If you could stop the assassination of one president...

[Schmitz in 1972]

I'm now sorry I voted for option 5. It was a snap decision I made while I was in a bad mood. If I could vote again I'd choose Lincoln. No matter how much some of us (*cough* StatesRights) may disagree with his wartime policies, there is one huge redeeming feature of the Lincoln administration: It was Lincoln alone who could have (and had he lived most likely would have) saved the South from the abomination of congressional reconstruction. The three other presidents are all excellent candidates too: Garfield and McKinley were two very decent and principled guys in general and had Kennedy lived we would have been spared LBJ

[Beet]

I voted for Kennedy because I actually thought he was a great president.

[dazzleman]

Lincoln. He would have instituted a lenient Reconstruction plan, thus avoiding much of the bitterness which followed the war.

I agree.  The dismal post-Civil War period is one of the most tragic missed opportunities in American history, in my opinion.  We are still living with the effects of it to this day.

A less harsh reconstruction would have, in the long run, eased the transition of blacks in the south from slavery, and put the south on the path to recovery a lot sooner.  The race issue would have been of much lesser importance had this taken place, rather than another 100 years of quasi-slavery for blacks.

[A18]

I ask again: with Lincoln, is there a 14th amendment? Would he have approved the illegal tactics that were used to ratify it?

And how would Lincoln save the South from congressional reconstruction? Are you saying he'd continue to be a dictator, thus permanently collapsing congressional authority, and setting a dangerous precedent even for peacetime that would last to this day?

[??????????]

I ask again: with Lincoln, is there a 14th amendment? Would he have approved the illegal tactics that were used to ratify it?

Did he disapprove of illegal tactics while he was alive? So that should tell you where he would have stood.

[??????????]

McKinley...mainly to stop T.Roosevelt. The Lincoln execution was obviously a heroic act by a very brave man.

J. Wilkes Boothe was a coward who never brought himself to serve in the CSA Army or Navy. He is no hero. He snuck up behind and unarmed man for crying out loud!

Actually he served with the Virginia militia.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Lincoln.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Voted Opinion 5.

Between the four though, Kennedy, Lincoln, Garfield.........

















... and Mckinley in that order.

[Bacon King]

Garfield. And his only vote so far! He would have made a good president I think; he deserved a chance.

[minionofmidas]

Zach Taylor.

[12th Doctor]

Well... just in terms of acctually saving a life I would have to go with Kennedy, since Lincoln was dying of heart disease anyway... to be honest, I'm not sure which one (Kennedy or Lincoln) would have done more to save the country.

[Dr. Cynic]

Kennedy... Lincoln didn't have much longer to live from what I've understood due to a heart condition... Hell, Kennedy could still be alive today... He'd be REALLY old... But he could still be alive.

[J. J.]

Lincoln, simply because it would been a better Reconstruction.  Kennedy was a close second (and he had Addison's, IIRC).

[CPT MikeyMike]

Zach Taylor.

They determined that to be natural causes when the case was reviewed in 1991. Nice try though!

I wish I could stop all 5. All were (or could have been) great Presidents.