BEST President in U.S. History...

1)James Garfield<smallest footprint - moved on quickly...>:D

2)Chester Arthur<sp> Actually a competent & effective administrator & very underrated - a kind of 19th century Gerald Ford but better...>


3)Abraham Lincon<many faults but a determined wise inspirational leader with much common sense>


4)George Washington<for what he didn't do rather than for what he did do; he was a bit of a tyrant, but he could have been worse...>


5)Franklin D. Roosevelt<he had many faults ie. his extremely wealthy background was a double-edge sword ie. it alienated him from the mainstream but made him more creative and less beholden to cronies. He handled the Depression and WW2 wisely. He had many faults, but he was a genius at delegating tasks and inspiring people to perform.>


Now a list of those who were never elected president but who I would have liked to have seen elected President:

1) Eugene Debs<A Mainstream Labor Party might have displaced the Democrat Party and the resultant Cold War and Civil Rights problems might never have unfolded so badly...>


2) James G.Blaine<sp> He tried and tried to get elected - and while I disagree with his politics - he would have been a very competent leader/administrator>


3)Robert F. Kennedy<No Nixon, No Watergate, No Cambodia, A Better End to Vietnam, A Greater Society>


4)Ted Turner<a creative man who would have moved America into the 21st Century with a dynamic passion. I can picture him shaking hands and laughing with Gorbachev. He would have been a kind populist Teddy Roosevelt of sorts. Jane would have been Dolly Madison all over again.>


5>Henry Clay<perhaps the Civil War would never have happened>
 
3 way tie. Thomas Jefferson, JFK and FDR. In fact make my first one TJ. Two men who saved the country when it was about to become something it shouldn't and one who died trying.
 
4)Ted Turner<a creative man who would have moved America into the 21st Century with a dynamic passion. I can picture him shaking hands and laughing with Gorbachev. He would have been a kind populist Teddy Roosevelt of sorts. Jane would have been Dolly Madison all over again.>
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Are you serious??:confused:
 
Tuttle8, I also did a double take when I saw that bit about Ted Turner. I knew he was a globalist, socialist fruit bat, but when he went to China a few years back to participate in the anniversary celebration of Chinese Communism--you know, the despotic Party that has killed millions of their own people--I thought even he had struck a new low.

What's next? Cozying up to the Khymer Rouge? He would have made an awful President.

And Hanoi Jane as First Lady? My God, she used to run a "school" where she taught other actors to do everything they could to denegrate traditional American values. Can we admit that people who almost literally kiss Fidel Castro's boots really don't have anything of value to offer the American people?

1) Eugene Debs<A Mainstream Labor Party might have displaced the Democrat Party and the resultant Cold War and Civil Rights problems might never have unfolded so badly...>
Click to expand...

The Cold War unfolded badly because guys like Stalin sent columns of tanks into cities full of people who were not inclined to peaceably adopt communism voluntarily. It had nothing to do with who was elected in this country. Knowing the nature of communism--it killed more people in the 20th Century than the Nazis--why would you want to do anything but declare yourself a clear adversary to it?

The Cold War may have unfoled badly--due to Soviet empire-building--but it ended perfectly.
 
My Commander-in-Chief, Ronnie Reagan. He was one HELL of an American. The question shouldn't be. Who is on Mt. Rushmore? The question should have said, who should be added to Mt. Rushmore?
RONALD REAGAN!!!!
 
I was surprised to see FDR. I feel him most responsible for the welfare state we now live in. I feel JFK helped to push that along and despise his action (or inaction as the case may be) in the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
 
I read an interesting bit about FDR today in a book about Asiatic Fleet "four stacker" destroyers. The author, a gunnery officer on the U.S.S. Stewart, talks about an instant where the Asiatic Fleet was ordered to send 3 small gunboats close to Japanese operations a short time before Pearl Harbor.

The author claims the order came pretty much directly from FDR and it was an attempt to get the Japanese to instigate a shooting war by firing on the boats.
 
Washington, by far. He was the right man with the right insticts at the right time.

There were no precidents for what he made the presidency. All the others could hope to do was follow in his path as best they could. Some were successful, many weren't, but he set the style and without him in front the others would have surely been worse.

We can argue who was the second or third best but not the best.
 
Ted Turner and others reconsidered...

I liked it when Ted Turner visited Cuba ie. Ted Turner remarked ' Heck, Castro isn't a Communist - he's a dictator just like me!' Ya gotta admit, Turner knew how to get things done, and could get past party politics and ideology. If someone like Turner had been elected during one of the Bush/Clinton years - I bet there'd already be a Disney World being built in Santiago...:D


Best President? Hmmmmm... It's hard to find one ie. there are so many bad ones...and some of the good ones were - not so much great inasmuch benficiaries of circumstances ie. Lincoln would be considered a kind of tragic bombastic goon if the Union had lost the Civil War...and it's interesting how some previously considered 'great presidents' have tarnished with age. For example, Andrew Jackson was popular for many decades, but his fame and glory have receded into the dustbin of history. Thomas Jefferson's star has already faded a bit. I like Jefferson has a founder, but regard him as a somewhat average to above average - rather than stellar - president.


Benjamin Franklin would have made an interesting president - if time and will had permitted it.



Adlai Stevens would have been interesting ie. JFK's entry would have been much later - and perhaps not successful.



Barry Goldwater in 1964? Maybe...



One wonders perpetually what America would be like today if there had not been JFK/LBJ/Nixon and Vietnam. Imagine an Adlai Stevens who peacefully worked out things with Castro ie. no Bay of Pigs and no Missles/Missle Crisis and No Vietnam... Perhaps he would have taken the country peacefully through a relatively smooth Civil Rights transformation. MLKjr would be
alive today...and the 1968 or 1972 election might have been between Barry Goldwater and JFK. What would America be like today if there had been no JFK/RFK/MLK assasinations ,no Vietnam, no Watergate... Imagine!


Who was the best president? I know it wasn't Warren G. Harding.

:rolleyes:
 
Several presidents come to mind.

Washington - he got us off on the right foot. He could have become king or president for life if he had wanted, but he chose not to.

T. Roosevelt - can't argue with "talk softly and carry a big stick".

Truman - a small time politicial hack from one of the crookedest political machines in the country manages to lead us to end WWII, and deal with the peace in a constructive way. His leadership after the war was every bit as important as getting through the war.

Ike - started the interstate system. Understood the need to limit the size and scope of government. Dealt firmly and fairly with the racial issues that plagued the country during his time in office.

Nixon - was not a very good crook. But managed to get us out of VN in a way that could have worked, were it not for the defeatists in congress who wanted us to lose there. Opened up China to the world.

Ford - the right guy to deal with the aftermath of Nixon's resignation. Another small time political hack who managed to do very well for the country.

Reagan - the man who freed 400 million slaves with virtually no bloodshed.
 
Theodore Roosevelt

Didn't Springfield name a pistol after him, the TRP? ;)
He was a social progressive who was needed at the turn of the 20th century to reform old ways of thinking and create a paradigm of change for the American culture. His achievements were monumental. He demonstrated leadership by actively leading, like when he said, "Follow me" as he charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba. It is fitting that he, who understood both war and peace became the only President to ever receive both the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest honor for actions in war (unlike one particular president I can think of who "loathed" the military) as well as the Nobel Peace Prize. TR was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his work in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. This made him the first American to ever win a Nobel Prize. As a hunter, conservationist, and NRA Life Member, President Theodore Roosevelt also recognized the importance of protecting our wildlife tradition for future generations. TR deserves the honor of being named the greatest president in US history for these and many other accomplishments too numerous to mention here. I recommend that everyone who values firearm ownership and the right to a free society follow in TR's footsteps and become a Life Member of the NRA.
 
Jimmy Carter of course. He made CD's increase in value at double digit levels, risk free, and his brother made cheap soapy beer chic for once, so Billy Beer and PBR drinkers felt classy. And cheap peanuts replaced caviar. Kept me in an income bracket where I did not have to worry about income tax much too. We'll have a hard time getting an economy like that back, but some are working on it, much to our advantage!
 
Calvin Coolidge, who was the last President to understand that the job of the POTUS is to use that Veto stamp a lot, generally stay out of the way of private enterprise, and take lots of naps and vacations.

Hell, I might just write him in this year.
 
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