Who Is The Worst President America Never Had?

The plan was Hoover as AG, Tolson as assistant AG, Lou Nichols in charge of the FBI. Hoover would take the first vacancy on the Supreme Court, with the eventual goal of Chief Justice. Had Dewey won, Hoover would have been CJ by the summer of '46.

That's right. Chief Justice John Edgar Hoover, 1946-1972.

:eek:

That implies Dewey wins in 1944. In the much more likely scenario of him winning in 1948. Hoover would get the vacancy that opened up in 1949. So it would be Assocaite Justice 1949 - 1952.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Why I mentioned Robert Taft earlier. People don't realize how close he came to the 1940 gop nomination and he likely would have avoided war with Japan and Germany at all costs, and cut off aid to Britain.

He was a lot more likely presidental contender than Lindbergh. Though in his case I think his Nazi alliegences are overstated and he wouldn't have been the American Hitler everyone makes him out to be.
Big money says Taft would win in '40 if he was running against anybody but FDR.
 
I think the New Deal was still popular in 1940,so I don't think Taft wins. Maybe if he was running against Garner. On the subject of Hoover, I am wondering if he would have taken any other job. As Director of the FBI, he ran his own show. On the SCOTUS, he would be one of nine votes.
 
He technically was President for a day (braces for possible incoming retaliation).

But what was so bad about him?

From Wikipedia:

"... An angry Atchison called on pro-slavery Missourians to uphold slavery by force and "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district" if necessary.[17] He recruited an immense mob of heavily armed Missourians, the infamous "Border Ruffians". On the election day, March 30, 1855, Atchison led 5,000 Border Ruffians into Kansas. They seized control of all polling places at gunpoint, cast tens of thousands of fraudulent votes for pro-slavery candidates, and elected a pro-slavery legislature."

Really NOT my idea of someone you'd want as Commander-in-Chief.
 
In the era of the US as a world power, I'd have to go with William Jennings Bryan. He demonstrated his ineptitude and inability to manage effectively as an executive during his brief tenure as Wilson's secretary of state. A combination of naïveté and ineptitude would have made him worse than Carter--no mean feat, that.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
In the era of the US as a world power, I'd have to go with William Jennings Bryan. He demonstrated his ineptitude and inability to manage effectively as an executive during his brief tenure as Wilson's secretary of state. A combination of naïveté and ineptitude would have made him worse than Carter--no mean feat, that.
I've always been dubious as to how disastrous a Bryan presidency would be. There's no way Congress would approve of his radical programs; there'd be compromise as always.

I also like that Bryan wouldn't have been such a fucking hypocrite when it came to foreign policy; the US wouldn't have stabbed the Filipinos in the back and Puerto Rico would have been given self-determination. He probably wouldn't have mucked about in Latin America, either. IIRC, Bryan did support a Nicaraguan Canal since that wouldn't involve screwing around with Colombia.
 
I'm pretty shocked people think that Barry Goldwater or Ted Kennedy would be worse than MacArthur, who wanted to drop nuclear bombs on every major Chinese city, and seemed to have less qualms than Dick Cheney about ignoring restraint on his office. It would have been the greatest mass murder in history.

We should also limit it to people that could get to the office without Alien Space Bats. I mean Fred Phelps? We may as well nominate Adolf Hitler.
 
I'm pretty shocked people think that Barry Goldwater or Ted Kennedy would be worse than MacArthur, who wanted to drop nuclear bombs on every major Chinese city

Maybe we need a badness metric. Something like:


Causing nuclear exchange that ends civilization - 1000 demerits

Allowing U.S.A. to be invaded by foreign power - 500 demerits
Prolonging or bringing back chattel slavery - 500 demerits
Letting CSA secede (effectively the same thing) - 500 demerits

Losing a war without U.S.A. being invaded - 100 demerits
Permitting segregation to continue - 100 demerits
Major economic depression or recession - 100 demerits

Misspelling 'potato' or pronouncing 'nuclear' as 'nukyular' - 1 demerit
Falling down steps of Air Force One - 1 demerit
 
Dennis does get points for consistency BUT he bankrupted Cleveland and was nearly recalled (so much for executive experience) and his politics are well to the left of the country and the core of his party; if someone he get in, his office would be effectively paralyzed

Spitzer was touch on wall street because he had personal vandetta's against people, just check out the dick grasso case and you will have an idea.... spitzer was a hugely corrupt dishonest douchebag

Kucinich has come up with some odd positions, and I would never vote for him as president, but when you read the full story of Cleveland's default, you realize that Kucinich actually acted with moral courage, standing up against a sinister campaign by a corporate bad actor with powerful allies in the banking industry to strongarm the City into selling its municipal power authority to it at a pittance. The story's in here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayoral_administration_of_Dennis_Kucinich
 
Inspired by the current thread from the other side. Who would've been American's worst President, but was never elected?

(only restriction is that they have to have been realistically close to gaining the office, or becoming a politician. No FaT-style cult leaders or serial killers).

Me, I'd say, at least for this century, Joe McCarthy, Doug MacArthur, George Wallace, and Jesse Helms are up there.

Ye Gods, there are so many names. :)

Ralph Nader has got to be on the short list.
 
Kucinich has come up with some odd positions, and I would never vote for him as president, but when you read the full story of Cleveland's default, you realize that Kucinich actually acted with moral courage, standing up against a sinister campaign by a corporate bad actor with powerful allies in the banking industry to strongarm the City into selling its municipal power authority to it at a pittance. The story's in here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayoral_administration_of_Dennis_Kucinich


Dennis isn't the worst on my list; just would do horribly

Sharpton, Jackson and Teddy Kennedy would be far worse; the later two would be ripe impeachment candidates
 
On the left: Kucinich, Jerry Brown, Nader, Henry Wallace, Jesse Jackson...

On the right: Ron Paul (do current candidates count if they ran previously?), Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, George Wallace, Dan Quayle (did he ever even consider running?),
 
On the left: Kucinich, Jerry Brown, Nader, Henry Wallace, Jesse Jackson...

On the right: Ron Paul (do current candidates count if they ran previously?), Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, George Wallace, Dan Quayle (did he ever even consider running?),

The others I more or less agree with (though I think Henry Wallace would've been a little better than he's portrayed, certainly not like in FaT) but Brown? He seems to have done a good job in California so far (and considering that state's issues, that's no mean feat), and I don't think he'd be any worse as President. Certainly wouldn't start WWIII.;)
 
- George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, for obvious reasons.
- Wendell Wilkie, if he was really plotting to rule the world with Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.
- Spiro Agnew, because two crooks in a row really would've screwed up the country's politics.
- Barry Goldwater, for general reactionariness, and the belligerent surlyness of many of his supporters.
- Leon Trotsky. You just said it had to be a politician :p
- Joe Steele ;)
 
When Jerry Brown ran in '80 and '84, he was still viewed as "Governor Moonbeam." He's matured since (Mayor of Oakland, Attorney General), but back in those days....
 
- George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, for obvious reasons.
- Wendell Wilkie, if he was really plotting to rule the world with Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.
- Spiro Agnew, because two crooks in a row really would've screwed up the country's politics.
- Barry Goldwater, for general reactionariness, and the belligerent surlyness of many of his supporters.
- Leon Trotsky. You just said it had to be a politician :p
- Joe Steele ;)

Ever heard of Fear, Loathing and Gumbo?;):p
 
I've always been dubious as to how disastrous a Bryan presidency would be. There's no way Congress would approve of his radical programs; there'd be compromise as always.

I also like that Bryan wouldn't have been such a fucking hypocrite when it came to foreign policy; the US wouldn't have stabbed the Filipinos in the back and Puerto Rico would have been given self-determination. He probably wouldn't have mucked about in Latin America, either. IIRC, Bryan did support a Nicaraguan Canal since that wouldn't involve screwing around with Colombia.

Frankly, most "BRYAN--WORST PRESIDENT" boosters don't seem to be talking about the actual William Jennings Bryan, they're talking about "Matthew Harrison Brady", my Inherit the Wind-derived nickname for the popular misrepresentation of the man.
 
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