Top Five: US Presidents I like the least

From a mix of personal experience and a reading of history. Look here for another, well-written list.

5. Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869. Elected as an afterthought to Lincoln, took over upon his assassination. Vetoed the first civil rights bill, saying "this is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” Nasty nature ensured that the deep wounds of the Civil War would stay open.

4. US Grant 1869-77 and Warren Harding 1921-23. Tied for this spot because they both draped the White House in corruption. They probably didn't personally benefit, but allowed their friends to in Black Friday, the Whiskey Ring, and Teapot Dome. Harding spoke for both of them when he wrote “I have no trouble with my enemies, but my . . . friends . . . keep me walking the floor nights!”

3. Richard Nixon, 1969-1974. I liked several things that Nixon did, including reopening contacts with China, and thought his climb back to the Presidency was, well, inspiring. But his paranoia and fierce devotion to himself turned a minor burglary into a national crisis and brought down his presidency, deservedly so.

2. Jimmy Carter, 1977-1981. Judged as a man, he's tops: earnest, honorable, committed. But he's the Eeyore of presidents. Economy in a slump, home interest rates over 15%? Oh no, we're in a national malaise, nothing really we can do. Competition with the USSR as hot as ever? Oh no, they're human too, we can't expect to win out, let's just hunker down. Iran takes our embassy staff hostage? Oh no, maybe we should launch a rescue effort, but I'm concerned about public opinion so I'll meddle with the logistics and ensure failure. Makes my blood boil, just thinking about those years again. Maybe I should have made Jimmy #1...

1. James Buchanan, 1857-1861. Yeah, the world disrespects him because he fiddled while America burned over slavery. Wishy washy to a fault about dealing with the slavery question and the right to secede, the nation was already torn in half by the time he turned over the reins to Lincoln. But with Buchanan it starts to get personal, since he listened to bad advice and sent that huge military expedition to bring those pesky Mormons into submission. Shot the fear factor through the roof, drove the paranoia that caused the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and poisoned Mormon/US Government relations for decades, maybe with after effects even today. Good job, Jimmy.

What's ironic is that James Buchanan is a relative. My sixth great-grandfather, John Buchanan, who emigrated from Ireland around 1800 and joined the Mormon church in 1835, is a first cousin to James (their fathers were brothers). Maybe that's what ticked him off enough to bring in the troops.

Top Five: Latter-day Prophets

5. Heber J. Grant. He makes the top five for one talk he gave, teaching about perseverance and combating the lies that Satan uses to keep us from our potential. President Grant mentioned how he was in debt over $100,000 (an even more enormous sum in the early 20th century), and felt inspired to admit his debt over the pulpit, and proclaim he would have the debt settled within a year. When he sat down, a voice said to him, "You lie, you lie." He knew it was Satan trying to undercut the spirit of revelation. He persevered, and sure enough he was out of debt within a year.

4. Brigham Young. Man of the hour--actually, man of the three decades--when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered, and the church could easily have faded into obscurity. I love him for his drive and for his devotion. As with any strong leader in a crisis, he did plenty of things that draw lightning, irritating many. And some of his views, perhaps prejudices, threaten to overwhelm the good he did, seen from the 21st century. But without his strong leadership, Mormonism would not be a force in people's lives today.

3. Gordon B. Hinckley and David O. McKay. Okay, it's cheating to have two, but I couldn't decide. President Hinckley is the only prophet I've shaken hands with and talked to one on one, as he visited my mission in Germany in 1971 and I had an interview with him. And President McKay was the prophet of my youth--set apart a month before I was born, died when I was a freshman in college. I remember listening to general priesthood meeting in our stake center, and as a deacon or teacher being bored and unattentive, but then President McKay would speak, and there was a difference somehow--an early intimation of the uniqueness of prophets. Their devotion to principle and positive demeanors both did much in their day to present the church in a good light to the world at large--a difficult thing to accomplish.

2. Joseph Smith. The blender approach taken for the church's priesthood/Relief Society study manuals--taking snippets and organizing them into lesson topics--has the unfortunate side effect of making it almost impossible to tell one prophet from another. But not Joseph Smith, his unique voice comes through unmistakably loud and clear. To take the restoration on from your youth, to fight against unremitting enmity from the people around you, to create so much--it's impossible to comprehend how he did it. He should be #1, but I wasn't around when he was, so it puts him at a little distance. So, my number 1 is



1. Spencer W. Kimball. As I entered adulthood, the one thing that concerned me about latter-day prophets was that most of them after Joseph and Brigham seemed to be administrators first and foremost. No new doctrine, just mostly administrivia--where should we put a new stake, should we emphasize missionary work or the Book of Mormon, and so on. Not President Kimball. There were big administrative deals, like the new version of the scriptures, and the reconstitution of the general Quorums of Seventy. But President Kimball went much further. He proposed new scripture (D&C 137-138) to expand our understanding of temple work. In perhaps his crowning achievement, he bucked history and drew the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy males from God. Without his surprising drive to seek and implement this revelation, who knows how many more years or decades would have gone by with the church still hobbled by racism.

So I love President Kimball for being the most prophet-like of all the prophets in my lifetime. One more example: I admit I was getting tired of the apparent mundaneness of many of his messages: paint your barn, lengthen your stride, don't kill birds for sport, etc. Then suddenly one conference he talked about how little we knew about God's knowledge, for example, what exactly did it take to resurrect a person? I never assumed again that his was a limited mind. God bless him, and God bless all our latter-day prophets.

Who's your number one?