10 Greatest Presidents

[MillennialModerate]

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All-Time greats
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1. ‪Abe Lincoln - He saved the country. He held it together. There might not still be a United States south of the Mason-Dixon had it not been for him.‬


2. ‪Franklin Delanor Roosevelt - Led the nation to victory in WW2, introduced policies that got us out of the Great Depression. New Deal a resounding success. Hard to argue.‬


3. ‪John F Kennedy - The fact he's even on this list after being in office for (roughly) 3 years is a testament to him. Made Americans feel young again, inspired generations of Americans to give back. The notion of asking what you can do for your country is the most honorable idea a President can convey - His vision created the Peace Core, his vision to put a man on the moon within a decade (thought to be crazy at that time) was incredible and it was accurate. It was JFK who told Americans in the South that Civil rights is a moral issue and Americans in the North to not look down on Southerners and he also said we are not the nation we thought we were until we achieved full equality.... Then there's the Cuban Missile Crisis where his patience and his instinct led him to make the right moves in leading the world back from the brink of a Nuclear war..... at home he had the vision to institute an across the border tax cut, a policy not favored by many in his own party but one he thought in the best interest of the nation, putting country first.... ‬JFK was young, charismatic, attractive, intelligent, vibrant, well spoken and had the overwhelming popularity of a rock star - that's what made an event (that would be tragic in any respect; a presidential assassination) be a flat out catastrophic blow to the nation. But despite his time being cut so short he's still one of the great political figures we've ever had and he‪ accomplished a lot and for that he gets #3 - If he had a full 8 years then he'd be even higher.‬

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The rest of the best
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4. ‪‬Thomas Jefferson  ‪‬ - First and foremost was a major contributor to the Declaration of Independence. TJ was a master of foreign policy and of course vastly increased the size of the nation.


5. ‪‬George Washington‪‬ - Country before self. This man was given the honor of our first Presidency for a reason - he led our military to its ultimate victory and didn't cherish power, as he was wise enough to have the foresight to insist the Presidency be held for two terms at most.


6. ‪‬Ronald Reagan‪‬ - Restored faith in America. Staunchly defended freedom around the globe while leading a resurgence of an economy that was in awful shape when he took office.


7. ‪‬Dwight D. Eisenhower ‪‬ - Very underrated. Strong and stable leadership at home, genuinely acted in the best interest of the nation and not of his party or person interests (for instance, the military industrial complex speech). Introduced infrastructure programs that were pivotal (interstate highway)


8. ‪‬Woodrow Wilson‪‬ - In foreign policy he led the nation to victory in World War 1 and domestically he instituted the 8 hour work day, establishing a fair working arrangement for the middle class. Wilson created the Federal Reserve, centralizing national banking.


9. ‪‬Theodore Roosevelt    ‪‬ - TR showed tremendous leadership as President - First leading the country through the assassination of McKinley and in other instances such as coming up with a win win solution to a major coal mining strike. Instituted popular and useful agencies such as the FDA and National Parks Service. One of the biggest accomplishments was his "Square Deal" - balancing an environment that lets business prosper while instituting protections for the middle class.


10. ‪‬Bill Clinton‪‬ - Very underrated due to modern political climate, his connections to his unlivable wife and the Lewinsky scandal. But the nation stayed out of major military conflict and the economy BOOMED. In fact, he left behind a SURPLUS (unheard of nowadays). At the same time he instituted reform of welfare, a measure popular with the other side of the aisle.

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The best of the rest
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11. John Adams

12. Harry Truman - Most of Truman's domestic policy would be considered so-so, as congress got involved the way of a lot of his programs; but all that is overshadowed by his decision to drop the bomb and save countless American lives that would've been lost in an invasion of Japan, it was a brave and courageous decision and one of the more critical ones made by a commander in chief.

13. Andrew Jackson

14. James Madison

15. Barack Obama - His election itself was a stirring moment for the nation. Once in office he improved our standing in the world and passed a landmark health care bill at home. But truthfully his full potential was stifled due to a congress that simply refused to work with him at any point.

16. George H. W. Bush - underrated in my opinion. Done in by GOP fatigue and a struggling economy but he handled Iraq far better than his son did and strategic approach to not provoking Russia by gloating over collapse of USSR is a vastly underrated move.

17. James McKinley

18. John Quincy Adams - Underarated in my opinion, his clout while in office was probably done in by the controversial manner in which the election was decided.

19. James Polk - A strong pre-civil war leader who did what he said he'd do - accomplishing every major goal set out during his campaign. Polk was a strong President, leading the nation to victory in the Mexican-American war. Polk presided over a vast expansion of the nation including of Texas and California. He only ran & served one term as he promised he would. Of everyone on this list he is most underrated with his accomplishments understated. In fact of all the successful Presidents, he's least known.

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Middle of the pack
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20. Grover Cleveland

21. William Taft

22. Lyndon Johnson - LBJ is mostly done in by Vietnam because domestically he was a brilliant President. LBJ's Great society was a success in so many ways including Civil Rights, Medicare, Medicaid and many federal education intitiatives. By the exaggeration of the gulf of Tonkin and the subsequent Vietnam war were as bad as it gets as far as foreign policy disasters go, substantially weakening LBJ's place on the list but frankly he should have never been President.

23. James Monroe

24. Gerald Ford - felt more like an interim President. Nothing stood out either positive or negative.

25. Chester A. Arthur

26. Rutherford B. Hayes

27. Richard Nixon - He's this low because of Watergate for the most part - not that it happened persay but that it took over two years of his Presidency where he got little done. For the first 4 years however he was a good President, most notably taking that trip to open up China.

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Mediocre... at best
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28. Martin van Buren

29. George W. Bush - History will remember him better than he is looked at currently. That's not to say there wasn't a lot left to be desired: Going into Iraq was a total disaster, one that cost way too much American blood. and treasure and hasn't resulted in much of anything aside from Sadamm's removal. Then on the economy, it was stagnant for all 8 years , when he had inherited a booming economy initially - and worst of all was presiding over the economic crisis toward the end of his term - Now at the same time I don't think he gets enough credit for his brilliant leadership in the days following 9/11.

30. Ulysses S. Grant

31. Calvin Coolidge

32. Benjamin Harrison

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"Bad, really bad. Like not good"
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33. Zachary Taylor

34. Jimmy Carter - A really terrific person with honest intentions.. but to be honest he was miserable as a President. The economy constantly sputtered under his tenure and America was made to look weak on the international stage numerous times including most notably the Iran hostage crisis. He was consistently at odds with his own party in congress as well as the opposition party. Worst of all Americans confidence in America was shaky during his term.

35. John Tyler

36. Millard Fillmore

37. Franklin Pierce

38. Warren Harding

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"Total disasters"
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39. Herbert Hoover - His wretched economic policies in the face of the Great Depression were inexcusable

40. Donald Trump - NOT a reactionary opinion in anyway. Policies are bad, his working relationship with a congress (which is controlled by his party) is dreadful. He literally has embarrassed us as a nation and has lowered the dignity of the office. DJT has intentionally sought to divide people while appealing to their lowest common denominator. He shamelessly thrusts his personal interests into the spotlight at the expense of the national interest. And all this is without even factoring in theres a real chance he colluded with our biggest international foe. He reminds everyone of the symbol of his party, the circus elephant.

41. Andrew Johnson - His racial intolerant policies which protested every inherent rights of African Americans were simply disgusting. The ways in which he advocated for Southern States to skirt the rules of racial equality that had just been victorious in the war, were not only unbecoming of a President but risked reverting the nation back into battle.

42. James Buchanan - A complete indifference to the approaching civil war is mind blowing. He literally could have been the President who lost the country, don't get much worse than that

***Harrison and Garfield not on list due to extremely short term in office