which president was worse than George W.?
Can you think of one?
shareIf you actually believe that I have some moon rocks I'd like to sell you.
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MovieChat Forums > W. (2008) Discussion > which president was worse than George W....
Just one? Carter. Every time I heard the term "worst economy in 70 years" it made me wonder where people were during the Carter administration.
shareCan you classify the more recent presidents as being worse overall than the older ones? I mean, due to technology advancing, presidents have a lot more power these days and thereby a lot more they can screw up....
shareIt's not just technology, it's the fact that the federal government keeps getting bigger and is more and more involved in every day life. Things that were once (and still should be) decided and maintained on a state or local level are now dictated through the federal government. Incidently, a lot of this started under Carter. But I do think you have to look at the time period and the circumstances. I don't think more recent presidents are worse overall, people are just more familiar with them.
shareLBJ has done more damage to America than any other president in history. He increased our involvement in Vietnam and legalized discrimination against people of European ancestry.
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In my lifetime:
The worst presidents were Carter and Obama and the best presidents were Reagan and Clinton.
We could go back to FDR for starting the idea of entitlements, Then LBJ and Carter... and now Obama is going full socialist.
That's 4 of the worst. 5th could go to Clinton or W, I would mostly have to go with Clinton because the messes that came up during the W years all had their roots in the Clinton years. Or maybe Wilson as a swing from behind, but I admit to my weakness in knowing what they did the further back we go.
All of these folks are responsible for larger debts, the loss of individual liberty and massive expansion of federal power.
propaganda=on IMDB, apparently any movie with Americans as the good guysshare
You left out Reagan. Other than Bush 43 and Obama -- who has had to spend to clean up the mess left behind by Bush 43, much like FDR did with Coolidge and Hoover -- no President spent more than Reagan. As for loss of liberty and power grabs by the feds, which President you choose will be decided by your political views, because you're foolish if you don't believe that Republicans have ever removed any individual liberties or expanded federal powers. In fact, I'd say that they've far exceeded Democrats in recent decades.
shareThe bailouts are far from the fault of Bush 43, Bush gets credit for trying to avert the sub-prime mortgage crisis, well before it came to a head. And know, while I am no fan of republicans in general- the real power grabbers are the Dems. The most important power grabbers were FDR, social security- enough said; LBJ and the great society; Carter with his massive increases in social programs and now the Obamamessiah with Health care. The most important liberty is personal property after all. Most all of them (except Obama and he still has 3 years to go) also hit the second amendment hard.
I will give Bush credit for the “Patriot Act” but now Obama has fought to keep and expand it.
propaganda=on IMDB, apparently any movie with Americans as the good guysshare
True story here. The day after Bush won the 2000 election, I said that he may go down in history as the worst President that we've ever had. I didn't "hate" Bush, but I truly believed that he would be extremely detrimental to our nation's well being. In hindsight, I'm sorry to say that he was pretty much everything I expected and I now believe that he is the worst President in our short history.
shareCarter, of course. Obama, however, is on his way to taking away that title from him.
shareEasy, hands down it was Carter but Obama is putting up a solid fight.
shareObama and Carter are two of the worst Presidents the US has had or will have. Clinton was pretty bad too although he at least worked with Republicans balancing the budget and addressing welfare reform, Clinton was very lucky that nothing major happened during his term like Katrina or a major attack on the US and was able to ride the economic recovery he nor Democrats had anything to do with.
shareYeah-well- I don't know how "lucky" Clinton was with there being no major attacks. I remember him using military force in the late 90's after terrorist embassy attacks and proactivly trying to go after Bin Ladin then. What happened? (scratches head) -Oh yeah-GOP smears of "wag the dog" -accusing Clinton of deflecting the Monica issue-because a BJ is soooooooo important-but it only is to the GOP.
So here were these same people who were howling about partriotism after Bush ignored intelligence and let us get attacked going after Clinton for using force and blaming it on his sex life. The GOP sucks. Ken Starr should be proud of himself mic'ing a tattle-tale to get sex-deets as his crowing career achievement.
I think that following Nixon was kind of a toughy for Carter, and telling people to take personal responsibility wasn't at all popular-Americans wanted to "trickle down'
What a coincidence that so many of the responses are Carter, Clinton and Obama! Well, after all I guess those are the same people who believe Fox's "Fair and balanced" slogan. We have one who is honest enough to admit that “personal property” is the most important freedom we have. Free speech, religion, press, yeah whatever…just stay away from my $!” And of course the health care bill somehow takes away American freedoms but the government’s ability to wiretap at will doesn’t. Using that argument I guess the cops can approach anyone at any time and demand their paperwork a la Nazi Germany. What do you care if you’re not doing anything wrong?
Also, its very interesting to learn that torturing our enemy promotes the “establish justice” portion of the Constitution’s preamble. My social studies teacher must have been a liberal because she left that out.
“Tell me which sentence in the constitution does it say the president has the power to take money from certain people and give it to others?” Tell me what sentence authorized President Bush to bail out FNMA and FHLMC on 9/6/08 and AIG on 9/16/08? You cite an example that was done by a Republican president!!
And “common defense” can be used to justify torture but “general welfare” can’t be used to justify a program that has vastly improved the lives of millions of senior citizens since its inception?
And to the guy who said Clinton was lucky, please!! Reagan was the luckiest president we’ve had. The USSR was collapsing no matter we did. He just happened to be in the seat when it happened.
Rating presidents is like debating whether the 1970’s Steelers team would have beaten the 49er team from the 80’s. It’s fun but kind of pointless. But at least make the slightest effort to be fair. I’m a Democratic liberal but the president of my lifetime I respect the most was George HW Bush. Of course he was a one termer because he had the nerve to make a statement “Read my lips, no new taxes” but then, when faced with worse numbers than predicted, did the right thing and rather than doggedly stick to a policy that was no longer for the best one for the country. He knew the risk he was taking but did it anyway. It’s hard to imagine anyone from either party do that today. Of course, before we blame politicians for being liars we should look in the mirror about how we’ve treated people like Bush who done the honorable thing. In the end we get the government we deserve.
Hoover.
PS - Clinton was a major factor in the eventual economic crisis, by dissolving the Glass-Steagall Act from The New Deal. It was, of course, started with Carter's deregulations, then Reagan's, etc., etc.
Herbert Hoover. He never was never able to the Great Depression and thinking that it was a "virus" from Europe and not an economic problem makes him the worst President of the United States.
shareI’m a Democratic liberal but the president of my lifetime I respect the most was George HW Bush.The best remark in this entire sticky, stinky, silly, "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" thread.
I most appreciated when, in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Murrah federal building in OKC while the NRA was foaming at the mouth about the event being provoked by "jack-booted thugs" coming to take away the people's firearms (and convicted criminals like G. Gordon Liddy giving instructions to shoot ATF agents in the head to circumvent body-armor), GHWB publicly tore his NRA membership card to shreds.
One of the most powerful statements, by an ex-president, I've ever seen. share
You're dumb.
Clinton bombed Afghanistan the week he admitted to the country he had had an affair after 7 months of perjury, and he bombed Iraq the week impeachment proceedings were brought against him. Yeah, a real genuine paladin.
Lyndon B. Johnson and Nixon
"Nobody is free, even the birds are chained to the sky" - Bob Dylan