Posted on 01/18/2009 5:09:57 PM PST by redstateone
In the rankings game, one standard re-emerges: Great presidents must be...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
No, Many Presidents didn’t really face the possibility of war and lost lives. Like Clinton, he really did nothing of any importance.
A real close look at Lincoln’s performance in getting us into the Civil War is why I consider him a poor President. Historians give him great credit for “Saving the Union”. But there is no real evidence that splitting the US into two countries would have been a bad thing.
Bottom 4
1. Woodrow Wilson (worst)
2. Lyndon Johnson
3. Franklin Roosevelt
4. Jimmy Carter
Top 4
1. George Washington (best - aside from appointing Hamilton)
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. Calvin Coolidge
4. John Adams
>>On the other hand, Harding was a crook, and Carter was an imbecile.<<
I agree with you on Carter, but Harding was not much of a crook when compared to modern standards. I think LBJ was a crook that was an order of magnitude greater(worse)than Harding. Harding was largely a do-nothing President. That would put him in the middle of the pack for me.
That is pretty much my top four list as well. Great minds think alike.
I would drop out John Adams from the top four and put Ronald Reagan in that spot. John Adams was a good man, but accomplished little as President.
You've got a very valid point there. LBJ was a rotten President.
Although not popular, by media standards, President Bush deserves to included in a Presidential list of which ones protected America.
Jimmy Carter still brings up the rear as the worst, even in protecting America.
Radical Jihadism got an earnest start under his watch and his inaction in dealing with Iran.
I think we conflate “great president” with “great man”. I agree that Lincoln was our greatest president, but I also think that Washington is the greatest American — and, indeed, one of the greatest men of the Millennium. Meanwhile, I think Jefferson was a comparatively mediocre president — and a lousy person — but he was also, certainly, a great man for all of his other accomplishments.
Bush is easily among the greatest:
He won two major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He removed Charles Taylor in Liberia.
He leveraged his miliary successes to remove WMD from lIbya.
He prevented a repeat of attacks on his homeland against radical secretive terrorist organizations.
I disagree. Washiongton won the Revolution. Washington invented the job of President as he went. Washington commanded the troops that put down the Whiskey Rebellion personally. Lincoln was a politician. Period.
Jimmy Carter
Should be the worst – Maliase. Economic policies a total flop. Long lines at gas pumps, rationing. Weak negotiation policy put us at a disadvantage to the Soviets in every case. Terminally Naïve. Out of his league in the presidency. He did not have a clue and still does not. Totally screwed up Iran Crisis.
LBJ – He totally mismanaged the Vietnam War. He killed many of our men, His Great Society was a Failure
I would remove Jefferson from top 4 and replace him with Theodore Roosevelt. Jefferson was good but not in the top 4.
Teddy Roosevelt -
“The Big Stick”. National Parks, Trust Busting. Honorable. Respectable.
Bill Clinton should be listed as one of the very worst presidents–
Why? - Impeachment, Scandals and corruption. Destroyed the prestigue of the Presidency. Looked America in the face and lied – “I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski.” Tried to redefine the word “is”. An embarassment to the entire nation. Introduced our children to “oral sex”. Shame on him. Mishandled Somalia. etc etc etc
Yes! I was married for 21 years to an Air Force officer who would have been thrown out of office for lying like Bill Clinton. But they let the CIC stay in there for the same infractions. And we all “paid” him his hefty salary. Then, the current a hole appoints his stupid wife to Secretary of State???? THEY are imbeciles.
You are correct.
In the follow-up to this, today’s SF Chronicle has published the readers ratings.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/18/IN0B159LSJ.DTL
I am honored to have been chosen the lone, sole, token conservative defender of President Bush in keeping America safe.
Well, you didn’t really think they would publish anything objective showing an accurate and fair representation, did you?
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