Most overrated president

[Ats]

LBJ and FDR

[No more McShame]

Ronald Reagan, despite the fact that he helped bankrupt the USSR he nearly bankrupted this country in the process.  He signed bills that gave tax cuts to the rich, while cutting social benefits and the increasing the tax burden on the middle and lower classes.  He presided over the Iran-Contra affair and denied any responsibility for it.  

C'mon you know we were never remotely close to bankruptcy!  His tax cuts spurred our economy after is languished for too many years with high inflation and low growth.

That said, I'd have to say JFK.  He did good things but wasn't in office long enough to be lionized as he is.

[J. J.]

Jimmy Carter, because people confuse the man with the presidency.

Jimmy Carter is a decent many who arguably may have made a good  negotiator for the State Department.  I have no argument with his personal faith, morals, or his post ppresidential charity work.  He is being judged on that, not on what he did as president.

[Redefeatbush04]

Chester A. Arthur

[Keystone Phil]

Chester A. Arthur

Yeah...I'm really getting tired of asking people who the best President is and getting the same old "Oh Chester Alan Arthur, of course!" response. 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Definately Reagan.

Arthur is underrated, people hardly ever mention him but he got some important civil service reforms passed.

[Redefeatbush04]

Ok honestly......Reagan....he was a good president, but not as god-like as everyone makes him out to be

[alcaeus]

    Eisenhower, Madison,  Monroe

[alcaeus]

     The two term Presidents are all overrated.    The two term Presidents are allowed infallibity, and the electorate tends to push the fallibilities of a two term President forward to the one term President who follows.   Reagan and Clinton are the most recent; they will always be overated, and their mistakes taken from their Presidencies and blamed on the hapless Bush's.

      Two term Presidents tend to get their faces on money; almost all of them show up somewhere. 

     Grant, for example,  doesn't deserve to be on any bill.

     Kennedy will eventually be underated.  He was lucky to have Eisenhower and Johnson around him, who contrasted so starkly with Kennedy's image.    But, Kennedy was not saved from having a star crossed Presidency that follows most two term Presidents.  Just about every day of Kennedy's Presidency has been turned over and analyzed.  Eisenhower's Presidency gets no critical attention at all, and he is treated as a kind Cold War Washington.

[??????????]

Lincoln

[Aegir]

John Kennedy, although I think he's getting a lot less respect these days than he used to get.

[George W. Bush]

John F. Kennedy

[12th Doctor]

Andrew Jackson

[TomC]

Probably Kennedy and Reagan, although they had great charisma, I'm not sure they accomplished as much as their myths imply. I'd probably rank them high because I think about politics more than administrations and they were both great politicians.

Same with Bill Clinton- great politician, mediocre President. His greatest accomplishment is that he balanced the budget (with Gingrich's help). Not a small accomplishment, but  ho-hum.

Nixon is probably the most underrated. In the words of Lynne Cheney "This is not a good man." Nixon spat in the face of democracy, tried to wipe it off and say he did no such thing. But he really accomplished more than his place in history suggests.

[DaleC76]

Are we talking about overrated as in good or bad?  Or are we talking about the importance of their presidencies?  Two completely different lists.  Personal politics would have a lot to do with good/bad opinions.

[Ats]

FDR, LBJ second.

[alcaeus]

       Jackson is unpopular with liberals today because of the The Trail of Tears, the forced   migration of the Cherokees.  Jackson in this era of banking mergers and the credit industry looks very peculiar for throwing out the banking system.

     Jackson is  not overrated because at the present time almost noone rates him highly.

     Jackson hand picked Polk for the Presidency, which was good.   And Jackson said Russia would become the greatest threat and worst enemy of the U.S.  By 1850 the majority of Americans recognized Russia as the greatest threat to democracy in Europe.

      Nixon going to China is the most overrated act by a President of the 20th Century.  Eisenhower overall was the most bumbling error prone President of the 20th Century, with one mistake after another for two terms.  The economy was sustained in the 50s by the New Deal and union labor.

     McKinley is fast becoming the most overrated President, and because Clinton said Cleveland was his favorite President, and Bush is saying McKinley was his favorite President, that entire gilded age era is becoming overrated for Presidents.   Theodore Roosevelt said McKinley had the backbone of a chocolate eclair, and I'm not going to doubt Teddy on that one.

      Historians' rating of Presidents is a different matter from popular ratings of Presidents.   Historians overrate the influences of Madison and Monroe. 

     

[Prospero]

1. Lincoln
2. FDR
3. Wilson

[tkwrinklefiber]

Washington, Reagan, and Kennedy.

[erich]

Reagan

[J. J.]

Clinton.

[dca5347]

Truman

[Hitchabrut]

FDR, Mr. I'm going to ignore the Holocaust, was the most overrated president. It was fate that he died and Truman became president to drop the a-bombs on Japan and to end the war.

[phk]

JFK, Reagan, Clinton

[A18]

FDR. And to a lesser extent, LBJ.