rank

“I don’t know much about Americanism, but it’s a damned good word with which to carry an election.”

“I can’t make a damn thing out of this tax problem. I listen to one side and they seem right, and then … I listen to the other side and they seem right … . I know somewhere there is a book that will give me the truth, but I couldn’t read the book. I know somewhere there is an economist who knows the truth, but I don’t know where to find him and haven’t the sense to know him and trust him when I find him … What a job!”

Thus saideth Warren Harding, who has long been considered on respected and respectable historian’s parlor-game ranking lists of the presidents dead last. Except recently, it would seem, he’s been lifted of this burden, to the point where he is now replaced by James Buchanan — the man who couldn’t get the way out of the Civil War.

Perhaps Harding gets a bit of leeway due to the fact that he stated, while in office, that he made for a lousy president.

Previous entrants amongst supposed “all-time worst”s include James Madison, for fleeing the capital. The image was rehabilitated centuries ago… see: he wrote the damned Constitution.

Where do modern presidents rank? Namely Our current occupant? He ain’t no Harding — if he believes himself to be doing a bad job, he’s not saying it.

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