Least Favorite President

Harry S. Truman

Not to take you task, but couldn't you be "a little smarter" in your reasons for choosing these two?

Walter Mondale.

I hate to say it, but Bill Clinton is my least favorite president ever.
He wasn't the worst president in history, but he was the worst person to ever be president.

Id have to go with Truman as well.

I think Carter gets a bad rap. He had the misfortune of being a global-minded, socially concious president at a time when all people wanted was their gas prices lowered. People tend to blame him for the entire Iranian hostage crisis, but then overlook the Camp David accords. And with all the recent indications that perhaps there were some behind-the-back dealings to make sure the hostages weren't released on Carter's watch, I really can't fault him for that either. But looking at everything Carter has done since leaving office -- well, if he had served Reagan's term, we'd be calling him one of our most beloved presidents ever.

It's easy to pick on Nixon, but then you'd be overlooking his relations with China and Brezhnev. Watergate looks positively innocent these days. Ford's an easy target too, but who really expected anything from him? And Clinton will probably settle somewhere in the middle -- even if it did turn up something, the rabid witchhunt waged against him for eight years is bound to make the Republicans look worse in hindsight.

Reagan is pretty unassailable in most people's minds, but I think he was basically little more than a cheerleader for eight years -- after the chaos of the 60s and 70s, he was the grandfather telling us that gee our country was swell and don't you tell us any different. Our generation's version of Eisenhauer, basically.

My least favorite would have to be Bush Sr. He couldn't wait to wade in and proclaim Reagan as the winner of the Cold War, even though Kennedy and Nixon did a hell of a lot more to bring about it's eventual end -- Reagan basically was the orderly brought in to keep watch on a terminal patient, but to hear Bush tell it, Ronnie was over there knocking down planes and turning over tanks. His fingerprints were all over Iran/Contra (a MUCH more grievous crime than getting a blow job in the White House, if you ask me) and he skated away untouched. And he proclaims Saddam Hussein to be a new Hitler yet conveniently leaves him in power once those precious Kuwaiti oil fields were safe. So I guess Hitler is tolerable as long as we get cheap gas....

That said, George W. has ample potential to replace his dad, given time.

Making fun of Jimmy Carter will not get you into Heaven.

Poor, poor Jimmy. Probably the smartest human being ever to walk through the White House. Oh to be a moral and just man with an intellectual capacity that is staggering.

Call7001: You call Clinton the worst person to be president? So I guess owning slaves and raping them is better than getting a BJ? Did you even think to go and get a quick primer on the other candidates before opening your mouth?

Reagan sold guns to people who intended to kill other people and then lied about it. You want to get upset about Clinton lying? Good, you should be upset, but grow some freaking integrity and get upset about all the other stuff that everyone else up in Washington is doing instead of what is conveinent for you and your personal political agenda.

Nixon hated jews and the only reason he made it into China was because of Kissenger, a jew! Nixon was crazy, read the transcripts of his tapes. The man was insane.

People are all excited about Bush now? Let me get this straight, a daddy's boy former cokehead/alcoholic who has nearly never accomplished anything of note on his own. Want to get upset about something? What about all the times he said "I'm not an alcoholic"? What about all the night he was driving drunk and just happened to get lucky and not kill your daughters?

Bush Sr... Where's Saddam, George? Where is he? Desert Storm Syndrome, etc, and I guess that's the price our boys have to pay so we could get Saddam. Are you MAD!!!!! He's still there!!!!

Jeez!!

Grover Cleveland. God, what a fucking asshole.

"Reagan sold guns to people who intended to kill other people and then lied about it. You want to get upset about Clinton lying? Good, you should be upset, but grow some freaking integrity and get upset about all the other stuff that everyone else up in Washington is doing instead of what is conveinent for you and your personal political agenda."

But Bill Clinton is the DEVIL. He....CHEATED on his wife and....LIED ABOUT IT. I mean other politicians cheat on there wives..but at least they are open about it...right?

Ya gotta bring up Chester A. Arthur, just for that facial hair he had going...

Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. Out of place and meaningless. They couldn't understand that main issue of the time in slavery and instead of dealing with it at al tried to pass compromises and band-aid legislation to keep both sides happy. It failed of course, and a devisive issue like slavery wouln't be solved without a war. These guys just let the wounds fester. Buchanan wouldn't even lift a hand to deal with the seizure of federal forts in South Carolina.

Andrew Jackson unfortunately gets a favorable historical reputation in a lot of areas when he was the most despotic and racist President we've ever had. His Indian policies are inexcusable.

REAGAN SUCKS.

I see a bumper sticker coming...

James A. Garfield. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

"We are the mediocre presidents, you won't find our faces on dollars or cents.

We're Tyler, Taylor, Filmore, and we're Hayes.
We're William Henry Harrison."

"I died in 30 days!"

In defense of LBJ.

I know LBJ will forever be remembered as the man who sent more troops into Vietnam and escalated the conflict. I know this. I'm not stupid. But when I think of LBJ, I think of a small town Texas school teacher who taught in a segregated community who got involved in local politics because he was sick of the Hispanics in the community being discriminated against.

LBJ's Great Society programs were some of the most ambitious (and overlooked) social change initiatives to ever be proposed in America. His Civil Rights Act of 1965 is a major landmark. He wanted things to change.

But, yes, he was a flawed individual. No one needs to look any further than an article that hit the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago that went in depth to try and see what kind of racial leanings the man really had and interviewed a number of people who loved it, but recounted memories of him being rather racist - to today's standards - at various times.

LBJ was flawed, but he is one of my favorites Presidents as I like that, when he started out, he was just a schoolteacher trying to get the kids in his class to be better educated. The fact that he's Texan helps, too.

As for "least favorite President," I can't look into the historical record and really judge by anything except what history has decided to bear out THIS WEEK. Like the Shakespeare history plays that are deemed factual, but were often not (a lot of the negativity associated with the image of King Richard III has been attributed to Tudor propaganda engines throughout the years as opposed to the real story of the rise of the Earl of Gloucester), I can't really judge a President as my least favorite outside of my own experience in all honesty.

I'd have to say that at present, my least favorite President was Ronald Reagan because his policies directly led to my father losing his job and throwing my family into minor chaos. My second least favorite is George W. Bush for getting rid of/scaling back various programs across the country, especially drug education/rehabilitation ones, HUD budgets, AIDS programs, and other social issue-related projects.

But, I'm a bit of a liberal when it comes to things like that.

That's ok, you write about movies really well, so I can overlook the liberal tag wink