Favorite Pre-Civil War Democratic President

[TDAS04]

Van Buren by far.  

[Sumner 1868]

I find them all distasteful. Van Buren if I must.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Van Buren by far.  

[The Mikado]

Van Buren by default.

You could probably make a pretty compelling timeline starting with Clay beating Polk. Does he totally rejext Texas' application for annexation (done during Tyler's lame duck period)? Does he accept but seek arbitration on the Texas-Mexico border? It seems very unlikely to have involved war...and the lack of acquisition of the Mexican Cession makes prevents the addition of that vast area south of the Missouri Compromise line that brought tensions to a boil. Maybe that one election postpones the Civil War by quite some time...but is that a total positive?

[politicus]

Polk

[Miles]

Jackson.

[Mr. Smith]

Narrowly Van Buren.

[SWE]

MVB (correct)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

MVB (correct)

[TNF]

[1] Van Buren
[2] Jackson
[3] Polk
[4] Pierce
[5] Buchanan

[Goldwater]

[1] Van Buren
[2] Jackson
[3] Polk
[4] Pierce
[5] Buchanan

Actually, this also how I would rank them, with the first three being far closer to each other than they are to the bottom two.

[H. Ross Peron]

Polk

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Andrew Jackson, by a hair.  His actions in regards to the Indians was terrible, but I overall like his Presidency.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Van Buren in a walk. Jackson is just messy and complicated and uncomfortable in so many ways, Polk was a fabulously successful president but the objectives at which he most famously succeeded were bad things, and that rounds out the ones who can even be argued to have been decent, much less worthy of being anybody's favorite of anything.

[Mechaman]

Yeah it has to be Martin Van Ruin by any modern standard (except for the failed economy I guess).

[Antonio the Sixth]

[1] Van Buren
[2] Jackson
[3] Polk
[4] Pierce
[5] Buchanan

This.

[Sol]

All of them were horrible, so I'll pick Buchanan in honor of his being the first gay president.

[VPH]

Van Buren by far

[ScottieF]

Van Buren gets points for his Free Soil candidacy, but as far as presidencies go Jackson narrowly edges out Polk. The others were completely unsuccessful.

[Cryptic]

Van Buren, if I have to pick one.

[Zioneer]

Polk, barely. Van Buren did nothing to help the Mormons in Missouri, Buchanan did nothing as the Civil War erupted around him as well as trying to distract the nation by fighting the Mormons, Andrew Jackson was genocidal, and Pierce was a puppet of the slaveholders. At least Polk got most of the now-American West into the Union, even if the way he did it was terrible. I like both California and Utah.

[Sumner 1868]

Everybody bashing Buchanan, is it really a bad thing that he did nothing in those final months rather than appease the South?

[Mechaman]

Polk, barely. Van Buren did nothing to help the Mormons in Missouri, Buchanan did nothing as the Civil War erupted around him as well as trying to distract the nation by fighting the Mormons, Andrew Jackson was genocidal, and Pierce was a puppet of the slaveholders. At least Polk got most of the now-American West into the Union, even if the way he did it was terrible. I like both California and Utah.

That is one way of looking at it.  And to be frank you probably understand History better than other people (ie, how the actions of politicians in the past would've affected somebody of your background).

No "buts" here, just an observation.

[Maxwell]

[1] Van Buren
[2] Jackson
[3] Polk
[4] Pierce
[5] Buchanan

this is truth.