Who was the worst?

[Synthaholic]

I'm surprised how many Conservatives claim Carter, Clinton and Obama were worse presidents than Nixon. Is it a poor understanding of history or partisan blindness?

The Nixon administration was far more damaging to this nation. The Watergate affair stole momentum from the economy, our national prestige and our understanding of constitutional law. Nixon resigned in shame and infamy. His handling of Vietnam prolonged the war and cost tens of thousands of lives.

And yet he seems to be forgiven by virtue of an (R) behind his name. Is it blind partisanship? Or, as I assume, a poor understanding of history?

Carter was the worst.
Even the Libs were pissed at Carter Nosmo King
Everybody was angry at Carter. That's why he was only a one term President.

Nixon was a crook and thought he was above the Law, but he did not do near as much damage as Carter did with our Farmers and Ranchers. Carter's grain embargo forced them out of business.
There is nothing that pisses off Americans more than long gas lines & rations, when we had plenty of oil that was in the reserves and the threat of our food supply.Top that off with the Americans being held hostage for way too long and voilà he was toast.

Carter wasn't responsible for plunging a sub-continent into a horrible and unwinnable war.

Carter was a boob....Johnson was fucking evil.

Have you seen this?

Lyndon Johnson: White House tapes reveal he knew about Richard Nixon's 'treason' | Mail Online

 

[DiamondDave]

An intelligent man would not have allowed his paranoia lead him to ruin.

False conclusion... intelligence does not eliminate one from mental issues such as paranoia, being a sociopath, having irrational fears, etc

All too true. I'm in academia which is populated by folks with IQ's well north of the typical population. Does anyone in the room think that Academics are immune to mental health issues?

I think that is a false conclusion as well.. The choice on whether to attend college, or even the success therein, does not inherently correlate to a higher IQ... Plenty with higher IQ's who go other routes for many different reasons.. PLENTY

 

[DiamondDave]

An intelligent man would not have allowed his paranoia lead him to ruin.

False conclusion... intelligence does not eliminate one from mental issues such as paranoia, being a sociopath, having irrational fears, etc

Point taken. But the paranoia Nixon suffered from should be taken into consideration when rating him as a leader.

I am not disagreeing with that

 

[TNHarley]

Reagan.

Started us down the road of deficits and debt.

We have been down that road since 1957...

I personally think Reagan would have liked to have spent less, but had to deal with a DEM congress... but one good thing he did was lowering the tax rates to boost the economic activity.. there is no reason to have uber-high tax rates on everyone.. even if everyone does not agree with me that flat tax is the only equal treatment government can actually have in taxation

That's a bunch of bullshit. There were no Democrats in the Oval Office telling St. Ronnie what to put in his own budgets, that he presented to Congress.

I have to agree with you? lol
You are right!
The budgets he presented were ACTUALLY larger than what he got. Not much smaller, but still smaller
Cant believe they cut down the spending

 

[DiamondDave]

I'm surprised how many Conservatives claim Carter, Clinton and Obama were worse presidents than Nixon. Is it a poor understanding of history or partisan blindness?

The Nixon administration was far more damaging to this nation. The Watergate affair stole momentum from the economy, our national prestige and our understanding of constitutional law. Nixon resigned in shame and infamy. His handling of Vietnam prolonged the war and cost tens of thousands of lives.

And yet he seems to be forgiven by virtue of an (R) behind his name. Is it blind partisanship? Or, as I assume, a poor understanding of history?

Not saying Nixon was not bad.. BUT he did do some good things away from the other horrible things he did... I cannot name 1 thing Carter or Obamalama did good that is entirely on them (OBL is not just an Obama thing, for example)

Yeah. A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that has lasted 35 years is nothing.

Yes.. that did our issues so much good.. .oh wait, we're NOT Israel??

 

[Jarlaxle]

An intelligent man would not have allowed his paranoia lead him to ruin.

False conclusion... intelligence does not eliminate one from mental issues such as paranoia, being a sociopath, having irrational fears, etc

All too true. I'm in academia which is populated by folks with IQ's well north of the typical population. Does anyone in the room think that Academics are immune to mental health issues?

From my sister's weird-professor stories in college...I would guess it might be mandatory!

 

[boedicca]

Obama. ObamaCare, the Poruklus, the neverending campaign, the end of bipartisanship, the leading from behind in matters of national security, Benghazi, the inane anti-fossil fuel energy policy...

and The Debt.

Worst President Since James Buchanan.

But Carter is happy...Obama saved him from that distinction.

 

[Meathead]

It took 31 posts before someone got it right.

St. Ronnie Of The RKO Studio is, hands down, the worst president in the past 50 years.

America had virtually wiped out hunger in this country (under Nixon/Ford/Carter) until he came in and slashed all funding, saying charity would handle it. How did that work out?

He turned his WH over to evangelical bigots. The cost of all food rose sharply. The deficit was tripled. He supported nun murderers in Central America. He sold arms to Iran, fer fuck's sake. IRAN!!!! He holds the record for people convicted in his administration. He cut and ran from Beruit when we were attacked.

The list is long.

I wonder if Reagan knew Texas wasn't landlocked.

I'm sure they included it in his script.

Why would anyone include it in anyone's script. It is hard to imagine even Americans with their weak geographical skills thinking that, what with the ubiquitous maps of the US in every classroom and usually at least 12 years of schooling.

At least that is what I had believed until the above made the claim. Public schooling I guess. Still, very scary.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Who was the worst president of your lifetime, and why?

My vote is for Lyndon Johnson. He prosecuted the Vietnam War in such a way as to render it unwinnable; in fact, never had any intention of TRYING to win. This was a massive betrayal of American blood. I hope they kept hell hot for him.

His Great Society farce wasted untold billions of dollars and allowed the Federal Government to grow into a monster. We will feel it's repurcussions for many generations.

We've had some real squareheads in the Oval Office, but I think Johnson takes the cake.

How do you feel that Lyndon B Johnson did not try to win the Vietnam War?

And The Great Society was a failure; but I feel like it was an extension of the New Deal and politicians were just relabeling the same farce.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I would have to say Gerald Ford......I did not like the fact that he pardoned R. Nixon. I do believe the pardon quickly got the nation back on track but I feel it set a bad precedent. First of all, how do you pardon a person before the person is ever found guilty of anything. Second, it deprived the American people of the facts of what happened by stopping any investigations. More harm was done than good, on this one.

Watergate was blown way out of proportion and there was no need to subject a former president to a whirlwind of forces like that. Nobody died. Nobody was truly screwed over even. What the fuck would have been the point? He was sufficiently shamed.

 

[Agit8r]

I was born during the Carter administration, but I still gotta go with Bush43

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I was born during the Carter administration, but I still gotta go with Bush43

That's nice.