No More Great Presidents

Mises Institute ^ | 2/19/2007 | Robert Higgs

[traviskicks]

Until we can restore limited, constitutional government in this country, God save us from great presidents.



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[rmlew]

Neo-Confederates hate nationalists. Duh.

[boop]

"Grover Cleveland, though far from perfect, may have been the best."

I read an article about Cleveland some years ago. He was a democrat but he was known for his honesty. I was surprised to find out that he wasn't called "Grover". His friends called him Steve.

[acoulterfan]

I am surprised that he did not include Jimmy Carter with the others that he listed as the worst.

[Non-Sequitur]

I was surprised to find out that he wasn't called "Grover". His friends called him Steve.

That's because Grover was his middle name. His full name was Stephen Grover Cleveland.

[squidly]

The government is too big nowadays for us to have a great president, no matter what party he may represent.

There are 15 Cabinet level Departments. There are 64 other executive branch agencies that report to the President, things as large as NASA, U.S. Postal Service, General Services Administration, and FCC, just to name four. There are a number of other boards, commissions, committees, and agencies that report to the President.

Nobody can manage all this crap, be his name Bush, Clinton, or Reagan. It's just too dang big.

[BGHater]

Big. Lol!

http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/site/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1

[Blue State Insurgent]

W saved the world...top 10.

[Emperor Palpatine]

They lost. They need to get over it.

[WOSG]

FDR was the WORST president in American History from the perspective of liberty:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1969198/posts?page=120#120

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b5e19d63af3.htm

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/kickler1.html

[Rob112586]

Illusion > Reality

[tear gas]

Who can honestly say that ANY of the prior presidents were better than our current President Bush? I won’t say he’s greater than Washington and Lincoln, but he’s right in there with them.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Stuff from the Mises Institute is usually amateurish shilling for a utopian vision of the free market.

But this essay is actually quite reasonable.

Coolidge was indeed a great president. He fought long and hard to prevent the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

He ultimately failed, but at least he tried. Better than what can be said about the last series of presidents who were not only unable to eliminate unnecessary departments such as those of Education and Energy, but expanded them instead.

[boop]

"Coolidge was indeed a great president. He fought long and hard to prevent the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority."

I remember hearing someone go on and on about the virtues of Coolidge. I thought they were crazy. The only thing I knew about him was the "keep cool with Coolidge" campaign. He didn't DO anything. Now I realize how great that guy was because he didn't believe in a big government telling citizens how to live. And to show you how far we've come, the guy was from VERMONT. Land of the liberal nanny-staters.

[princess leah]

The History channel had on a few hours of Presidents a synopsis of our Presidents from Washington to Cleveland. overall it was pretty good (I thought one “historian” went on about Jefferson’s supposed affair with his slave which had nothing to do with his Presidency!)...Overall, I enjoyed getting details on these Presidents and pretty much figured out which ones were great, average and lousy from the info given on this channel. One election that got my interest was the John Q. Adams vs Andrew Jackson in 1824...wow, you want to talk about a back room deal - read about it! Politicians are and have been corrupt for 200 years. Difference is now we have a very liberal media to cover for them...

[who_would_fardels_bear]

There's a great biography on him that just came out a couple of years ago.

Back then legislators had their own version of term limits: it was considered unseemly to stay in one office for more than two or three terms.

Back then a career in politics was seen the same way as one in the military: either you move up or you move out.

How far things have changed when we have to pass laws to force the legislators to behave they way they used to do in order to remain honorable citizens.

[mysterio]

I’d vote for another Jefferson. And not much less than that.

[Verginius Rufus]

Taylor was in office a year and 3 months before he died, whereas Garfield died in office after only 6 months...so if Schlesinger, Jr., omitted Taylor he should have left out Garfield too. His father's poll in 1962 had the top 10 (of 31, omitting W. H. Harrison and Garfield) as Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Wilson, Jefferson, Jackson, TR, Polk, Truman and John Adams, and had Eisenhower way down at 22.

(A poll of historians taken 20 years later put Ike at #9.)

[Iron Munro]

Get serious.