Talk Elections

Not necessarily the best, but your favorite.

Mine would be William Henry Harrison - he wasn't in office long enough to screw anything up.

LBJ

Herbert Hoover

Thomas Jefferson.

Andrew Jackson is up there.

Clinton, Jefferson. If Gore had won, he'd be up there.

Having just devoted two weeks to a 1200-page FDR biography (the third on him that I have read), I'll go with Franklin Roosevelt.

http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=4013

Yes, yes, I've seen the libertarian think tank article already.

Somehow I found it less than convincing.

Gee, that's a really hard call to make, seeing as they've all been fairly poor.  I'm leaning towards Teddy Roosevelt.

John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and LBJ all come to mind.

On balance, LBJ.

not a favorite, but I like Gerald Ford-piss poor liberal, but the times made him what he was, and it's an interesting story.
another non-favorite I like is Harry Truman who had no college education, but was a self-educated man, and he faced the hardest decision any President to this day has had to make
Andrew Johnson-I like him in that he wanted a quick, painless reconstruction that would not hurt the south.  Plus the fact that he fired his Sec of War to spite congress and got impeached because of it shows brass balls.


Overall, probably Harding.  His governmental policies were similar to Coolidge, but their personalities were way different.  Coolidge was analytical, very introverted, philosophical.  Harding was an all out badass, party animal that enjoyed the White House and the priviledge that went with it.

Really suprised.

Ford was one of the stupidest Presidents in history!

Some of the more trenchant observations about Ford were:

He played too much football without a helmet - Lyndon Johnson

Couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time.

He appointed Rockefeller as Vice President!

 

My personal favorite is Truman, much for the reasons M and C cited (hey, I knew eventually we'd agree on something :)). The last President who didn't graduate from college, and probably will hold that title for quite some time.

And you dislike Bush 43 for not finishing a war? Truman is perhaps one of the most overrated Presidents, at least in foreign policy. He fired McArthur, which of course, was a terrible mistake and in the end cost a sure victory in the Korean peninsula.

Jefferson Davis.

TR

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh

:)

:D

did you read what I wrote?  I already said he was a piss-poor liberal President.  His job was to put a close on the damages done by the Nixon Administration.  Pardoning him, I wouldn't have done.  However, the country had been through enough.  He brought back troops from Vietnam and around the world.  Pretty shallow President, no real goals, no vision.  I know that he really wanted the GOP to win so he could be Speaker of the House since he liked his house job.  Actual policies were rather horrible.  The man knew nothing about economics.  He supported the court's Roe v Wade decision.  GOP would never support him today unless he ran from New England.

Sorry if I misunderstood your post.

It seems that every great nation has a period of absolutely terrible heads of government.

The Brits endured a series of slimebags in the 30s while in the 70s the United States endured dumb (ford), dumber (carter) and a crook (nixon).

Come on, now! That guy was incompetant.

how so?


Personally, I like to refer to them as the wizard of Oz characters.  Nixon was the TinMan, Ford was the Scarecrow, and Carter was the Cowardly Lion.  :)

You've gotta remember, M&C is a super libertarian so a guy who does nothing and allows people to do whatever they want while not trying to stop them is their perfect guy.

John Adams and Ronald Reagan are my favorites.

JFK.

He appointed corrupt officials, was completely ignorant of several significant scandals in his administration, and was generally overwhelmed by his presidential responsibilities. In his own words, "I am not fit for this office and never should have been here."

I am devoted to Franklin Roosevelt.  In my family, my grandfather thinks FDR is a great man, and I agree.

Theodore Roosevelt is by far my favorite. I also like Coolidge, not for his policies (at all), but as a person, as well as Truman and the other Roosevelt.

Nixon was also cool.

The two Adams'.


Followed by Reagan

Reagan was a bad man.

FDR, followed by Teddy, and then Truman.

Washington

FDR followed very closely by LBJ. 

FDR really laid the foundations of any well-being that commoners had during the 20th century, and residually have even now.  LBJ merely extended that.  His real accomplishment was in doing something that he knew would destroy 'his party' - making some minor moves towards freeing the slaves in the South.  There is something rather impressive about that gesture.. thoug obviously they're still largely subjugated people, and nothing will change that.

Henry Wall...err...Robert Ken...err...George McGov...err...