Who was the most disappointing president from 1950-current?

[RepubliCON-Watch]

It has to be a president you had some/many expectations for and/or a president who you thought would be mediocre but turned out to be a failure?

[Thinkingabout]

1. George W Bush, was not ready to be president.

[Scootaloo]

5. Funny, he completely met my expectations of him, and hten some

granted, I expected him to be a fucking disaster who would bring our nation to the brink of ruin... but the fact that he met my expectations disqualifies him from being a "disappointment," at least in the technical sense?

It's a layered question.

[underpants]

2. W

I know you asked about "disappointing" but by any measure W was easily the worse President of the Nuclear Age and amongst the worst 5 in history. We weren't expecting much but they found new and unexpected ways to not just fail but fail to a greater extent and in inventive ways that experts in an array of areas never saw coming.

[Fresh_Start]

3. W was bad, but Ronnie poisoned the pool

wasn't old enough to vote for him, but despised everything about him

[annabanana]

10. ^ THIS^

He was the one who introduced our overlord's favorite, destructive idea:

The Government (that's OUR Government, made up of Americans, charged with doing the work of the American people, in community).. is EVIL

[lame54]

4. That's a trick question...

W sucked like we thought he would - no disappointment there

[BillZBubb]

6. w bush was the worst by any measure, but he doesn't count.

Just because of expectations, I'd have to say Obama. They were way too high and he was against a wall of republican deception and obstructionism. He's not blameless and could have fought more, but I certainly don't view him as a failure. In his second term, he finally caught on to the republicans game. That was about 3 years too late. He's made a lot of progress since using executive power and bypassing the right.

To me the gap between expectations and results was the widest. That's the only reason.

[shenmue]

7. Reagan

[TeddyR]

8. So Nixon was before my time

But Nixon. Bush was in over his head. Reagan was a disaster in many ways, primarily on social issues. Frankly think Reagan did more harm than Bush.

[Sherman A1]

13. Reagan

without any doubt. Had he not been President, we would not have had GW or W.

[sharp_stick]

9. Reagan, I fell for his bullshit

I was just a kid in Canada but I really thought he was going to be good.

Never trusted a Republican again.

[Fresh_Start]

11. Reagan got me to register to vote...so that I could vote against him

...when he ran for reelection.
My family was completely apolitical...so voting was a radical idea.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. In W's case I think 'astonished' is a more appropriate word than 'disappointed.'

We all knew he'd be awful but I never, never would have imagined he'd be as bad as he was.

[Arugula Latte]

19. Same here.

He reached depths of awfulness previously unimagined.

[arely staircase]

22. This nt

[mentalsolstice]

14. GWB exceeded my expectations in what a failure he would be. nt

[edhopper]

15. Obama

First, let me say he is one of the best Presidents, as good as Carter or Clinton.
But you said disappointing not bad.

But he could have been transformative.
He could have been FDR, and marginalization the GOP.
Instead he let them steal the anger of the people and kept trying to reach across to them a let them get back in 20190.

[grasswire]

30. I have to stand with you, Ed

Obama is a beautiful man. Gracious, kind, compassionate, and so on. But I don't think he was prepared for the fighting, and I believe his Hawaiian background is too congenial and cooperative to allow him to resist Republicans. He is a lovely man with a lovely family. But we needed someone who understands a brawl, not a community organizer.

[anamnua]

16. Nixon by a mile.NT.

[First Speaker]

17. Has to be Carter...

...the expectations for him were sky-high in 1976. Watergate demoralized the GOP, and we had been out of office for eight years...race and Vietnam had shattered the Dems. Carter was this empathic Southerner who seemed to embody the "New South", accepted the Civil Rights movement, and was ready to lead the country forward. Four years later, he was rejected by the country as emphatically as Herbert Hoover had been, and left us Reagan, and the right-wing reaction that's dominated US politics ever since. Yes, Carter did some good things, and obviously he's a great and good man. He's been the best ex-President since John Quincy Adams, at least. But his Presidency was a political failure, and no one in 1980 could believe that the hopes of 1976 had been fulfilled...

[virgogal]

27. I agree. 17% mortgage interest rates and gas lines.

Terrible years.

[EndElectoral]

18. Worst - Reagan. Dissapointing- Bill Clinton- AA incarceration, NAFTA, Welfare, Lewinsky

[Lil Missy]

20. george the lesser was much worse than I imagined he would be. n/t

[Raine]

21. Poppy Bush. I was so relieved to finally be rid of Reagan that I had some

expectations that Poppy with his "kinder gentler America" might actually not be so bad. What a disappointment, he even got us into a war and his failure set us up for his stupid son W wanting to take up where pop left off!

[So Far From Heaven]

23. Every one of them from 1960.

Your set of rules are:

"It has to be a president you had some/many expectations for and/or a president who you thought would be mediocre but turned out to be a failure? "

Name one that didn't fit your criteria. That's why nobody votes anymore. They come out for hope and change, get slapped in the face with failure and lies, then don't vote again.

[RepubliCON-Watch]

26. Great point, although JFK was decent. nt

[robertgodardfromnj]

24. It's hands down GWB

A drunken monkey could have done a better job at running the country. What a buffoon. And to think Americans elected this guy TWICE.

[libodem]

25. Dubya

[RandySF]

28. The one who drowned New Orleans.

[Blue Meany]

29. Bill Clinton - no question...

He ran as a Democrat and governed as a Republican, and initiated the party's shift to the right.

[kwassa]

31. All of them. Still waiting for a great one.