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This might be more like history but it's bound to get political so I'm going to put it here.
Who in your opinion is the most overrated president and why? It could be any of the 44 (counting Cleveland once).
IMHO, Ronald Reagan. His policies led directly to the income inequality we are seeing today. He recongnized that his massive tax cuts bloated the deficit to unprecedented levels and tried to make up for it by stealing $3 TRILLION from the Social Security Trust Fund (and it was never put back). He ignored the AIDS crisis and was complicit, though not directly responsible, for the selling of arms tio Iran and the Taliban. He does get points for helping end the Cold War, but as we are beginning to see it never really ended, and Russia probably only backed down because they thought Reagan was crazy. The fact that he wanted to put giant laser beams in space to shoot down nukes means they were probably correct. He also gets way too much credit (that being any at all) for the release of the American hostages in Iran. Jimmy Carter didn't sleep for the last two days of his presidency as he was in constant contact with the Iranians to ensure the hostages' release. The only reason Reagan gets credit is because they waited until the precise moment he was president to leave Iranian air space so as to embarrass Jimmy Carter.
Told you it would get political...
Agree. The only reason Republicans worshipped him is because they had no other Popular Presidents since Teddy Roosevelt. Nixon quit, George Bush Sr was a bust and there were no others prior. It’s a moot point now, Trump is near opposite of Reagan so the worshipping is done for most. Remains to be seen how long Trump will be worshipped, if Reagan is an example I’m guessing well beyond usefulness.
I like the TAMPA Bay Bucs not for their record or wins but because they are the only team in town. When you don’t have another option then you go with what you got.
Did JFK ever threaten to withhold military aid from one of Russia`s enemies?
Yes he did.
Quote:
One effort we must make, the President continued, is to seek to prevent European states from taking actions which make our balance of payments problem worse. For example, we maintain large forces in Germany. We must firmly oppose West Germany if it increases its agricultural production to our detriment. We have not yet reached the point of wheat against troops but we cannot continue to pay for the military protection of Europe while the NATO states are not paying their fair share and living off the “fat of the land.” We have been very generous to Europe and it is now time for us to look out for ourselves, knowing full well that the Europeans will not do anything for us simply because we have in the past helped them. No longer dependent on the U.S. for economic assistance, the European states are less subject to our influence. If the French and other European powers acquire a nuclear capability they would be in a position to be entirely independent and we might be on the outside looking in. We must exploit our military and political position to ensure that our economic interests are protected.
Well, there are no nuclear missiles 90 miles off our shores, because of the Cuban missile crisis. You can criticize the other stuff, but that was the right thing to do.
It was precipitated by Bay of Pigs. The Cubans thought they needed the deterrent after that so they got missiles from Russia.
It was precipitated by Bay of Pigs. The Cubans thought they needed the deterrent after that so they got missiles from Russia.
With or without the Bay of Pigs, Castro was happy to thumb his nose at the USA every chance he got, and the USSR was happy to have missiles so close to the US that we would have no advanced warning before they were already in US airspace.
And even the Bay of Pigs wasn’t a bad plan. After all, a lot of American businesses were stolen by Castro, so it is not that unreasonable that we would attempt to get them back. It was the execution that sucked. If Kennedy didn’t hold back the air cover, there might have been a much different outcome. Not to mention, the possibility that he might have died of old age, if you believe the conspiracy theories.
Pretty much Reagan because of the deficit and Iran-Contra, although I liked him as a person. It's too soon to rate Obama historically, but he certainly wasn't overrated. Myself and many others have a very low opinion of DJT, so maybe he'll turn out to be underrated? Ask me again in a couple of decades.
Conservatives on here will tell you Obama was overrated ever since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
I'd say he and Bill Clinton are pretty close to being the most overrated. I believe the only reason the economy was DotComBooming so great during Clinton's last four years in office was only because Y2K was coming and everybody was scared crapless that the world would crash because computers couldn't handle changing from 19xx to 20xx. I worked at a half a dozen hi-tech companies the last 4-5 years of the 90's and unbelievable money was thrown at trying to figure out what would happen once Y2K came. I took public transportation at that time and within 6 months of the passing of Y2K and nothing bad happening (bank accounts disappearing, jets falling out of the skies, prisons automatically unlocking and letting all the criminals out, yada yada yada) I noticed public ridership going down to almost 50% overnight. So many companies laid off those entire departments that were formed strictly for trouble-shooting computer systems, software, etc. etc. Went from DotComBoom to DotComBomb in a matter of months. 4 to 5 years building it up and it all came down within 6 to 8 months.
All this business and the DotComBoom had absolutely nothing to do with Bill Clinton. Yet he was right there taking credit for it all. Just like Al Gore tried to take credit for inventing the internet.
I'd say he and Bill Clinton are pretty close to being the most overrated. I believe the only reason the economy was DotComBooming so great during Clinton's last four years in office was only because Y2K was coming and everybody was scared crapless that the world would crash because computers couldn't handle changing from 19xx to 20xx. I worked at a half a dozen hi-tech companies the last 4-5 years of the 90's and unbelievable money was thrown at trying to figure out what would happen once Y2K came. I took public transportation at that time and within 6 months of the passing of Y2K and nothing bad happening (bank accounts disappearing, jets falling out of the skies, prisons automatically unlocking and letting all the criminals out, yada yada yada) I noticed public ridership going down to almost 50% overnight. So many companies laid off those entire departments that were formed strictly for trouble-shooting computer systems, software, etc. etc. Went from DotComBoom to DotComBomb in a matter of months. 4 to 5 years building it up and it all came down within 6 to 8 months.
All this business and the DotComBoom had absolutely nothing to do with Bill Clinton. Yet he was right there taking credit for it all. Just like Al Gore tried to take credit for inventing the internet.
That's my take on it anyways.
DH was also in the information business. He went to many meeting concerning technology for his employer, a Fortune 100 communication company. Senator Al Gore was also at many of those meetings.
Do yourself a favor. Go back in time with me. In 1990 there were 313,000 computers hooked up to the internet. By 1996 there were 10 million. How do you think that happened? Magic? American know how?
I know anybody who would repeat urban myth would most likely reject doing research. Just read about Al Gore and information technology on Wikipedia. You might learn something
Agree. The only reason Republicans worshipped him is because they had no other Popular Presidents since Teddy Roosevelt. Nixon quit, George Bush Sr was a bust and there were no others prior. It’s a moot point now, Trump is near opposite of Reagan so the worshipping is done for most. Remains to be seen how long Trump will be worshipped, if Reagan is an example I’m guessing well beyond usefulness.
I like the TAMPA Bay Bucs not for their record or wins but because they are the only team in town. When you don’t have another option then you go with what you got.
So many inaccuracies in the post you replied to.
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