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The "Worst President Ever" Poll
- Thread starter goodcow
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fennec fox
ferrets ferrets ferrets ferrets FERRETS!!!
Personally I'd like to thank everyone who didn't post something like this for 50 replies! It was a fine conversation and I would certainly drink with any of you.Slurpy said:
Jefferson doesn't rank very high on my list. I personally don't care much for him.AniHawk said:
Not that he ranks lowly, either, but if I had to pick a founding father that I liked the least, it would certainly be Jefferson. But I guess that's because I side with Alexander Hamilton on almost all of their conflicts.
MetatronM said:
hey lets not have a navy, take our frigates, replace em with gunboats (useless!), and put our ships to land when we dont have war cause its so practical!
Oh lets not forget no standing army, and have undisciplined militia men (which would btw be the reason why we did so shitty in the first year of the war of 1812)
Lets fuck our 15 year old black slave just cause we could.
Lets be an adamant anti-slavery speaker yet NEVER FREE OUT SLAVES
Oh yea not to mention the spoils system precedent set. Jackson replaced 20% of the people in office, Jefferson was a worse offender(dont know exactly what rate)
Oh and who could forget the whole agrarian society train of thought that would mark one of the finer points of the Jacksonian Democrat Republican party. It wouldnt be that bad - if it didn't have such a profound effect on later presidents. No internal improvements was so regressive...booo
What else...oh yea...that embargo was genius. Cause...you know...that really worked.
add to that the threat of secession by the north due to that policy. Way to really unite a nation.
Oh yea.and the whole strict constructionalist issue - way to quixotic. Government revenue from taxing imports and elimination of all taxes? We'd have never got anything done if Jefferson had his way.
He inderectly killed washinton too.
but he was far from being our worst presidents....in terms of getting shit done that title belongs to JQA...smart man and a progressive..but way to idealistic and none to pragmatic. Not to mention almost all policies he pushed through congress were all shot dead by Jacksonians.
In terms of regressive policies...i think that title belongs to Jefferson... I just cant see any of his policies working..agrarian society...no navy..no army..no taxes...states rights. Itd be dangerous had he have had his way. Not to mention he was a great orator and commanded the respect of many people, in turn making this policy effect worse than it really should be.
Jackson was pretty bad...that trigger happy hick. That whole thing with Peggy Eaton...wtf.
Harrison died a month..but had potential.
Oh yea and Bush is way far, far, far from being our worse president. Far.
How quickly people forget that Nixon was one of the most popular presidents in history. Calling him the worst president ever is pretty ignorant. He got/was gonna get impeached for lying about cheating in an election that was the biggest landslide in history. Stupidest president ever? Perhaps. Worst? Not by a longshot.
I don't think it was just "lying" that was going to get him impeached. I did a pretty fair amount of research on Nixon and Watergate earlier this year (including reading a pretty sizable portion of the White House tape transcripts), and he was pretty much calling the shots right from day one as far as Watergate was concerned (though it wasn't actually his idea to break into the Watergate offices if I recall correctly...his henchmen sort of did that on their own). But yeah, the whole thing was dumb as hell, but Nixon was a paranoid man.DJ_Tet said:
And as for calling him one of the most popular President's we've ever had, it is true that he won the biggest landslide ever, but it's also true that in the final months of his administration he had the lowest approval ratings ever recorded for a President (the previous all-time low was held by Harry Truman). Not to mention he got that landslide in no small part because CREEP helped knock out Ed Muskie by leaking inflammatory stories to the New Hampshire press during the primaries, leaving McGovern, who was viewed as far too liberal for the national stage and not a very good candidate at all. Also, only 55 percent of the electorate voted in that election, which was the lowest percentage since the '40s.
Anyway, I said he was near the top of the list, but he is not actually our very worst president, mainly because he did do SOME good, particularly through his rather surprising courtship of the Soviet Union and China. But his horrible character and the sheer fact that he pretty much destroyed whatever was left of the integrity, honor, and trustworthiness of the Oval Office have left a scar on the very office of the Presidency itself. Nixon took that unprecedented faith and support of the American people and pretty much shat on it because he was a paranoid, delusional, and egotistical man. That's why Nixon comes in close to the bottom of the barrel. His foreign affairs accomplishments are the only things really saving him the shame of dead last.
Really, if you define a "bad President" as one who caused more harm than good to the office of the President than Nixon has to be on the very short list.
I too did a research paper on Nixon, and I'd love an unbiased answer to this, as I never found one.
What the fuck did he have to gain by cheating and spying on the election in 1972? We all know his victory ove McGovern was one of the largest of all time. Why did Nixon cheat during the election, and why did he lie about any involvement? I think the second question is feasable, but the first one has never made sense.
What the fuck did he have to gain by cheating and spying on the election in 1972? We all know his victory ove McGovern was one of the largest of all time. Why did Nixon cheat during the election, and why did he lie about any involvement? I think the second question is feasable, but the first one has never made sense.
I really think it was something just inherent to his personality. He always felt that people, particularly the press, were out to get him.
There was also the matter of the leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, which it really seems like he took as a personal insult to him and his authority as President. Why? I have no idea. Most of the Pentagon Papers were about the Johnson administration anyway. But it was in response to that leak that he created the Plumbers, so he obviously took it to heart. After that incident, I think he genuinely believed there were forces both within and without the government that would stop at nothing to see Dick Nixon hang.
I don't know. In my research, I really just got the impression that perhaps decades of being in the public spotlight had worn away on him. He had also made his career in the first place on fighting against the Reds who had supposedly infiltrated the State Department back in the early '50s, so I think it was ingrained into him that his political enemies were always hiding just behind the shadows or that there was some great conspiracy going on somewhere within Washington and America at large. I think after decades of looking for this phantom enemy as well as the pressures of public life, his view of the world was rather warped and actually was filled with these shadowy foes that needed to be fought through any means necessary. You can tell on the tapes that from time to time he does realize that what he is doing is dangerous and a little bit crazy, but it really just seems like he can't stop himself.
That's my personal take on it.
There was also the matter of the leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, which it really seems like he took as a personal insult to him and his authority as President. Why? I have no idea. Most of the Pentagon Papers were about the Johnson administration anyway. But it was in response to that leak that he created the Plumbers, so he obviously took it to heart. After that incident, I think he genuinely believed there were forces both within and without the government that would stop at nothing to see Dick Nixon hang.
I don't know. In my research, I really just got the impression that perhaps decades of being in the public spotlight had worn away on him. He had also made his career in the first place on fighting against the Reds who had supposedly infiltrated the State Department back in the early '50s, so I think it was ingrained into him that his political enemies were always hiding just behind the shadows or that there was some great conspiracy going on somewhere within Washington and America at large. I think after decades of looking for this phantom enemy as well as the pressures of public life, his view of the world was rather warped and actually was filled with these shadowy foes that needed to be fought through any means necessary. You can tell on the tapes that from time to time he does realize that what he is doing is dangerous and a little bit crazy, but it really just seems like he can't stop himself.
That's my personal take on it.
mac said:
I'm the first to mention this Indian killing idiot?
Jackson basically sought to unite a nation. He was a very strong federalist and during his first year in a dinner with all his cabinet members he made Calhoun piss in his pants when he surprised everyone by making a toast for unity of the US. Although some of his policies were suspect - the whole Georgia thing in which he openly defied Marshall's decision, the whole Peggy Eaton thing where he made sure that slut would be accepted into Washington's social scene - on the whole he did have some progressive policies. When South Carolina threatened to secede and nullified that 1832 tariff he was ready to go to war and sent Winfried Scott to collect import duties. He dont play games yo.
Plus he was fucking badass. Shot 2 men cause they were trying to desert the army (even though them being militia men they did not have to stay) when he was a general.
Almost got shot 2 times by a crazy house painter and he busted out his old hickory stick to lay the smack down while walking to Washington one day- but was stopped by one of his cabinet members.
Got punched in the face in a boat by someone holding a grudge against him, was knocked out for a few seconds. Raised hell and got his stick and went looking for that person - only to be stopped again by one of his cabinet members.
Plus he dueled everyone thatd talk bad about his bitch.
*sigh* what a man..
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