Who was the worst president in history, and why?

>James Buchanan
pro-slavery southern democrat who sat on his hands doing nothing while the south militarized and left the U.S. Army in a state of dilapidation when it dropped the mess in Lincoln's lap
>Andrew Johnson
pro-slavery southern democrat who inherited Lincoln's reunified America. Was the most overridden president in U.S. history. started the process of completely botching reconstruction
>Rutherford B. Hayes
shadiest election in U.S history. Finished the job of completely botching reconstruction
>Warren G. Harding
widely considered to be the most ineffectual man to ever be president, taken down by massive scandals
>Herbert Hoover
the last time that the U.S elected a mega-wealthy businessman to the highest office. His schizophrenic attempts to stave off depression failed miserably
>George W. Bush
committed the worst foreign policy blunder in U.S history. After 8 years the economy was tanking in it's worst crisis since the Great Depression

The election and Reconstruction aren't Hayes' fault though, blame the parties. Hayes didn't do much of anything otherwise however.

Pierce is one I never see mentioned as much in terms of all time bad Presidents. I've always considered him worse even than Buchanan because the situation by Buchanan's time was fucked anyway, he just poured gasoline on the fire. There was still some hope during Pierce's time and he bungled it due to being a depressed alcoholic (for understandable reasons) and signing an act that led to Bleeding Kansas and hastening any divide in the country over slavery.

>committed the worst foreign policy blunder in U.S history.

Pretty confident the War of 1812 or Vietnam takes the cake

I've always thought Andrew Johnson was particularly terrible. The country needed a strong leader to pull itself together after the Civil War, and instead it got Johnson. He was petty and incompetent, one of his policies requiring former plantation owners to write him a personal letter apologizing for the war and basically for being a plantation owner in order to be readmitted to the union. He also apparently showed up hammered to deliver his inaugural address

Definitely Vietnam

Have you ever heard of this little weirdo called Garfield?

>long history of public service at the state and national level
>generally well regarded
>good military career considering he basically taught himself military tactics right before joining the Union army
>master of logistics and creating an efficient bureaucracy
>incredibly smart, pretty much taught himself economics
>valued education and extolled the values of an educated populace
>widely regarded as one of the best orators of his day
>managed, with Blaine's help, to outmanuever Roscoe Conkling and end his political career

Garfield's a total "what if" president. His biggest problem was that he could be fairly trusting of things his friends said, despite most people not believing that he was corrupt or anything (Credit Mobilier mainly). Could've been just another forgotten Gilded Age president, could've gone down as one of the all time greats.

That should be a fucking Netflix series.

This. Bush.

For me Reagan is in the bottom 5, but I doubt historians will ever reach a real consensus about him. Not in our lifetimes, anyway. He's too polarizing.

But I'm pretty confident that in a few decades Bush's presidency will still be regarded as a complete failure.

When all the gears of money printing come to a halt, Obama will be seen as the one who sowed the seeds of financial destruction in the US

>sowed the seeds

Oh please, it started decades before him.

>in a few decades Bush's presidency will still be regarded as a complete failure.
It already is.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States#Siena_College_Research_Institute.2C_Presidential_Expert_Poll_of_2010

>the last time that the U.S elected a mega-wealthy businessman to the highest office

The fuck you mean last time?

>Thinking it was Obama's fault.
>Thinking that the underlying problem with the US dollar hasn't been around for decades already under both liberal and conservative presidents.

Jesus Christ it must be difficult being that retarded.