Happy Presidents Day, everyone! Hope you have the day off like we do! Let's celebrate by saying who was the greatest president and why. (The White House site has a nice little history of the office if you want to thumb through it for inspiration.)
We're going to be boring and go with Lincoln for keeping the country together and all, but we know you'll have more creative picks.
So, who's your favorite?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 3)
1. George Washington.
CatholicCrusader at 3:01PM on Feb 18th 2008
2. FDR. He had the largest impact on modern day citizens. In fact most of the programs that he started are still with us today. He was a great american.
P.S. George Bush is probably the worst. At least Lyndon Johnson advanced desegregation and equality for black Americans. George is just a retarded pawn of big business and war profiteers.
RMWiersema at 3:18PM on Feb 18th 2008
3. Franklin Roosevelt. He changed the entire country. He had both the Great Depression and WWII to handle. No president has handled more crisis than Roosevelt. And he did it brilliantly.
And we elected him four times.
David S. at 3:28PM on Feb 18th 2008
4. george w of course
no other president has had his quotes made into a day by day calander.
my favorite is " the question we need to ask ourselves...is our children learning?"
hannah at 3:41PM on Feb 18th 2008
5. It galls me that people say George Bush is the worst president. Look at Jimmy Carter. Inflation was far worse when he left office than when he took office, and the Iranian situation made him look completely weak.
Look at James Buchanan. He did absolutely nothing to try to prevent the Civil War, leaving Lincoln with the job of keeping the Union together by way of a bloody war.
Then's there's Bill Clinton, who couldn't keep it in his pants in front of a girl young enough to be his daughter. Anyone with any sense knows that Washington stops everything, when there's a sex scandal going on, especially if someone is claiming there was no sex to cause a scandal.
And, let's not forget Richard Nixon. If you think George Bush has obstructed justice, you must have forgotten Watergate. Bush has been trying to do things his way because of 9/11, a colorable excuse. Nixon's only excuse was paranoria.
Kent at 3:47PM on Feb 18th 2008
6. Kent,
Although its laudable that you included Nixon, even Nixon's people are amazed at what Bushtard is getting away with. As President Ford stated, Jimmy Carter is getting a bum rap because he just happened to be the President at the wrong time in history. Most of the things that you perceive were caused by him were actually inherited. Iran Contra... Jimmy didn't sell arms for hostages. High oil prices? I didn't see you blaming GWB for that situation.
Also with Bill Clinton... I think Reagan's S&L scandal beats that one by a mile. Hmmm.... Adult relationship vs. the theft of BILLIONS of tax payer dollars. What do you think is worse?
RMWiersema at 4:13PM on Feb 18th 2008
7. Look at Jimmy Carter. Inflation was far worse when he left office than when he took office, and the Iranian situation made him look completely weak.
xxxx
the iran contra deal that got the hostages returned was done by reagan. Inflation started getting horrible under nixon in '72 when the gas lines started and gas prices started running away. Everything followed.
Stagflation was unknown before the ford administration. The carter administration lost no soldiers and started no wars, not even under true pretexts, much less false ones.
Also he reduced the percentage of GDP borrowed from where Ford left it to under 40%. Reagan ran it up to 54%, bush I up into the sixties, Clinton back down to below Reagan and bush II up to 68% this year.
So Reagan cured stagflation by turning us into a perpetual debtor nation. And now, since everything's outsourced, stagflation will probably be coming back.
He has done everything wrong. He was invaded by a foreign enemy under the direction of a single man and that man has evaded capture for longer than it took democrats to win WWII.
He's spent more than any administration in history and we owe it all to communists and arabs. I posted these transgressions before:
Your party cuts and runs from wars, raises taxes, borrows from communists to give to billionaires, has bigger governments than democrats, undermines freedom and liberty, runs the national debt into the trillions and gives it all to billionaires, sows domestic discord, outsources jobs of returning war patriots to communists, disregards antitrust legislation, abolishes habeas corpus and the bill of rights, cedes eminent domain to anyone with the bucks, friend or foe, pollutes the environment, sells arms to enemies, opens the borders to mexico, dumbs down the school system to make testing profits, wages war on pretext for profit, fails to capture bin Laden, failed to be prepared for 911, was asleep at the wheel during katrina, uses the Attorney General's office for political vendetta, undermines the secret CIA Iranian weaponizations covert surveillance program for political vendetta, interferes with states rights when convenient, commits torture and destroys the evidence, outsources our port security to a dubai corporation, attempts to merge church and state, goes to war without raising taxes but allows a dubai corporation to profit via no bid cost plus contracts, kills 644,000 Iraqi citizens in two years, eliminates Al Qaeda's greatest middle eastern enemy on our childrens' money borrowed from communists, cages elections, ignores veterans, exploits the military, ignores congressional subpoenas, loses billions in Iraq, attempts to overthrow the New Deal, initiates twice as many signing statements as all other presidents combined and covers up for financial and homosexual scandals in congress.
That's a little more serious than clinton or anyone like Ike or JFK engaging in dalliances. If only bush and nixon had been more interested in that and less in absolute power, the country might have been served better.
FDR, Ike and JFK along with Clinton are pretty well remembered and were rather highly regarded in their lifetimes as well.
Bush is piddling by comparison and piddling in comparison to any president in my lifetime, which started in FDR's administration.
He's piddling compared to his own father and I expect his father shares the opinion, him being a war hero and baseball star and his son being an awol guard VIP appointment and a cheerleader. He's probably thought of as piddling compared to Jeb, even. That would account for poppy's breakdown in public his talking about his piddling boy and Jeb.
He seems to favor Bill Clinton over his son. I don't blame him. I wouldn't blame him if he favored Roger over his son.
Clif Kuplen at 4:20PM on Feb 18th 2008
8. I like Ulysses Grant because he was a brilliant war strategist - to me, he seems like the kind of president that people dont mess with. I think he is often overlooked.
Debbie at 4:23PM on Feb 18th 2008
9. Bill Clinton
Danyal at 5:36PM on Feb 18th 2008
10. Teddy Roosevelt:
He took on the Trusts of the wealthy, broke up Standard Oil, Railroads, steel, banks, etc.
Advocated rugged individualism and the strenuous life. Had a strong military and built the Panama Canal. Peace and Prosperity and no one messed with Teddy.
He's a man who grabbed life with both hands. Someone I would cheerfully follow wherever he led.
I sure wish we had someone like him now.
Dave the Brave at 5:36PM on Feb 18th 2008
11. LINCOLN.
T at 7:05PM on Feb 18th 2008
12. CLIF KUPLEN, WOW DUDE WHAT IS YOUR DEAL? I TELL PEOPLE THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE ADMITTED BUT THEY SHOULD AT LEAST TALK TO SOMEONE. IN YOUR CASE PAL THERE ISN'T A STRAIGHT JACKET TIGHT ENOUGH FOR WACKO NUT-CASES LIKE YOU. AGAIN LIKE ALL THE OTHER AMERICA HATING, SOCIALIST, LIBERAL BRAIN STEM TRANSPLANT CANDIDATES, YOU ARE WRONG ON EVERY ISSUE YOU SPEAK ABOUT! GET SOME HELP!!!
mark ruthey at 7:33PM on Feb 18th 2008
13. William Henry Harrison.
He died before he had time to screw anything up!
mac at 7:51PM on Feb 18th 2008
14. William Henry Harrison.
Died before he could screw anything up!
mac at 7:52PM on Feb 18th 2008
15. Taft!
Daaaaaamn riiight...
Dan at 8:28PM on Feb 18th 2008