BEST President in U.S. History...

Lincoln and FDR.
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The only two that I can think of as really rising to the tasks at hand. Others were great men and great presidents, but these two saw the yawning chasm of utter disaster around them and navigated us through it.

Lincoln saved our country, and my favorite quote of Churchill's is actually what he said, in grief, after learning of FDR's death:

"He saved the world."
 
I have not looked at the other thread. I suspect Jimmy is there. Jimmy was another kinda lik Barrack--he was selected. No one knew squat about him except that his name was front page for 400 of 450 days before the election. What happened the second time is history.
 
In my lifetime, Reagan.

When he assumed the office, our economy was in shambles and the Soviet Union encompassed all of Eastern Europe and was spreading it's tentacles into Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.

When he left office, our economy was already in the midst of it's longest period of uninterrupted growth since WWII--thanks to his 1981 tax cuts--and the Soviet Union's empire was bankrupted and unable to hold on to it's Eastern European vassal states.

Which is exactly what he said he'd do. Hard to beat that in any President. Reagan, for all intents and purposes, closed out the 20th Century and cleaned up the loose ends of tyranny.

Truman was a Democrat I wouldn't be all that ashamed of voting for. Were I a steel worker, I probably wouldn't have appreciated being drafted into the Army to continue working in the steel mill, but nobody's perfect.

Eisenhower did do stuff. He was the first president to use the military to enforce federal desegregation laws. Our interstate highways are basically named in his honor, as he was their biggest champion. Eisenhower proposed the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, and signed those into law. Eisenhower nominated Justice Earl Warren (which he would later call a mistake). Still, the Warren court gave us desegregation, the right to publicly funded counsel in court, and Miranda rights.

In that order, the three best in the 20th Century.

Okay, Teddy Roosevelt too.
 
While a couple of them did things that I think probably harmed our country in the long term (Lincoln in particular), I have to say it's a tie between Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, TR, and Reagan. While Lincoln certainly wasn't perfect (he did several things that weren't constitutional) I very much doubt that anyone else could've guided the country through the Civil War as well as he did.
 
I very much doubt that anyone else could've guided the country through the Civil War as well as he did.
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Over half a million Americans were killed. You don't think somebody else could have done better, such as by not waging war in the first place ? Has there ever been a war with so much loss of American life ?
 
I enlisted and served during the Regan presidency, and would do so again without hesitation. I still believe in the mantra, "Peace through Strength." Too bad our current leadership espouses those beliefs, yet refuses to allow our boys to do the job they've been sent to do. :mad:
 
Has there ever been a war with so much loss of American life ?
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When you have a war pitting Americans against Americans, i.e. the Civil War, the casualties tend to be American. Add in some outdated tactics and some advances in military technology, and ... well you know the rest.

I'd say Lincoln did a pretty damn good job considering what he was up against, both from the south and from the north.
 
So Far

Somebody else try to count. This is hard. I bet you come up with different numbers than I did. When someone said it is a tie between a few, then I did not count that vote.

Jefferson-5
Lincoln-5
Truman-3
Reagan-3
FDR-2
JFK-1
Ford-1
T. Roosevelt-1
Eisenhower-1
Filmore-1
 
Washington then Lincoln then FDR.

Once again Washington was the indispensable man. It is very doubtful that the Constitution would have been ratified without the promise that George Washington would be its first chief executive. His presidency set the precedent for all that followed. Washington the man transcended the office and created the ideal for it.

Lincoln was a great politician. One of the things that makes him at or near the top is that he was able to do what he did with enemies in the North as well as the South and with political back stabbing in his own administration. Both William Seward and Salmon Chase worked to weaken Lincoln's authority and increase their own. Lincoln as a Westerner wasn't thought of with a great deal of respect by the Eastern establishment.
Neither Washington before him or FDR after, the two men that generally share the top three with Abe, had the same amount of political opposition that Lincoln did.

FDR was our first and greatest media president. He was able to use the modern media of radio and film in a way the modern politicians are still trying to copy. Roosevelt's ability to connect directly with the people, by passing the usual filters was what made him the success that he was.
This is a pretty good overview of the Great Depression,
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/THE_GREAT_DEPRESSION.htm
it covers both FDR's failures and successes.


Those three guys are the top three in almost every poll and deservedly so. My choice for number one is Washington but I don't mind seeing Frankie D. or Abe rotate to the top once in a while.
 
George W., the original. Not only the greatest President, but the greatest American. Without him, there wouldn't have been a United States of America.
 
Tie vote.

First to T. Roosevelt. Hard to not like a President who, when handed a prototype of the 1903 service rifle--with its telescoping spike bayonet--took it out side, performed bayonet drills on a training dummy, snapped it off, and said, "Get a fixed blade".

And, of course, Ronald Wilson Reagan. I served in Germany during a time when we could see the lights of the Czechoslovakian border from our TAC site--a reminder of the threat we faced. And I remember hearing his words from Berlin--one sentence that was spoken not with timidity but with passion. You could envision the entire Nation--our United States--standing behind our President with the best of the shining ideals and the very essence of Freedom gleaming forth with a strength that could not and WOULD not be denied.

I remember that chills ran down my spine when I heard his words, ringing out for the ages:

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

NEVER was I more proud to be wearing the uniform of our Armed Forces than I was at that moment.
 
Who is on Mount Rushmore?

And why do you think they might be there? Who is on our money? (at least the money we regularly see) and why do you think they are there? (OK, Grant and Hamilton? I don't know...)

FDR did great things, both good and bad for us. But I don't consider him a great president. And actually the same for Lincoln, IMHO.

The greatest in living memory? I would have to say Reagan. I don't agree with everything he did, but I do with a lot of it. Amazing when you think about it, how that "bumbling senile actor" was able to face down the Soviet Union, and ultimately create the conditions that forced its collapse.

Whenever I think of Reagan, I remember an incident that happened fairly early in his first term, when one of our carrier groups was skirting Qaddafi's (sp?) "line of death" in the Gulf off Lybia. Four Lybian jets came out to chase us off. The made the mistake of targeting our planes. Under the standing orders, our guys, if targeted, could shoot without have to wait to be fired on.
Splash four Migs!

This happened at 0 dark thirty CA time (Reagan was in the "Western White House" on one of his many (working) "vacations"). And his staff waited until after he got up, had breakfast and got to his morning briefing before breaking the news about shooting down the Lybian jets. About noon, Reagan gave a press conference (previously scheduled for something else, I don't recall just what) and the info about the jets was included.

I normally didn't watch those things, but that day I was home and the TV was on, so I happened to see this with my own eyes. During the Q&A one of the reporters asked about the time lag between the shoot down and Regan being informed of it, (a period of several hours) implying a failure on the part of Reagan's staff. Reagan paused for a moment, then gave one of the best off the cuff answers I have ever heard. He said "Well.....it wasn't our planes that got shot down!"
Right then and there, I decided that no matter what else this President might do or not do, when it came to our military, he had his priorities straight!

Having ended my brief illustrious military career because of what was happening in the military under Carter, Reagan gave me new hope. And he went on from there to ultimately do what no one in the West (except Kennedy) had even seriously tried to do since FDR got in bed with Stalin, face down, and ultimately end the Evil Empire of Soviet Communism. I always thought that was pretty impressive, even for an actor!

As to the single greatest president ever? I would have to say Washington. They offered to make him King! And he chose to be President! He set the standard that no one has yet fully lived up to. And he established the pattern of this country so well that even over 200 years later lesser men have not yet completely managed to destroy it.
 
Then again, maybe it was Washington after all.

No other President has had the opportunity to take the power that was offerred to him freely.

King George proclaimed that if Washington was offered a crown and he refused it, he would be the greatest man in the world.

And so he was...

Washington, greatest overall.

Reagan, greatest in my lifetime.

Reagan's personal conduct immediately following being shot was basically how I would hope to conduct myself in similar circumstances. And when he had that brush with mortality, he wrote a letter to the Soviet leader sincerely making the effort to end hostilities in a way least painful for all concerned.

That sincere letter was scornfully replied to with standard Soviet boilerplate crapola.

So Reagan rolled up his sleeves...
 
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