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Who Was the Worst U.S. President? — By Darwin Porter

In spite of how historically tantalizing that question is, low on the scale of U.S. Presidents even before he took
the bad news is that no one will be able to accurately office. Today, he gets high ratings for his handling of the
answer it until forty years from now. Public ratings of a Coronavirus but low scores for the border crisis with Mexico.
president in the months following his exit from office are So, who is in the “sub-basement” of the White House and
usually dismissed as unreliable. usually evaluated as a Presidential disaster?
For example, Harry S Truman ranked a low 28 percent Whereas Andrew Johnson was the first President to face
approval rating when he turned the presidency over to impeachment, Trump was impeached twice (a record).
Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. Today, Truman is consid- Born into poverty, Johnson labored as a tailor before
ered one of the greatest of U.S. presidents. ascending to the ranks of both governor and later, Senator
The former haberdasher from Missouri was having his of Tennessee. Because Lincoln had designated him as
third glass of bourbon when news reached him during his Vice President, Johnson assumed the office of U.S.
the closing months of World War II that FDR had died. President a few moments after Lincoln was assassinat-
On the day he took office in 1945, he learned for the first ed in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. In office, Johnson
time that the U.S. had developed an atomic bomb. He later dropped two compared himself to Jesus Christ, and feared that Southern states
of them on Japan, efficiently and quickly ending the greatest conflict in would become “Africanized”—that is, taken over by former slaves. He
the history of humankind. opposed Emancipation and encouraged efforts to keep blacks as a
H H perpetual underclass.
See AND hear Darwin Porter every month on Zoomertimes TV. To read this entire article, go to BoomerTimesFL.
Tune in on YouTube (search zoomertimes TV), on Facebook.
H com/Boomertimes, or on BoomerTimesFL.com H Darwin Porter’s latest biography
What’s generally accepted as the most reliable source of presidential is Volume One of a two-part over-
approval ratings is the Siena College of Research Institute. In its latest view of one of the most famous
th
couples of the 20 Century: “Lucille
polling, Donald Trump emerged as noteworthy: Although for his overall Ball and Desi Arnaz—They Weren’t
performance he was rated near the bottom (No. 42 of 44 presidents) he Lucy & Ricky Ricardo.” This 530
th
th
was positioned in 10 place for “luck,” and in 25 position as a presi- page book with hundreds of photos
dent who was “willing to take risks.” is available now from Amazon.com. Darwin Porter
As a demonstration of the fallacy of early polling, Joe Biden ranked Volume Two will be available in early October.

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