Which unsuccessful candidate would have been the greatest president?

[cebuan]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

I think a better question would be "what person who never ran for President would have been a good President"? As there would be a lot more choices.

It is widely held that Milton Eisenhower was better qualified than his brother, even by people who think DDE was a good one..

[artillery77]

Charles Evans Hughes - defeated by Wilson II - seems to have been a sensible alternative. Defeated in part for criticizing Wilson for at least preparing for war, he was also the leading charge in trying to get worldwide militaries to agree to downsize again afterwards.



The argument would be that he was a better executor than Wilson. Wilson was an academic. He devised the 14 points, but in the end could not agree to them. He spoke lovely about keeping the US out of a war, which good or bad, he failed to do. Then, on his way out the door, he set up some tremendously centralizing functions, with a key one being the Federal Reserve Bank. He passed laws to limit women working in factories. He passed a law for equal access to raw materials while at the same time starting conservation to limit new supplies. He reduced tariffs, but replaced them with an income tax. He injected government towards mediating labor disputes.



He was so busy domestically, that he did very little internationally.



Hughes would have been better. Not sure about the greatest, but an improvement to be sure.

[joee5]

Dewey