Celebrating The Worst President Ever

What would a Presidents’ Day¹ be without a short little celebration of James Buchanan, the only president from Pennsylvania!

Kids in Pennsylvania learn the tale of James Buchanan in fourth grade, the year social studies class covers Pennsylvania, or at least they did when I was in grade school. What I didn’t learn was that he’s apparently the worst president ever! A poll of historians by C-SPAN confirms this for the second straight time.

Buchanan actually dropped a place in the ex-presidents list (they last did the survey in 2000, for some reason) due to George W. Bush, who was immediately named by historians as the 36th worst president of all time. Buchanan was the president before Lincoln, and the president after Lincoln (Andrew Johnson) finished next-to-last in the polling. Perhaps the low expectations are helping Honest Abe, who finished first.

Anyway, yes, James Buchanan — the only bachelor president, the only Pennsylvanian president — is the worst president ever. It’s time to celebrate, Keystone Staters!

¹ Yes, it’s technically “Washington’s Birthday,” but car dealerships have bastardized the holiday’s name to Presidents’ Day. (While no one has any idea where the apostrophe — if there is one — goes in Veterans Day, Presidents’ Day would have an apostrophe at the end, I can only assume.)