Posted on 02/14/2009 10:56:52 PM PST by Eleutheria5
(Feb. 14) - It's no surprise to see Abraham Lincoln, the man who held the nation together when it was on the brink of collapse, atop the list of greatest American presidents. But many other presidents are judged far differently by experts than by the general public. Bill Clinton left office with a high approval rating, but a panel of writers who focus on US politics and foreign affairs at the Times, a British publication, considered him mediocre. The president who passed progressive legislation but who saddled himself with the Monica Lewinsky scandal landed at number 23. As panelist Ben Macintyre put it, Clinton "promised so much, delivered so little and embarrassed everyone." The panel of 8 judges ranked some modern day presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush at far ends of the spectrum. And others were close: John F. Kennedy missed the top 10 by one spot and Jimmy Carter barely managed to escape the bottom 10. Click through the galleries below to see how these experts ranked American leaders and the reasons why. Further down the page you can tell us if you agree and test your knowledge with our presidential quiz. The full list is here.
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No, no. The aptly named President Johnson has him all beat to hell. And of course FDR (maggots be upon his rotting corpse).
95% of americans cannot name 10 american presidents, much less 20, unless they cheat and use the new dollar coins and various bills to name them. Presumnably Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton will be named some. I guess not many will name Samuel Chase erroneously.
I suspect not 5% of freepers (or less) have the knowledge base to make intelligent, detailed comments about 20 different presidents. I know I don’t (I may have had the useful knowledge at some point, but the memory hole is organic and grows each year).
I may be totally wrong, but I detect unlabeled sarcasm in the post you are responding to. I offer this because I almost typed an identical response to him before I thought it through and realized he almost certainly knew exactly what he was saying about the ‘That War To End All Wars thing sure worked out great.’
I do believe it will take decades to get rational perspective on W net-net. There are a ton of domestic negatives. Long term political direction in Iraq and Afg. will impact this. Growth of the federal debt under him (ignoring the last 6 months) was not a good thing.
He did a lot to reduce cronyism and corruption in the government, and he was in favor of lower tariffs at a time when many were obsessed with mercantilism. No one really had high hopes for him when he entered the office, as he was an “accidental” President who only assumed the position after Garfield was assassinated, but he left office well-respected and admired. Kind of the opposite of Obama.
Obama seems to be the president who will blow the nation apart when it is on the brink of collapse.
Best, worst, I don't really know, but Obama could be the Anti-Lincoln soon.
There was no unlabeled sarcasm in my post (13).
However, on review, there may have been unlabeled sarcasm in the post I replied to (8), in which case “Never Mind”.
However, post 8 replying to (6) disparaged Wilson for getting us into WWI, implying that getting into WWI was good. However again, the comment about the War to End all Wars could have been sarcastic.
I’m most confused.
Ignoring for now arguments about which slaves he freed and which he didn't, it's said that "Lincoln freed the slaves"; ironically it could be 0bama who re-enslaves us all.
“I’m most confused.”
I was referring to post 8 on this as far as sarcasm, but didn’t clearly state this.
I will need to go reread post 6, now I am lost as well.
rereading, i suspect post 8 is sarcasm in support of the last line of post 6. I would state as near-fact if I had such authority, I see no other possible interpretation consistent with the understanding of the wwii origins implied in post 8. drama is now high, OP of post 8 must come forward to include /s on his post!!! Jail to the posters who do not use /s! sarcasm is too net-invisible too often not to!
FDR was the worst president we have had so far. The New Deal alone earned him that title, but signing the death warrants of millions of Europeans by handing them over to Stalin solidified his position.
Woodrow Wilson in the top 10??!!?
KKK Wilson re-segregated the federal government. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised that leftist historians love that.
It would help your argument to be factually accurate at the start. Lincoln was inaugurated Monday, March 4th, 1861. He was shot on Friday, April 13th, 1865 and died the next day, 4 years and 40 days of the Presidency. The U.S. Civil War officially started with the firing on Ft.Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12th, 1861 and principally ended April 26th, 1865 with the breakup of the last CSA Army under Joe Johnson in North Carolina, 4 years and 14 days of battle. Your best usage is 4 years long and IF I would say mishandled, I would put that length from First Bull Run (7/21/1861) to March 2nd, 1864 when US Grant became Lincoln's top general and WT Sherman top general in the West, 2 years and 8 months. You could make a case for the start of mishandling in failing to accept General-in-Chief Winfield Scott's proposed strategy called the Anaconda Plan in May of 1861 which was the essential winning strategy by the end of the war.
Also Atlanta was surrendered to Sherman in September of 1864, not October, after Joe Johnson abandoned its defense as unsustainable. I agree and disagree with other items in this paragraph but Lincoln wins the U.S. Civil War while being the most attacked President in history, loses a son to disease, tolerates a difficult wife, fights depression, gives some of the best speeches in history and then dies a martyr's death. Hard to fight that hand.
It should be required that these “experts” wait 75 years (min.) before ranking any president.
I pretty much knew Truman was rated in the top ten, here it’s confirmed at #7.
Of course, Truman had approval ratings near 20% when he left office, but through the wonder of time and historical revisionism he’s made top ten.
The placing of Harding shows the meaninglessness of these ratings.
Harding was not a great man, but policywise, he ranks near the top. If Harding (or Coolidge) had been elected in 1928, the “great” depression would have been a recession, and would have been over by late 1930.
Besides being THE first Fascist dictator of the 20th Century. Jailed nearly 200,000 people for criticizing or opposing WWI.
FDR—another Fascist.
Obama—our first Communist-Fascist President.
My list...
WORST
1) Abraham Lincoln
BEST
1) Ronald Reagan
And Wilson sent tens of thousands of men across the Atlantic, dying like flies of the flu, when the generals were telling him the war was won, and the army doctors were telling him not to put them on ships. He kept shipping them over, because wanted a stronger hand at Versailles.
It’s a toss-up which was more evil—Wilson or FDR.
And Clinton, fresh from the Monica/Pardon scandals, was personally rescued from the dumpster by GHW Bush.
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