Nixon was paranoid and socially inept. However, has any president other than Bush been an embarrassment?
599286
Herbert Hoover was kind of a twit Mr. Enzyme. I fully agree with you on the George issue. This guy scares me, but his 'trigger man' Dickie boy is even scarier. Here are two fellas that talk about Iraq but never seem to put a human equation into any of their speech making. Two guys who 'conveniently' never served during Vietnam like you did.\nI have much more respect for your opinion on war than I do \nthose two characters. It pisses me off no end that the working class always send their kids off to be killed and wounded to fight a rich mans war. I have no disrespect for our men and women serving in Iraq, quite the opposite I have the utmost respect and honor for them. I support them 100%, however I can support them here at home where they belong. It's time to come home, let Iraq take care of Iraq. \n\n     I am sorry for the loss of your nephew, my heart bleeds when  tragedy like this is heard. My deepest sympathies to you and your family. I have faith that we as \nAmericans will come together on this issue very soon and demand our government put an end to this chaos.
487363
Bush the Decider is the worst President America has ever had. I thought nobody could out do Nixon, and Bush the Decider is the one.
778798
What other president has had to deal with the issues President Bush has had since taking office? The economy was in a slump, 9-11 in his first year, Katrina, the list goes on. Certainly he has made mistakes, but I don't think his mistakes are enough to warrant "worst president ever." What about democratic presidents that got the US involved in Vietnam with over 50,000 DRAFTED US servicemen dead? I am not a Bush fan by any means and I do wish we had elected a different President, but worse ever isn't fair either.
61207
This is kind of a lopp sided question as it is always easier to complain about whatever we currently have.  However in this case the answer would be George W. Bush.  I have read some of the answers that you have gotten and some are based on complete misconceptions.  Yes our economy was better under the Clinton Administration, however that was due to the fact that the things that Reagan did for the economy were finally bearing fruit.  By the end of the Clinton years we were back into recession that plagued the early Bush Administration.  Clinton campaigned in 1992 promising National Health Insurance, however in his 8 years as President was not even able to get it to the floor of Congress.  Clinton had Congress's approval for the same reasons as Bush did in 1998 to go to war with Iraq, yet he never followed through with it.  If we blame Bush for making mistakes in his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress and the President made the same mistake in 1998.  What seems to be a common thing for both the American Public as well as our Politicians is a short attention span and a short memory.  In retrospect most Americans now think of Nixon as being a good President as well as a great statesman, yet in 1974 he was the most hated man in history moving Hitler to number 2 for the first time in over thirty years.
1113660
George W. Bush.   He's worse than a roach and Kerry.
577967
Bush has had the fortitude to stand up to the world and to call Saddam's hand as well as expose the French, Germans and Russians as greedy cowards.\n\nNot one of the greatest, though.  No Reagan or Nixon.
839223
The first and only president to resign from office was Richard M. Nixon who resigned on August 9, 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.
1138346
I would have to say Nixon becuase he got us out of vietnam and he got relations back with china.  \n\nI know some might say FDR but he was partially responsible for the Cold War becuase before he died, him churchill and Stalin all got together and FDR decided that the USSR should get most of eastern Europe. What a punk.
1120292
Bush, very interesting article here about it.  http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history
690798
Worst President in Americas History. I am sure there will be several chapters about George Bush in the Civics books just like the criminal Nixon.
570381
I think the only differences is that we got Nixon out before he could do any real damage. But with this administration, we as the American people just don't seem to understand the hardship that they're leading us toward. So I say yes this administration is definitely more corrupt, and alot more sneaky..
96108
I have been around since Truman and probably started paying attention around Eisnehouer, I have never (including Richard Nixon) seen a more corupt govenment in my life. As for the worst I think he is bar none.  Bill CLinton was a good president in the sense I have never seen so much prosperity. His trouble with his zipper should have not been a problem. It should have been a problem only between him and Hillary. It was brought on by dirty politics, if you remember they started out by investigating white water and how it got to that was pure and mean. Ken Star wherever you are should be a very proud man.
660603
... I'll say Bush... he seems confused by human traditions, wonders why people don't like him... he always seems to think he has great ideas, when in actuality they make his own party cringe... always has a wierd look on his face in photos... has trouble speaking in public....
314843
Yes, had Nixon not been the paranoid man that he was, his ability to conduct foreign affairs with almost pinpoint precision would have made him a man of the ages.  Instead, most people refer to him as the president behind Watergate.  That's a shame.  He was also very adept at working both sides of the political aisle in US politics.  He was a genius at times.
181407
I would rank as the "worst" Presidents should be those whose policies clearly made things worse, not those who may have been hampered by opposition or simply not politically very effective. Thus I'd omit the likes of John Quincy Adams.\n\n\n1) Franklin Pierce -- he supported slaveowners to the point of accepting what everyone knew was a trumped up government brought us "bleeding Kansas", which was essentially the beginning of the Civil War.\n2) James Buchanan -- marginally better; took the same general position as Pierce.  Beyond his failure on Kansas, he did a horrible job between Lincoln's winning the election and taking office to effectively counter secession (people in his cabinet were even actively working for the secessionist goverments!)\n3)  Jimmy Carter -- disastrous on domestic issues, esp. the economy ("misery index"), but that dims compared to his foreign policy, allowing Communist expansion in Central America (which Reagan had to clean up) and the fall of Iran (which we are STILL trying to figure out how to deal with)...  \n\nAnd Jimmy Carter certainly wins my vote for worst EX-President... Breaking all precedent by bad-mouthing his successors (before him there was an understanding that you did not do so).  But more important that that bad form since the early 90s he's been running around secretly (and not alway so secretly) trying to run his own foreign policy, even if it directly contradictory to the current elected administration.\n\nAlso, I have to disagree with some of the "classic answers" we often see... at least for their reasons.  Harding & Grant are usually ranked low because of scandals on their watch. Hard to be sure about how much personal involvement Harding had in Teapot Dome, and not a big fan, but his economic policies (tricky postwar transition time) were more effective than he is usually given credit for.  As for Grant, no one questions that he was personally scandal-free (though generally too trusting of OTHERS' motives), and many are reassessing his successes  (e.g., as a strong champion of the freedmen in the very difficult post-war era).   Hoover is blamed for the Great Depression, or at least making it worse -- there may be some truth to that, but if so it's not that he just sat back (contra the popular myth), but probably that he tried to have the government do too  MUCH... things that it was ill=equipped to do.
1094432
I can't really say of all time, but of my life time George W Bush.  He is clearly racist and elitist and puts his own financial and political well being before the good of the nation as a whole in a way that is without precedent.
282021
A"DUHHHH" I'm G."DUMBYA" BUSH, you can't talk to me like that. He wouldn't answer the most respected journalist in America, and that is Non-American. You know, can you remember "TRICKY DICK NIXON", doesn't this seem like the same type of politics?