People often discuss who the best and worst leaders of a country might be, and the United States is no exception. Leaders of a country are generally ranked on their capabilities in several areas, such as economics, foreign relations, and domestic order, in addition to their personal morals. In the US, while there are some presidents who are controversial and interpreted as either great and benevolent or terrible and unworthy, there are also presidents so terrible they are universally derided by historians and public alike. Currently, most lists contain Hoover (he promoted his poor economic policy), Harding (his corruption), and Johnson (he was against many post US Civil war initiatives for reconstruction, and personally stalled them). Number one is usually Buchanan, for his failure to stop forces leading to secession for the southern part of the US. Many note that his failure to halt that movement directly led to the US Civil War later on, but those defending him claim no politician could have prevented it, only mitigated them for some time.
With that, I want to ask everyone: was Buchanan really the worst president in the history of the US? I argue that this is likely true, given his gross incompetence, although there are also some other candidates I have a more personal dislike for such as Jackson. But that is my opinion and you are free to debate below.
Edit: I want to mention that there were some people in the election thread who led me to do some research on this topic, so thank you.
