Top U.S. Presidents

[Avatar4321]

Originally posted by menewa
the following is in no particular order, i have troubles with naming a superlative.

Theodore Roosevelt - a founding father of conservation

Thomas Jefferson - a staunch believer in state rights

Jimmy Carter - although America was not in great shape during his presidency, he might have been the most honest president we've ever had, which is why he is usually termed a failure; an honest man usually finishes last in

FDR - his social programs and his upkeep and continued expansion of our state and national parks were heroic

Richard Nixon - although he was an arch-criminal, he did help create the EPA and pull our young men out of Viet Nam

This guy has Jimmy Carter and Nixon on the list and leaves out Washington and Lincoln. Is it any real surpise he is a kook?

 

[Avatar4321]

Nixon was just the wrong guy for the Job. Although I think he should have been pouring more troops and funds into vietnam so we could win despite Johnsons screw ups. But then i think he would have if the Democrat controled congress wasnt having a field day with Watergate. Makes me sick to think about all those people who died, who were slaughtered by the communists because we didnt stop them. Imagine how much blood is on John Kerry and the Anti Vietnam movement. This is why we have to fight evil. So evil doesnt slaughter millions of people.

 

[MtnBiker]

Originally posted by Avatar4321
This guy has Jimmy Carter and Nixon on the list and leaves out Washington and Lincoln. Is it any real surpise he is a kook?

and here is the kicker to that statement :

Originally posted by menewa
Yeah, he's(Nixon) a scumbag. I just really couldn't come up with a fifth president so decided to just pull his name out of a hat.

 

[armstrong80]

1. Washington- He led the led our nation at one of it's most turbulent times. He picked up the torch and set the standard. Also, being a general, he led the American army personally, to put down the whiskey rebellion.

2. Lincoln- He restored the sovereignty our nation. With the Emancipation Proclamation, he enforced Jefferson's words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

3. Reagan- He took a nation that was divided by hate, war, fear, and social depression and restored hope to the majority of the american public. He made the US believe in itself again. And he still had time to win the Cold War.

4. Jefferson- Jefferson had the foresight of expansion. He knew this nation would grow and doubled the size of the nation to compesate. He was the first advocate for small government. He wanted a true, self governed people.

5. Eisenhower- Many of you will disagree with me here, because nobody ever says anything about the fifties. But I feel that Eisenhower, took a nation that was tired of war and returned it normalcy. The simple fact that not much happened in the fifties is a testament to his legacy. He governed effiecently. he was also one of the most honest men to have ever graced the Oval Office. When a U-2 surveillence plane crash in Russia, rather that tip toeing around the crisis, he stood up and said"Yeah that was ours! We were watching waht you're doing."

I know I don't have to ask, but tell me if you think i wrong.

 

[DKSuddeth]

I'm amazed that people think Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents when he barely operated within the framework of the constitution. His 'Emancipation Proclomation' is BS considering that it wasn't done to end slavery, but to keep the union together, which was in violation of the constitution. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in those states under control of the Confederacy. It did not free any of the slaves in the border states where the slaves were owned by Union sympathizers.

The Writ of Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights were suspended. He summarily imprisoned critics and even had an arrest warrant written to jail the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney, because he not only ruled that many of Lincoln’s actions were unconstitutional, he was also a vocal Lincoln critic.

Lincoln was the closest thing to a dictator the US has ever seen.

 

[Adam's Apple]

Armstrong80, you put together a terrific list. We can all appreciate the contributions made to the country by your selections. Another of Eisenhower's contributions was the great interstate highway system that we enjoy today.

 

[5stringJeff]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
I'm amazed that people think Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents when he barely operated within the framework of the constitution. His 'Emancipation Proclomation' is BS considering that it wasn't done to end slavery, but to keep the union together, which was in violation of the constitution. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in those states under control of the Confederacy. It did not free any of the slaves in the border states where the slaves were owned by Union sympathizers.

The Writ of Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights were suspended. He summarily imprisoned critics and even had an arrest warrant written to jail the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney, because he not only ruled that many of Lincoln’s actions were unconstitutional, he was also a vocal Lincoln critic.

Lincoln was the closest thing to a dictator the US has ever seen.

DK, I agree with you. I have said a few times on here that I am no fan of Lincoln's methodology, nor do I believe in the fantasy that Lincoln was a supporter of civil rights in the vein of MLK. However, Lincoln did defeat the Confederacy and kept the U.S. together, and for that he deserves recognition.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Originally posted by gop_jeff
DK, I agree with you. I have said a few times on here that I am no fan of Lincoln's methodology, nor do I believe in the fantasy that Lincoln was a supporter of civil rights in the vein of MLK. However, Lincoln did defeat the Confederacy and kept the U.S. together, and for that he deserves recognition.

even though doing it was clear violations of the constitution and states rights to secede?

 

[5stringJeff]

I think that, legally speaking, the South had every right to secede. However, Lincoln didn't see it that way; he saw preservation of the Union as a goal that was so desirable that attaining it justified his extreme abuses of power. I'm not saying he was right to do what he did; I'm saying that the US would not exist today if it were not for his actions.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Originally posted by gop_jeff
I think that, legally speaking, the South had every right to secede. However, Lincoln didn't see it that way; he saw preservation of the Union as a goal that was so desirable that attaining it justified his extreme abuses of power. I'm not saying he was right to do what he did; I'm saying that the US would not exist today if it were not for his actions.

It probably would not, however, we should really decide if we want to have a constitution or not. Is the constitution something to hold dear only when it seems feasible and abandon it the rest of the time?

 

[Annie]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/pl/?id=110005196

PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP

What Makes a President Great?
Scholars finally begin giving Reagan his due.

BY JAMES TARANTO
Thursday, June 10, 2004 12:01 a.m.

Ronald Reagan has had a hard time getting his due from scholars. In 1996 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. conducted a poll of historians asking them to rank the presidents, and Mr. Reagan came in 25th out of 39, putting him in the "low average" category. The Gipper had done only slightly better in a Siena College survey two years earlier, finishing 20th out of 41--below Bill Clinton (16th), who had been in office less than two years, and well below Lyndon B. Johnson (13th). It's hard to agree that the president who won the Cold War was less successful than the one who escalated the Vietnam War.
The flaw in these studies is obvious. Because academics tend to be far to the left of the general population, conservative presidents, especially recent ones, usually get short shrift. (A C-Span survey in 1999, which included "professional presidential experts" as well as historians, did rank Mr. Reagan 11th.)

Public opinion polls tell a different story. In February 2001 Gallup asked Americans who was the greatest president in history. Mr. Reagan finished first, with 18%. Yet while Gallup's results are ideologically balanced, they also reflect a lack of historical perspective. When the firm asked the same question in May 2003, 51% of respondents named a post-1960 president. Among Democrats, 46% picked either John F. Kennedy or Bill Clinton, while 41% of Republicans chose either Mr. Reagan or George W. Bush. Whatever the merits of these four men, it seems premature at best to declare them greater than the likes of Washington and Lincoln.

In 2000 the Federalist Society came up with a way to remedy the flaws in both types of surveys. It asked 78 scholars in history, law and politics to rate the presidents on a five-point scale. "We tried to choose approximately equal numbers of scholars who lean to the left and to the right," explains Northwestern University's James Lindgren, who analyzed the data. "Another way to express this is that we sought to mirror what scholarly opinion might be on the counterfactual assumption that the academy was politically representative of the society in which we live and work."
Mr. Lindgren averaged the ratings for each of the 39 presidents (George W. Bush was not yet elected, and William Henry Harrison and James Garfield were omitted because they died shortly after taking office) and divided them into six categories: great, near great, above average, average, below average and failure. The results appeared in November 2000 on OpinionJournal.com and have just been published as a Wall Street Journal book, "Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House," which also includes an essay on each president and several thematic chapters on presidential leadership. (For excerpts, click here.) Some highlights:

• Three presidents made the cut as "great": George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They are the top three finishers in most surveys of scholars.

• Eight presidents were judged "near great," including Mr. Reagan, who finished eighth. Among them only James K. Polk (10th) served just one term.

• Among recent presidents, only Mr. Reagan ranked as "near great." JFK (18th) and LBJ (17th) were "above average," George H.W. Bush (21st) and Bill Clinton (24th) "average," and Richard Nixon (33rd), Gerald Ford (28th) and Jimmy Carter (30th) "below average."

• Mr. Clinton was the most controversial president--that is, the scholars' rankings of him diverged more sharply than for anyone else. Woodrow Wilson, who finished 11th overall, was the second most controversial president, but the next three were all among the post-1960 group: Mr. Reagan, Nixon and LBJ.

• Four presidents rated as failures: Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding and James Buchanan. Buchanan finished dead last.

An obvious question is how the current President Bush would fare if such a survey were conducted today. Arguably, it's too early to take the measure of Mr. Bush's presidency, since its success or failure will largely be determined by what happens in Iraq and whether he is re-elected in November.
But if liberal and conservative scholars mirror the nation's partisan divide, one may surmise that he would be very controversial--perhaps even more so than his predecessor. His admirers and detractors would perhaps cancel each other out, leaving him somewhere near the middle of the pack. Yet partisan passions have a way of fading with time. Lincoln and FDR both today rank as great, even though both, like Mr. Bush, faced bitter partisan opposition while in office (and FDR still has his critics).

George W. Bush could eventually end up joining the ranks of the greats. The three great presidents have three things in common: All faced unprecedented challenges, all responded to them boldly, and all ultimately were successful. Mr. Bush so far meets two of these criteria: History dealt him an unprecedented challenge in the form of the 9/11 attacks, and no one can deny that he answered it with boldness. If he is able to overcome the current troubles in Iraq, and if he succeeds in his mission of combating Islamist terror by promoting democracy in the Middle East, history will be far kinder to him than are his contemporary critics.

Should this happen, the reputations of his predecessors are likely to suffer, for they will come to be seen as having failed to address the problems that came to a head on 9/11. Both Lincoln and FDR were preceded by a series of presidents who today are held in low esteem: Zachary Taylor (who ranks 31st), Millard Fillmore (35th), Franklin Pierce (37th) and James Buchanan (39th); and Warren Harding (37th, tied with Pierce), Calvin Coolidge (25th) and Herbert Hoover (29th). The former group allowed the issue of slavery to fester until it nearly destroyed the nation; the latter, fairly or not, are blamed for the Depression.

George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton are likely to bear the brunt for not dealing decisively with the gathering terrorist threat. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan can also be faulted here, but Mr. Reagan's reputation is probably secure, since it rests on other accomplishments, and Mr. Carter doesn't have much farther to fall.

Those who believe that history runs in cycles will be interested to note that the three great presidents took office at 72-year intervals--Washington in 1789, Lincoln in 1861 and FDR in 1933--and that this November it will have been exactly 72 years since the election of our last great president.
Mr. Taranto is editor of OpinionJournal.com, author of its Best of the Web Today column, and co-editor, with Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, of "Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House," just out from Wall Street Journal Books and available from the OpinionJournal bookstore.

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by Kathianne
• Mr. Clinton was the most controversial president--that is, the scholars' rankings of him diverged more sharply than for anyone else. Woodrow Wilson, who finished 11th overall, was the second most controversial president, but the next three were all among the post-1960 group: Mr. Reagan, Nixon and LBJ.

Now that doesn't surprise me. That whole blowjob, cigar in the vagina, sperm on the dress sure fucked up his legacy!

 

[Avatar4321]

Actually i think it was more the lying.

Im amazed how Carter wasnt dead last. dang Buchannan and them must have been lousy.

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by Avatar4321
Actually i think it was more the lying.

Im amazed how Carter wasnt dead last. dang Buchannan and them must have been lousy.

Lying about a blowjob?
BFD.

Carter has done more towards the cause of Peace in the Middle East than many.

Plus, he founded Habitat. Maybe they include his post-presidency.

 

[JohnGalt]

Clinton will always be remembered, in my mind, as the worst President ever. He lied on national TV, and really crossed the line with the Monica-thing. Freaky. He has a fucking daughter, that sick fuck.

 

[menewa]

Originally posted by Avatar4321
This guy has Jimmy Carter and Nixon on the list and leaves out Washington and Lincoln. Is it any real surpise he is a kook?

Washington did not do that much during his time as president. He spent most of his time at his farm with his dear wife. He only begrudgingly took the title of president the first time and he had to further coaxed into a second time. He was more of a figurehead during his time in office. His number one boy, Hamilton, really came up with a lot of his policies.

 

[menewa]

Originally posted by JIHADTHIS
Is that the way you do your reporting too?

Only if I was covering a presidential election.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Originally posted by Avatar4321
Actually i think it was more the lying.

Im amazed how Carter wasnt dead last. dang Buchannan and them must have been lousy.

whats so Ironic about those choices is that both of them operated completely within the framework of the constitution, never wavering. Sad that a president who follows the law to the letter places dead last in the list of great presidents.

 

[Avatar4321]

Originally posted by nycflasher
Lying about a blowjob?
BFD.

Carter has done more towards the cause of Peace in the Middle East than many.

Plus, he founded Habitat. Maybe they include his post-presidency.

I dont know many people who would consider the extremists in Iran because of his actions taking power moving toward peace in the middle east.

As for the lying. doesnt matter what he is lying about. If someone lies its not easy to trust them. and the fact is he violated the most sacred covenant a person can make, marriage. If he doesnt have the balls to be honest with the American people and faithful to his wife, regardless of who she is, why on earth should the American people expect him to be faithful to them?

 

[Avatar4321]

Originally posted by menewa
Washington did not do that much during his time as president. He spent most of his time at his farm with his dear wife. He only begrudgingly took the title of president the first time and he had to further coaxed into a second time. He was more of a figurehead during his time in office. His number one boy, Hamilton, really came up with a lot of his policies.

See the perfect President. Keeping government out of the peoples lives.