Another Battle of Polar Opposites: The guys before the icons

[Mr. Smith]

In response to FDR vs Reagan, how about a battle of those very unfairly represented predecessors that came before either.

Both are were seen as failures of an ideology even though both actually dabbled a little bit in the coming trend trying to combat an economic fall, (Hoover did start some government programs and Carter bullied unions and deregulated a bit too much), both ended up being retired for 30 years and counting, both ended up having a well documented friendship with a president across the aisle (Hoover had Truman, Carter had Ford).

And most importantly and most notable, both had the most un-imperial, dovish foreign policies in the last century.


Although this isn't the landslide I would've thought even a year ago, Carter wins since he didn't campaign on any bigotry,whereas Hoover relied heavily on anti-Catholicism and he set forth two of the most important departments yet (Energy and Education), and finally he believed government had a good use other than to stay out.

Personal biases included Carter wins by a huge landslide,but I'm trying to leave that out for the most part.

[Mr. Smith]

Anyone who wants to put up "Truman vs 41" be my guest, but I'm staying out of that.

I am however gonna finish the "Top 5 Presidents as People" trilogy, this part does include Truman and Bush, but the aim for that is who they are as people first.