Biden Beats Buchanan for Title “Worst U.S. President”

by William L. Kovacs, ©2025

(Feb. 17, 2025) — On March 21, 2021, within two months of Biden taking office, ReformTheKakistocracy.com was the first to raise the question—Will Joe Biden overtake James Buchanan as the worst president ever? The publication raised the question several more times. Now that Biden’s “service” is complete, the final comparison between James and Joe can be made as they rendezvous with infamy. This 2025 Presidents’ Day, Reform the Kakistocracy is pleased to announce Joe Biden wins by a landslide the hard-fought contest for the title of “Worst President Ever.” Congratulations, Joe!

For those unfamiliar with Buchanan.

James Buchanan, the nation’s 15^th president, held office from 1857 to 1861, a tumultuous period preceding the Civil War. The nation was deeply divided over the issue of slavery. Instead of working to bridge the divide, Buchanan’s actions exacerbated the tensions. He not only allowed regional tensions to fester but also lobbied the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold slavery and advocated for Kansas to join the union as a slave state. His presidency was a critical juncture in American history, as the Civil War ignited within months after his term ended.

Similarities

Biden and Buchanan: both lifetime politicians. Both Buchanan and Biden were deeply entrenched in politics before assuming the presidency. Buchanan’s political career included roles such as a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, a Congressman and Senator from Pennsylvania, Secretary of State, and an Ambassador to Great Britain and Russia. He was elected to his first political office, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, at the young age of 23. Similarly, Biden’s political journey began as a New Castle County Council member at 27, followed by a nearly five-decade tenure as a Senator from Delaware and vice president of the U.S.

Biden and Buchanan sought the presidency for decades. Buchanan and Biden were regular contenders for the Democratic Party nomination throughout their careers. Buchanan sought the presidency in 1844, 1848, and 1852, finally securing the nomination in 1856. Biden unsuccessfully sought the nomination for over thirty years, pitifully losing primaries in 1988 and 2008. Finally, in 2020, he secured the nomination.

Biden and Buchanan won by avoiding campaigning. Both Buchanan and Biden found ways to avoid discussing the divisive issues facing the nation during their presidential campaigns. In the 1856 campaign, Buchanan, serving as Ambassador to Great Britain, could not actively campaign for president. His campaigning was limited to writing letters pledging to uphold the Democrat platform, with little mention of the pressing issue of slavery. Similarly, like Buchanan, Biden was largely out of sight during his campaign. He used the pandemic as a reason to run a ‘bunker strategy’ from the basement of his home, making few statements on issues and public appearances.  

In the year they were nominated, the actions of others put them in the White House. An even more odd similarity is that neither man strenuously sought the presidency in the year they secured their nominations. Instead, both relied on others to make them look acceptable.

Buchanan’s two primary opponents harmed their chances of securing the nomination by taking strong positions on the slavery issue. President Franklin Pierce held pro-slavery views, and Senator Stephen Douglas was the primary sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a law allowing for popular sovereignty over the slavery issue in the new territories. Its passage resulted in violent uprisings, causing Pierce and Douglas to lose large numbers of convention delegates from the North and West. Additionally, Buchanan promised to only run for one term, allowing his supporters to tell Douglas that support for Buchanan would help him secure the nomination in 1860.

Biden, like Buchanan, was to be a transition president who served only one term. Biden also had strong primary opponents in his rocky path to the 2020 nomination. He finished poorly in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada to Bernie Sanders, an articulate, energetic, seventy-nine-year-old socialist. Biden’s candidacy was in “roadkill” and “also ran” status until Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) endorsed him in the South Carolina primary. Clyburn’s endorsement gave him huge support from the black community and delivered Biden’s first-ever primary win in thirty years of running. It was the first time Biden had ever received more than 1¼% of the vote, his high in 2008.

However, the deal sealing the Clyburn endorsement was Biden’s willingness to follow Clyburn’s instructions and publicly announce in the South Carolina presidential primary debate that he would nominate a black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. With that promise, Biden collected on Clyburn’s offer and won South Carolina with 49% of the vote. From that time forward, the Democrat Party lined up behind Biden, whose competitors, except Sanders, dropped out almost immediately.

Both were considered dull candidates. Buchanan was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the chaos. The prominent historian William Cooper described Buchanan as a “[A] smooth, pleasantly dull [northern] conservative,” having “ideological ties to the South.”

Biden, like Buchanan, was far from exciting. His personality is described as driven to seek approval, wanting others to view him as a friend, and often praising and flattering others as an image of goodwill.

Buchanan and Biden, seemingly “nice guys,” achieved victory based on the actions of others and avoidance of the issues.

Now the big question – who wins the title of the “Worst President Ever? Drumroll, please.

Both presidents divided America, with Buchanan’s indifference to slavery and Biden’s refusal to “take care” to execute the laws of the nation, especially the immigration laws. 

Slavery vs. illegal immigration. Buchanan’s indifference to the slavery issue helped ignite the Civil War. His indifference was demonstrated by his belief that Americans should stop worrying about slavery. To hide his indifference, he tried to appease the white American by professing to take no side on the slavery issue while explicitly siding with salve holders in the South.

Biden, on the other hand, told all Americans he would unite the nation. Still, in his first few days in office, he repealed the former president’s restrictive border policy by ceasing construction of the border wall and allowing approximately ten million illegal immigrants into the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of these illegals were members of drug cartels that killed Americans and placed their illegal immigrant passengers into indenture servitude when they could not pay for their services. Additionally, they were sex traffickers and terrorists, bringing death, drug addiction, and crime to U.S. streets.

While Buchanan failed to anticipate the consequences of the slavery issue, Biden intentionally caused harm to the nation by refusing to honor his constitutional obligation to “take care” to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

Winner of this category: Biden has the edge since his actions were intentional, whereas Buchanan’s actions were grounded in stupidity and indifference.

State power over federal power. Buchanan believed, “It is beyond the power of any president, no matter what may be his own proclivities, to restore peace and harmony among the states.” As such, he allowed states to organize to secede from the union. Biden, on the other hand, intentionally used the guise of federal power to impose unconstitutional restraints on states during the pandemic, such as mandatory lockdowns, rent moratoriums, forgiveness of student loans, the promotion of preferential rights for transgender people, and forcing the financial community into discriminatory banking practices to harm industries that Biden disfavored.

Winner of this category: Biden has a substantial edge since his acts were intentional, whereas Buchanan lacked the vision and energy to govern.

Allowing secession vs. using the federal government to prosecute political opponents. Buchanan let the nation drift into civil war by believing the “territorial issue of slavery “happily a matter of but little practical importance.’” Biden, on the other hand, aggressively weaponized the FBI against political opponents by intimidating parents at school board meetings, targeting Catholics as terrorists, and ordering the FBI to force Big Tech’s censorship of conservative media and speech, to name only a fraction of his actions.

Winner of this category: Biden again has the edge since he aggressively attacked his political opponents. At the same time, Buchanan believed he had no power to stop those wanting to destroy the union.

Even with the rise of the South against the Union, Buchanan never attempted to imprison a past president or political opponents. Biden has the dubious honor of being the only president to attempt to jail his political opponent. Biden weaponized the Department of Justice, the FBI, and radical liberal prosecutors in an attempt to imprison Donald Trump, a past president and the presidential candidate challenging Joe Biden. Biden also launched a mass incarceration of Trump’s supporters, indicting 1500 of them and imprisoning hundreds. Moreover, Biden is the only president in history to use Executive pardon power to cover up his crimes.

Winner of this category: Biden overwhelmingly wins since there are no comparable presidential actions in U.S. history.

Biden Wins!

Based on his intentional refusal to “take care” that the laws are faithfully executed, Biden wins in all categories. He had a willingness to exceed all constitutional restraints and to attempt to imprison his chief political opponent, an action no other president has done or is likely to do. Most frightening, Biden used the tactics of an authoritarian state ruler, not a president, to implement his policies. Unfortunately, Biden wanted the presidency for personal power and to secure his place in history, not to serve the country. Biden succeeded and has secured the title “The Worst President in U.S. History.” Congratulations, Joe, you have disgraced yourself.

William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. It received five stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book, Reform the Kakistocracy, received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com