Who was the LEAST consequential American president?
Who left office having left the smallest mark on the country and the weakest legacy?
I'd say Carter. He's not really remembered for anything except failing to rescue the Americans being held hostage by the Ayatollah of Iran
lemme just end the thread right now so we can go back to being /pol/ .5
>Dies within a year of being president
that's pretty much it.
That isn't Harding or Buchanan.
Carter had a profound effect on Liberal International Relations around the world and the US.
Despite not particularly agreeing with Liberal IR theory myself, you can't discount the impact he had at the time. He's still regularly cited in political units at universities across the world.
>Buchanan
>smallest mark on the country
He was dogshit, but it's very hard to argue that he had little mark on the country.
I'd give it to his predecessor, Gerald Ford. All he really did of consequence was pardoning Richard Nixon, and infamously falling down out of Air Force One.
Alexander Cockburn once called Ford the best president America had for "doing the least damage." Obviously sarcastic, but that should show how noteworthy Ford's term in office was.
This picture of jimmy always looked to me like someone shrunk his face and tried to center it.
Buchanan was a bichboi whose only major footnote is that he inadvertedly started the conflicts that led up the civil war., that one failiure though made him more influential than most of the obscure middle presidents.
You can fucking thank Carter for Volcker and the economic recovery that gets credited to Reagan
Gerald For Lobby and passed the Onion Futures Act of of 1964, which is still in effect today.
Without Gerald we'd have onion shortages every trimester.
...while he was in the Senate.
Oh shit, I didn't read OP carefully.
Yeah, William Henry Harrison.
Or this guy
en.wikipedia.org
Who was acting president for a day but didn't find out about it until later.
Millard Fillmore? I meant most people don't even know who he is.
>You can fucking thank Carter for
...and the shit that is the mess in Afghanistan.
his weak foreign policies encouraged the soviets to invade.
>Waah only the United States is allowed to fuck up the middle east
Reagan shouldn't have gotten involved.
What's wrong with a communist Afganistan?
Its a shit hole with nothing worth taking.
If nothing else the Soviets could have just kept fighting the Muslims long term.
In fact, Regan is directly responsible for 9/11.
If he did not arm the Taliban with Stinger missiles then the Soviets would have won and we wouldn't have people flying planes into our buildings.
Reagan was only pretending to be president. He also confused himself with his alter ego in movies.
>In fact, Regan is directly responsible for 9/11.
please know your history and stop shitposting this myth.
Pray... Tell me, how an organized Al Queda in Afghanistan would operate when they are being constantly hunted by Smersh in Hind Helicopters?
Arming of the Mujahideen started under Carter
>Teapot Dome Scandal
>mismanagement of the Secession Crisis
>no mark on country
Look at him and laugh.
>What's wrong with a communist Afganistan?
>Its a shit hole with nothing worth taking.
nbcnews.com
this will be the prize left for china, maybe?
>If Afghanistan isn't around to serve as a terrorist safe haven, then there can't be any more Islamist terrorists!
Reagan a shit but blaming him for 9/11 is just dumb.
and deregulation of domestic oil prices. Which caused a boom in American oil production. Making a lot of Americans rich. Leading to an oil glut in the 80s. Which caused the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Carter defeated the Soviets. Reagan was just an empty suit.
Ford. Carter was remembered as a complete failure as president (but he's suuuuper nice outside and had the best post-presidency eva! (Because democrats can't be portrayed in a negative light))
Bill Clinton is more responsible.
Osama Bin Laden's beef with the USA was the military bases in Saudi Arabia. He bombed the Trade Center. Then Clinton's response was to hope the Sudanese government would deport him. Then the Saudis would arrest and imprison him. Which was never going to happen. Because the Bin Laden's are a corporate power house and connected to the House of Saud.
If Bill had sent the CIA or Delta in to get him, then no 9/11. Yet he was a huge bitch and the Saudis probably paid him off. Just look at how much the Saudis gave to the Clinton Foundation.
Shut your Yankee trap.
Carter is a genuinely nice and honest person.
His "failure" is a meme, and undeserved.
this
Bush also did this.
9/11 was largely allowed to happen because the Saudis paid a bunch of dosh to the Bush campaign and Karl Rove told the FBI to lay off the Saudis for a while.
Yes, the Illinois senate where the great onion debate went down
>His "failure" is a meme
>His "failure" is a meme, and undeserved.
His "failure" is tragic for america and richly deserved.
southerner here.
>waaah why is carter such a good man
>why isn't he irrelevant and hated >:(
Iran, a military rescue was executed. Problem was the inter service competition. resulting in marine helicopter pilots that couldn't refuel mid air. So they had to land in Iran and refuel on the ground. Unfortunately, iran is a fucking desert. So the helicopters landed into brown out conditions. Resulting in helicopters crashing and planes catching fire. The mission was scrubbed. Carter's personal failure was being too much of a nice guy to send a dying Shah to Iran in exchange for hostages. Though I think advisers were telling him not to. Reagan committed treason to get the hostages back from Iran.
the so called "oil crisis of 79". during the iran revolution, their oil production dropped off. though the saudis had increased production to make up for it. This didn't stop the commodities traders from speculating like crazy and causing a shortage on paper.
which lead to Carter's Crisis of Confidence speech. Carter being honest again. Told americans that the future was going to suck. That hard work was needed to secure America's energy future.
Also told Americans to turn down the heat and put on a sweater. To conserve heating oil. OMG THE MONSTER! I heat my house to 68 in the winter and wear the same hoodie int he house the entire cold season.
Carter put passive solar water heater panels on the white house. To encourage alternative energy. Reagan ripped them out because Nancy's Astrologer said they blocked her super natural powers.
Stagflation. Keynesian economics had pretty much run out. As stagnation and inflation had been happening since NIXON took us off the gold standard and making the US Dollar a fiat reserve currency. Carter's policies worked, during Reagan's administration.
Carter deregulated domestic oil prices. Domestic oil production boomed in the 80s. Oil Glut, falling oil prices, Soviets go broke.
>least consequential POTUS
Ignoring presidents who died in office soon after taking it (i.e. WH Harrison, Taylor, and Garfield) I'd say Van Buren. Anyone saying any president post-McKinley is a retard.
>cockburn
What
Most of the Presidents between Jackson and Lincoln, and the Presidents between Grant and McKinley were inconsequential by modern standards because in their times the executive branch had much less power, and much of what they did was largely dictated by sectional or spoils politics.
If you had to pick a 'modern' President of little consequence, and excluding Harding who died partway through his term, Coolidge would be my pick because he was a laissez-faire President who could afford to sit back and watch as the economy boomed and the world was at peace. The most controversial thing he did in office was to repeatedly veto farm-aid bills.
His job as the president of the UNITED STATES is to protect U.S. interests, not to be "fair" and let everyone else do whatever the fuck they want. No one is talking about who is "allowed" to do shit, we're saying that Carters job was to defend the interests of the U.S., and he fucking failed at it.
>Regan is directly responsible for 9/11
I want slavs and teenage contrarians to leave this board right fucking now.
>it's another "I don't understand the difference between the Mujahedeen and the Taliban" episode
Some people are unfathomably retarded
Say that Russians are Slavs one more time and I'll deck you, shitskin
>Gilded Age presidents
>Coolidge
right on the money
...
Who's the neckbeard?
>the Susan B Anthony dollar
kek, some people
Gerald Ford.
Only president from the last 100 years completely forgotten.
pronounced co-burn
Carter literally has pretty much removed the parasite Guinea Worm from existence. Bush, Obama, whoever comes next, cannot say they have eradicated anything on the same level.
>Carter put passive solar water heater panels on the white house. To encourage alternative energy. Reagan ripped them out because Nancy's Astrologer said they blocked her super natural powers.
Really? Heard that Nancy had an Astrologry and even consulted him on policy matters, but this is hilarious.
Fun fact, there were more American troops deployed to western Europe during the Carter administration than during the Reagan adminstration. This is due to the conflicting doctrines the two men had. Carter's was what you could call "hard on communism", while Reagan's was called "getting ludicrously lucky and claiming all the credit".
No, because genuinely good men who dedicate their lives to honest public service, even after getting unceremoniously kicked out of the white house can't be portrayed negatively.
Shit, look at the Clintons. The coverage of them isn't exactly what I would call positive, and that's not for lack of skin, it's that their post white house actions have been so terrible that you can't make it look good.
>A boomer relies on anecdotal evidence and fell for the "Reagan made me feel good" meme
Did you really feel that they needed a screen shot? Will you screenshot this because I correctly identify water as wet?
To be fair, Bush worked very hard to mitigate the impact of AIDS in Africa
Carter also started rearmament. In fact all of NATO began quietly rearming in the late 70s.
Reagan again would take the credit for that.
I think of Franklin Pierce or one of the gilded age president's would have a smaller impact. Jimmy Carter gave away the fucking PANAMA CANAL. Obama will be remembered as a 2nd Jimmy Carter for giving away the INTERNET. Though probably the truest answer is [spoiler]Coolidge[/spoiler]
>I'd say Carter
The Camp David Peace Accords, peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, were on his watch.
Also. If we say Carter was weak on Iran and Afghanistan, these matters are still of significant consequence.
>.while he was in the Senate.
Gerald Ford was never in the Senate.
Gerald Ford was a member of the US House of Representatives for over 25 years (1949-1973).
>the Illinois senate
???
Gerald Ford was from Michigan
>Jimmy Carter gave away the fucking PANAMA CANAL
Which is cool because it rightfully belongs to the people of Panama. Good on ol' Jimbo.
>if they change their name, then they must be different now!
Carter was a nice guy, it was literally the last time America got a president that wasn't a corrupt sociopath
The man was a one termer who wore a sweater.
Doesn't get worse than that.
A one termer with a president is certainly better than a two termer with actual factual mental problems.