Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wait are you asking for our favorites or the best? Most seem to be answering with who was the best. I think Lincoln was the greatest of all presidents. I think Jackson, TR and FDR were probably the most successful at changing the country. As for favorite, I would probably have to again go with Lincoln.
One Republican and three Democrats are yours. I agree with you on Lincoln.
A plain speaking, plain living, God fearing man who had to make a tremendous decision regarding dropping The Bomb. He made it and kept on going.
He also loved his wife and his daughter with all his soul. God made Harry then broke the mold.
I always thought that about Truman till he kept MacArthur from chasing the NOrth Koreans into China and caused the resulting retreat to the sea by the American Army. He lost too much from me when that happened. My God, that was in 1950 soon after I started to college.
This is probably the best answer to this question. We have had a number of great presidents over the years, but none will be better than George Washington. He lead our country to its own freedom and helped establish a government that is still intact today, and his best thing ever was only running for one term because he knew he could of became King of the country because the people wanted him to be, but that wasn't what he fought for.
Washington ran twice, or at least he was elected twice. Look it up. He established the 2 term presidency that was followed up to FDR who ran 4 times and won all four times.
While I agree that Washington had an incredibly hard burden to carry, no American president had to deal with what Lincoln had to deal with in the case of the Civil War. TR considered Lincoln the greatest of all presidents and TR was as authoritative a source as I could point to.
There wasn't a man alive in this nation who could have pulled those 13 states together like Washington did. He kept his own people from pushing what they wanted and followed Hamilton nearly every time Hamilton and Jefferson got into arguments. Following Jefferson most of the time would have destroyed the new nation before it got started.
I am not sure there was a man alive when the Civil War came along who could have pulled off what Lincoln did, either. I always have to ask if people mean the most important one, Washington, or the best leader, Lincoln.
My principal criteria are leadership in times of crisis and competence in times of stability.
Then you need to study up on history, my man.
From an intellectual perspective, Thomas Jefferson, hands down. No contest.
From a modern perspective of a president for the people, John F. Kennedy. And if your criteria is based on leadership through crisis, then Kennedy would necessarily leap past them all. The tensions between the US and Soviet Union was off the charts ... Nikita Khrushchev deemed the young Kennedy as an inexperienced pushover, for whom he could steamroll at will. The Pentagon and CIA were populated with psychopathic maniacs hell bent on Nuclear war, and Kennedy ignored the advice of his joint chiefs of staff and their push toward war, and prevented global nuclear catastrophe by refusing to bomb and invade Cuba in response to the Soviet missile installations underway. Instead, he decided on a blockade of Cuba, which resulted in Khruschev flinching, and recalling Soviet ships. Negotiations then led to the withdraw of Soviet offensive nuclear weapons, and World War III was averted. Later, it was discovered that contrary to the Pentagon's assessments, some of those missiles were in fact operational at the time Kennedy chose the blockade rather than invasion ... and also that the Soviet orders were to launch those nukes in response to any invasion attempt. That would have instigated a full scale nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union, and none of us would likely be here debating who was the best president.
I always thought that about Truman till he kept MacArthur from chasing the NOrth Koreans into China and caused the resulting retreat to the sea by the American Army. He lost too much from me when that happened. My God, that was in 1950 soon after I started to college.
Thirty years ago I would have agreed with this without question. But it's more clear now that MacArthur was a little too vain in his own plans, and both Patton and LeMay were a little too trigger-happy. It also needs to be recognized that America was a war-weary nation by 1945 and Truman didn't have that much power to challenge Stalin at Potsdam.
Remember too, that FDR somehow mustered the common sense to replace the notorious appeaser and Stalinophile Henry Wallace with Truman in 1944.
As it turned out, the economy we built over the following twenty years was sufficient to force the Soviet Union to collapse under its own chains, (and bloodlessly!) thanks mostly to Ronald Reagan who, with the peaceniks fighting him every step of the way, kept the pressure on.
And even if we had had the power to thoroughly and deservedly "clean the Soviets' clock" back in the 1950's, a likely second use of nucelar weapons, albeit in tactical situations rather than against cities, or even as merely a threat, would have permanently lowered our stature in the Court of World Opinion.
Somehow, it all turned out for the best. If we're still villified by some of the chronic whiners, we can live with it.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 09-02-2012 at 11:18 PM..
From an intellectual perspective, Thomas Jefferson, hands down. No contest.
From a modern perspective of a president for the people, John F. Kennedy. And if your criteria is based on leadership through crisis, then Kennedy would necessarily leap past them all.
Oliver Stone-esque hype aside, some people I respect see things quite differently.
My principal criteria are leadership in times of crisis and competence in times of stability.
No offense, but that's a fairly ridiculous list when you see Reagan tacked on with some defining presidents. The idea that any "crises" he faced compare to what Washington, Lincoln or FDR faced is humorous. Yes, yes, I know, he faced down the "evil empire." This isn't a forum of College Republicans. If you wish to put him in that category below the defining presidents, fine. I would not, but it's at least debatable. Having TR and Jackson in the overrated list is just plain silly when you consider that you placed Reagan alongside Lincoln and Washington.
No offense, but that's a fairly ridiculous list when you see Reagan tacked on with some defining presidents. The idea that any "crises" he faced compare to what Washington, Lincoln or FDR faced is humorous. Yes, yes, I know, he faced down the "evil empire." This isn't a forum of College Republicans. If you wish to put him in that category below the defining presidents, fine. I would not, but it's at least debatable. Having TR and Jackson in the overrated list is just plain silly when you consider that you placed Reagan alongside Lincoln and Washington.
Within my own lifetime, no President has fallen further in stature than Andrew Jackson -- partly because more attention is paid to his notorious influence-peddling, but mostly because it's now recognized that no American President held a stronger role in the disfranchisement of the Native peoples.
With regard to Taft, he followed T R, who was well-known for his grandstanding and ability to orchestrate publicity far ahead of the time when this became more of a factor.
"When my father goes to a wedding, he wants to be the bride; when he goes to a funeral, he wants to be the corpse." (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)
McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft all governed at a time when the nation was industrializing rapidly, when displaced agrarians and immigrants were crowded into cities, and economic imbalances had to be addressed. Taft played as large a role in this as Roosevelt, much more than McKinley, but he let the Congress call the shot, and stuck to his proper role as Chief Executive. When that ended, he served his country on the Supreme Court, in a manner similar to J Q Adams return to the House. Cleveland gets my admiration for essentially the same reasons.
I dont know your age, but one day in 1964, at the age of 14, I was sitting in a class in Junior High when the community tested a new fire siren without advising us. One of my classmates, thinking we were under attack (Cuba was still fresh in our memory) broke down in tears. That, and hearing George C. Scott's "nuke 'em while we have the chance" monologue in the film Dr. Strangelove (to loud cheers from a group of Ukrainian-Americns who'd lost relatives to Stalin) are among my memories of the Cold War.
We won, thank God, and Reagan had a lot more to do with it than JFK.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 09-03-2012 at 12:31 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
