Gotta go with James Buchanan on this one. Administration led right into the American Civil War, by far the worst calamity in our history.
As do I! That man was incompetent on so many levels as to be a poster child for the definition.
Really, to be properly done, this kind of poll needs to separate the "Moderns" from the "Historical" and NOT include the immediate past POTUS. Election propaganda and biases require time to settle out. Reagan was at the bottom of many early 1990 polls, especially as the Clinton/Gore ticket ran so hard against "the past 12 years".
My vote for the "Moderns" would probably be Carter for his feckless idiocy on both the economy and foreign affairs. A good argument could be made that he made modern Afghanistan by being so weak that the Soviet Union felt embolden. However I cannot stop without mentioning Wilson as #2 or #3 in the worsts. The Democrats used to honor him in Jackson-Wilson-FDR Dinners but I think that the knowledge of his anti-negro, anti civil rights and disastrous foreign affairs has made even them to rethink.
If Obama can qualify for the Nobel Prize before his first Presidential Order, then you might want to re-think the damage potential this Pretender in Chief has. He has been there less than a year and he has destroyed our industry, spent our sovereignty and diminished our freedoms. Where do you suppose that calamity will lead? As wrong as he was at least Buchanan was trying to save the country.
“Fancy Pants” Buchannan was probably a closet homosexual.
Not that it matters much. He sucked in office, too.
That is because you are rational and do not let political passion override your sense of reality - like most who took that poll (as well as most here it seems).
There is NO WAY to know that Barry is THE worst POTUS in 230 years yet.