Your favorite U.S. President

[Reader of news]

What is your favorite President of the United States?

[Ragirl]

Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George Washington....in that order. Ok, well Pres Reagan & Pres Bush are tied for 1st. :-)

[DB]

A bit odd don't you think?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

George Washington.

If he wasn't the great man that he was, we would have become a monarchy.

No one else comes close.

[billorites]

Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln
Always Lincoln.

[clamper1797]

T Jefferson

[OldFriend]

George W Bush for having the courage to do the right thing.

[Monty22]

Joking.. :)

[Tench_Coxe]

George Washington

[genghis]

how about 1-collidge
peace
prosperity
huge tax cuts
no new stupid spending
2-clinton
he started with
257 democratic congressmen finished with 211
58 senators finished with 49
29 govs finished with 20
that is his real legacy.

[Snuffington]

Um... we only have one. Is this a trick question?

[cloud8]

1. Reagan
2. Lincoln
3. Washington
4. W
5. TR
...
41. LBJ
42. Carter
43. clinton

[crz]

Andrew Jackson. GWs term isnt done yet and I will determine after his next. But he is up there thats for sure.

[PeteFromMontana]

Dubya....... no wait....Ronald...no wait...Dubya....wait...Roanld...hold on....Dubya...

Dubya and Ronald cuz they gots tons of cajones and did/do the right thing most of the time.

[bvw]

1. Washington
2. Lincoln
3. Cleveland
4. Jackson
5. Van Buren
6. Jefferson
7. Monroe
8. Polk
9. Coolidge
10. Theo. Roosevelt

[ovrtaxt]

Thomas Jefferson. By FAR.

[pageonetoo]

Ronaldus Magnus.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall"..., tax rate changes, 'elegance to the White House'! I could go on, and on, and on, and.... nobody else comes close, except for the first George!

[Atlas Sneezed]

When was the last time we had one that upheld his oath to obey the Constitution?

[Captain Kirk]

Dubya is the most big government president since LBJ. All of his freeper fans don't seem bothered in the least! Ah....how Free Republic has changes since those golden days in the 1990s when it actually was a forum against big government!

[explodingspleen]

Why Cleveland?

Because he was a principled conservative, and never backed down from his principles.

From his White House biography:

Cleveland vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. Vetoing a bill to appropriate $10,000 to distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, he wrote: "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character."

He also vetoed many private pension bills to Civil War veterans whose claims were fraudulent. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland vetoed it, too.

He angered the railroads by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by Government grant. He forced them to return 81,000,000 acres. He also signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting Federal regulation of the railroads.

In December 1887 he called on Congress to reduce high protective tariffs. Told that he had given Republicans an effective issue for the campaign of 1888, he retorted, "What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?" But Cleveland was defeated in 1888; although he won a larger popular majority than the Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison, he received fewer electoral votes.

Elected again in 1892, Cleveland faced an acute depression. He dealt directly with the Treasury crisis rather than with business failures, farm mortgage foreclosures, and unemployment. He obtained repeal of the mildly inflationary Sherman Silver Purchase Act and, with the aid of Wall Street, maintained the Treasury's gold reserve.

When railroad strikers in Chicago violated an injunction, Cleveland sent Federal troops to enforce it. "If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a post card in Chicago," he thundered, "that card will be delivered."

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Calvin Coolidge. He believed in small government and self reliance. I doubt he would have gotten us into WW-I if he had been president in 1917. (Forestalling, perhaps, the occurrence of WW-II.) The Clintons said they (!) would have liked to have been president during a national crisis, like the Roosevelts during WW-II. The sick megalomania that this reveals is beyond my meager comprehension. If I were president, I would like to have been President Coolidge, to have overseen an era of growing prosperity, when the Federal Government was like the umpire at a baseball game - unnoticed unless he screws up. Rather than being the stars of the game, the government should be barely noticed in the background.

Ronaldus Magnus did a masterful job of picking up the pieces of the mess he found the country in. (Remember gas lines and stagflation.)

George Wasingington set the tone and standard for all other presidents.

One hundred years hence, the words "Bill Clinton" will be best remembered as the start of a bawdy joke.