Why is James Buchanan considered the worst president in history?
Buchanan nearly destroyed the country by contributing to the circumstances that led to the Civil War. It’s going to be hard to top that. Bush is already eligible. You are eligible the moment you become President and can be put in a poll. However, Bush is unlikely to make the bottom ten long term. The US has had lots of recessions during its history, and by historical standards the Iraq war is a very small one from the US perspective. I think it’s already pretty clear that he will be regarded as one of the poor presidents, probably somewhere near the bottom quarter. Notice that the public polls always have a drastic tendency to list the most recent presidents much nearer the top or bottom than they deserve. This seems to be because most people have strong opinions about current politics but little knowledge and less opinions about history.
