems took advantage of presenting the opposite type of candidate then who is currently in the office, "The Whigs in 1840 presented their candidate William Henry Harrison as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic champagne-sipping Van Buren." Not only was Van Buren a shorty (5'6"), but he dressed fastidiously. His nickname was "The Little Magician" What?!!! Who wants a president with that name?

And if being so short and wizardly wasn't bad enough, let's see if any of this sounds eerily familiar to you:

'The country was prosperous, but less than three months later the panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. His destruction of the Second Bank of the United States had removed restrictions upon the inflationary practices of some state banks; wild speculation in lands, based on easy bank credit, had swept the West. In 1837 the panic began. Hundreds of banks and businesses failed. Thousands lost their lands. For about five years the United States was wracked by the worst depression thus far in its history.'"

Blake here. After doing a little research, I found something that leads to some startling conclusions ... George W. Bush lives forever, and it is quite possible that he's been all of history's worst presidents, including "Mr. Van Buren". Just look at the following photo!
Now, back to Courtney:
"So yeah, that's why, in the words of Tina Fey, Van Buren can suck it!"

William Henry Harrison (Nominated by Kyle Steuck): March 4th 1841 – April 4th 1841


Kyle: “31 days in office, 9 of which he was in bed for. Much like Bush. Unlike Bush, he was verbose -- 2 hour inauguration speech that may or may not have caused the pneumonia that killed him. Also: supported slavery in the Northwest Territories, managed to force through indentured servant laws, and was most famous for killing a bunch of Indians in an overmatched battle. The only potential plus side from his presidency: we sorted out that the vice president should actually become president, not just be acting president until a special election. Of course, that led to Andrew Johnson and Gerald Ford becoming presidents. Sigh."

Franklin Pierce (Nominated by Kathleen King and Byron Doepker): 1853-1857

Kathleen: “Although his presidency was in another lifetime (which I could give a crap about .. Just Kidding!), I think this quote about him makes him worthy of a nomination: ‘a servile tool of men worse than himself ... ever ready to do any work the slavery leaders set him.’ (Theodore Roosevelt).”

Byron: I nominate Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857.

First off, he signed the Nebraska-Kansas Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and thereby opened up the rest of the Missouri territory (it was big) to slavery. In so doing, he single-handedly sparked the creation of the Republican Party. They were the good guys back then. Oh, how far men can fall...Anyway, the party was created to battle back against slavery, among other things. So, besides being responsible for Republicans, something we can all thank him for, I think the best way to see his failure is this: He is the only elected President in US history to not have been re-nominated as his party's nominee after his first term. (Though in fairness, John Tyler was kicked out of his party during his term, so he didn't have a party left to re-nominate him).

Teddy Roosevelt (Nominated by Molly Griffin): 1901-1909


Molly: “[Teddy Roosevelt] had a bear cub killed in Mississippi and spawning hundreds of years of child laborers in foreign countries making small stuffed "teddy"bears. I now have a population control problem of teddy bears in my kids' rooms.”

Every Modern President (Nominated by Derek Brown): 1961-2000

Derek: “Truth is we won't know really how bad or even good Dubya was until 10 years or so has past... I still think the Iraq war though if it had been executed better was a good thing to do, and time will tell on it. And though he is hated around the world, he is loved in Eastern Europe (Support against Russian bullying), and Africa (aid). And FYI, way better at dancing than Obama.

In my opinion the worst President (from what I know) was Kennedy. He really was shocking. If people take of their nostalgia glasses briefly they'll see he wasn't a good President. Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, His countless affairs with his secretaries (making Clinton look like a saint), and of course there is the family which was involved with some pretty seedy people that no doubt got him the presidency in the first place.

But his family’s tragedy makes us forget all that.

Nixon has got to be pretty close too for Watergate, Carter wasn't exactly wonderful, and Clinton ruined what could have been a solid Presidency with his affair.”

George H. W. Bush (Nominated by Tamer Bakeer): 1989-1993

Tamer: "For fathering Bush Junior."

George W. Bush (Nominated by a plurality of Americans, your humble editor will make the case): 2001-2009

So does he deserve it? Let's consult the "awful president check list":

[X] President during an economic recessions. Do we get extra points if we had two recessions?
[X] Oversaw a huge national security crisis yet did not capture those responsible. Uhh ... Where's Bin Laden? Can you imagine if after Pearl Harbor we invaded Vietnam?
[X] America is unpopular abroad. I coordinate my outfit according to what paper bag I'm wearing.
[X] Ignored and did not encourage trends in science, health and technology. Stem cells? Pshh. Green technology? Boring! Climate change? Hocus pokus. Now Creationism, that's something I can get behind!
[X] Bungled a natural disaster. Brownie - You're doing one heck of a job!
[X] Started an unnecessary war. It was started at worst, on lies. At best, on incompetence. You pick. Both are worth equal points.

So let's do the math. George W. Bush received 7 out of 6 possible points. You tell me.

Also, if you want to see an interesting article pointing out that Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. oversaw the lowest GDP growth since the early 1950’s, the lowest per capita income growth since 1961 and the lowest job growth since 1945 check out this link from the Seattle times.

Thomas Whitmore (Nominated by Jake Powell): The Not So Distant Future



Jake: "In the face of total destruction of our planet by a race of parasitic aliens, President Whitmore joins the fight by going back to his "fighter pilot" roots and taking the fight to the sky.

Gen. William Grey: "Mr. President, I'd sure like to know what you're doing" President Whitmore: "I'm a combat pilot, Will. I belong in the air."

Hey, maybe that's where GW got the idea of his infamous "Mission Accomplished" moment on deck of the U.S.S. Abe Lincoln. Considering this is one of the most idiotic, far fetched, gung-ho Joe American films released in the last twenty something years, and full of the absolute cheesiest one liners classic of Fresh Prince Will Smith, (Straight outta Bel-Air, biatchez!!), Prez. Whitmore should have some pretty tough post-term questions to answer. Maybe some of the same questions GW will have to answer....

'The cities are in flames. Thousands and thousands are dead. Millions of people's lives will never be the same. How could you let things get this bad under your watch? What the f#ck were you thinking?'"

The thing that really gets me (this is Blake again) is that he had warning. We found out later that he had been delivered a memo of the title "Aliens Determined to Attack the U.S."

Evil Lincoln (Nominated by Kitri Doepker): The Distant Future
Kitri: "'So, murder and mayhem, standard procedure!'

Because at the end of the day, there are worse things than a few broken bones, some internal hemorrhaging, and a partially barfed up heart. 'REAL HOLOGRAM SIMULATED EVIL LINCOLN IS BAAAACK!!!'"

(You score points with the editor for the Futurama reference!)

So make your pick. As always, you can feel free to vote for more than one if you can't decide.