What If A Really Great President From The Past Was In Office Today?

George Costanza

A Friendly Liberal
Mar 10, 2009
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Already it's starting - "We are going to have a choice of NOTHING in 2012. Aren't there any GOOD candidates out there running for President?"

It got me to thinking. Yes, it's tempting to compare today's candidates to the really good Presidents of past decades. But is that really a fair comparison? I guess what I am wondering about is this - is our almost universal dissatisfaction with current presidents and presidential candidates a function of their incapability or are they just as capable as ever, it's just that modern society has become so complex and so politically fragmented that their capabilities somehow fade away in the smoke and fog of all the b.s.?

To put it another way - how popular would Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan be today if they held office in these troubled times?

I think that's an interesting thing to consider - how about you?
 
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No current president would be popular. And if they did what needed doing they would be even less popular.
 
how popular would Dwight Eisenhower, Ted Kennedy or Ronald Reagan be today if they held office in these troubled times?

Dwight Eisenhower; painted as a war monger, unless he was a (D)
RR; small government spender, still a republican, still a leader
Ted? he couldn't beat Carter b/c he murdered a girl, but if he didn't, he would have beat Carter and we would have gotten kennedycare, and the economy would have completely fell to shit, or worse than what Carter made it into.

if you meant
JFK; He'd be a moderate republican. Stong military, big government
 
krist, I'd take clinton back. At least he was a leader.

Carter would be slammed as a southener, and have no chance. not to mention he's the last ugly pres the dems have put forward.

Nixon would be an even more paranoid freak, but would get away with it due to advanced tech.

Polk, who got out of the way, would be a modern conservatives wet dream.

FDR would still be a tyrant, but he would be able to use racism like a club, no matter how meaningless.
 
They go after Abe Lincoln like he was Sarah Palin
Would there be a contemporary Conservative supporting Lincoln? I doubt it! Lincoln fought a Civil war to preserve the federal union and sublimate state's rights.

Plus, Lincoln was a brilliant thinker. Are you comparing Palin's intellect to Lincoln's? really?

He fought to preserve the constitution, so yes, Conservatives would support him.

See we want to Constitution followed. What we don't want is this corruption in the Federal Government that ever expands it to eliminate the liberties of men.

I am confident Lincoln would be fully supporting Conservatives as we uphold the Constitution.
 
I think the more appropriate question is were the "great" Presidents of the past really that great to begin with or have we simply turned them into larger than life heroes?

As far as I can tell great Presidents have been few and far between.
 
They go after Abe Lincoln like he was Sarah Palin
Would there be a contemporary Conservative supporting Lincoln? I doubt it! Lincoln fought a Civil war to preserve the federal union and sublimate state's rights.

Plus, Lincoln was a brilliant thinker. Are you comparing Palin's intellect to Lincoln's? really?

He fought to preserve the constitution, so yes, Conservatives would support him.

See we want to Constitution followed. What we don't want is this corruption in the Federal Government that ever expands it to eliminate the liberties of men.

I am confident Lincoln would be fully supporting Conservatives as we uphold the Constitution.
Lincoln fought to preserve the union. And he suspended habeus corpus.

I think you wouild like to wrap yourself in the legend of Lincoln, who wouldn't? But understand the truth first.
 
Would there be a contemporary Conservative supporting Lincoln? I doubt it! Lincoln fought a Civil war to preserve the federal union and sublimate state's rights.

Plus, Lincoln was a brilliant thinker. Are you comparing Palin's intellect to Lincoln's? really?

He fought to preserve the constitution, so yes, Conservatives would support him.

See we want to Constitution followed. What we don't want is this corruption in the Federal Government that ever expands it to eliminate the liberties of men.

I am confident Lincoln would be fully supporting Conservatives as we uphold the Constitution.
Lincoln fought to preserve the union. And he suspended habeus corpus.

I think you wouild like to wrap yourself in the legend of Lincoln, who wouldn't? But understand the truth first.

liberals booed the Patriost act, and rightfully so

3 years after Bush, we still have it and they are not booing.

so lets not pretend the suspention was something dems would have been against had it been Lincoln (D)
 
Lincoln fought to preserve the union. And he suspended habeus corpus.

I think you wouild like to wrap yourself in the legend of Lincoln, who wouldn't? But understand the truth first.

Yes he fought to preserve the union. The Union exists solely for the Constitution. The man fought for the Constitution.

I don't need to wrap myself in a legend of someone. I simply don't need to lie about them either.
 
Already it's starting - "We are going to have a choice of NOTHING in 2012. Aren't there any GOOD candidates out there running for President?"

It got me to thinking. Yes, it's tempting to compare today's candidates to the really good Presidents of past decades. But is that really a fair comparison? I guess what I am wondering about is this - is our almost universal dissatisfaction with current presidents and presidential candidates a function of their incapability or are they just as capable as ever, it's just that modern society has become so complex and so politically fragmented that their capabilities somehow fade away in the smoke and fog of all the b.s.?

To put it another way - how popular would Dwight Eisenhower, Ted Kennedy or Ronald Reagan be today if they held office in these troubled times?

I think that's an interesting thing to consider - how about you?

well Ronald Reagan took office under VERY SIMILAR economic conditions to President Obama......Reagan at this point into his presidency was seeing a booming economy and much better approval numbers than obama.

So, economically speaking, we would be better off if Obama was Reagan.....just based on the pure economic numbers of GDP growth, unemployment, and polling job approval/dissaproval numbers.
 
Lincoln fought to preserve the union. And he suspended habeus corpus.

I think you wouild like to wrap yourself in the legend of Lincoln, who wouldn't? But understand the truth first.

Yes he fought to preserve the union. The Union exists solely for the Constitution. The man fought for the Constitution.

I don't need to wrap myself in a legend of someone. I simply don't need to lie about them either.

Dude, Lincoln annihilated the Constitution.

When he was told by his advisers that allowing W VA to create it's own state & send representatives & senators was a clear & direct constitutional violation, he basically said that he didn't care & that he needed the votes... Just one example.
 
I don't think it would matter if it was Reagan, Jack Kennedy or even if George Washington himself could come back - the climate is so heated & venomous, that ALL of them would face a pretty tough slug & would likely be unable to bridge the ideological gap we have today.
 
Theodore Roosevelt?

War monger. :lol:


But really, "this climate", "The vitrol is at an all time high", "how can they say that!", "All this mudslinging."

Read a little history on our elections. What happens now vs what happened then...

damn, how do I discribe this


Now; The grade schools mean girls have hissy fits at each other.
Then; Mudslinging came with a Doctorate level degree.

ex

Now; He's a closet dominist!
then; He's a serial rapist [I shit you not]
 
He fought to preserve the constitution, so yes, Conservatives would support him.

See we want to Constitution followed. What we don't want is this corruption in the Federal Government that ever expands it to eliminate the liberties of men.

I am confident Lincoln would be fully supporting Conservatives as we uphold the Constitution.
Lincoln fought to preserve the union. And he suspended habeus corpus.

I think you wouild like to wrap yourself in the legend of Lincoln, who wouldn't? But understand the truth first.

liberals booed the Patriost act, and rightfully so

3 years after Bush, we still have it and they are not booing.

so lets not pretend the suspention was something dems would have been against had it been Lincoln (D)

I still boo it but the majority of the right does not.
I think the majority of the wussy dems also supported it when it was created.
Fear is a powerful motivator even makes many like freedom fries.
 

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