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FDR get first place and there is not even any competition. His speeches and fireside chats were some of the most effective ever given.
George Washington holds his place in history based on his accomplishments in winning this country's independence. I'm not sure charisma has much of anything to do with it.
JFK gets second place. His overall accomplishments as President are questionable. However, his ability to speak and communicate was incredible. Had he lived longer and served out two full terms as President, he might get the #! position.
Ronald Reagan gets third place. As much as I hate to admit it, he deserved the title he got as "Great Communicator". All his one liners, all his cliches, and all his "Hollywood" type references made quite an impression on this country.
Bill Clinton gets fourth place. His Presidency too, lacks in terms of substantive accomplishments. However, he spoke pretty well. I remember when they were trying to impeach him, he gave a State of the Union address and afterwards had an 80% job approval rating. This lead some to comment that the impeachment proceedings were over right than and there.
I would give Harry Truman fifth place. He was a very plain spoken man. However, what he said was very forthright. No one ever doubted what he meant.
I have to agree with your first four. It is difficult to measure the charisma of early presidents. Washington obviously had charisma but from everything I have read, it was more of a quiet, sophisticated type of charisma. It is impossible to judge how he would have handled himself in a presidential debate or press conference.
Lincoln, on the other hand, actually participated in debates with Stephen Douglas. He served as president and was reelected during the most tumultuous period in US history. His speeches, such as the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address have gone down in history as some of the most remarkable speeches in HUS history. His charisma must have contributed to his success and I would have to rate him at least 5th.
Truman's ranking as one of out greatest presidents has increased over time. While president, however, he was not popular, barely won the 1948 election and would not have won in 1952 if he would have run.
Good call, thank you..
And not just was, but still is idolized, over 200 years after he led a revolution. Modern presidents like Clinton & Reagan are getting a lot of love in this thread.. I think bcuz they have the advantage of the television era. Where we can gage (and are susceptible en masse ) to their charisma.
But I don't believe (just speculation) that Clinton could've led men into a mortal conflict with the most powerful empire of the era (like Washington did). I also don't believe Clinton will be remembered 225 years from now with the same reverence that Washington still is.. Don't let the messed up teeth throw u, Washington was an intensely charismatic leader.
The media keeps telling me that Clinton had charisma, but he turned my stomach so much I couldn't see it.
I guess some might say Castro, Mao, Hitler, and Stalin had charisma also.
They too had their cheerleaders.
Castro, Mao, Hitler and Stalin had carisma, just like Don Vito Corleoni! You were wise to accept any offer you were given. Even if it meant your demise.
Teddy Roosevelt
Thomas Jefferson
Andrew Jackson
Ronald Regan
Richard Nixon
I'm kinda glad somebody picked Nixon, because after all he had done, good and bad, I've never seen a bigger fuss made over a deceased president, than the grand send off given for Richard Nixon in April of 1994. Granted, I was not alive for JFK's funeral, but Nixon's was almost a spectacle, thousands upon thousands lined up to file past his coffin. Many standing in line were interviewed as they waited in line, many were not republican and against him in 1974, but said they just wanted to come pay their respects because they felt something for the man. Those days before the funeral were a media circus, anyone and everyone that had anything good or bad to do with Nixon was interviewed, it was a much more intense coverage bordering on obsession I think, than it was with Reagan, Ford, Johnson or Eisenhower's funerals.
I think because of the tapes and what happened with Watergate, the public became much more intimate with Nixon because the details of his public and PRIVATE face were revealed to all. Some special kind of bond was formed, almost as much as JFK and Lincoln's death, the public was shocked that he was gone.
Nixon was a lot of things, but charismatic was not one of them.
He was a physically awkward man, his smalltalk was strained and rehearsed, and on television he radiated the aura of a sour natured church usher, the kind who doesn't just escort the misbehaving child outside, but gives him a twist on his ear and a righteous lecture while doing so.
I would rate him the worst liar among national figures I have seen in my lifetime. By worst I do not mean the severity of the lie, rather the utter absence of any credibility on the part of the liar. When Nixon lied, his voice dropped a register, his shifty eyes got shiftier, he perspired..and when he would try and wrap it up with a resolute sounding denial at the end, he was about as convincing as a high school kid trying to portray an old man in a school play.
Charmless, graceless, hopelessly dishonest and manipulative...where is the charisma in any of that?
Nixon was a fighter, and when he died foreign leaders from Russia, China, Middle East and all over the world fought to get "tickets" to be at his funeral. He was an icon and man of the world. He keeps coming back, people will be talking about Nixon until the end of time. Don't spend so much time in the valley Grandstander, reach for the mountaintop. Nixon was the most famous president since JFK, would he make it into a Black Dynamite movie if he was not all that ?
Nixon vs. Black Dynamite *****bad language warning****
Nixon was a fighter, and when he died foreign leaders from Russia, China, Middle East and all over the world fought to get "tickets" to be at his funeral.]
They wanted to make sure that he was really dead. We all thought he was dead after he lost to Pat Brown in '62 and promised that we wouldn't have the Big Dick to kick around any longer.
But then, like the Phoenix from Hell, he rose from the ashes, his political career re-animated by some malevolent force, his soul doubtlessly traded for his comeback.
So lots of people wanted to go to the funeral, to hammer in a wooden stake if needed.
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