How does history treat the Loser Presidents?
Not well. Not well at all.
John Quincy Adams does the best. He's ranked 19th best of the 42 Presidents we've had. But that’s nowhere near as good as the man he stole the office from, Andrew Jackson, who's ranked #9, a near-great President.
Rutherford Hayes ranks #24–below average. We don’t know how Samuel Tilden, his victim, would have ranked. Samuel never got to the White House. Odds are he would have done better than Rutherford, though.
Benjamin Harrison ranks a dismal #30 out of 42. The man he swiped the Presidency from–Grover Cleveland–ranks much higher–17th.
And George W. Bush? He doesn't show up on most of these lists yet. But the Quinnipiac Poll in 2006 asked which of our last twelve Presidents was the worst. It was George W. in a walk–34% of us called him the worst. 17% said Nixon. |
