Who was the worst U.S. president?

[downzero]

The view that blacks were hopelessly backward persisted long after the civil war. Segregation anyone?

 

[PistolBob]

You need to study history OP. I'll give one to start on. Clinton had nothing to do with Ruby Ridge and the killing of Sammie and Vicki Weaver. He was Governor of Arkansas. You might want to check the rest a little closer too, I found at least three more errors.

 

[PistolBob]

I am with everyone else when I say Obama sucks a pole, but I cannot honestly say he is the worst president yet when he is only in hi second year...now, a year and a half from now when this country is in deeper doo doo than it is in now, we can say he is the worst of all time.

Obama is in his third year and he is the worst.

He was elected in Nov 2008, and sworn in Jan 2009. His second year ended in Jan 2011. So he is smack dab in the middle of his third year and last term.

 

[rambone]

You might want to check the rest a little closer too, I found at least three more errors.

Fixed the one. Tell me the others.

 

[edsinger]

FDR but in actuality they are no more than puppets anymore...

 

[Garb]

I voted Honest Abe, but I have to totally reject Rambone's assertion that slavery should have remained a state issue. Abe was bad partly because he tried to meddle in it when it still was a state issue, but making an amendment banning slavery in the U.S. was a good thing. Slavery has no place in a free country, period.

Also, George Bush makes second for me. He was the Honest Abe of our time. Like Abe, he made so many opportunities for the Feds to stick their hands where they don't belong.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Wasn't it Wilson that was tricked into signing the un ratified 16A, later admitting his mistake publicly? He's certainly up there, but it still all goes back to Abe and the taking of state sovereignty/rights/10A.

 

[Garb]

Wasn't it Wilson that was tricked into signing the un ratified 16A, later admitting his mistake publicly? He's certainly up there, but it still all goes back to Abe and the taking of state sovereignty/rights/10A.

We had a huge debate the other day about whether the 16th amendment was properly ratified. It's definitely not black and white lol.

 

[Fletch]

FDR for sure. Lincoln probably second.

 

[mrjarrell]

Where's the man who lit the fire under the War on Drugs and turned this country into a burgeoning police state through his actions? Maybe the sainted Ronald is immune from criticism? Oh, well. That said, I voted for Abe. Obama has nothing on him or FDR. Or Johnson, for that matter.

 

[PistolBob]

Fixed the one. Tell me the others.

Lincoln and his congress did create the IRS. But you also have Woodrow Wilson credited with starting it too. It does get cloudy....

From the IRS Website: The roots of IRS go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and Congress, in 1862, created the position of commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income tax was repealed 10 years later. Congress revived the income tax in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year.

In 1894 Grover Cleveland was our first democrat President elected post civil war.

From the IRS Website: In 1913, Wyoming ratified the 16th Amendment, providing the three-quarter majority of states necessary to amend the Constitution. The 16th Amendment gave Congress the authority to enact an income tax. That same year, the first Form 1040 appeared after Congress levied a 1 percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000 with a 6 percent surtax on incomes of more than $500,000. In 1918, during World War I, the top rate of the income tax rose to 77 percent to help finance the war effort. It dropped sharply in the post-war years, down to 24 percent in 1929, and rose again during the Depression. During World War II, Congress introduced payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments.

So it's not clear if Wilson simply revived the Lincoln IRS or if he formed a new one. Lincoln created a post called "Commissioner of Internal Revenue"...so maybe we should not call that the IRS. Lincoln did get congress to pass the first income tax in 1862 though.

So is it more correct to credit Lincoln with income tax and Wilson with the IRS? They are two different things I think. What do you say?

 

[PistolBob]

You also listed that Wilson made the Great Depression worse, Wilson left the job of President in Jan 1921. The stock market crash is widely thought to have brought on the Great Depression, but it didn't happen until October 29th 1929.

 

[Kutnupe14]

hmm, so i guess your not aware of the slave colonies purchased by the U.S. then? there were a couple presidents that supported it. even lincoln if i remember right.

Liberia being the most notable (actually done so by a private company). A nation created entirely of former US slaves with a capital (Monrovia) named for Jame Monroe. It took 20 years to send 14,000 former slaves to Africa. Can you imagine the price tag for 4,000,000?

 

[PistolBob]

Regarding LBJ and the Vietnam War. The US had been involved in French Indochina since before the second world war. In 1945 Ho Chi Minh declared a new state, The Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and having just done a year in Chinese prison for being a commie, he was begging the US for some support. FDR and Truman both turned him down flat.

Under Truman and Eisenhower, we supplied the French with over 1 Billion in cash, and 300,000 small arms in their war with the northern Vietnamese.

So crediting LBJ with the Vietnam war doesn't seem entirely right, although because of his escalation policies, and the lies being told by McNamara, LBJ got more Americans killed in Vietnam than any other president.

So that one is hard to pin on just any one single president.

 

[Designer99]

Where's the man who lit the fire under the War on Drugs and turned this country into a burgeoning police state through his actions? Maybe the sainted Ronald is immune from criticism? Oh, well. That said, I voted for Abe. Obama has nothing on him or FDR. Or Johnson, for that matter.

Exactly. Where's Reagan? The War on Drugs is one horrible thing (which is hopefully coming to an end soon.)

Was Reagan not running the show when we funded and armed Saddam Hussein in the 1980's? That turned out well for us. We condemn Hussein for using chemical weapons on his own people...but we gave him the weapons to do it!

Did Reagan not also fund and arm the Afghan insurgents for a proxy war against the Russians which in turn created the Al Qaeda we all know and love today?


P.s. If this pole is about which President was the worst then Obama should not be on the list till he's out of office. He still is President. Past tense. vs present tense ya know.

 

[rambone]

Where's the man who lit the fire under the War on Drugs and turned this country into a burgeoning police state through his actions? Maybe the sainted Ronald is immune from criticism? Oh, well. That said, I voted for Abe. Obama has nothing on him or FDR. Or Johnson, for that matter.

Its a valid beef to have with Reagan. I didn't intend to make excuses for him. I left off a lot of people, including Bush I. I just didn't think many people, especially on INGO, would vote him as the #1 worst president of all time. And like I said before, Carter is only on there because people are often labeling him as the worst.

Lincoln and his congress did create the IRS. But you also have Woodrow Wilson credited with starting it too. It does get cloudy....


So is it more correct to credit Lincoln with income tax and Wilson with the IRS? They are two different things I think. What do you say?

Sounds like you know your stuff. Suffice to say that they both were statists who favored taxing income. I think you added some clarity to that point. Which one was the worse president remains to be debated.

You also listed that Wilson made the Great Depression worse, Wilson left the job of President in Jan 1921. The stock market crash is widely thought to have brought on the Great Depression, but it didn't happen until October 29th 1929.

Its been said that Wilson's longterm policies helped bring about the depression. I suppose its a debatable point. I'm sure somebody will have something to add about that. I'm too tired at the moment.

Regarding LBJ and the Vietnam War.


So crediting LBJ with the Vietnam war doesn't seem entirely right, although because of his escalation policies, and the lies being told by McNamara, LBJ got more Americans killed in Vietnam than any other president.

So that one is hard to pin on just any one single president.

I left it vague. He may not have started it but he had plenty to do with escalating it. And forcing people to serve in it.

Exactly. Where's Reagan? The War on Drugs is one horrible thing (which is hopefully coming to an end soon.)

Was Reagan not running the show when we funded and armed Saddam Hussein in the 1980's? That turned out well for us. We condemn Hussein for using chemical weapons on his own people...but we gave him the weapons to do it!

Did Reagan not also fund and arm the Afghan insurgents for a proxy war against the Russians which in turn created the Al Qaeda we all know and love today?

So is Reagan your pick then? I am in no way defending him. Drug war, expanding federal enforcers, interventionist foreign policy, massive spending, I know.

 

[riverman67]

I picked Carter because I remember the results of his ineffective leadership.
If not the worst president he was certainly the worst in my lifetime.
I often wonder how Lincoln would be remembered if he hadn't been assasinated.
He certainly ended the arguement on states rights and I think many of the issues that we have now , like the Obama adminstation trying to dictate to Indiana about the funding of Planned parenthood , are a direct result.

 

[ghunter]

LBJ had the Anti-Midas touch. Everything he touched turned into poop. A tough choice from a well made list.

 

[E5RANGER375]

its refreshing to see that many of you arent blinded by the line of BS you have been fed by the govt through your history lessons on lincoln. once you read the truth about him its very obvious he was no friend of freedom or the american people past or present. maybe he thought he was doing right, but that doesnt mean it WAS right. lincoln IS the worst president in history. some of you are voting for presidents who sucked simply because they accomplished nothing as president. I would rather have a president that did nothing than to have a president who makes us go backwards or sinks us. only about 10% of Americans can trace their roots back to colonial americans (I am one of them). But MANY MANY more can trace their roots back to the civil war period through ancestry because of the mass influx of imigrants at that time. (even only a SMALL percentage of blacks can trace their roots to a slave) so with that in mind, do many of you realize how many of your own family members were killed directly because of lincolns failed policies. many say .... "lincoln won the civil war & freed the slaves" no he didnt. no one won and lincoln didnt free anyone. the slaves were ALWAYS free by natural right, but because of the LAW of that time they werent allowed to stand up.* thousands of americans died because they were lied to by a president with selfish goals who shut down real freedom and rights.

I also agree that obama will go down as one of the worst presidents ever, and in my opinion bush will too if not simply for the patriot act. he and congress (then and now) might as well have pored gasoline on the constitution and lit it in the public square. because thats what the patriot act does, is it makes the constitution null and void at any point the govt wants it to be. and obama just signed it again. EPIC FREEDOM FAIL! Enough is Enough!

* we have MANY laws today that hold us down and go against our natural rights. when will we stand up together and say enough is enough and change or eliminate those laws? its the right thing to do. people just turn a blind eye because they are weak and they let fear control and incapacitate them. its like being afraid to get in a fight because your SOOOOO scared of what that first punch is gonna feel like, but once you take it and you realize your still alive and the pain stops you feel empowered and not scared. imagine what TRUE freedom feels like America! get past the fear of standing up and being ridiculed! Our cause is just, and the rewards are great if we just stand together and fight for it. (im not refering to war), If we all stood together we could make our representatives change everything in one session of congress!!!

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Lincoln freed NO one. The emancipation proclamation only attempted to free slaves in states belonging to another sovereign nation which Abe had no power over. The funny thing is that it DID NOT free ANY slaves in the USA/northern states. In fact even after the war of northern aggression was over, the northern states still kept slaves legally well into the period know as reconstruction. States rights/sovereignty have been under attack continuously ever since, and practically cease to exist after reconstruction.