Countdown:
42-33:
the ten worst presidents
21-11:
the nearly-greats
10-1:
the greatest presidents
The
panel and how it works
With Nixon and Bush Jr. out of the running nice and early, we can continue our
comprehensive countdown to the greatest ever Commander-in-Chief in The
Times US presidential rankings.
Eight of our US and foreign policy experts have considered, compared, debated
and finally ranked all 42 presidents in order of greatness to give us a
complete list of the best and worst.
Yesterday we published the ten
worst and today it is time for numbers 32 to 22:
32. Jimmy Carter
1977-81 (Democratic)
Many of the comment posters on yesterday's worst
ten presidents could not believe Carter missed the roll of shame. Well
our panel only just left him out - making him their 11th worst President.
The Carter administration was dominated by a series of foreign policy
disappointments including the
surrender of the Panama Canal, the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet
Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
In Washington, Carter instituted major civil service reform and restructured
the health and education departments but he failed to excite the voting
population and, with the economy struggling, he was comfortably voted out of
office after a single term.
"Carter got just about everything wrong." Chris Ayres, Los
Angeles correspondent
31. John Tyler
1841-45 (Whig)
Tyler assumed the presidency after a brief constitutional crisis following the
sudden death of William Harrison. He had been the Vice President and from
this moment, all VPs were a heartbeat away from the White House.
He struggled to assert his authority and his presidency was often referred to
as “his accidency”. He managed to survive the first
ever attempt to impeach a President after an unpopular veto and went on
to annex Texas and then bring Florida into the Union.
29= William H. Taft
1909-13 (Republican)
Taft’s Presidency was overshadowed by the imposing figure of Theodore
Roosevelt. Teddy had anointed his friend as his successor before changing
his mind after Taft’s first term and making an acrimonious but failed
challenge to his Republican nomination.
The President sits low on our list after managing
to alienate all sides of the political spectrum with unpopular
anti-trust and tariff legislation during his term in office. His bid for
re-election was the least successful ever as he secured just eight electoral
votes and finished third behind Woodrow Wilson and Roosevelt, who was
standing for the Progressive Party.
29= Benjamin Harrison
1889-93 (Republican)
Harrison implemented an
unpopular, high tariff on goods imported into the US, raising prices
while the American economy was suffering. At the same time, the President
was signing substantial appropriation bills to increase spending on the
navy, subsidised shipping and federal improvements. For the first time
outside of war, Congress was allowed to spend a billion dollars, which was
not welcomed by the impoverished electorate.
28. Zachary Taylor
1849-50 (Whig)
Taylor is another man to languish in the rankings due, at least in part, to a
brief presidency.
A military man with no prior experience in public office, Taylor died
after 16 months in the White House. Much of that short period in power
was spent debating the future of slavery in the newly expanded United
States. He was a Southern slave-owner but argued that slavery should not be
allowed to spread.
27. Rutherford B. Hayes
1877-81 (Republican)
Hayes’ election was the most controversial of all. He comfortably lost the
popular vote but after
months of bitter wrangling, he secured the electoral college by a single
vote.
Once he had been sworn in during a secret ceremony, he finally brought an end
to the period of post-civil war Reconstruction by abruptly withdrawing
federal troops from the southern states and allowing the former Confederate
states to rule themselves.
26. Calvin Coolidge
1923-29 (Republican)
Coolidge was seen as a caretaker when he stepped up from Vice President after
Warren Harding’s death, but his laissez-faire economic policies were popular
as the economy boomed.
He was re-elected with 54 per cent of the popular vote but support
faltered as he refused to intervene on behalf of struggling farmers and
was slow to react to the Great Mississippi Flood. In foreign affairs, he
passed the largely ineffectual Kellogg-Briand Pact, which called for
signatories to renounce war.
"Probably the most modest man ever to hold the office. Disliked for
his small-minded isolationist tendencies but on balance, it's a shame there
were not more like him." Camilla Cavendish, columnist.
25. Gerald Ford
1974-77 (Republican)
Ford became President after Nixon’s post-Watergate resignation and his
best-known executive act was to grant
his predecessor a full pardon.
His period in office coincided with a US recession and inflation rates of up
to seven per cent, which left him with a large budgetary deficit and little
room for manoeuvre. He vetoed 39 appropriation bills passed by Congress in
his first 14 months to try and keep the economy afloat but that was not
enough to impress our judges.
24. Andrew Johnson
1865-69 (Democratic, National Union)
In the aftermath of the American Civil War, Johnson refused to implement the
harsh recriminations against the defeated Confederate states that would have
been popular with many Unionists. As a southerner and a Democrat, standing
under the umbrella National Union ticket, he was particularly susceptible to
criticism from the victorious northern states.
His gentle approach to southern leaders and veto of civil rights legislation
lost him the support of the Republican Party in Congress and he spent much
of his presidency battling two attempts
to impeach him.
"Nearly blew Lincoln's success." Gerard Baker, US editor.
23. Bill Clinton
1993-2001 (Democratic)
Clinton was one of the most controversial figures in our list with some of the
panel rating him highly while others buried him at the foot of their
rankings.
Clinton was the first Democrat to be re-elected President since Franklin
Roosevelt. He successfully passed progressive legislation, including the
right to take unpaid leave during pregnancy or illness and an increase in
the minimum wage but he failed with other proposals such as his medical
reforms.
His second term was dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal and attempted
impeachment but he still left office with a 65 per cent approval rating.
"Promised so much, delivered so little and embarrassed everyone."
Ben Macintyre, writer-at-large.
22. Chester Arthur
1881-85 (Republican)
A
non-partisan President who attempted to improve the image of Washington
officials by introducing an independent civil service commission,
restricting political influence over official appointments and reducing
tariff rates.
The Republicans repaid his lack of party loyalty by refusing to nominate him
to run for a second term as President.
"His four years in office saw him turn widespread cynicism into
grudging respect - the opposite of the usual Presidential experience."
Camilla Cavendish.
Tomorrow: good ... but not good enough: the men who haven't made the top 10
