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 2 of 3)
16. Taft!
Daaaaaamn riiight...
Dan at 8:28PM on Feb 18th 2008
17. My favorite president whom I seen in person is Harry S Truman. He had a sign on his desk "the buck stops here" and he took responsibility for his actions. He was called "give them hell Harry" and he sure did. He was honest, trustworthy and caring. Isn't there someone who could take his place and retutn this country around? God knows we need that someone.
Barbara Michalski at 8:45PM on Feb 18th 2008
18. Best president? FDR. Worst president? George W. Bush. The lies, deceit and horrible things he has done make Nixon look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Watergate was child's play next to what this guy has done. No one died because of Watergate. On the other hand, people DID die because of Iran-Contra (thank you, Ronald Reagan). And...What makes Ronald Reagan the be-all, and end-all, sainthood-level president? Why are all the Republican candidates aspiring to be him? He tripled the size of the federal deficit, tripled the size of the federal government, traded arms for hostages, thought that "trickle-down" economics worked (his own economics advisor, David Stockman, admitted that it doesn't), and where did that leave us? George W has now killed and maimed countless people and put this country into debt so badly that we will be paying for it for generations to come. Before George W., Franklin Pierce was the worst president. Now, W wins, hands down.
Fran at 9:32PM on Feb 18th 2008
19. Where was Madison? He formulated the Constitution.
Any president after 1964 can't really be judged by history as to how bad or good or what real lasting impact they had.
Nixon opened the door to China but lets see where that portal takes us. Ford & Carter 1 term and nothing really noteable except for the 444 days of hostages. JFK other than being the first Catholic president and being assinated WHAT? The Bay of Pigs, Missles of October, Troops in Vietnam. That's what I remember. Camelot is still a myth.
Who cares what the Kennedy's think, their dynasty is over the bridge.
The infastucture that Eisenhower instituted is now crumbling due to an inept congress. What a damn shame.
J.E. Hyatt at 8:55PM on Feb 18th 2008
20. It needs to be broken down into the first 15, 16-30, and 31-43. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson would go down as the top 5 in those years. Lincoln would be the top in the next group, with 2nd going to Teddy Roosevelt and Hayes behind him (Hayes having to fix all the scandals that went on during the Grant administration). In the last batch, FDR would stand out, with Truman and JFK falling in second and third, respectively. With all the media covering the presidents nowadays one must wonder what other tarnishes would had occurred. Probably the reason why Bill Clinton will never be in that elite group I write about here.
danastev924 at 10:49PM on Feb 18th 2008
21. 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.
xxx
..he babbles.
OK, I made some points you're willing to pass completely by just to call me a big crazy poopyhead.
The fact is you can't answer a single thing I said because you know it's true, so like most people who are unarmed in a battle of wits you have to go ad hominem. You aren't even clever about it. but wait, there's more of same...
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!!!
xxx
right, nanny nanny poo poo - like most of you fascist dupes you got nothin' to say and think capitalizing lets you multiply by zero - nope, it's still nothin, and you conceded the points.
you're a typical cheney mullet, I imagine. Your tactic is the same old lame old.
Your party is indeed fascist as I have illustrated repeatedly, you cut and run from wars as history has shown and you ran the debt up by trillions borrowing from communists and arabs to fund tax cuts for billionaires.
This is all true and you know it. You just get pissed when somebody reminds you of it, don't you.
You lied to get us into a war in Iraq for profit and you still haven't caught bin Laden. You spend more and have bigger governments.
that's all true, hindbrain. Take on any part you want to try and we'll talk about it, if you can find your cap lock key and your medicine cabinet.
I'm sick of you comsymp chickenhawks wrapping yourselves in the flag. It's more karl rove Red or pinko bullshit and you're now only one person in four or five in this country, no more than that.
I'm just stating what most people believe now - that this president has committed impeachable offenses and we've had enough sliding into fascism. It's time for a shift back to center.
mark ruthey at 7:33PM on Feb 18th 2008
Clif Kuplen at 12:06AM on Feb 19th 2008
22. Harris Poll nationwide of who was the Best Presidents Lincoln #1, Reagan #2 and our present President #10. Liberals hated Ronald Reagan and was always their pick as worse President. Well, they were wrong. Poll after poll after poll always has Reagan in the top 3 or 4 Presidents in American History. The Liberals always go back in time and talk about how they see Reagan as being a bad President, but as in an election, Reagan wins again and again. Now Bush coming in at number 10 of the most popular Presidents in America will produce a bit of a negative outcry, but again the American public has spoken in this poll. But only over time can any President be judged on how good he was as a President, and then what do people think of him. Bush#10 is going to make a few people unhappy. 3 cheers for Ronald Reagan, the 2 best President ever in the USA
robert okane at 1:01AM on Feb 19th 2008
23. Harris Poll of top 20 Presidents 2008 poll
1-Lincoln
2-Reagan
3-FDR
4-JFK
5-Washington
6-Clinton
7-Jefferson
8-Truman
9-Teddy Roosevelt
10-G.W.Bush
11-Ike
12-Carter
13-Nixon
14-G.H.W.Bush
15-LBJ
16-Ford
17-John Adams
18-Andrew Jackson
19-Wilson
20-Coolidge
robert okane at 1:09AM on Feb 19th 2008
24. THE BEST PRESIDENT, HANDS DOWN, WAS HARRY S. TRUMAN. IF HE WERE PRESIDENT TODAY, WE WOULD NOT HAVE TO FEAR AL QAEDA. HE WOULD MAKE ONE PHONE CALL TO THE PRES. OF AFGHANISTAN AND SAY "..YOU HAVE 24 HOURS TO TURN OVER BEN LADEN. IF YOU DON'T, YOU'RE ALL DEAD. YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME? THINK NAGASAKI AND HIROSHIMA". PROBLEM SOLVED.
HE WOULD ALSO CALL PRES. CALDERON OF MEXICO AND SAY, "..COME AND GET YOUR 20,000,000 ILLEGALS. IF YOU DON'T GOODBYE TOURIST BUSINESS IN CANCUN, ETAL. NO BODY WANTS TO PARTY IN A BOWL OF ATOMIC DUST".
HARRY TRUMAN SAVED AT LEAST 500,000 AMERICAN TROOPS WHO, WITHOUT THE A-BOMB, WOULD HAVE HAD TO STORM THE JAPANESE MAINLAND. AND WITH HIM AS PRESIDENT TODAY, THEY WOULD STILL BE "SLANT-EYED GOOKS" AND THE EEOC WOULD HAVE HAD TO FOLD IT'S TENT.
HARRY, WHERE ARE YOU WHEN WE NEED YOU.
gonefishin at 2:13AM on Feb 19th 2008
25. How anyone overlooks Andrew Jackson as the worst president in history is beyond me. His policies did nothing to help the country, he set the economy back almost half a century, handed out positions to his incompetant friends more than even Geaorge W Bush has and Jackson also blatantly defied the supreme court.
As for the best president... A decision is difficult. Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and John Kennedy were all great men who made even greater contributions to this country.
Why not just agree that neither of our previous two presidents belong in this conversation. Bush haters, remember this - Clinton failed to stop 9/11 as well - he had the same intel as Bush. Bush lovers - He failed to stop 9/11, becoming the second consecutive president to worry too much about the polls to stop a terrorist attack on the country he was elected to lead. Both of those men are pathetic for their lack of leadership ability when put into a truly trying situation. The fact that anyone tries to mention anything positive about a pair of men too weak to do the right thing as soon as it became difficult sickens me.
Rob at 9:10PM on Feb 20th 2008
26. Harry Truman started the Truman Doctrine(1947) which was the basis for USA foreign policy up to the end ogf the Cold War. It called for the economic aid and military aid to countries to stop the spread of commumism. In 1951 Truman signed a top secret policy plan NSC-68 which switched foreign policy from passive to active containment(use of military force). This secret policy plan was declassified in 1975. This plan was why Truman got USA involved in the Korean Civil War, 54000 american troops died. N Korea was not a threat to any other country, that was a civil war.
The same Truman Doctrine was used to send equipment and military advisors to the French to help the combat Ho Chi Minh in the French Indochina War which was a bid for France to hold onto Vietnam as a colony and stop the spread of Communism. This policy continued through Ike, then JFK who inserted combat troops into S.Vietnam to help in that Civil War. LBJ expanded the war with his famous Gulf of Tonkin lie. Then came the Pentagon Papers which showed how the Democrats got the USA into the Vietnam War and how the US Govt deliberately expanded the war. (Nixon was not part of the Pentagon Papers, but tried to stop the release of them)52000 american troops died in Vietnam War
It was Truman and his Truman Doctrine and his secret NSC-68 Plan that got USA involved in Korean War and Vietnam War, which cost over 100,000 american troops their lives.
Source-Wikipedia "Truman Doctrine" and "Pentagon Papers"
I think it would be not justified to even list Truman in the top 20.
robert okane at 5:55AM on Feb 19th 2008
27. My top four for obvious reasons, great things happened when they were president.
1. George Washington
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Ronald Reagan
4. Teddy Roosevelt
Jack Hartley at 6:57AM on Feb 19th 2008
28. #7 Cliff, Great comment. Let me know if you ever run for office so that I can vote for you.
Re: Presidents. Tough choice. Although we are living in a Jeffersonian democracy I think a strong argument can be made for George Washington. He made some early decisions that shaped our government in significant ways.
One of my favorite stories is when British prisoners were brought to him and many of his men wanted them tortured and hung. Even though there were reports of colonials being routinely bayoneted upon capture, Washington declined. The country that aspired to be, "The Greatest of Mankind" would not condone torture.
Steve Seivers at 7:48AM on Feb 19th 2008
29. mark ruthly,
um..wow.."dude".
see you not liking the clif-meisters post.
thats cool.."dude".
you say he is wrong on every point.
ok..
ill bite scooter..
care to post what he got wrong factually?
or are we all supposed to line up and accept the word of a "dude" who posts in all caps,
and cant even form a decent ad hominem attack?
never mind an original thought,we understand how difficult that is for you.
how about a fancy cut and paste job?
havent seen a good cut and paste job in awhile.
or better yet,
why dont you have your dad write your factual post for ya?
there ya go!
now go up those basement stairs and ask him if he would formulate a cognitive argument for you.
we'll wait.
see mark?
ad hominem's are easy and FUN!
i find clif to be a pretty learned person.
he is pretty on mark with his facts,
disagree with his politics,but cliffy does his homework.
pretty sure he does that thing that helps us all learn easier..
what was it called..
/taps fingers..
oh yeah!
he reads..
you know how to read mark?
because if you did,you may have noticed clif was accurate on his factual knowledge.
now look at me..
im doing it again,gettin all ad hominem-y on you mark.
my apologies mark,
i usually NEVER ad hominem until at least the third posting.
there must be something "special" about you mark,that makes me just want to pinch your cute little cheeks,and insult your intelligence at the same time.
im sorry mark..
i mean ..*cough*.."dude".
please forgive.
/sarcasm OFF
as for best prez?
toss up between IKE and FDR.
till next time..peace.
Enoch D.D.S
enoch at 6:51PM on Feb 19th 2008
30. I like Lincoln for his tinacity, being that it wasnt easy for him. And he had such blatent good character in other ways too. "Honest Abe."
Michelle at 8:55PM on Feb 19th 2008