My 10 top Presidents would consist of an order of ten of the following 15:
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S Truman
John F. Kennedy
Theodore Roosevelt
George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
James K. Polk
Ronald Reagan
James Monroe
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
Richard Nixon
Bill Clinton
William McKinley
Dwight Eisenhower
Also the possibility of James Madison making it in there.
Interesting list. Few people include Nixon on the list of best presidents, but Nixon had a much better image abroad than he did in the US.
It's also unusual in the current US political climate to include both Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. In most cases, liking one precludes liking the other. I happen to think that history's estimate of Bill Clinton will fall as time goes by.
Why did you put John Kennedy on the list? In the US, he is often considered great for emotional reasons. I have nothing in particular against him, but I don't think he was in office long enough to accomplish that much, so I'm not sure what makes him great.
Well, I suppose I have a bit of an objective view being outside the USA so partisanship doesn't plague me as much.
I think Nixon was a good President, foreign policy was good, he began communications with the Chinese again, was an all-round good President and would have been remembered as such if not for Watergate.
Bill Clinton obviously won't be remembered as well as Reagan but I still think he was a good President.
I have always liked Kennedy, he was a good man and a good President, he got the economy rolling well by not balancing the budget. He increased minimum wage and began urban renewal. He was a good guy, was strong on foreign policy, a good hawk. He was also responsible, he took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs Fiasco despite the fact it had been being planned under Ike and he didn't know as much about it as he probably would have if it had started under him.
I think he was a good President, even if he only served for three years.
