A "Mount Shame"

[OldSoldier]

Mount Rushmore commemorates four of America's greatest presidents. A Mount Shame would commemorate four of America's worst.

It would be carved from basalt--a black rock, in respect for their black administrations.

Who would you put on this monolith? My choices:

* Warren G. Harding: His tax policies caused the Great Depression.
* Richard Nixon: the only president ever to resign, but not the last who needed to.
* Ronald Reagan: America's first Alzheimer's president, he almost plunged the nation into nuclear war with an offhanded comment.
* George W. Bush: the record has not yet been finished, but Bush may be the most dangerous president of all time.

[displacedtexan]

1. herbert hoover

instead of harding (imho).

[library_max]

2. I disagree.

The Great Depression was already in motion by the time Hoover took office, and there isn't anything he could have done to stop it. Granted, he didn't do what needed to be done to fix it, but that took an extraordinary President (FDR) and a new way of looking at the constitutional separation of powers.

I would add Coolidge to Harding. Coolidge managed to avoid the scandals of the Harding administration, but the two together cooked up the policies that brought on the Depression.

Might also add James K. Polk for "Manifest Destiny" and the Mexican War.

[theboss]

3. Really?!?!?

James K. Polk is always my first choice when I am asked to name our greatest presidents. It gets people very confused, but his record in office was remarkable.

[library_max]

4. I guess it depends

on how you feel about the Mexicans and Native Americans who were killed and had their land stolen to make America "great." Polk was "effective" - so was Reagan, and GWB has been pretty "effective" so far also. I consider a President who is effective at doing evil things worse than an ineffective President.