Nixon has more positive achievements than Carter, so maybe I'd put him ahead.
But Nixon also had both Watergate, and wage and price controls.
I'm REALLY opposed to price controls (wage controls are price controls on labor), both in principle, and because they are SO horribly foolish in practice. Why Carter did start some of the important deregulation that paid dividends under Reagan as he expanded the deregulation, cut and simplified taxes etc. OTOH as the art
Foreign policy I'd have to give the clear nod to Nixon (and most other presidents) over Carter.
Domestically they where both problematic. Carter had awful results, but a lot of the problems that Nixon, Ford, and Carter (and Reagan early in his term) either where not the particular responsibility of any president (instead being because of the fed, or because of non-government reasons), or went back to LBJ.
Still the results under Carter where so bad that he has to get some of the blame for them. And while Carter did start some deregulation, he also brought us things like the Community Reinvestment Act, so its not just "he had bad results", but also some clear cases of bad policy. |
