For this exercise the modern era begins with FDR and the New Deal. How would you rank those Democratic Presidents from worst to first?
In historical order the Presidents are FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
My ranking of Worst to First:
Barack Obama – In the time of a great national crisis, we hoped for a Lincoln or an FDR. For me it seems we have a President whose presidency is closer to the predecessors of those two giants – Buchanan and Hoover. They were Presidents who could not come to grips with the crises of their day and therefore were failed presidencies. Obama has advanced polices that threaten to undermine programs of the New Deal and the Great Society. I would not have rated Obama worst six months ago, but his inept handling of the debt negotiations has secured his worst ranking for me.
LBJ – If LBJ were ranked on domestic policy alone he’d be a great president, but there is Vietnam. War can destroy a presidency and it did destroy LBJ’s. Look at it this way, if LBJ had pulled out of Vietnam in 65 that war would not have torn apart America. And Nixon would probably not have been elected in 68. The two most corrosive events of the last half of the 20th Century – Vietnam and Watergate would not have happened. America would be a much different country today if those events had not happened.
Clinton – He initiated some horrible economic and finance policies that lead to tremendous job losses and financial disasters that are reverberating to this day, his disgusting use of triangulation, and his reckless affair with Monica probably caused Gore to lose the election resulting in us having to suffer through the term of the worst president ever.
Carter – Jimmy doesn’t get enough respect. The Camp David peace accord remains a significant accomplishment.
Truman – I would have preferred he hadn’t immolated two Japanese cities, but my Dad was a carrier pilot in WWII and I might not be here if Truman hadn’t ended the war with the A-bomb. Harry navigated the county through a time when it was experiencing a rapid change in how it had to interact with the rest of the world.
JFK – Is this high on my list primarily for one reason – he moved all the right chess pieces in the Cuban Missile Crisis. A misstep on his part in that crisis and none of us would be here.
FDR – Should be on Mt. Rushmore.
Some perspective on my list - this same time period includes my two worst Presidents of all time. The worst is George W. Bush and the second worst is Richard Nixon. Most would rate Reagan worse than any of these Democrats. Going further back in history most people would agree that Hoover, Harding, Grant, Andrew Johnson, and Buchanan are worse than the Democratic Presidents of the modern era. So I am not saying any of these Democratic Presidents are at the bottom of the presidential barrel. This is just how I rank them at this time.
So what does your worst to first list look like? Begin with the worst at the top of your list and complete the list with the best President at the bottom in first place.
I did a worst to first diary last December, but it included Republicans. Link:
http://www.dailykos.com/...