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As of my posting, the poll shows the Top 7 as follows:
1 - Abraham Lincoln
2 - George Washington
3 - Franklin Roosevelt
4 (tie) - Thomas Jefferson
4 (tie) - Theodore Roosevelt
6 - Ronald Reagan
7 - Dwight Eisenhower
Contrast this with one aggregation of rankings of the Presidents by historians:
1 - Abraham Lincoln
2 - Franklin Roosevelt
3 - George Washington
4 - Thomas Jefferson
5 - Theodore Roosevelt
6 - Woodrow Wilson
7 - Harry Truman
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8 - Dwight Eisenhower
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17 - Ronald Reagan Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why the number 7? Just curious. Personally, I think a President needs to be out of office at least 40 years, and dead for at least 20 years, to allow varied sources to become available to historians and to allow that President's actions to play out and be observed as history from a sufficiently future perspective.
By that rule, I would only rank the Presidents up through Nixon (he almost makes my requirements, being out of office for 40 years next August and dead for 20 years next April - close enough). Nixon was the 36th man to serve as President. So that makes 7 roughly 20% of the Presidents thru Nixon, a nice round (almost) percentage. So I find 7 very appropriate number for assessment - disregarding the post-Nixon Presidents.
As for my assessment, I'd bump Washington up over Lincoln, keep FDR at 3, take Theodore Roosevelt above Jefferson, not include Reagan (regardless of my 40-year/20-year rule), bump Eisenhower up to 6, and have Madison at 7.
I think it's funny that the people who love Reagan and despise Obama selectively forget that Reagan raised taxes 7 of his 8 years in office, tripled the federal budget deficit, bailed out social security after a failed attempt to privatize it, and trained and equipped the Taliban.
Other than that, he was totally epic.
I definitely don't love or hate either, but you're super one-sided, so off the top of my head Reagan did:
Lower taxes, but should have stopped spending when economy picked upAppointed 1st female supreme court justice
Drove Soviets to bankruptcy
Significant increase in consumer confidence
Unemployment dropped ~2% from 1981 to 1988, including black unemployment
Somehow my fonts are all messy, not sure what happened...
I definitely don't love or hate either, but you're super one-sided, so off the top of my head Reagan did:
Lower taxes, but should have stopped spending when economy picked upAppointed 1st female supreme court justice
Drove Soviets to bankruptcy
Significant increase in consumer confidence
Unemployment dropped ~2% from 1981 to 1988, including black unemployment
Somehow my fonts are all messy, not sure what happened...
I didn't mean to be one sided. I'm just pointing out the irony that a lot of the people who claim to hate Obama also idolize Reagan. And if you look at the facts, they were actually similar in many respects.
I definitely don't love or hate either, but you're super one-sided, so off the top of my head Reagan did:
Lower taxes, but should have stopped spending when economy picked upAppointed 1st female supreme court justice
Drove Soviets to bankruptcy
Significant increase in consumer confidence
Unemployment dropped ~2% from 1981 to 1988, including black unemployment
Somehow my fonts are all messy, not sure what happened...
And let's not forget that those supposedly-enlightened historians tend to stay in their academic ivory tower -- with little exposure to the gritty world of the entrepreneurs and small-scale self-employed who were the backbone of Reagan's constituency.
All together now, Lefties and kiddies: Teabagger!, conservitard!, repug! hater! neocon!,
Most of you can't even define what you've been conditioned to resent and fear.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 11-27-2013 at 12:25 AM..
I'm surprised Lincoln is beating Washington.
I didn't even vote for Lincoln.
Lincoln was a pragmatist rather than an ideologue; he took on the nation's greatest challenge; sought a permanent solution which would preserve the union, and saw it through at the cost of his own life.
With a few possible exceptions -- and from all political parties, the men who have scored high on this poll had that combination of foresight, principle, and backbone; I feel we haven't seen much of it in recent years.
Washington
Jefferson
Polk
Lincoln
Coolidge
Ike
Reagan
I almost voted for FDR. After all he won WWII and had great leadership qualities. I just couldn't stomach the fact that he (along with Wilson) put us on our current road towards serfdom. Plus the Japanese internment camps were a major black mark on FDR. OTOH he did go on TV when the stock market crashed, to reassure a worried populace.
Lincoln was a pragmatist rather than an ideologue; he took on the nation's greatest challenge; sought a permanent solution which would preserve the union, and saw it through at the cost of his own life.
With a few possible exceptions -- and from all political parties, the men who have scored high on this poll had that combination of foresight, principle, and backbone; I feel we haven't seen much of it in recent years.
Maybe so, but there are still some of us who believe that there are more important things
than "the union" of the states. Also that membership in "the union" was supposed to be
a voluntary choice.
Because out of 43 men to hold the office, allowing for the opportunity
to choose various within each era, I thought 5 would be too limited, and
10 would be too broad.
Lincoln wins for being a pragmatist and showing leadership. Washington is second for setting the standard for future presidents. Ike was a great leader that showed restraint even when it hurt him politically. All Presidents after him were more concerned about their popularity than being leaders except for Reagan.
1) Lincoln
2) Washington
3) Jefferson
4) Eisenhower
5) Reagan
6) Truman
7) Jackson
1) Washington
2) Lincoln
3) T. Roosevelt
4) Jefferson
5) FDR
6) Eisenhower 7) Clinton.....
8) LBJ
9) Kennedy
10) Wilson
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