NationStates Jolt Archive

In my opinion it's Theodore Bilbo, hands down.

Anyone else have any opinions? If so, please share them, I'm curious.

Abraham Lincoln. A tyrannical dictator. It's a tribute to the American people that they could recover and go back to democracy once Lincoln's administration was over.

Depends on what you mean by worst. Do you mean most inept in terms of having his or her policy work? Most inept in terms of getting elected or even being taken seriously as a politician? Or do you mean did the most damage once in office?

If it's the middle one, then maybe someone like Ralph Nader or Lyndon LaRouche would qualify. If it's the last, well, time will tell if George W. Bush is the worst, but he'll certainly be considered in the running.

Depends on what you mean by worst. Do you mean most inept in terms of having his or her policy work? Most inept in terms of getting elected or even being taken seriously as a politician? Or do you mean did the most damage once in office?

If it's the middle one, then maybe someone like Ralph Nader or Lyndon LaRouche would qualify. If it's the last, well, time will tell if George W. Bush is the worst, but he'll certainly be considered in the running.

You can go by any of these definitions, or by character, or whatever. Just whoever you think is the worst.

Since you mentioned character, let me throw another one in there--David Duke. Unlike Lyndon LaRouche, Duke actually managed to get elected once as a state legislator, and got into a runoff for the governorship of Louisiana (where he was thrashed by Edwin Edwards, a man currently serving jail time for wire fraud and racketeering).

what about ted kennedy? He isn't very good, yet he gets elected...

I really don't know. It would be like asking who is the worst serial killer. They are all pretty bad.

More bad ones I can think of are all post-Coolidge Presidents, Woodrow Wilson, Abe Lincoln (somebody mentioned him above), Edward Mandell House, Harry Hopkins, Alger Hiss, Dean Acheson, Dean Rusk, George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Robert McNamara, Walt Rostow, John Kerry, Ralph Nader, Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Anthony Lake, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Mort Halperin, George Schulz, Warren Christopher, Al Gore, Harry Dexter White, Donald Rumsfeld, Wilson's secretary of war (I don't remember his name), Robert Kennedy, John McCain, Jesse Jackson, etc.

Boss Tweed.

/thread

LaRouche hands down.

Dan Quayle

Dan Quayle??? Why, he was an inspiration for every C student throughout the late 80's.

Mom: Do your work or you'll never amount to anything.

Son: Mom, I don't have to worry. I can be an idiot and STILL be vice president.

Such an inspiration!

No ones said john ashcroft? i mean the guy did lose to a dead guy......

Abraham Lincoln. A tyrannical dictator. It's a tribute to the American people that they could recover and go back to democracy once Lincoln's administration was over.
what the bloody hell are you talking about?

Anyway, the worst politician is an honest one.

I would have to say Elbridge Gerry, he rearranged the boundaries of congressional districts to influence the outcome of the election so his party would win, hence gerrymandering.

Boss Tweed.


Tweed was a genius. An evil, corrupt genius, but a genius nonetheless.

Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor were both pretty horrible, in my estimation. Franklin Pierce is not far behind.

In terms of accomplishment during office, Jimmy Carter was pretty damn bad. And then he blamed it on the public with that idiotic "national malaise" speech.

Herbert Hoover also flopped big time; the presidency was out of his league.

And can't forget Joe McCarthy who nearly brought the entire democracy to a screaming halt.

Dan Quayle

Agreed! He was the worst. He talked about Murphy Brown like she was a real person...couldn't even spell 'potato'...I never trust a man who can spell the essence of the spirit of my state...

Abraham Lincoln. A tyrannical dictator. It's a tribute to the American people that they could recover and go back to democracy once Lincoln's administration was over.

Ewww yeah! The Grant administration! Now that was a better setup for everybody!

Sorry bad choice.......

what about ted kennedy? He isn't very good, yet he gets elected...

Are you sure about that? He takes care of his districts. Isn't that what you want in an elected official?

Not my opinion; don't have one on him. Just what somebody who supports him told me.....

I can't remember his name right now, but he ran against FDR but was killed before the elections. He was a governor before running for president and had secret police who disregarded every law in their maintainance of his governorship. He was a champion of the plan to redistribute all fortunes of over 1 million dollars which made him very popular during the depression. Essentially he was a power hungry madman who would likely have turned the U.S. into a totalitarian police state had he been elected, but, and I hesitate to say this, luckily he was killed before getting the chance.

Under the different definitions, there are a few that are almost equal:

George Walker Bush

Ronald Reagan

Richard Cheney

John Ashcroft

Donald Rumsfeld

Richard Nixon

Joe McCarthy

So far I'd have to say George W. Bush.

Abraham Lincoln. A tyrannical dictator. It's a tribute to the American people that they could recover and go back to democracy once Lincoln's administration was over.
LOL at the Confederate Atlanta Braves fan. I will own you in NS baseball this season. GGOOOOO SOX!

what the y hell are you talking about?

Anyway, the worst politician is an honest one.
If you want to debate me on it, please send me a telegram, and I'd be happy to. There's more to Lincoln than what you were taught in gov't-funded grade school.
LOL at the Confederate Atlanta Braves fan. I will own you in NS baseball this season. GGOOOOO SOX!
lol. Who are you? White Sox?

I can't remember his name right now, but he ran against FDR but was killed before the elections. He was a governor before running for president and had secret police who disregarded every law in their maintainance of his governorship. He was a champion of the plan to redistribute all fortunes of over 1 million dollars which made him very popular during the depression. Essentially he was a power hungry madman who would likely have turned the U.S. into a totalitarian police state had he been elected, but, and I hesitate to say this, luckily he was killed before getting the chance.You're talking about the incredible Huey P. Long of the sovereign state of Louisiana. Talk about a madman. There's a great book on his political life named The Kingfish and His Realm. It details the way he turned Louisiana into his personal fiefdom and what his plans were for the country had he been elected president. One interesting fact about Long--he was in the US Senate when he was killed, and while he was a Senator, he never managed to get a piece of legislation passed, but he did manage to log more time speaking on the floor of the Senate than any other Senator at the time.

No ones said john ashcroft? i mean the guy did lose to a dead guy......

Arrgh! I get so sick of that being thrown in his face. Please try to educate yourself thoroughly about this situation before speaking of it again. I'm lifting the following from another post I made in another forum about this:

Okay, this one really rubs me the wrong way when people bring this up with no clue about the facts surrounding the race.

John Ashcroft and Mel Carnahan were the titans of Missouri politics in the Republican and Democratic parties respectively. Carnahan was Governor for 8 years after Ashcroft's 8 years, and was in the last year of his term as Governor while running for the Senate seat that was held at the time by Ashcroft. It was an incredibly tight race, going down to the wire.

Mel Carnahan died in a plane wreck in mid-October before the November election. Ironically, due to a law that Carnahan signed, the minimum time a ballot could be changed before an election was pushed back, otherwise the ballot would have been changed. It was almost immediately made known that his wife, Jean Carnahan, would be appointed by the acting Governor (acting since Carnahan died, of course) to the seat if Mel Carnahan still won.

John Ashcroft, being the decent and honorable guy that he is, immediately suspended his campaign out of respect for the Carnahan family's loss. The democratic party in Missouri, however, kept up the attack ads. That, along with sympathy votes for Jean Carnahan and illegal manuevers by the democratic party in the St. Louis area to keep polls open beyond the time stipulated by law, led to Carnahan's victory.

So in summary, he did not 'lose to a dead guy' since everyone and their son knew that Jean would get the seat.

Ashcroft still lost to a dead guy according to the election results. The reasons why are irrelevant, although if you've got any proof of illegal actvities by the Carnahan campaign or the Democratic parties, I'd like to see it--proof, not accusations.

And besides, there are more interesting things to stick on Ashcroft--his "anointing" with Crisco after his first political victory, his war on statutory nudity in Washington, and his war on civil liberties still outweigh the loss to a dead guy.

P.S. Decent and honorable guys don't try to twist and tweak the laws of the land to justify torture of POWs or to justify the witholding of due process from US citizens.

Under the different definitions, there are a few that are almost equal:

George Walker Bush

Ronald Reagan

Richard Cheney

John Ashcroft

Donald Rumsfeld

Richard Nixon

Joe McCarthy

You missed out Condie.

After much thought, I'd have to go with McCarthy. Then, I'm not an expert on politics...Bush is a different matter, depending on which side of the fence you stand on (or if you're sitting in the middle - ouch?)

McCarthy, however, is believed almost universally to have had severe problems.

I think that the worse politician is Sen. Robert Byrd. Whether or not I agree with his policies is irrelevant, as I think his style is the worst of any politician I've ever seen. Sen. Byrd is a dinosaur. For one, he is one of the very few remaining Democrats from the old Democratic party: he believes in a heavily centralized economy, and feels that America's economy is based on industry. I've observed that most other Democrats have at least seen the new reality, and are not pernamently stuck in the last millenium.
Further, his public speaking skills are perfectly worthy of something like Debby does Dallas, but not the Senate floor. He looks at his papers all the time. He has a penchant for quoting Romans, and famously calls the Floor's camera the [i[ee-lek-tron-ic lenses[/i]. Had he lived in a different era, he may have been hailed as the proper statesman. Instead, he is a walking dinosaur, and he doesn't even make himself seem presentable. Why West Virginia keeps voting for him is a mystery.

Hmm I cant decide so ill name a few, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and John Edwards