Looks like Ol' DUHbya made a list....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29211562/?GT1=43001

Well, maybe we've had some really dingbat presidents.

I'm a bit dubious of a ranking that gives so many presidents of the last 75 years more prominence than they probably deserve. As for George W. Bush near the bottom, I would agree. I’d like to hear his svengali turned lead revisionist historian Karl Rove comment. Rove's always trying to play up his former boss and discount his horrendous leadership.

Pretty good showing for Dubyah, considering the total wreckage he left behind. Only 36th..not 44th...though easily the worst in our lifetime, the worst in several generations. And actually not a bad guy, not an evil paranoiac like RMN, just blithely unaware of the brutal incompetence, avarice, and malevolence of those who did deeds in his name, and the name of our country, which stands tarnished and sorely weakened.

Nixon was not guilty of being incompetent, or blatently stupid. Nixon was brilliant, his paranoia and hubris got in the way. Nixon didn't listen to the good advice from his inner circle (unless it was Kissinger). Bush surrounded himself with largely sheeple, and he wasn't intelligent enough to decipher right from wrong. IMHO of course.

It honestly takes generations for the true worth of a Presidency to take hold. The man that George W. Bush beat out for lowest approval ratings of all-time when leaving office was Harry Truman, who ranks fifth on this list. The worldwide expansion of Communism, the loss of China to Mao, and the start of the Cold War, and the arms race with the Soviets.

I don't think history will shine as brightly on Dubya ... that depends on what happens, honestly, in Iraq and Afghanistan. His legacy sits squarely in those two countries.

I hate to bring up Nixon les it brings a certain troll out of hiding, but he's exactly the kind of president that would see a rise in popularity over time.

Man, Bush has nothing going for him . . . not even his fathers coattails.

Despite Nixon's many faults, and fall, there ARE some bright spots to look at. There was a thaw in the Cold War that was only surpassed by the work Reagan and Gorbachev did; US-Soviet relations were better under Nixon and Brezhnev than they were at any other point of the Cold War between the two nations. Nixon did start up the EPA, and the USPS. When the first oil embargo, and the gas crisis happened under his watch, Nixon capped gas prices. (You sure didn't see Bush do that!) The bad just so heavily outweighs the good with Nixon, that it's all that is talked about. There WAS some good though.

Certainly more good, IMHO, than with Bush.

It's too bad Nixon couldn't have behaved himself. He had a truly ambitious domestic agenda for his 2nd term that included major prison reform and waging a war on cancer.

As for George W. Bush, I’m equally as interesting in knowing just how much influence Dick Cheney wielded (in terms of what documents read). Too bad Cheney thinks he’s above the law, picking and choosing what documents he feels the National Archives should see in terms of his Vice Presidential papers. One way of assessing a Presidential administration is through its paper trail. But in the Bush White House, I wouldn’t doubt that several nefarious methods were used to hide and/or destroy documents. Perhaps members of the Bush and Cheney families will force the federal government to pay for documents that made their way outside of the White House before the end of Bush’s term.

USPS? the POSTAL service? really? wow that's some revisionist history there. I do hope you are kidding.

Yeah the bottom 5 on that list were in order from "best" to "worst":

Warren G. Harding (R): the first of a triumvirate of Republican shills who deregulated everything, caused a bubble (mostly in housing and the new technology of radio) making the 20's "roaring".

William Henry Harrison (Whig): the first President to die in office. He died 32 days in office. He was the oldest President ever elected until Ronnie Regan got it in 1984. Can't really fault him but at least he didn't do the harm Dub-ya did.

Franklin Pierce (D): This guy was a piece of work. He basically let the slavery issue fester on his watch. He was an alcoholic. He lost his only surviving child in a train wreck shortly after being elected. He was a caretaker President who was so hands off his Cabinet did most of the decision making that end up with him being followed by the worst ever.

Andrew Johnson (National Union Party, but basically a Democrat): Well he wasnt the man Lincoln was. He didnt have the vision to carry out an ordered Reconstruction of the South. He is the only President to be impeached AND removed from office.

James Buchanan (D): This guy was horrible. He was a "doughface", which meant he was a Northern with Southern sympathies. He let Kansas Territory become "Bloody Kansas". A forshadowing of what would happen in the Civil War. He was the only President to be a bachelor. Leading some to speculate that he was our first homosexual President. Hard evidence on this is miniscule. His niece was the social hostess of the White House therefore called the First Lady, the name stuck. Right before he was to leave office, South Carolina seceded from the Union. He declared it to be an unlawful act yet did nothing to stop the blockade at Fort Sumpter in the bay at Charleston. 6 more states followed suit within a week and he didn't do a damn thing. So we went from worst to first in a matter of nine years.

I have my BA in History. If I were to rank the bottom ten it'd look something like this.
(Best to worst)
10. Calvin Coolidge

9. Chester A. Arthur

8. Warren G. Harding

7. James Monroe

6. Ronald Regan

5. Richard M. Nixon

4. Herbert Hoover

3. George W. Bush

2. Andrew Johnson

1. James Buchanan

this is just my opinion of course so take it with a grain of salt.

Moman74: Andrew Johnson (National Union Party, but basically a Democrat): Well he wasnt the man Lincoln was. He didnt have the vision to carry out an ordered Reconstruction of the South. He is the only President to be impeached AND removed from office.

Not quite. Johnson escaped conviction in the Senate by one vote and served out his term. Until Clinton, he was the first president impeached, though.

I stand corrected...

Johnson was probably an alcoholic, too. When he gave his speech at Lincoln's 2nd inaugural in 1865, he seems to have been drunk and gave a rambling, incoherent speech.

It would be interesting to consider how many American presidents were plagued with alcohol problems and how it affected their presidencies. Bush was an alcoholic, too, even though he quit before running for president. Seems to have had an effect his behavior, though.

I'm pretty sure the job of President would drive anybody to drink!!!

I know I would!

I'm pretty sure the job of President would drive anybody to drink!!!


Just ask DUHbya....

I know I drank a lot more while he was in office.

"Seems to have had an effect his behavior, though."

Yes you can still have alcoholic behavior and not drink. It's known as a "dry drunk."

Moman, as the USPS is today, yes, that is from Nixon.

From Wikipedia: "The Postal Reorganization Act signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970, replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service. The Act took effect on July 1, 1971."

While it still receives federal funding, he deregulated it. In this case, a GOOD thing.