THE WORST US PRESIDENT EVER?

My suggestion for worst-ever US President is old peanut-brain himself, Jimmy Carter. I see he has been over here in the UK bad-mouthing Guantanamo Bay, bad-mouthing the US decision to liberate 25 million people in Iraq, blaming America for creating the Jihad(!) and doing his best to bolster the enemies of democracyt wherever he can find them.

Hey Jimmy - let's suppose we do what you want and let all those hundreds of captured Jihadists out of Guantanamo - any thoughts on what they might fancy doing? Betcha it'll not be attending international Baptist meetings. Carter is a creep and a national disgrace - no wonder he won the Nobel Peace Prize! He really is the lowest of the low.

Comments

[The Troll]

With out a doubt Jimmy Carter was and is the worst.

The Top 3 BEST
Ronald Reagan
Richard Nixon
George W Bush

[The Troll]

I have to amend the above statment. The WORST President of ALL TIME DOMESTICLY was FDR

[Shah]

I think Ulysses Grant and William Taft were pretty bad, William McKinley as well since he helped to legitimize late 19th century American colonialism, a complete anathema to the ethos of our nation.

[The Troll]

Carter is a disgrace everytime I see him or here what he has to say I just want to puke. As a president he was very damaging to the country not as damaging as FDR but still very damaging. What has made me despise this man even more are the things he has done since leaving office. He is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the N Koreans having the BOMB. Thanks Jimmy (or as I refer to him GRITZ)

[Peter]

Hey, I thought you guys had agreed that Clinton was the worst ever! I note all your candidates are Democrats (shock). Well, here's my list:

Richard Nixon (Republican) - for subverting the US constution with Watergate and its cover-up.

Ronald Reagan (Republican) - for the Iran-contra scandal.

George Dubya (Republican) - where to start - maybe for stealing the election of 2000 courtesy of the Supreme Court.

[Monica-Philadelphia]

I am rising above the partisan bickering on this one!

I will refer you to an interesting review of a book about the Presidents of the USA. Courtesy of Abe. He is an eminently reasonable, libertarian fellow from the heartland of our bountiful country.

Okay - enough of the holier than thou - Carter TOTALLY SUCKED as President. He is still hell-bent on endangering not only the USA but the rest of the entire world as well.

[McKiernan]

Advantage. Jimmy Carter.

Both the worst US president and hands down the worst US ex-president.

McKiernan
USA

[Abe of Lincoln]

I have to agree that Jimmy Carter is the worst president in my memory (i.e. back to Ike). In the spirit of bipartisanship, I'll also name may second worst: Nixon.

[The Troll]

Pete

What a shock the three that I think are the best you feel are the worst.

Nixon for the best foriegn policies
Reagan for bringing the soviet union to its end
GW for the war on terror

Hoorah

[Mike Cunningham]

The search for the worst U.S. President should not totally damn the Peanut Farmer completely! While posting on an entirely different topic, I mentioned Jimmy Carter as the author of the only United States foreign policy strategy which helped to both define America, and noticeably alter the world’s perspective about the treatment which SHOULD be received by all it’s inhabitants from their diverse governments!
When he spoke the words, "The great democracies are not free because we are strong and prosperous. I believe we are strong and influential and prosperous because we are free. Throughout the world today, in free nations and in totalitarian countries as well, there is a preoccupation with the subject of human freedom, human rights. And I believe it is incumbent on us in this country to keep that discussion, that debate, that contention alive. No other country is as well-qualified as we to set an example. We have our own shortcomings and faults, and we should strive constantly and with courage to make sure that we are legitimately proud of what we have.", I believe that he reached upwards to a high point in his Presidency which was rarely mirrored by any other President apart from the immortal Abraham Lincoln. He was, as I said, a lousy President, and a disgrace in practical terms, but because of the impact of his Human rights Policy upon Society in general, I believe he should not be consigned totally to the rubbish dump of history; maybe the asphalt, but not the container!

[Mike Cunningham]

Wrong link, guys, it should be http://mikesbooksandthinks.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/4/2/546850.html

[David Vance]

Abe,

You're very welcome to ATW - thanks for dropping by!

[Gum]

Jimmy Carter was not successful as President, but the C19th was full of them too, they just didnt have a media like we do now to chronicle their failures. Carter is probably the best ex-president (his work for Habitat for Humanity the obvious example). And he has a really cool boat!

http://www.hrvatski-vojnik.hr/hrvatski-vojnik/0022004/bpictures/lsn23_2%20USS%20Jimmy%20Carter.jpg

[David Vance]

Gum,

Do you get out much?

[Christopher Stalford]

Best Presidents of the last fifty years:

1. Nixon - bringing an end to Vietnam and opening diplomatic relations with China.

2. Reagan - the cold war warrior - at the start of his presidency the USSR seemed an immovable power bloc - by the end of it it was on the verge of collapse.

3. George W Bush - circumventing the pathetic UN (modern day League of Nations) in order to defend democracy and freedom throughout the world.

Worst Presidents

1. Clinton
2. Clinton
3. Clinton

[Ciarán]

Christopher: the Vietnam war officially ended in 1975, under Ford's presidency.

Nixon's shambolic and unconstitutional Indochina policy was brought to heel in May 1973, when Congress, enraged at his duplicity and lies, banned further military action in Indochina. The ban was largely rooted in the revelations around Watergate and in the discovery that Nixon had been lying for years about the fact that the US - under his orders - was bombing Cambodia (a country that America had not declared war on). Although Nixon vetoed the House's ban, Congress were certainly going to overturn the veto (by the required two-thirds majority). So Nixon capitulated and agreed to end all bombing by August 15 1973. There's no way we can claim that Nixon ended the war.

[The Troll]

Ciaran LOL LOL LOL LOL

[The Troll]

Yeah it was a good thing the way the congress cut the throats of the south vietnamese

By then President Ford's hands were tied by our Congress with the passage of the "Church amendment" that forbid any military aid of any kind in the defense of South Vietnam. The resignation of President Nixon as a result of Watergate had sealed the South's fate. The country where over 58,000 American servicemen and women perished was no longer to be given so much as U.S. air support. We shamefully, and tragically, FLED South Vietnam with no honor, leaving over 2,100 American POW\MIA's to this day unaccounted for, and dividing our once-great nation between those who had served and those who had not.

[Michael]

Stalford, I disagree with your choices.
Nixon: A liar, subverter of law, unfit for office

Reagan: The USSR had over spent for years, Reagan didn't cause its collapse, the whole ideology was flawed. Agree?
He also has some serious black marks, Iran-Contra, Guatamala, Nicuagura. He was senile as well!

George W: Liked in the US for his striaght talking, everyman approach. Abused by everyone, unfairly on occassions. But he can't be seen as great. His two great Foreign policy adventures have not acheived their objectives.

Greatest President: I have no idea.

[Ciarán]

Well, Troll, at least your second post is marginally more interesting than your first one.

No matter what you think of the rights and wrongs of getting out of Vietnam, fact is that Nixon acted unconstitutionally when he launched his campaign against Cambodia and Congress was well within its rights to reaffirm its sole capacity to declare wars. I take it that, in your approval of Nixon, you think Presidents are above the US Constitution so long as they are batting on your side? That they above the law?

I suppose, at least, we can be thankful that Nixon and his staff didn't get around to leaking the identities of CIA counter-terrorist agents.

[Monica-Philadelphia]

Yeah - sort of like the puppetmaster Rove did with that CIA agent Plame. (It wasn't Rove, btw - you hadn't heard? And Plame wasn't a secret agent, either)

I'm saying this in a whisper....because we don't want the truth to get out. So - shhhhhhhhhhhh.

[The Troll]

just a little more information.

The Secret Bombing of Cambodia

One of the biggest criticisms of the Nixon administration is the "secret" bombing campaign of Cambodia, a neutral and defenseless country in Southeast Asia. Nixon later disputed its labeling as "secret." In a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New Orleans on August 20, 1973, he explained that the decision was made only two months after he became president. He further stated that the decision was made in a meeting attended by Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird; National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger; Secretary of State, William Rogers; and head of the CIA. He also stated that the bombing plan was "disclosed to appropriate Government leaders" and the "appropriate Congressional leaders, those in the Military Affairs Committee like Eddie Hebert."(Footnote 37) He added that "there was no secrecy as far as Government leaders were concerned, who had any right to know or need to know."

Nixon had apparently been led to believe by his advisors that the lives of American soldiers were at risk because the North Vietnamese were setting up sanctuaries and staging areas in Cambodia.

"If American soldiers in the field today were similarly threatened by an enemy," he explained, "and if the price of protecting those soldiers was to order air strikes to save American lives, I would make the same decision today that I made in February of 1969." He admitted that the military action was kept secret from the American public,

Nixon’s description of the decision to bomb Cambodia—which he made as a new president—was surprisingly similar to Kennedy’s indoctrination as a new president when faced with the Bay of Pigs ordeal in April of 1961. To fully appreciate Nixon’s plight, it is important to remember that President Johnson had escalated the number of American soldiers in South Vietnam from 16,000(Footnote 38) when Kennedy was killed to 540,000 when Johnson left office in January of 1969. Johnson had abdicated his leadership—by announcing in March of 1968 that he would not seek re-election—thereby leaving his successor with the nightmare of Vietnam, a foreign policy disaster in a colossal state of senseless confusion and discontinuity. Unfortunately, this is what Nixon’s critics selectively forget when denouncing him for the so-called "secret" bombing campaign in Cambodia. Nixon’s critics tend to forget that he stepped into the presidency with half a million soldiers—mostly eighteen year-old boys—placed in harm’s way on foreign soil.

He dramatically increased aid to Israel.
He reduced American forces in South Vietnam from 540,000 (June 1969) to 160,000 (Dec. 1971) through a program called "Vietnamization."
He established diplomatic relations with China.
He used his new friendship with China as leverage to establish détente between the United States and the Soviet Union.
He broke up Auguste Joseph Ricord’s heroin cartel.
He intensified US bombing of North Vietnam in order to get that government to participate in the Paris peace talks.
He withdrew American forces from Vietnam.
He ended the draft.

[The Troll]

Michael

It is very obvious that you have NO IDEA!

[Michael]

Troll,
Come on, what about your claim that an old western actor defeated the Soviet Union?
They were screwed anyway, Reagan was loosing grip on reality and was actually dangerous.

What about JFK? Surely his disasterous career gives him a shot at the top 3 worst? at least of modern times.
I'm thinking Bay of Pigs, brink of Nuclear war.

And Dubya being in top 3...

[The Troll]

Your statements about reagan are wrong. It was his staunch refusal to let them be and the starting of the star wars program that finished off the soviets. The left cry now "oh they were failing anyway" while the whole time they screamed he was going to start a war becouse russia was to strong to take that stance.

I would agree with you about JFK he is deffinitly one of the top 5 worst. JFKs presidency is more fraude than fact.

Dubya's war on terror puts him in the top three of the best. He could do everything else wrong and it still would tip the scales.