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by If You Can Keep It | 2.19.20

This week, in honor of Presidents’ Day, Countable will be running a series of pieces on what it takes to make historians’ lists for Best Presidents and Worst Presidents.

It’s part of our ongoing series If You Can Keep It, where we tackle some of the most controversial, but significant, questions about our republic.

What traits make for a terrible president?

It’s Presidents’ Day. It’s also an election year. As we head toward November 3rd, we thought we’d pose a series of questions about what makes or breaks a president.

C-SPAN intermittently ranks all U.S. presidents, and its most recent list, in 2017, placed the usual contenders at the bottom:

John Tyler
Warren G. Harding
Franklin Pierce
Andrew Johnson
James Buchanan

What makes a bad president?

\"The presidents at the bottom were the ones who failed to safeguard us and adequately lead us during periods of crisis, or tainted the office through scandal and incompetence,\" said Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute, which has been ranking presidents since 1982.

\"Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding–they earned their spots at the bottom.\"

Here are some of the reasons why the above earned their spots at the bottom:

Hypocrisy

Tyler was a bullish defender of slavery who abandoned his party’s platform once elected.

(Tyler’s political-affiliation timeline: Democratic-Republican; Democratic; Whig; Democratic-Republican)

Corruption

As U.S. News explains: “Harding was an avid golfer and poker player whose administration is perhaps best remembered for its litany of corruption and scandals.”

History not looking kindly (e.g., slavery)

Pierce’s push to expand U.S. borders – by adding several slave states – helped set the stage for the Civil war.

Johnson, like our current POTUS, survived an impeachment. His was over opposing the Reconstruction movement, including the 14th amendment (granting citizenship to all persons born in the U.S.)

Bigotry

See: Jackson and Buchanan

Incompetence

See: Johnson.

Malleable backbone

Buchanan refused to challenge the spread of slavery or the growing number of states joining the Confederacy.

Summarize the qualities of a bad president, please

No vision for the country’s future
Lacking the courage to make unpopular decisions
Poor crisis management skills
Lack of character and integrity
Doesn’t play well with others/makes incompetent appointments
Poor communication skills
Inability to work with Congress

I just came to see what was said about Trump

\"The rule of thumb that we have, and this dates to prior to my taking over the project, is that it probably takes 50 years for history to settle in, although some of these things can occur after that,\" said Levy.

\"I hope that I'm here long enough to see history make its full judgment on President Trump, but it's going to take awhile.\"

What do you think?

What qualities make a terrible president? How about a great president? Which president do you think best embodied each? Join the conversation.

–Josh Herman

Look for part 3 of this series – Historians and Yours Best & Worst Lists - on Friday. And be sure to comment as we want to include your thoughts in our upcoming posts.

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