Favorite president of the 20th century

[skybridge]

Crappiest would have to be Carter.  You remember him, right?  He's the guy Reagan beat.  HAHAHA     Oops.  I should have said that he is ONE of the guys that Reagan beat.

What makes Carter worse than, say, Harding?

[Notre Dame rules!]

Hmmm... Good question.   

Harding was a bit before my time, quite a long bit of time actually.  My opinion of him can only be formed by what I have read about him.  As you know, historical analysis changes over time. 

As for Carter, I personally know that he was an unmitigated disaster, having become politically aware during his presidency. 

I am willing to concede, based on your proposition, that Harding was the worst President of the first half of the 20th Century (Hoover would be my personal choice for that distinction), and that Carter was the worst President of the second half of the century.

[skybridge]

Harding was a bit before my time, quite a long bit of time actually.  My opinion of him can only be formed by what I have read about him.  As you know, historical analysis changes over time. 

As far as I know, Harding's aren't likely to get any better. You might want to say that he got lucky to die before all his scandals were exposed. Someone even tried defending him by claiming that he was probably too dumb to know how corrupt his Ohio gang really was. Anyway, it never fails to amaze me how overwhelmingly popular he must have been at least in 1920!

[skybridge]

CSPAN historians rank them (20th century only)

1. Franklin Roosevelt
2. Theodore Roosevelt
3. Harry Truman
4. Woodrow Wilson
5. John Kennedy
6. Dwight Eisenhower
7. Lyndon Johnson
8. Ronald Reagan
9. William McKinley
10. George Bush
11. Bill Clinton
12. Jimmy Carter
13. Gerald Ford
14. William Taft
15. Richard Nixon
16. Calvin Coolidge
17. Herbert Hoover
18. Warren Harding

Not sure I agree with all of them...

[Notre Dame rules!]

Taft busted more Trusts than did Teddy Roosevelt.  Why did they rank Taft so much lower than T.R.?  Must be a popularity contest

[Rob]

Taft busted more Trusts than did Teddy Roosevelt.  Why did they rank Taft so much lower than T.R.?  Must be a popularity contest

Yes, Taft was much better than Roosevelt.

[skybridge]

Taft busted more Trusts than did Teddy Roosevelt.  Why did they rank Taft so much lower than T.R.?  Must be a popularity contest

Taft preserved more wild life too. However, Taft's administration was marked by scandal which caused TR to run again in 1912. Arguably Taft may have been more progressive than Teddy but since he just followed Teddy's policies, Taft wasn't original which is probably why they rated him so much lower.