Reagan is The Greatest American

Your thoughts?

YES!!!!!! OH, boy this is just absolutely GREAT!!

Well, there was one George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, too. It would not be right to put anyone else as THE greatest, i.e. ahead of them. But one could honorably state that Ronald the Great by rights belongs in their company.

Why the link?

You've got that right. What did you think of the video?

Great. I'm sure Matt Lauer's bile was on his tongue when he announced it.

Why not. I want people to see the video. Is that OK?

Sorry, when I visited I thought it was to a porn site at first.

Why in the world would you think that? Did you see my video where I used pictures and Toby Keith lyrics.

No, slow connection. First picture to pop up was next to the caption Head Lesson. I closed the page.

OK, I'm confused. Are you on dialup, DSL, or cable modem?

From another thread, these are my thoughts:

I didn't follow the show, but I saw part of tonight's episode. I'm happy with President Reagan's win, but I probably wouldn't have placed him that highly. I haven't considered the question all that closely, but I have a few thoughts. I'll give something of a list, but it is more off the top of my head than a reflection of deep thought. Mostly, I look for people with some admirable qualities who were uniquely qualified to play the big part that they played in our history.

1. George Washington - I think George Washington was uniquely qualified to lead the Continental Army and to be our first president. He didn't have as extensive a military background as I had once thought, but he was a long-time soldier. He could be something of a player, but he played his part for the good of the country. I don't think anyone else could have led the army through the war or had the prestige to preside over the Constitutional convention and then be the first president.

2. Thomas Jefferson - Thomas Jefferson made two huge contributions. First, we needed the Declaration of Independence. We needed a statement of why we wanted independence and what principles we wanted to establish. Maybe all of the ideas weren't his, but he communicated them very effectively. Secondly, he made the Louisiana Purchase and created the Corps of Discovery to explore and lay claim to the land that we had just bought. Maybe many others would have been smart enough to make the purchase, but President Jefferson had the right scientific mind to appreciate the value of exploration and appreciate Meriwether Lewis as the guy who should lead the expedition. Lewis in turn was smart enough to recognize what William Clark could bring a leadership that he didn't have. The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition started the United States on the march to the Pacific that would be part of building our greatness.

3. Andrew Jackson - Andrew Jackson was a young soldier in the American Revolution and then fought Indian tribes that threatened the Southeast. When the treaty ending the War of 1812 was signed, it left each side in possession of whatever land it controlled when the treaty reached America. The Battle of New Orleans came after the treaty was signed but before the treaty crossed the Atlantic. If the British had won, they would have controlled New Orleans and been in a position to put a stranglehold on commerce down the Mississippi and expansion to the West. I don't think that many other men of that time could have led the defense of New Orleans as General Jackson did. Andrew Jackson later took initiative to beat the Spanish and give us Florida. As president, he also stood against South Carolina's attempt to seceed around 1830. Without that stand, maybe the United States would have come unraveled a state at a time long before 1860.

4. Abraham Lincoln - Abraham Lincoln's choice is fairly obvious. He wanted nothing more than to hold the nation together as one nation. He would have compromised on anything else including slavery, but at his election, the South seceeded. He made some mistakes, but he learned. Too many people who find power forget how to learn. Abraham Lincoln held his army together and eventually held the country together.

5. Sam Houston - Sam Houston's life was not without mistakes. He had a bad marriage. Not all that happened was his fault, but the situation was ugly. At times in his life, he was a horrible alcoholic. However, he was a war hero from his teens and served as the governor of Tennessee. In the 1830's and 40's, he made all of the right moves to take Texas from Mexico and add it to the United States. He received a great deal of criticism on many points, but he made the right choices in subtle situations to take Texas from Mexico. Without his making the right choices, maybe Mexico would still own the entire Southwest. Sam Houston was a big part of our push to the Pacific Ocean.

I'd probably put Ben Franklin in the top ten. He made important contributions at the start of our country and was an inventor and businessman as well as a statesman. He was an early definition of what it meant to be an American.

I'd put Ronald Reagan in the top ten as well. The most bloodthirsty ideology of all time has been communism, and he recognized the evil of communism and led the fight against it. It's harder to say how his contribution will play out in the long run. To make his contribution really worthwhile, we need to take this country in the right direction today.

Another person in my top 50 or maybe top 100 would be President George H. W. Bush. I'd put him above his son, our current president. George Bush (41) led an amazing life. He volunteered for the war at the age of 17 and was the youngest combat pilot in WWII. He generally performed well but was shot down once and survived. He came home to get a degree from Yale and play college baseball. He worked in the Texas oil business. While he's not a true self-made man and undoubtedly had help from his family connections, the oil business is still a neat part of our history. He was elected to Congress, headed the CIA, and was an ambassador to China. He was vice-president to President Reagan and was loyal to the president. While President Reagan gets most of the credit for ending the Cold War, President Bush (41) was in office when the Berlin Wall fell and when the Soviet Union collapsed. Maybe both of those things would have happened anyway, but maybe a Dukakis presidency would have allowed European communism to recover. I don't like everything that he did as president, but he wasn't a bad president. He led well during the first Gulf War, and I really don't have a big problem with his not taking Bagdad. If we hadn't made such a big mistake in '92, I think he would have brought down Hussein through other means in the 90's. Finally, he saw his son become president. Overall, that's a great American life.

Bill

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Damn, still doesn't work. I don't the answer. Did you click on the link "self"? When I do it, I have no problem

Last try.

http://video.freevideoblog.com/Player.aspx?fileid=F28BF513-84EC-475C-AC2E-1041E98F0B7B

That link worked. I hope it still does.

I agree with most of what you say. Lincoln was brilliant when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Of course it only freed the slaves in the Confederate States and it kept the British and maybe the French from allying with the South. Unfortunately, Lincoln hoped he could keep the Brits out of the war without freeing the slaves. All in all, a good President.

AOL is sick over this. They were showing pictures of Bill Clinton up until the end. So Reagan wins and you suddenly have to click a link that doesn't work. They would have hit you between the eyes with banner headlines if the winner was someone they liked. When they refused to say who won, I had a feeling it was the Gipper.

You think these people aren't petty, shameless communists? They even had Billy Graham supposedly saying Hillary should run the country in a story yesterday. AOL blows.

Reagan won!!!

Followed by Lincoln, King, Washington and Franklin.