Commander-in-chief is a brutal gig. You've probably heard this cliche in some variation, but it rings true: when things are going wrong, presidents get too much of the blame, and when thing are going right, they get too much credit. Each president listed below would certainly subscribe to that theory, though some of them were more deservedly maligned for their actions in office than others. In American politics, perception is everything. It's why politicians adept at communication and public relations are the most successful. It's why presidents obsess over their legacies, hoping that history will treat them favorably -- or at least better than the public treated them during their terms in office.

1. Richard Nixon: When a president's most famous quote is "I'm not a crook", you can pretty much deduce that he wandered astray from the American values he pledged to uphold. Nixon is most remembered for the Watergate Scandal, in which he was implicated in the attempted cover-up of Democratic National Committee headquarters break-in, leading to his resignation. It was the culmination of a controversial presidency that further divided the country during an already volatile era. Nixon entered office when the Vietnam War was the hotbed issue, promising to end U.S. involvement. He eventually oversaw steady troop withdrawals, but not before escalating the war, most notably with an incursion of troops into Cambodia in 1970. Despite his conservative political appeals to the so-called "silent majority," Nixon held moderate political beliefs, advocating liberal social policies including the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He was a complex man who distanced himself from others and did little to secure the trust of his contemporaries and predecessors. Harry Truman wasn't afraid to make his feelings on Tricky Dick known, once saying that "Nixon is a shifty-eyed goddamn liar, and the people know it."
2. George W. Bush: Not only was Bush disliked by many in his own country during his presidency, but he was perhaps the most disliked person in the world. His global war on terrorism angered world leaders who thought the U.S. was abusing its power. His unilateral invasion of Iraq resulted in a mess that, almost eight years later, has yet to be cleaned up. His handling of Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, did irreparable damage to his support, causing him to become a lame duck more than three years before he left office. At the end of his second term, the nation experienced its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the longest post-World War II recession. Bush's advocacy of numerous controversial policies, combined with his swagger and quick dismissal of criticism, fueled his detractors and hurt his mainstream approval. Two years after he left office, many Americans still harbor resentment toward him. According to Gallup, Bush is the most unpopular living leader of the last 50 years.
3. Jimmy Carter: Carter's much-maligned presidency capped off two decades most Americans would like to forget. During his one term in office, the economy tanked as inflation and unemployment persisted at high rates (stagflation). The country dealt with an energy crisis that began under the Nixon administration and lasted through end of the decade, during which Carter delivered his famous "Malaise Speech," scolding "self indulgence and consumption" and asking Americans to instead conserve energy for the betterment of the nation. His decision to grant the ousted Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, asylum in the U.S. resulted in the seizing of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the taking of 52 American hostages. The Iran Hostage Crisis lasted until the end of Carter's term in office -- 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981. Another of Carter's questionable decisions was the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to oppose the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a poor public relations move that angered many athletes who had been training for years. By the end of his term, Carter faced opposition from within his own party. Although he defeated Ted Kennedy in the Democratic primary, he lost to Ronald Reagan in the general election, carrying just six states.
4. Lyndon Johnson: Assuming the presidency after the assassination of the beloved John F. Kennedy, Johnson had big shoes to fill. With an approval rating of 79 percent fewer than three months after he took office, Johnson opportunistically passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, defeating a unified Southern opposition and losing friends in the South. Even though he won reelection in 1964 in a landslide, he lost key Southern states, which indicated that Southerners were continuing to shift their support to the Republican Party. Johnson's other domestic policies, such as the Great Society Program, failed to garner significant public support. Most of the backlash Johnson received, however, was due to the Vietnam War and the perceived "credibility gap." Americans were becoming privy to what was really transpiring in Vietnam -- thanks to the media -- and how it differed from what Johnson claimed in his press conferences. He failed to acknowledge just how much the war had escalated until the Tet Offensive, hoping to eventually win public support for his policies. Protests became common scenes on college campuses across America -- one common chant was "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Johnson eventually lost the unified support of the Democratic Party and opted not to run for reelection, ushering in the Nixon era.
5. Harry Truman: Truman is proof that history can be a president's best ally. Today, he's best remembered for his role in foreign affairs, particularly World War II, in which he oversaw the defeats of Germany and Japan, the latter of which came after he made the difficult decision to use nuclear weapons. He also was a strong advocator of the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) , the Marshall plan and, of course, the Truman Doctrine. However, he fell out of favor with the American public during his second term, when the economy plummeted, the Korean War was at a stalemate and senior administration officials were implicated in a tax-fixing scandal. In February 1952, his approval rating fell to 22 percent -- still an all-time low. The month before, his disapproval rating reached 67 percent, the second worst ever.
6. Herbert Hoover: More so than any other factor, the economy has a direct effect the popularity or unpopularity of a president. When people lose their jobs and savings due to circumstances beyond their control, he's the first person they blame. When the Great Depression befell the nation, Hoover, who was just eight months into his term, was given the unenviable task of leading American out of it. A firm believer in voluntarism, he took little action to improve the economy, but when he did, it only seemed to worsen the problem. For example, he raised tariffs on imported items in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, causing other nations to retaliate by raising tariffs on American-made items. At the end of his term, unemployment reached just below 25 percent, and impoverished Americans began taking residence in shanty towns popularly referred to as "Hoovervilles." During Hoover's ill-advised campaign for reelection in 1932, he endured pelted eggs, hecklers and multiple assassination attempts -- sure signs that he was blamed for the nation's despair.
7. Abraham Lincoln: An outspoken advocate of change during a time when half of the nation detested it, Lincoln made just as many enemies as he made friends. In addition to his opposition to slavery, which the Southern agriculture-based economy heavily relied upon, he took unprecedented war powers during the Civil War in an effort to dismantle the Southern cause, capturing and imprisoning suspected Southern sympathizers without trial. Secessionists despised him for intruding on their lifestyle, which they died to preserve, and blamed him for the deaths of their loved ones during the war. Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a Confederate spy enraged by the actions of the president, risking his own life to kill Lincoln and help the South. The passion with which Lincoln was hated is incomparable to anything experienced by modern presidents or any other president in history.
8. Andrew Jackson: One of the most polarizing presidents in American history, Jackson sought massive changes and forcefully followed through on his promises to undertake them. He rescinded the federal charter of The Second Bank of the United States, which was authorized by James Madison, because he thought it primarily benefited rich entrepreneurs. During the Nullification Crisis, he reaffirmed his advocacy of a strong union by fighting against his Southern brethren who wanted to nullify federal tariffs. Most infamously, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which essentially called for ethnic cleansing. Jackson was known for his intellect, toughness and enormous ego, accumulating numerous political enemies while he was in power. The division he caused within America facilitated the rise of a strong second party, the Whigs, who vehemently opposed the policies of "King Andrew."
9. Clinton: With Clinton, it wasn't the amount of people who disliked him -- after all, he left office with a 65 percent approval rating, the best end-of-term approval rating since Dwight Eisenhower -- it was the vigor with which his detractors attacked him. Many people, especially on the right, viewed him as a snake oil salesman who was swindling the American public. From the outset of his presidency, his personal life was scrutinized and his political goals were met with fierce resistance. His healthcare reform plan was a failure and was partially to blame for the Democrats losing control of Congress for the first time in four decades. Of course, his political enemies were unified and emboldened during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which led to his impeachment on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Ironically, his highest approval rating came on the day he was impeached when it reached 73 percent.
10. Ronald Reagan: In the same way conservatives despised Clinton, liberals despised Reagan. The father of the conservative movement caused political strife with his economic policies -- known as Reaganomics -- that called for tax cuts and deregulation, and was blamed for the recession of the early 1980s, in which the unemployment rate reached 10.8 percent. Many perceived him as reckless in fighting the Cold War. For example, his Strategic Defense Initiative, which most notably outlined a space-based missile defense system, was mocked for being unrealistic. Liberals claimed that his opposition to detente and harsh language and policies were counterproductive, only serving to escalate the feud with the Soviet Union. The Iran-Contra Affair plagued the end of his presidency, as he was widely criticized for his supposed ignorance -- or involvement, depending on who you talked to -- in the sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. His approval rating dropped more than 20 percent in less than a week after the story broke. Despite a challenging two terms in office, Reagan has since become one of the most popular former presidents.