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Is Joe Biden the Worst President Ever? A Critical Examination of His Presidency
Introduction:
The question, "Is Joe Biden the worst president ever?" is a frequently debated topic, sparking intense discussions across the political spectrum. This isn't a simple yes or no question; it requires a nuanced and thorough examination of his presidency, considering both his successes and his significant shortcomings. This article aims to provide a balanced, fact-based analysis of his time in office, exploring key policy decisions, economic performance, foreign policy initiatives, and public approval ratings, ultimately allowing readers to form their own informed conclusions. We'll delve into specific criticisms and counterarguments, providing context and supporting evidence to facilitate a comprehensive understanding. This isn't about promoting a partisan viewpoint, but about presenting a critical assessment based on available data and reputable sources.
I. Economic Performance Under Biden: A Mixed Bag
President Biden inherited a challenging economic landscape marked by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply chain disruptions. While the unemployment rate has fallen significantly under his administration, inflation soared to levels unseen in decades, impacting household budgets and eroding purchasing power. The American Rescue Plan, a massive stimulus package, aimed to bolster the economy, but critics argue its size contributed to inflationary pressures. Conversely, proponents highlight its role in preventing a deeper recession and supporting job growth. A balanced assessment requires considering both the positive employment figures and the negative impact of inflation on everyday Americans. Examining specific economic indicators, such as GDP growth, inflation rates, and wage growth, provides a clearer picture of the overall economic performance under Biden's tenure.
II. Foreign Policy Challenges and Triumphs
Biden's foreign policy has been shaped by the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, a decision met with both praise and condemnation. While some lauded the end of America's longest war, others criticized the chaotic nature of the withdrawal and the subsequent Taliban takeover. Furthermore, the ongoing war in Ukraine has presented a significant challenge, demanding a robust response from the US and its allies. Biden's administration has provided substantial military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but navigating the complexities of this conflict while avoiding direct military confrontation with Russia has been a delicate balancing act. Analyzing his responses to these and other international crises, along with his engagement in multilateral diplomacy, is crucial in assessing his overall foreign policy performance.
III. Social and Political Polarization: A Nation Divided
The United States remains deeply politically polarized, a trend that predates Biden's presidency but has arguably intensified during his term. His legislative agenda, often met with fierce Republican opposition, has highlighted the partisan divides in Congress. Issues such as climate change, gun control, and healthcare reform have become battlegrounds, making bipartisan cooperation challenging. Examining the success (or lack thereof) of his legislative initiatives, along with his efforts to bridge the partisan divide, provides insight into his ability to govern effectively in a deeply fractured political environment. Analyzing public opinion polls and examining the discourse surrounding his policies helps illustrate the extent of this polarization.
IV. Biden's Approval Ratings: A Reflecting Pool of Public Opinion
Presidential approval ratings provide a valuable, albeit imperfect, measure of public opinion. While approval ratings fluctuate throughout a presidency, a consistently low approval rating can indicate significant dissatisfaction with the administration's performance. Analyzing Biden's approval ratings across different demographics and in comparison to previous presidents offers valuable context. However, it's crucial to recognize that approval ratings are influenced by various factors, including media coverage, political events, and the overall economic climate, and should not be viewed in isolation.
V. Conclusion: A Complex Legacy
Determining whether Joe Biden is the "worst president ever" is a subjective judgment based on individual priorities and perspectives. This analysis aimed to provide a factual overview of his presidency, considering both positive and negative aspects across various domains. The economic recovery, challenges in foreign policy, and persistent political division all contribute to a complex and multifaceted legacy that will continue to be debated and analyzed for years to come. Ultimately, readers should use the information presented here to form their own informed conclusions, rather than accepting simplistic, pre-determined judgments.
Article Outline:
Title: Is Joe Biden the Worst President Ever? A Critical Examination
Introduction: Hook the reader, overview of the article's content.
Chapter 1: Economic Performance: Analysis of economic indicators under Biden's administration.
Chapter 2: Foreign Policy: Examination of key foreign policy decisions and their consequences.
Chapter 3: Domestic Policy & Polarization: Analysis of Biden's domestic agenda and the level of political division.
Chapter 4: Public Opinion & Approval Ratings: Review of Biden's approval ratings and their significance.
Conclusion: Summary of findings and invitation for reader reflection.
FAQs:
1. What are Biden's major legislative achievements? This requires detailing specific bills passed and their impact.
2. How does Biden's economic policy compare to previous administrations? This involves comparing key economic indicators.
3. What is the international community's view of Biden's foreign policy? This needs examination of international relations and reactions to specific events.
4. How has Biden addressed climate change? This involves summarizing specific policies and initiatives.
5. What is the criticism surrounding Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal? This requires detailing the criticisms and counterarguments.
6. How has Biden's presidency impacted racial and social justice issues? This necessitates discussing specific policies and their impact.
7. What are the main differences between Biden's and Trump's presidencies? This calls for a comparison across various policy areas.
8. How have independent fact-checking organizations rated Biden's statements? This needs referencing specific organizations and reports.
9. What are the likely long-term consequences of Biden's presidency? This requires speculative analysis based on current trends.
Related Articles:
1. Biden's Infrastructure Plan: Success or Failure? (Examines the impact and effectiveness of the infrastructure bill.)
2. The Biden Administration's Response to the War in Ukraine. (Analyzes the US role in the conflict and its effectiveness.)
3. Biden's Climate Change Policies: An In-Depth Look. (Details his environmental policies and their potential impact.)
4. The Economic Impact of the American Rescue Plan. (Evaluates the plan's effectiveness and long-term consequences.)
5. A Comparison of Biden's and Trump's Foreign Policy Approaches. (Compares their strategies and outcomes.)
6. Biden's Approval Ratings: A Historical Perspective. (Compares his ratings to previous presidents.)
7. The Political Polarization of the United States Under Biden. (Examines the level of political division and its impact.)
8. Biden's Judicial Appointments: Shaping the Future of the Supreme Court. (Discusses the impact of his judicial selections.)
9. The Role of Social Media in Shaping Public Opinion of Joe Biden. (Analyzes how social media influences public perception.)
This expanded response provides a more thorough and comprehensive article, better suited for SEO and engaging readership. Remember to always cite your sources using reputable news organizations, academic journals, and government data.
| joe biden worst president ever: The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam Max Boot, 2018-01-09 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (Biography) A New York Times bestseller, this “epic and elegant” biography (Wall Street Journal) profoundly recasts our understanding of the Vietnam War. Praised as a “superb scholarly achievement” (Foreign Policy), The Road Not Taken confirms Max Boot’s role as a “master chronicler” (Washington Times) of American military affairs. Through dozens of interviews and never-before-seen documents, Boot rescues Edward Lansdale (1908–1987) from historical ignominy to “restore a sense of proportion” to this “political Svengali, or ‘Lawrence of Asia’ ”(The New Yorker). Boot demonstrates how Lansdale, the man said to be the fictional model for Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, pioneered a “hearts and minds” diplomacy, first in the Philippines and then in Vietnam. Bringing a tragic complexity to Lansdale and a nuanced analysis to his visionary foreign policy, Boot suggests Vietnam could have been different had we only listened. With contemporary reverberations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, The Road Not Taken is a “judicious and absorbing” (New York Times Book Review) biography of lasting historical consequence. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Hope Never Dies Andrew Shaffer, 2018-07-10 The New York Times Best Seller [Hope Never Dies is] an escapist fantasy that will likely appeal to liberals pining for the previous administration, longing for the Obama-Biden team to emerge from political retirement as action heroes.—Alexandra Alter, New York Times Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama team up in this high-stakes thriller that combines a mystery worthy of Watson and Holmes with the laugh-out-loud bromantic chemistry of Lethal Weapon’s Murtaugh and Riggs. Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted: the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic. Part noir thriller and part bromance, Hope Never Dies is essentially the first published work of Obama/Biden fiction—and a cathartic read for anyone distressed by the current state of affairs. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Worst President in History Matt Margolis, Mark Noonan, 2018-07-24 An Amazon Bestseller! The Most Comprehensive Takedown of the Obama Presidency! “If you want to know why the history books will have a dim view of Barack Obama, this is the book to read.”—John Hawkins, Right Wing News and Townhall.com The presumption of Barack Obama’s presidential greatness began before he even won the presidency. Now that he’s out of office, presidential “experts” and historians are ranking Obama as one of our nation’s greatest presidents, placing him amongst Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Truman. Obama’s presidency was certainly consequential, but it was by no means great. Did Barack Obama really save America from another Great Depression? Did he really unite America or improve America’s global image? Did he really usher in a new era of post-partisanship and government transparency? Did he really expand health coverage while lowering costs and cutting taxes? Did he really make America safer and stronger than it was when he first took office? According to his supporters in the media, Hollywood, and academia, he did. But they are wrong. And they’re working aggressively to ensure their version of Obama’s legacy is written into the history books. How can you discover and protect the truth? Matt Margolis and Mark Noonan have compiled everything you need to know about the presidency of Barack Obama into a single source. First published in 2016, this book has now been updated to include the entirety of Obama’s presidency, and the shocking details that have come to light since he left office. The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama compiles two hundred inconvenient truths about Obama’s presidency—the facts that define his legacy: his real impact on the economy; the disaster that is Obamacare; his shocking abuses of taxpayer dollars; his bitterly divisive style of governing; his shameless usurping of the Constitution; his many scandals and cover-ups; his policy failures at home and abroad; the unprecedented expansion of government power...and more. In his farewell address to supporters on January 11, 2017, Barack Obama declared, “By almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started.” This book destroys that narrative, putting Obama’s presidency into historical context and offering an avalanche of facts that simply cannot be ignored. All of these facts are now at your fingertips in a single source. The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama is your ultimate guide to Obama’s real presidential record—the record he’d like history to forget. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Bosom Friends Thomas J. Balcerski, 2019-08-02 The friendship of the bachelor politicians James Buchanan (1791-1868) of Pennsylvania and William Rufus King (1786-1853) of Alabama has excited much speculation through the years. Why did neither marry? Might they have been gay? Or was their relationship a nineteenth-century version of the modern-day bromance? In Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, Thomas J. Balcerski explores the lives of these two politicians and discovers one of the most significant collaborations in American political history. He traces the parallels in the men's personal and professional lives before elected office, including their failed romantic courtships and the stories they told about them. Unlikely companions from the start, they lived together as congressional messmates in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse and became close confidantes. Around the nation's capital, the men were mocked for their effeminacy and perhaps their sexuality, and they were likened to Siamese twins. Over time, their intimate friendship blossomed into a significant cross-sectional political partnership. Balcerski examines Buchanan's and King's contributions to the Jacksonian political agenda, manifest destiny, and the increasingly divisive debates over slavery, while contesting interpretations that the men lacked political principles and deserved blame for the breakdown of the union. He closely narrates each man's rise to national prominence, as William Rufus King was elected vice-president in 1852 and James Buchanan the nation's fifteenth president in 1856, despite the political gossip that circulated about them. While exploring a same-sex relationship that powerfully shaped national events in the antebellum era, Bosom Friends demonstrates that intimate male friendships among politicians were--and continue to be--an important part of success in American politics. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Battle for the Soul Edward-Isaac Dovere, 2021-05-25 An award-winning political journalist for The Atlantic tells the inside story of how the embattled Democratic Party, seeking a direction for its future during the Trump years, successfully regained the White House. The 2020 presidential campaign was a defining moment for America. As Donald Trump and his nativist populism cowed the Republican Party into submission, many Democrats—haunted by Hillary Clinton’s shocking loss in 2016 and the resulting four-year-long identity crisis—were convinced that he would be unbeatable. Their party and the country, it seemed, might never recover. How, then, did Democrats manage to win the presidency, especially after the longest primary race with the biggest field ever? How did they keep themselves united through an internal struggle between newly empowered progressives and establishment forces—playing out against a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a new racial reckoning? Edward-Isaac Dovere’s Battle for the Soul is the searing, fly-on-the-wall account of the Democrats’ journey through recalibration and rebirth. Dovere traces this process: from the early days in the wilderness of the post-Obama era to the jockeying of potential candidates; from the backroom battles and exhausting campaigns to the unlikely triumph of the man few expected to win; and on through the inauguration and the insurrection at the Capitol. Dovere draws on years of on-the-ground reporting and contemporaneous conversations with the key players—whether with Pete Buttigieg in his hotel suite in Des Moines an hour before he won the Iowa caucuses or with Joe Biden in his first-ever interview in the Oval Office—as well as with aides, advisors, and voters. Offering unparalleled access and an insider’s command of the campaign, Battle for the Soul takes a compelling look at the policies, politics, and people, as well as the often absurd process of running for president. This fresh and timely story brings you on the trail, into the private rooms, and along to eavesdrop on critical conversations. You will never see campaigns or this turning point in our history the same way again. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Sweet Lechery Jeet Heer, 2014-12-01 In Sweet Lechery, cultural journalist Jeet Heer offers a quirky collection of literary criticism that touches on a wide range of contemporary topics. From Margaret Atwood to Philip K. Dick, from Seth to Marshall McLuhan, Heer considers the literary and social contributions of canonical authors, artists, theorists and polemicists alike. Drawing from a variety of disciplines and genres, he links sex to economics, porn to high-brow literature, and tackles the oddball themes of cannibalism and vegetable sex in Canadian fiction. He examines the struggles of science fiction writers and the artistic opportunities of comic artists, weighing in on partisan politics for good measure. Rich with contextual detail and social commentary, these essays examine the cultural, historical and political forces that inform the books we read and write. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Yesterday's Man Branko Marcetic, 2020-02-25 Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden exposes the forgotten history of Joe Biden, one of the United States' longest-serving politicians, and one of its least scrutinized. Over nearly fifty years in politics, the man called Middle-Class Joe served as a key architect of the Democratic Party's rightward turn, ushering in the end of the liberal New Deal order and enabling the political takeover of the radical right. Far from being a liberal stalwart, Biden often outdid even Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush, assisting the right-wing war against the working class, and ultimately paving the way for Trump. The most comprehensive political biography of someone who has tried for decades to be president, Yesterday's Man is an essential read for anyone interested in knowing the real Joe Biden and what he might do in office. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Jackie Paul Brandus, 2020-08-25 The world was shocked when Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis in 1968. It would not have been so surprising had the truth of their relationship—which dated back to the 1950s—been known. Jackie knew Ari almost as long as she had known John F. Kennedy—and saw qualities in him (besides money) that she found highly attractive. The five years between her marriages to JFK and Onassis are often overlooked. But it was an incredible period of growth and change for Jackie. How did the world’s most famous woman remain so enigmatic? What was she really like? This book reveals the real Jackie, the one that hid behind her trademark large sunglasses. In this book, you’ll learn about: • Jackie’s lovers—and the one man she regretted not marrying • The secret, second burial of JFK • Her evolution from “political wife Jackie” into “nightclubbing, party girl Jackie” • Her own near death in 1967 • Her influence on pop art, fashion, and design |
| joe biden worst president ever: Joe Biden: 46th US President Ryan Gale, 2020-12-15 This title examines the life and career of the longtime senator and former vice president who became president of the United States. Elected in 2020, Biden took office after a heated campaign that centered on health care, the economy, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Best "Worst President" Mark Hannah, 2016-06-28 A veteran political analyst and a renowned New Yorker illustrator celebrate Barack Obama’s achievements in a compendium that takes his critics head-on. Barack Obama’s election in 2008 was a watershed moment in American history that inspired supporters on the Left—and fired up enemies on the Right. Elected in the midst of multiple crises—a Wall Street meltdown that imperiled the global economy and American troops entangled in two foreign wars—Obama’s presidency promised to be one of the most consequential in modern American history. Although he stabilized the economy and restored America’s prestige on the global stage, President Obama has been denied the credit he deserves, receiving instead acidic commentary from political opponents such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who declared that Obama was “the worst president in [his] lifetime.” In The Best “Worst President”, Mark Hannah and New Yorker illustrator Bob Staake swiftly and systematically debunk conservative lies and disinformation meant to negate the president’s accomplishments and damage his reputation—baseless charges too often left unchallenged by the national media. Hannah and Staake not only defend the president but showcase his administration’s most surprising and underappreciated triumphs—making clear he truly is the best “worst president” our nation has ever known. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Promises to Keep Joe Biden, 2007-07-31 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • President Joe Biden, the author of Promise Me, Dad, tells the story of his extraordinary life and career prior to his emergence as Barack Obama’s beloved, influential vice president. “I remain captivated by the possibilities of politics and public service. In fact, I believe that my chosen profession is a noble calling.”—Joe Biden Joe Biden has both witnessed and participated in a momentous epoch of American history. In Promises to Keep, Joe Biden reveals what these experiences taught him about himself, his colleagues, and the institutions of government. With his customary candor and wit, Biden movingly recounts growing up in a staunchly Catholic multigenerational household in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware; overcoming personal tragedy, life-threatening illness, and career setbacks; his relationships with presidents, with world leaders, and with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle; and his leadership of powerful Senate committees. Through these and other recollections, Biden shows us how the guiding principles he learned early in life—to work to make people’s lives better; to honor family and faith; to value persistence, candor, and honesty—are the foundation on which he has based his life’s work as husband, father, and public servant. Promises to Keep is an intimate series of reflections from a public servant who surmounted numerous challenges to become one of our most effective leaders and who refuses to be cynical about politics. It is also a stirring testament to the promise of the United States. Praise for Promises to Keep “A ripping good read . . . Biden is a master storyteller and has stories worth telling.”—The Christian Science Monitor “A compelling personal story.”—The New York Times “Moving . . . [Biden’s] response to tragedy and near death [is] both admirable and likable.”—Salon |
| joe biden worst president ever: What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer, 2011-08-02 Before Game Change there was What It Takes, a ride along the 1988 campaign trail and “possibly the best [book] ever written about an American election” (NPR). Written by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and New York Times–bestselling author Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes is “a perfect-pitch rendering of the emotions, the intensity, the anguish, and the emptiness of what may have been the last normal two-party campaign in American history” (Time). An up-close, in-depth look at six candidates—George H. W. “Poppy” Bush, Bob Dole, Joe Biden, Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, and Gary Hart—this account of the 1988 US presidential campaign explores a unique moment in history, with details on everything from Bush at the Astrodome to Hart’s Donna Rice scandal. Cramer also addresses the question we find ourselves pondering every four years: How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that allows them to throw their hat in the ring as a candidate for leadership of the free world? Exhaustively researched from thousands of hours of interviews, What It Takes creates powerful portraits of these Republican and Democratic contenders, and the consultants, donors, journalists, handlers, and hangers-on who surround them, as they meet, greet, and strategize their way through primary season chasing the nomination, resulting in “a hipped-up amalgam of Teddy White, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). With timeless insight that helps us understand the current state of the nation, this “ultimate insider’s book on presidential politics” explores what helps these people survive, what makes them prosper, what drives them, and ultimately, what drives our government—human beings, in all their flawed glory (San Francisco Chronicle). |
| joe biden worst president ever: In Love with Art Jeet Heer, 2013-09-02 In a partnership spanning four decades, Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman have been the pre-eminent power couple of cutting-edge graphic art. From Raw magazine to the New York, where she serves as art editor, Mouly and Spiegelman have revolutionized the art. In Love with Art profiles the pair and interviews Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine and more. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Donald J. Trump, Former President of the United States J.P.L. MIMMS, 2023-05-01 This character has behaved like a pariah toward his brother and his mother who never really controlled him, even since his early childhood. He was sent to military college and then to university, and not having good grades or SATs, he asked for help from a friend named Shapiro as well as his sister, who corrected his grades and SATs. This was the beginning of his cheating life. Later in business, in the sixties, with the help of his mentor, Roy Cohn, he learned how to defraud the government and the city of New York by not paying his taxes. Between the years 1970 to 2000, he made panoply of fraudulent bankruptcies in many different ways. Also, he did not pay his employees who were mostly undocumented immigrants. He threatened his contractors in multiple legal ways in order to avoid paying them. It is not surprising how this overly narcissistic, racist, lying character got along well with three dictators, including that of Saudi Arabia, Russia, and North Korea. His biggest cheat was when he became, in 2016, president of the United States of America. And this, with the help of his fixer and childhood friend, Felix Sater, who had connections with relatives of Vladimir Putin. There was also a friend of Michael Cohen's, named Gauger, who knew how to cheat the electoral system by rigging the polls. Another scam was to avoid going to Vietnam. He asked his father's doctor to obtain a document by pretending that he had a problem with an ankle. Trump's grandfather was kicked out of Germany in 1905 for avoiding military service. It would seem that Donald has the same DNA as his grandfather Friedrich. This persona, with his 4,500 lies and his shenanigans of all kinds, from 2016 to 2021, created an unimaginable chaos at the White House. He fomented, among other things, a lack of seriousness about the coronavirus pandemic. He lied to the American people throughout 2020 by making fun of the deaths for which he is 89 percent responsible by repeating in his rallies that it was a hoax and an invention of the Democrats. He never put a coronavirus program in place mainly because he preferred to play golf while Americans were dying by the hundreds of thousands. The worst happened on January 6, 2021. The president, with his big lies and his lying GOP accomplices of cowards, attempted a coup against their own government. Finally, we are not out of the woods yet since democracy is in danger, and as long as these heinous traitors are not accused and put behind bars, the future of this country is heading toward a second civil war. As I write these words in January 2022, the GOP, aided by media such as Fox News, who continues to spread lies, which a good portion of the population is hoarding into truth. Even after fifteen months of the defeat of Trump's Republicans, some still claim that they won this same election. It is grotesque! Finally, once again, the star Trump with the steal documents, the Mar-a-Lago raid occurred on August 8, 2022, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago complex in Palm Beach, Florida, the residence of Donald Trump, former president of the United States. According to the press and the political pundits, Trump was the worst president ever. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Peril Bob Woodward, Robert Costa, 2023-01-03 The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as one of the most dangerous periods in American history. But as #1 internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis. Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the center of the turmoil, resulting in more than 6,000 pages of transcripts—and a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with eyewitness accounts of what really happened. Intimate scenes are supplemented with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making Peril an unparalleled history. It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency as he began his presidency facing the challenges of a lifetime: the continuing deadly pandemic and millions of Americans facing soul-crushing economic pain, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, a world rife with threats, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Promise Me, Dad Joseph R. Biden (Jr.), 2018 Promise me, Dad, Beau had told his father. Give me your word that no matter what happens, you're going to be all right. Joe Biden gave him his word. Promise Me, Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden's extraordinary life and career. Vice President Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad--Joe, I need your help--he responded. For twelve months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his countryand his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016. The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama. Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop. This is a book written not just by the vice president, but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me, Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.--Provided by publisher. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Details Are Unprintable Allan Levine, 2020-10-01 The narrative of Details Are Unprintable primarily unfolds over a seven-month period from October 1943 to April 1944—from the moment the body of twenty-two-year old Patricia Burton Lonergan is discovered in the bedroom of her New York City Beekman Hill apartment, to the arrest of her husband of two years, Wayne Lonergan, for her murder, and his subsequent trial and conviction. But this story goes back in time to the 1920s, when Wayne Lonergan grew up in Toronto and then forward to his post-prison life following his deportation to Canada. It is the chronicle of Lonergan in denial as a bisexual or gay man living in an intolerant and morally superior heterosexual world; and of Patricia, rich and entitled, a seeker of attention, who loved a night out on the town—all set against the fast pace of New York’s ostentatious café society. Part True Crime and part a social history of New York City in the 1940s, this book transports readers to the New York World’s Fair of 1939 when Patricia’s father William Burton first encountered Lonergan; the Stork Club, 21 Club, and El Morocco to experience with Patricia a night of drinking champagne cocktails and dancing; and the muggy New York courtroom where Lonergan’s fate was decided. What truly happened on that tragic night in October 24, 1943? Should we accept Lonergan’s confession at face value as the jury did? Or was he indeed a victim of physical and mental abuse by the state prosecutors and the police, as he maintained for the rest of his life? This book considers these, and other, key questions. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Most Dangerous President in History Nick Adams, 2022-11-15 President Biden is the most dangerous president in American history. Many Americans still think of Joe Biden as an average guy who supports the working class. But in reality, he has carried out a destructive agenda against our entire system of freedom. He has fully embraced the Green New Deal agenda, along with woke sexual and racial politics, leading to a more divided and poorer country. His weakness on the international stage has created a perilous world. But the danger of Biden goes much deeper than these issues that are hurting us on a daily basis. For one of the first times in US history, we have a president whose motives we cannot trust. In this book, Nick Adams exposes what the media and politicians have been hiding for nearly fifty years. He doesn’t just make the case that Biden is the most dangerous president in history—he proves it. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Lucky Jonathan Allen, Amie Parnes, 2021-03-02 The inside story of the historic 2020 presidential election and Joe Biden’s harrowing ride to victory, from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Shattered, the definitive account of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Almost no one thought Joe Biden could make it back to the White House—not Donald Trump, not the two dozen Democratic rivals who sought to take down a weak front-runner, not the mega-donors and key endorsers who feared he could not beat Bernie Sanders, not even Barack Obama. The story of Biden’s cathartic victory in the 2020 election is the story of a Democratic Party at odds with itself, torn between the single-minded goal of removing Donald Trump and the push for a bold progressive agenda that threatened to alienate as many voters as it drew. In Lucky, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes use their unparalleled access to key players inside the Democratic and Republican campaigns to unfold how Biden’s nail-biting run for the presidency vexed his own party as much as it did Trump. Having premised his path on unlocking the Black vote in South Carolina, Biden nearly imploded before he got there after a relentless string of misfires left him freefalling in polls and nearly broke. Allen and Parnes brilliantly detail the remarkable string of chance events that saved him, from the botched Iowa caucus tally that concealed his terrible result, to the pandemic lockdown that kept him off the stump, where he was often at his worst. More powerfully, Lucky unfolds the pitched struggle within Biden’s general election campaign to downplay the very issues that many Democrats believed would drive voters to the polls, especially in the wake of Trump’s response to nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd. Even Biden’s victory did not salve his party’s wounds; instead, it revealed a surprising, complicated portrait of American voters and crushed Democrats’ belief in the inevitability of a blue wave. A thrilling masterpiece of political reporting, Lucky is essential reading for understanding the most important election in American history and the future that will come of it. |
| joe biden worst president ever: White Working Class Joan C. Williams, 2017-05-16 I recommend a book by Professor Williams, it is really worth a read, it's called White Working Class. -- Vice President Joe Biden on Pod Save America An Amazon Best Business and Leadership book of 2017 Around the world, populist movements are gaining traction among the white working class. Meanwhile, members of the professional elite—journalists, managers, and establishment politicians--are on the outside looking in, left to argue over the reasons. In White Working Class, Joan C. Williams, described as having something approaching rock star status by the New York Times, explains why so much of the elite's analysis of the white working class is misguided, rooted in class cluelessness. Williams explains that many people have conflated working class with poor--but the working class is, in fact, the elusive, purportedly disappearing middle class. They often resent the poor and the professionals alike. But they don't resent the truly rich, nor are they particularly bothered by income inequality. Their dream is not to join the upper middle class, with its different culture, but to stay true to their own values in their own communities--just with more money. While white working-class motivations are often dismissed as racist or xenophobic, Williams shows that they have their own class consciousness. White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Walking and Chewing Gum at the Same Time. Faith and Political Power in the Public Square in US Catholicism Tarcisius Mukuka, 2021-09-13 Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Theology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University (School of Humanities and Social Sciences), course: Religious Studies / Religion and Politics, language: English, abstract: This article examines the theological symbiosis or lack thereof between Joe Biden, Pope Francis and the US Catholic bishops. My argument is that Joe Biden and Pope Francis model authentic Catholic Social Teaching and faith in the public square, especially the former who, as a non-ecclesiastic doesn’t have to. I find the US Catholic bishops ambivalent. They talk a good game but walk an ambivalent one. I point to three examples: how they demonised Joe Biden during his campaign for the US presidency, canonised Donald Trump and how they have dealt with sexual abuse by priests, bishops and cardinals. In this latter case, I reluctantly agree with the views of a rogue Prince of the Church, Carlo Maria Viganò. The unusual triumvirate of Joe Biden, Pope Francis and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which I examine here are held up to the litmus test of Catholic Social Teaching. |
| joe biden worst president ever: His Very Best Jonathan Alter, 2021-09-21 “Drawing on fresh archival material and extensive access to Carter and his family, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Alter tells the epic story of a man of faith and his improbable journey from barefoot boy in the vicious Jim Crow South to global icon. We learn how Carter evolved from a timid child into an ambitious naval nuclear engineer and an indefatigable born-again governor; how as a president he failed politically amid the bad economy of the 1970s and the seizure of hostages in Iran but succeeded in engineering peace between Israel and Egypt, amassing a historic environmental record, moving the government from tokenism to diversity, setting a new global standard for human rights, and normalizing relations with China, among dozens of other unheralded achievements. After leaving office, Carter revolutionized the postpresidency with the bold global accomplishments of the Carter center”--Cover. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Voting Wars Richard L. Hasen, 2012-08-14 In 2000, just a few hundred votes out of millions cast in the state of Florida separated Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush from his Democratic opponent, Al Gore. The outcome of the election rested on Florida's 25 electoral votes, and legal wrangling continued for 36 days. Then, abruptly, one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in U.S. history, Bush v. Gore, cut short the battle. Since the Florida debacle we have witnessed a partisan war over election rules. Election litigation has skyrocketed, and election time brings out inevitable accusations by political partisans of voter fraud and voter suppression. These allegations have shaken public confidence, as campaigns deploy armies of lawyers and the partisan press revs up when elections are expected to be close and the stakes are high. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Fierce Urgency of Now Julian E. Zelizer, 2015-01-08 A majestic big-picture account of the Great Society and the forces that shaped it, from Lyndon Johnson and members of Congress to the civil rights movement and the media Between November 1963, when he became president, and November 1966, when his party was routed in the midterm elections, Lyndon Johnson spearheaded the most transformative agenda in American political history since the New Deal, one whose ambition and achievement have had no parallel since. In just three years, Johnson drove the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts; the War on Poverty program; Medicare and Medicaid; the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities; Public Broadcasting; immigration liberalization; a raft of consumer and environmental protection acts; and major federal investments in public transportation. Collectively, this group of achievements was labeled by Johnson and his team the “Great Society.” In The Fierce Urgency of Now, Julian E. Zelizer takes the full measure of the entire story in all its epic sweep. Before Johnson, Kennedy tried and failed to achieve many of these advances. Our practiced understanding is that this was an unprecedented “liberal hour” in America, a moment, after Kennedy’s death, when the seas parted and Johnson could simply stroll through to victory. As Zelizer shows, this view is off-base: In many respects America was even more conservative than it seems now, and Johnson’s legislative program faced bitter resistance. The Fierce Urgency of Now animates the full spectrum of forces at play during these turbulent years, including religious groups, the media, conservative and liberal political action groups, unions, and civil rights activists. Above all, the great character in the book whose role rivals Johnson’s is Congress—indeed, Zelizer argues that our understanding of the Great Society program is too Johnson-centric. He discusses why Congress was so receptive to passing these ideas in a remarkably short span of time and how the election of 1964 and burgeoning civil rights movement transformed conditions on Capitol Hill. Zelizer brings a deep, intimate knowledge of the institution to bear on his story: The book is a master class in American political grand strategy. Finally, Zelizer reckons with the legacy of the Great Society. Though our politics have changed, the heart of the Great Society legislation remains intact fifty years later. In fact, he argues, the Great Society shifted the American political center of gravity—and our social landscape—decisively to the left in many crucial respects. In a very real sense, we are living today in the country that Johnson and his Congress made. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Soul of America Jon Meacham, 2018-05-08 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear. ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The Christian Science Monitor • Southern Living Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. He writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women’s rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson’s crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear—a struggle that continues even now. While the American story has not always—or even often—been heroic, we have been sustained by a belief in progress even in the gloomiest of times. In this inspiring book, Meacham reassures us, “The good news is that we have come through such darkness before”—as, time and again, Lincoln’s better angels have found a way to prevail. Praise for The Soul of America “Brilliant, fascinating, timely . . . With compelling narratives of past eras of strife and disenchantment, Meacham offers wisdom for our own time.”—Walter Isaacson “Gripping and inspiring, The Soul of America is Jon Meacham’s declaration of his faith in America.”—Newsday “Meacham gives readers a long-term perspective on American history and a reason to believe the soul of America is ultimately one of kindness and caring, not rancor and paranoia.”—USA Today |
| joe biden worst president ever: Joe Biden Jules Witcover, 2010-10-05 Now with four new chapters that explore Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign; his sparring with Trump, both in and out of the debates; and his ultimate election as the 46th president of the United States Raised in the working-class towns of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, and with lackluster grades in school and no particular goals, Joe Biden shocked the nation in 1972 when he became one of the youngest elected senators in U.S. history. Over the course of more than four decades, he carved a legacy for himself as one of the most respected legislators in the country before going on to serve as the vice president under Barack Obama and ultimately taking up the office of president in his own right. Yet Biden’s political success has been matched by personal tragedy and countless challenges. Within two months of being elected in 1972, Biden lost his wife, Neilia, and his young daughter in a tragic accident—a loss that brought him to the nadir of despair and shook his resolve to stay in politics. He suffered two brain aneurysms and career-threatening gaffes and miscues. In 2015, he lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer. These difficult trials left him a more compassionate man, particularly suited for “the battle for America’s soul” in the midst of the nationwide divisiveness brought to a head by President Trump. Based on exhaustive research by one of Washington’s most prolific journalists, including numerous exclusive interviews with Biden’s confidants and family members, as well as President Obama and the former vice president himself, Joe Biden goes beyond conventional biography to track the forces that have shaped a man whose plainspoken style and inspiring life story have resonated with millions of Americans and whose work has shaped modern American life. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Joe Biden Evan Osnos, 2021-05-27 A concise, brilliant and trenchant examination of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his lifelong quest for the presidency Former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest - fortunate to have sustained a fifty-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses that he has suffered. Yet even as Biden's life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a willingness, rare at the top ranks of politics, to confront his shortcomings, errors and reversals of fortune. His trials have forged in him a deep empathy for others in hardship - an essential quality as he addresses a nation at its most dire hour in decades. Blending up-close journalism and broader context, Evan Osnos illuminates Biden's life and captures the characters and meaning of an extraordinary presidential election. He draws on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of progressive activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members. In this nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy - a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Joe Biden Beatrice Gormley, 2021-01-12 A biography of Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States: from childhood through the Senate to his election as vice president and, in 2020, as president. The road to the presidency of the United States was a long—and determined—one for Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. From Joe’s childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, his close-knit, devoted family gave him the foundation that would guide him through life. His family’s unwavering support bolstered Joe when he was bullied for stuttering, attended law school, and became a public defender. They encouraged Joe when he pursued a career in politics and became the sixth youngest senator in US history. They consoled him when he suffered the devastating loss of his first wife and baby daughter and years later the death of his eldest son, Beau. And they cheered Joe when he served two vice presidential terms with President Barrack Obama. After a lifetime marked by perseverance, integrity, and accomplishment, Joe Biden and running mate, Kamala Harris, won the 2020 presidential election. And standing by his side each and every step of the way was his wife Jill, his children, and his grandchildren—his family. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Where They Stand Robert W. Merry, 2012-06-26 The author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk, A Country of Vast Designs, offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing “Rating the Presidents,” by pitching historians’ views and subsequent experts’ polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents’ own contemporaries. Merry posits that presidents rise and fall based on performance, as judged by the electorate. Thus, he explores the presidency by comparing the judgments of historians with how the voters saw things. Was the president reelected? If so, did his party hold office in the next election? Where They Stand examines the chief executives Merry calls “Men of Destiny,’’ those who set the country toward new directions. There are six of them, including the three nearly always at the top of all academic polls—Lincoln, Washington, and FDR. He describes the “Split-Decision Presidents’’ (including Wilson and Nixon)—successful in their first terms and reelected; less successful in their second terms and succeeded by the opposition party. He describes the “Near Greats’’ (Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, TR, Truman), the “War Presidents’’ (Madison, McKinley, Lyndon Johnson), the flat-out failures (Buchanan, Pierce), and those whose standing has fluctuated (Grant, Cleveland, Eisenhower). This voyage through our history provides a probing and provocative analysis of how presidential politics works and how the country sets its course. Where They Stand invites readers to pitch their opinions against the voters of old, the historians, the pollsters—and against the author himself. In this year of raucous presidential politics, Where They Stand will provide a context for the unfolding campaign drama. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Protecting the Presidential Candidates Mel Ayton, 2021-11-24 Protecting the Presidential Candidates is the first book of its kind to examine how presidents and presidential candidates were protected during the presidential election cycles – from JFK to Biden. It is also the first book of its kind to tell the story of the role of state troopers and private bodyguards in protecting presidential candidates. Protection for candidates changed and evolved from the free-wheeling style of the 1950s and early 1960s, which afforded presidential candidates little or no protection, to the growth of bodyguard personnel, increased intelligence facilities and state of the art technology employed today to keep the candidates safe. Presidential candidates relish connecting with the public and it has given greater visibility to the bodyguards who are willing to place themselves between a presidential candidate and a would-be attacker. In the milieu in which the Secret Service operates, bodyguards have witnessed the terrors of election campaigns when presidential candidates have waded into crowds to shake hands with their supporters, rode in open-top cars, and made sudden but risky changes to their schedules – oblivious to the fact that in every campaign there have been people stalking candidates with ill intent. Many stories revealed in Protecting the Presidential Candidates have remained largely hidden from the public; some buried in newspaper archives and others in oral histories, presidential libraries or official government documents. The author draws on numerous sources, including FBI files, presidential biographies, vice presidential biographies, civilian bodyguard memoirs, Secret Service agent memoirs, White House staff memoirs and more so that these stories can now be told. The book also allows readers to gain an insight into the personal as well as professional relationships between the candidate and the bodyguards who protected them. Some candidates were so trusting of their bodyguards they embraced them as part of an ‘inner circle’ of advisers. Bodyguards have also witnessed embarrassing moments in a candidate’s campaign and how intrusive they have been at the most delicate of moments. The president’s day is your day, one agent said. Nobody sees the president the way an agent does. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Beautiful Things Hunter Biden, 2021-04-06 Hunter Biden recounts his descent into substance abuse and his tortuous path to sobriety. The story ends with where Hunter is today |
| joe biden worst president ever: Radical Nation Sean Spicer, 2021-10-26 RADICAL NATION makes it clear what is at stake. If you want to Save America you must read this—it is MAGA all the way.” — PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP The Biden-Harris progressive agenda presents a radical change to the American economy, values, national security, and freedom. From the former Trump White House press secretary and New York Times bestselling author of THE BRIEFING and LEADING AMERICA comes a stark warning: Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, America is lurching towards economic collapse, runaway inflation, wide-open borders, an all-out assault on human life and religious liberty, a K-12 school indoctrination plan, “election reforms” to ensure never-ending Democratic Party rule, and more. RADICAL NATION is a bold grassroots agenda for defending America against the Progressives’ Socialist agenda. Featuring powerful stories that will move you and keep you riveted, this book will channel conservatives discouragement, anger, and betrayal into meaningful action to keep America free, strong, and secure for our children and grandchildren. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Struggles of an Immigrant Ashraf Sufi M.D., 2021-03-05 Ashraf Sufi came to the United States of America thinking he wouldn’t struggle. He was wrong. For the first fifteen years in the U.S., life was so difficult that he wanted to go back to his home country of Pakistan. Slowly and gradually, things started getting better. In this memoir, he recalls his upbringing in Pakistan and traces the history of his family—much of which is unknown even to his relatives. He describes his struggles in schools, including the obstacles he overcame to earn his medical education. Although he struggled with his medical training, Sufi went on to build a vast medical practice and is widely respected in the medical field. The author also highlights the challenges he faced encouraging his children to maintain their Asian identity and faith. He shares his love for family and looks back at the travels he has enjoyed throughout the world, the places he lived, and the historical events happened during his stay in Pakistan and the USA. Join the author as he reveals the lessons he’s learned in making the United States his home and celebrates his love of family and medicine in The Struggles of an Immigrant. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Moral Vision Marvin Olasky, 2024-02-13 What makes a leader truly great? Is it simply a matter of management style or personality? Or does character matter and, if so, how much? Most Americans believe a president's private activities bear little relation to his public-policy decisions, yet we also believe that moral vision plays a role in strong leadership. Where does the truth lie? In the first modern systematic examination of the bond between morals and politics, Marvin Olasky examines the lives and careers of thirteen noted American leaders, including the great, the good, and the deeply flawed, from George Washington, Henry Clay, and Booker T. Washington to Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. Olasky looks closely at the connections between religion, sexual practices, and political decisions, examining the repeated connections between private character and public action. He explains how so-called compartmentalization proved to be as impossible for Lincoln as for Woodrow Wilson. A man's character shows its stamp repeatedly during a career. In The American Leadership Tradition Olasky has many lessons to offer. For the cynical, he reminds us that it is not true that they all do it, as the lives of Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland can attest. For the nostalgic, he reminds us that there have been principled men, like George Washington, alongside unprincipled ones, like Henry Clay, from the beginning. After reading this book it will be impossible to argue that John Kennedy's womanizing reflected a side of him that had absolutely nothing to do with his presidency, or that Abraham Lincoln's rectitude was unconnected with his greatness. Olasky shows that faithfulness in marriage may be no guarantee of faithfulness to the country, but faithlessness is a leading indicator of trouble. Leaders who break a large vow to one person find it easy to break relatively small vows to millions. He finishes with a chapter on Bill Clinton and what his recent controversies mean for 21st-century America, a question that may haunt American politics for a long time to come-- |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Worst President--The Story of James Buchanan Garry Boulard, 2015-03-23 Just 24 hours after former President James Buchanan died on June 1, 1868, the Chicago Tribune rejoiced: “This desolate old man has gone to his grave. No son or daughter is doomed to acknowledge an ancestry from him.” Nearly a century and a half later, in 2004, writer Christopher Buckley observed “It is probably just as well that James Buchanan was our only bachelor president. There are no descendants bracing every morning on opening the paper to find another heading announcing: ‘Buchanan Once Again Rated Worst President in History.’” How to explain such remarkably consistent historical views of the man who turned over a divided and demoralized country to Abraham Lincoln, the same man regarded through the decades by presidential scholars as the worst president in U.S. history? In this exploration of the presidency of James Buchanan, 1857-61, Garry Boulard revisits the 15th President and comes away with a stunning conclusion: Buchanan’s performance as the nation’s chief executive was even more deplorable and sordid than scholars generally know, making his status as the country’s worst president richly deserved. Boulard documents Buchanan’s failure to stand up to the slaveholding interests of the South, his indecisiveness in dealing with the secession movement, and his inability to provide leadership during the nation’s gravest constitutional crisis. Using the letters of Buchanan, as well as those of more than two dozen political leaders and thinkers of the time, Boulard presents a narrative of a timid and vacillating president whose drift and isolation opened the door to the Civil War. The author of The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce: The Story of a President and the Civil War (iUniverse, 2006), Boulard has reported for the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and is a business writer for the Albuquerque-based Construction Reporter. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Love Sports Hate Politics Rick Figg, 2022-09-21 This book looks at social issues in today's society with complaints and solution with keen observations. The writer deals with a host of issues rapidly from topic to topic such as race, racing kids, police reform, crazy politician, Fox News, John Stewart and Trump Chronicles, civil war, voting etc. He separates the sports and explains why. A feature on Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Michael Jordan. This is a passionate look from the writer's perspective and what is happening in America. |
| joe biden worst president ever: Come On, Man! Joe Concha, 2022-09-27 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Open borders, record inflation, and skyrocketing crime—Joe Biden’s first term is one of the most craptastic in American history. But on Planet Brandon, it’s all going according to plan . . . He received 81 million votes. His party controlled the House and the Senate. He took office with a nearly 60 percent approval rating. His first month saw the economy recovering nicely and the new COVID-19 vaccines being distributed around the country. And, in his words, he had the awesome power to mobilize “truinernashabada pressure.” And yet, with all that and more, Joe Biden’s first term has been a spectacular failure. COVID roared back. The withdrawal from Afghanistan left thirteen U.S. service members dead and hundreds of Americans stranded as Afghans fell from airplanes. Sixteen American cities set homicide records. More than 2.3 million illegal immigrants entered the country. Inflation reached forty-year highs. And Russia invaded Ukraine. Even the Democrats are so embarrassed, they won’t invite Biden to join them on the campaign trail for the midterms. Gah. But is this hot mess, dumpster fire of a record only because Biden lost whatever fastball he had and is perpetually incompetent? In Come On, Man!, Joe Concha reminds us what’s really going on in the White House. Though Biden may seem like a doddering idiot, stumbling from one mistake to the next, his blunders always hew closely to progressive dreams for American policy. Dreams like saving the planet by attacking Elon Musk and strengthening the middle class by making gas prices higher than Hunter Biden in a motel room. Come On, Man! shows the real reason why we’re here—no malarkey, guaranteed! |
| joe biden worst president ever: Border Wars Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Michael D. Shear, 2019-10-08 Two New York Times Washington correspondents provide a detailed, “fact-based account of what precipitated some of this administration’s more brazen assaults on immigration” (The Washington Post) filled with never-before-told stories of this key issue of Donald Trump’s presidency. No issue matters more to Donald Trump and his administration than restricting immigration. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear have covered the Trump administration from its earliest days. In Border Wars, they take us inside the White House to document how Stephen Miller and other anti-immigration officials blocked asylum-seekers and refugees, separated families, threatened deportation, and sought to erode the longstanding bipartisan consensus that immigration and immigrants make positive contributions to America. Their revelation of Trump’s desire for a border moat filled with alligators made national news. As the authors reveal, Trump has used immigration to stoke fears (“the caravan”), attack Democrats and the courts, and distract from negative news and political difficulties. As he seeks reelection in 2020, Trump has elevated immigration in the imaginations of many Americans into a national crisis. Border Wars identifies the players behind Trump’s anti-immigration policies, showing how they planned, stumbled and fought their way toward changes that have further polarized the nation. “[Davis and Shear’s] exquisitely reported Border Wars reveals the shattering horror of the moment, [and] the mercurial unreliability and instability of the president” (The New York Times Book Review). |
| joe biden worst president ever: Donald J. Trump - A Political Review of the 45th President of the United States of America Alexander Aachen, 2022-03-13 The presidency of Donald J. Trump should go down in history for several reasons. Rarely before has a president been as polarising as the former real estate entrepreneur and TV star. Donald Trump went his very own way as the 45th President of the United States. As surprising as his election to the White House was, as unconventional were the steps of his political ways. Trump always put the American people and the American economy first. In terms of foreign policy, the president pursued a completely new style in which the USA would no longer act as the protective power of the entire world. |
| joe biden worst president ever: The Fight of His Life Chris Whipple, 2023-01-17 Taking readers behind the scenes of one of America's most consequential presidencies, a journalist with unprecedented access to the White House reveals how President Joe Biden and his seasoned team have battled to achieve their agenda, delivering a surprising portrait of politics on the edge. |
