Who was the worst-ever President of the United States, and why?

My obvious choice would be George W Bush.

see also: best and worst presidents discussion

Was?...not until next year

George Bush for his foreign policies, lack of regard towards human rights, and his poor economic management. Nixon is a close follower.

and why?...turn your tv on

Depends on your definition of worst.
Least efficient? Harding.
Least concern for the Constitution and the oath of office? Bush 43.
Least amount accomplished? Harrison.
There’s lots of worst-ever presidents, as paradoxical as that is.

James Buchanan Stood by while the country fell apart and drifted toward Civil War.

Bush, for C-Fing us and the world for the foreseeable future.

If you have to ask then you aren’t paying attention.

Jimmy Carter has to be up there

Carter wasn’t a BAD president, he just didn’t accomplish a whole hell of a lot.

Yeah, he wasn’t bad…he was miserable

@lefteh: Carter was a nice person but his mishandling of the economy seems to be his legacy. He is the only president under whose administration this country was in a stagflation.

@mirza: While I agree that Carter’s tragic economic policy was his downfall, I contest the point that he is the only president that was responsible for stagflation. In fact, the term was coined during the economic crisis during Nixon’s presidency. Furthermore, it can easily be argued that the current president has been responsible for a period of stagflation.

ive only experienced four presidents so its hard for me to say worst of all time.

Hmmm….a bit late to be baiting for dissidents?

@thatfuzz Welcome to the collective. Ooops, hope I didn’t wake you. :)

Woodrow Wilson

He signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. He then went on to say this about it:
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country.
A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.
Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation,
therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men.
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world.
No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by
conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by
the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

It is because of the power to decide what our money is worth, via the “Fed,” that our country is in the shape it is in today, If Bush didnt do it, it would happen eventually.

The price of gas hasnt quadrupled. The price of gold hasnt quadrupled. The dollar has just lost that much value. If our money was backed by gold, oil will still be stable.

Although Wilson brought the Jim Crow laws to Washington DC, he was one of the better 20th century presidents.

@Chris: you are overlooking all the good things Woodrow Wilson did. He came up with the whole league of nations thing which would be the back bone of the current United Nations. Still haven’t found anything good about the federal reserve ?

Besides I thought Nixon took us off the gold standard, not Wilson.

@AstroChuck: It was Franklin D Roosevelt who took the US economy of the gold standard under the New Deal in 1933 (maybe 1934). There isn’t a single developed country in the world that is still relying on the gold standard. Henceforth, it was a good move

mirza- I believe Nixon went off the gold standard in 1972 against advice against it by the then chairman of the Federal Reserve, Arthur Burns.

@mirza

I do not feel the UN is a good thing. I think it is a step towards a world government. I dont care what else Wilson did. In my opinion, the Federal Reserve alone is the most corrupt institution in the world, so this alone makes him the worst president. As long as we must borrow money from a central bank, that by setting interest rates, determines the value of the dollar, we are in debt from the second we are born. The US pays $1.4 Billion a DAY in interest alone on money borrowed. Please tell me how this is a smart policy. We must go back to a set gold standard, oil will stabilize, food will stabilize, and people will no longer be enslaved to the “system,” just to keep the “system” that is enslaving us going.

I think this quote fits you perfectly.
“The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it’s profits or so dependant on it’s favors, that there will be no opposition from that class.”—Rothschild Brothers of London

William Harding