Posted on 10/31/2008 4:51:21 PM PDT by BGHater
Who is the greatest of them all? While Barack Obama and John McCain battle to become the 44th President of the United States, we asked a panel of experts from The Times to rank the previous Commanders-in-Chief in order of greatness.
1. Abraham Lincoln
1861-65 (Republican, National Union)
The No 1: our panel chose the radical Republican who kept the fledgling nation alive when it could have collapsed altogether.
The first Republican President, Lincoln led the defeat of the Confederate states in the American Civil War and freed around four million slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. The formal abolition of slavery in the US was ratified soon after his death.
He succeeded in unifying the nation militarily as well as laying out a moral imperative for its governance in his Gettysburg address. During the final days of the civil war he was shot dead by John Wilkes Booth.
"Fought and won a just war, kept the United States united and created the ground for a country which could live up to its constitution." Camilla Cavendish, columnist.
"Had the coolest-sounding presidential name of all time." Chris Ayres, Los Angeles correspondent.
2. George Washington
1789-97 (No party)
Washington led the army that vanquished the British during the American Revolutionary War before presiding over the drafting of the Constitution. When it came to elect the first US President he was chosen unanimously by electors representing the 11 states of the Union.
He was celebrated as the Father of the Nation after expanding the Union and overseeing the creation of a taxation system, a national bank and the first Supreme Court judges. His Farewell Address also became one of the cornerstones of American democracy but he still missed out on top spot in our rankings.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
1. Abraham Lincoln 2. George Washington 3. FDR
8. Ronald Reagan
20. George H.W. Bush
23. Bill Clinton
25. Gerald Ford
32. Jimmy Carter
37= George W. Bush
37= Richard Nixon
At least not yet.
President GW Bush not the worst ever - another astonishing result from the leftist ignoramuses on the Times.
Lincoln, FDR, Teddy, Truman, and Wilson all in the top 10... Hurray for government expansion!
You beat me to it — I was going to say that any poll that doesn’t rank carter dead last is off base. Also — Lincoln Before Washington? Gimme a break.
OK, folks, let’s rate British PMs
1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Winston Churchill
3. None.
1. James Madison
43. Tie John Adams, FDR
Who writes this stuff? One of the endearing myths of American history is that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves: It freed no one! All one has to do is read the damn thing and with a half ounce of brain matter and an iota of familiarity with American history one will easily conclude (correctly( that the EP did not free anyone and was not intended to free anyone.
Agreed. Washington should be #1.
i may be alone in this... but as iraq makes progress and becomes a thriving country and a great democracy.. i think geoerge w. will be one of our greats..
FDR is not number 3. Maybe something like 10 and only because he happened to help win WWII. Then again his selfishness in staying president while he was basically comatose at Yalta helped cause the cold war.
Truman is 7.
George Bush will get up there if Iraq is successful. You can’t really judge a president until about a generation after he’s left office.
I agree with most of the list at the top though. Props for putting Eisenhower and Reagan so high. They are characteristically underrated by our lefties here.
LBJ is an anomaly in the top. He was a disastrous president and his poor management of increasing civil rights led to mass riots and disaster on the domestic front. His mismanagement of the Vietnam war puts him near the bottom of the list as well.
Also carter is the worst of this century, well below nixon and dubya.
Figured it would be a fish wrapper news source from a muzzie country to come up with this list.
Carter was an idiot, but he didn’t do more damage than FDR, Wilson, or Johnson.
Harding and Coolidge were both underrated. Although President Harding had his scandals, his administration was still a success in returning the United States to “normalcy” and his low tax policies helped create the boom of the 1920’s.
Pet peeve of mine: We’re a Republic not a democracy.
I disagree about Lincoln and Teddy though.
I agree that Madison should be rated far higher than he usually is. I think your assessment of Adams is a little harsh. No doubt motivated by the A&SA, and I agree that was a horrible thing, but the more I read about the atmosphere at the time, I can understand the motivation behind what, by today’s standards, would be an unbearable outrage. It is an unending blemish on the record of an otherwise stalwart crusader for American freedom and prosperity. Of course today, we have the “Fairness Doctrine” rearing its ugly head again...
I think he’ll be remembered as a Truman.
But then again while most people look favorably at Truman I don’t.
FDR-the man who gave half of Europe to Stalin.
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