Ranking U.S. Presidents 1-42....best to worst

I would like to say the current scumbag in office George Bush is the worst,but I NEVER refer to him as President.

 

My favorite presidents are Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt, in that order: two Democrats and two Republicans. Each made the United States a more egalitarian country.

George W. Bush is obviously a failure as a president. Nevertheless, I think Ronald Reagan did more harm to the country. Reagan promoted the ideas that tax cuts are always the best economic policy regardless of economic circumstances, and that deficits do not matter.

The Republican Party has come to like budget deficits. They make it difficult for Democrat politicians to fund programs to help critical constituencies. The GOP benefits when white male blue collar workers think, "The Democrats never did me any good. At least the Republicans won't take my guns."

 

#1: Bill Clinton
#42: George W. Bush

 

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C'mon, Clinton as the best?

c'mon

 

Yeah, I thought that after I posted it. The best in my lifetime though (beginning with Truman to now). But, I stand by George Bush who, IMO, is the worse president out country has ever had. Even worse that Grant.

 

I don't understand why George Washington would be in the top 10 of the best presidents list. It's sort of a waste of a space imo. He didn't really do much as president.

 

He did do alot though, most importantly he set the standard of only 2 terms in office when he voluntarily gave up the office. But Washington was the one who had to start up a government from scratch, the constitution laid the framework for how the government would operate, but aside from that it was all just theory. It's the precedents of power sharing between the branches of government and all the other ones that make Washington what he was.

 

Best:
1. James Madison
2. George Washington
3. John F. Kennedy
4. Grover Cleveland
5. Ronald Reagan

Worst:
1. Herbert Hoover
2. Andrew Jackson
3. Bill Clinton
4. George W. Bush
5. Ronald Reagan

Reagan is on both best and worst list, because my feeling on him is so ambivalent and split-up. He has one of the best personality and inspires many (listen to his farewell speech, in which he called for "informed patriotism"), and his small government rhetoric is uplifting. Even more so, his message of freedom against oppression in the world and his decisive move against the U.S.S.R. are laudable. At the same time, some of his economic and social polices are among the worst of the worst. Small government sounds good, but cutting tax for the rich first does not lead to small and efficient government. War on Drugs and all other unnecessariy spendings actually increased deficit (which he regreted in his farewell speech). Reagan was a complicated man. Many people love him and many hate him. To me it is both.

 

Good point. But I thought the two term standard of office wasn't set until after FDR. I would consider Washington to be an extremely influential president, rather than a best one because of the guidelines he started to set. He may have helped to get the U.S. off the ground but I don't really think he did much for the nation itself.

Then again, as you said, he helped to create a government from scratch so I guess that is very important considering without his beginnings the U.S. wouldn't be the same.

I guess you're right haha. I didn't really think of it that way. I was thinking of presidents doing more direct things. I think Washington's help to the U.S. was more indirect in that he was the precursor to things to come.

I definitely understand why he could be considered one of the best now though. It makes much more sense to me than before.

 

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The 2 term limit was put into law into the constitution after Roosevelt and his 4 terms, but before that it had never been broken

But also, Washington grew hemp and distilled whiskey, Washington before Obama was officially the most black president we ever had.

 

How is Fdr one of our worse presidents he is much greater then Bush!

 

FDR greately expanded presidential power --- set precedent for George W. Bush, among other things. So I can see a point if someone here puts FDR as one of the worst. Simply if without FDR, GWB would have gotten more difficulty with his agenda.

 

Van Buren #1

 

Lmao

 

So did Andrew Jackson.

 

Right now it is Obama.

Considering he hasn't been sworn in yet.

 

obama's upcoming plan will greatly dwarf roosevelt's new deal. there's all sorts of pork barrel spending attached to it too. i think our greatest presidents were the founding fathers. even they as politicians believed that it is the citizens obligation to stand up against tyrannical government.

 

his economic policies aggravated the effects of the great depression. not only this, but it's been revealed he had prior knowledge of japan's plans to attack hawaii. he commited treason, he should have been tried and executed for his silence.

 

your number one pick screwed america many times over thanks to nafta. he's also good friends with the dad of the last guy we had. we started miraculously going into debt right before he left office. so how does that qualify him as the greatest president ever?

 

america as country was way more economicly stable during the eisenhower years than during the roosevelt years. roosevelt used a war as an excuse to drag his presidency out to four terms. only a despot would behave in such a manner. roosevelt like wilson also surrended control of our money over to a self serving centralised banking system who has done nothing other than devalue our currency. the thing that bothers me about ike is that he had one and a half million germans, including women and children starved to detah in 1948