Wednesday, March 07, 2007

10 worst presidents

The Real List of Bad Presidents

The Feb. 26 issue of  US News & World Report featured yet another "America's 10 worst presidents." This rather pedestrian list includes William Harrison at number 8.  One wonders what transgressions a man who died one month into his term might have committed, but I guess they know. 

Herbert Hoover & Richard Nixon  are tied for 9th.  Hoover gets rapped for the Great Depression which was more the fault of congress ( Smoot-Hawley tariff act).  Milton Friedman blamed the Federal Reserve for reducing  the money supply at a time of economic contraction, so that must be the reason.

Bill Clinton is not on that list, so we get a certain feel for what the author was looking for.  My guess is his/her last history book was read in the 10th grade. Let's call this page a space filler, and an opportunity to ask "Is George Bush really our worst President?"



Jon Christian Ryter at NewsWithViews.com used that list to segue into his own. 

His
Mine
  1. FDR
  2. Wilson
  3. Carter
  4. Clinton
  5. John Adams
  1. Carter - Clinton (tie)
  1. FDR
  2. LBJ
  3. Wilson
  4. John Adams
  5. Kennedy
  6. Andrew Johnson
  7. Pierce
  8. James Buchanan

A busted link leaves us to wonder who comprised Ryter's last five stinkers, but his rationale for the first five is almost flawless, and I used it to compile my own. It's settled then by my list. End of discussion.
Jack Hamilton

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Roger your list and mine are the same except I have FDR and LBJ reversed.I gave it to LBJ because of the lies about the Gulf of Tonkin and The Great Society Program. But the all time worse has to be Carter he almost destroyed this country. I hope they get that damn link fixed.

Anonymous said...

Also other than the fact that Nixon tried to protect his friends he was really a pretty fair President.I have always thought to much importants was placed on Watergate.

The real importance about Watergate is that it unfortunately set the standard that all reporters looked at as being the best of there field and fame and fortune awaited if they could bring down a sitting President.Consequently since that has been the ambition of most ambitious journalist which I have observed over 35 years go from being an ocupation equated with honor and integrity an much esteem to being compared to a slimey unclean whore that used to work the waterfront and mug unsuspecting sailors. A lot of it started with Walter Crankcase and his lies about TET and slanting the Vietnam War for the democrappers. I might have rambled there a bit.

Anonymous said...

I think that the slavery issue is such a popular whipping boy for the WASP that the economic importance and rewards shared by all of the US is overlooked. It can be compared to the illegal problem that we are facing today. Cheap labor that we will have to pay for the next 200 years. The "worst" president saw what the labor pool advantages were and how the fruits of that pool were advancing the US in the world economy. They did what they thought was best for the economy ...stupid.

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