Who was the worst President since the Depression

[Capt Worley PE]

Who do you think the worst president since the Depression has been? I did not include Obama because his presidency is not over, so a true measure of his presidency can't be measured.

IMO, the worst President was Johnson. He greatly escalated the Viet Nam War, and his Great Society programs resulted (albeit unintendedly) in generational welfare and the downfall of the education system.

 

[Flyer_PE]

I tend to agree although I'm not sure how unintentional the consequences of the welfare system actually were. The escalation of the Viet Nam war wasn't so much the problem as the fact that he and McNamara were personally choosing/rejecting individual targets. Sending in troops and then setting up the ROE so that failure is almost certain is no way to run a war.

 

[snickerd3]

Was never into history let alone political history

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I tend to agree although I'm not sure how unintentional the consequences of the welfare system actually were.

I really do think they started off with good intentions, but failed to really think it through. And then no one had the political guts to address what problems did arise.

 

[Wolverine]

I'm going with Carter, just because I have first-hand memory of what a bad president he was (dating myself here).

18% mortgage interest rates, high unemployment (well it seemed high; not by the Obama standard though), gas lines, recession, failed stimulus plans, and two politically defining moments for me: the myopic emphasis on "ending our dependence on foreign oil" (a resurgence of the isolationist movement from the first part of the century) and an unchecked Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disordered Congress as they ran wild, right over Carter, in their zeal to blow the budget.

Oh, and a weakened defense system - that's three politically defining moments for me.

But I credit Carter for bringing us Reagan, the antivenin. Maybe BHO will earn similar credit.

 

[envirotex]

Nixon's administration irreparably damaged the credibility of the United States government to the American people. Not that it was that great beforehand, and not that it wouldn't have happened anyway, and not that all other American presidents before him weren't doing the same thing. Nixon just really pushed everything over the edge...

Also, I agree with everything that has been said about LBJ, but he (and Lady Bird) did a lot to advance the Civil Rights movement in the south with his campaign for the 1964 election...and he knew that signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 was political suicide and he did it anyway.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I chose FDR because his mistakes directly led to an extension of the Great Depression. Not only that, but he took credit for eventually ending the Great Depression, so the tactics he employed are being used again to extend our current Recession.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

If you discount the Watergate scandal, which, in all honesty, you can't, Nixon did a lot of good things:

Ended the draft

Ended Viet Nam (albeit after he tried and failed to win it)

Started the EPA (which has become a monster now...so that can go either way, but it did do good things for a while)

First round of nuclear weapons reductions

Clean Air Act

Trilateral diplomacy

Opened up relations with China (another mixed bag)

CAFE requiremnts promolgated (Ford signed it into law)

Carter was pretty bad. If I had to rank the three worst, it'd be LBJ, FDR, Carter.

 

[snickerd3]

If you discount the Watergate scandal, which, in all honesty, you can't, Nixon did a lot of good things:
Ended the draft

Ended Viet Nam (albeit after he tried and failed to win it)

Started the EPA (which has become a monster now...so that can go either way, but it did do good things for a while)

It still does good things!!!! Yes the policies and regulations are getting strict and unattainable and slight over reaching but there would be people still living in/next to/near toxic environments without them.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

If you discount the Watergate scandal, which, in all honesty, you can't, Nixon did a lot of good things:
Ended the draft

Ended Viet Nam (albeit after he tried and failed to win it)

Started the EPA (which has become a monster now...so that can go either way, but it did do good things for a while)

It still does good things!!!! Yes the policies and regulations are getting strict and unattainable and slight over reaching but there would be people still living in/next to/near toxic environments without them.

The bolded part is what I have a problem with today. And honestly, that's really only become that way since 2007 or so. Overall, the EPA has been a very good thing.

 

[Slugger926]

I went with Clinton, because his lack of ethics in leadership created a lack of ethics in multiple industries that created and collapsed a lot of bubbles from the Tech to housing.

LBJ would be a second due to his strategies in the Vietnam war. After touring Vietnam including the Cu Chi Tunnels, and studying their strategies versus ours in Corporate Strategy including one of our text books, I have come to the opinion that LBJ and all of the decision makers (generals and cabinet) during the war should be tried. They did not do any due diligence and had no real strategy compared to the innovative strategies of the Vietnamese. We forced the Vietnamese to take funds from the communists, and they shunned collectivism within two years of implementing it. They had a viable government alternative that we did not need to be involved with in the Vietnamese internal affairs. For lack of our due diligence, we built our base on top of the Vietnamese base in Cu Chi with the Vietnamese already hardened to their lifestyle of fighting the French for twenty years via underground tunnels.

Of course there is also Carter who created the Department of Energy to get us off of foreign energy. This department has grown tremendously wasting many tax dollars while we utilize even more foreign energy than ever before.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I went with Clinton, because his lack of ethics in leadership created a lack of ethics in multiple industries that created and collapsed a lot of bubbles from the Tech to housing.

I'd say Nixon had him beat in the unethical department.

They did not do any due diligence and had no real strategy compared to the innovative strategies of the Vietnamese.

I think they're real agenda was to prop up their donors in the military industrial complex. Eisenhower warned people about that, and they should have listened.

Of course there is also Carter who created the Department of Energy to get us off of foreign energy. This department has grown tremendously wasting many tax dollars while we utilize even more foreign energy than ever before.

I believe Carter really did have good intentions, but no real solid grasp of the issues.

 

[chaosiscash]

Of course there is also Carter who created the Department of Energy to get us off of foreign energy. This department has grown tremendously wasting many tax dollars while we utilize even more foreign energy than ever before.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

 

[Road Guy]

To me it's a toss up between Reagan and Bush II, but I had to go with Reagan, whose long term impacts resulted in the housing downfall of 2008...
Bomb suit donned, let the comments start.

You are a lost soul for sure......

 

[Capt Worley PE]

No, I actually don't truly feel that way, just wanted to stir the pot... I'm feeling feisty today.

Got to admit, you got me on that one. I was scratching my head saying "Reagan caused the housing bubble? What up?"

I only really know about Clinton, Bush II, and Obama, since those are the elections I was allowed to vote in, before them it is a slow process of learning about the presidents from earlier years as time goes on.

Funny thing is I almost left Bush out, too. His Presidency is probably still to recent to get an unemotional evaluation of his time in office.

 

[envirotex]

Let's also not forget that Nixon and the Watergate scandal help to create "modern journalism" if you want to call what we see today journalism...Really, a fine moment for our nation.

 

[MA_PE]

Let's also not forget that Nixon and the Watergate scandal help to create "modern journalism" if you want to call what we see today journalism...Really, a fine moment for our nation.

It's my opinion that Nixon wasn't any more "covert", "sneaky", "immoral", or "unethical" tha another president before or after. Watergate was an abomination that I fully believe he had no part of other than to try to conceal that it ever happened. He was firmly in the lead in that election and there was no need to break into the DNC to get anything.

I'd expect any leader to protect his own people and not throw them under the bus without some sort of assistance first.

It's the mass media coupled with the poular readership that created "modern journalism". Garbage "news" exists because that's what "the people want".

If no one cared about these scandels then there wouldn't be constant "investgative" reporting about it.

 

[Flyer_PE]

IMO, a lot of what we see in politics, news coverage, and other junk on TV is simply a reflection of the current state of the culture in this country. I'm not depressed so much by the fact that some of the garbage I see on TV. What I find depressing is the number of people that seem to enjoy watching it. I'll just sit back and read a book.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I think we'd be a lot better off as a society if TV had never been invented.

 

[ALBin517]

Funny thing is I almost left Bush out, too. His Presidency is probably still to recent to get an unemotional evaluation of his time in office.

Not to mention Bush gets worse every day, as Obama pins everything on him.