Ranking presidents since WWII

Just for the hell of of it, and because I happen to be reading a history of the US presidency, I made this list. What's your list? Just the presidents from WWII on ...

1. Roosevelt -- I don't see how you can argue with this. An enigmatic man, but he forever changed the office. I think for the better, most of the time.

2. Kennedy -- yeah, I know about Marilyn Monroe and all the rest, but he accomplished more in 2/3 of a term than Reagan or Bush accomplished in two terms. And you always get the feeling that he was born to be president.

3. Truman -- you gotta like a president who says about MacArthur ... "I didn't fire him cause he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was. I fired him cause he wouldn't respect the office of the President."

4. Eisenhower -- I like him cause he wasn't a professional politician, plus I actually think military men make good presidents. I would vote for Colin Powell.

5. Johnson -- he was Super Senator, should never have been president. For that matter, should never have been vice president ... a waste of his abilities. It's too bad that Vietnam is his main legacy.

6. Carter -- a good man who never really learned how things work in Washington.

7. Bush I -- I really don't know what to say about him. I think he handled the Gulf War well, but other than that, pretty much a white bread presidency.

8. Clinton -- not a bad president, but he didn't learn from Nixon's ordeal that simply telling the truth is the best policy.

9. Reagan -- unfortunately, teflon doesn't last forever.

10. Bush II -- one of the five or ten worst presidents of all time.

11. Nixon -- a brilliant man and able politician, but there were probably half a dozen things he could have been impeached for. And if weird was music, he'd be a brass band. Plus, if you can believe The Final Days, he damn near cracked up there at the end. As his grandson David Eisenhower remarked, "His administration wasn't as bad as everyone thought, nor as good as he thought."

I left out Ford ... too much of an unknown quantity.

 

I'm just going to list the top 3.----1.FDR--Brilliant man,when someone mentioned to him "the rich and big businesses hate you"--he said:"I welcome their hatred".He was a true public servant and thats why he was elected 4 times in a row. 2.--Eisenhower,another true public servant,many great things about him.---3.--Truman,another true public servant who had alot of character.FDR,Eisenhower,and Truman were wonderful for the US and it's citizens.--------------Now a few quick comments, Nixon was not that bad,in many ways he was good.He got the US out of Vietnam and did a number of good things.He deserves alot more credit than he got.---- Last point as far as Bush 2 goes I would rank him as the worst Pres. of all time, but I never have and never will use the word President or even consider him as a President when referring to that lowlife criminal.

 

[Nixon] deserves alot more credit than he got.

I don't disagree. Along with Carter and Clinton, he was probably the smartest of this entire group. At the same time, he brought a lot of his troubles on himself. His fatal mistake was in thinking that the Watergate break-in was no worse than some of the personal shenanigans his predecessors had engaged in, and therefore thinking that the press should cut him the same slack. It didn't work that way, undoubtedly because he lacked the personal charm of somebody like FDR or Kennedy. It wasn't just Watergate, though. The man flagrantly abused the office in many other areas, by most accounts all of them impeachable.

Watergate forever changed the way the press operates in this country, and not necessarily for the better, either. The press fancies itself a watchdog, and I'm not saying that function isn't needed, but "watchdog" isn't the same as "headline-grubbing asshole."

And by the way, I called David Eisenhower Nixon's "grandson" ... I dunno what the hell I was thinking ... I should have said "son-in-law".

 

If President Nixon admitted he did something wrong their would have been no problems in my opinion.But overall they the press over did it with him,and he definitely did NOT deserve the bad reputation he got.---Nixon got in trouble because he wiretapped a few peoples conversations.--Bush 2 wiretapped the whole country--absurd!Not to mention the literally 1000s of other terrible things Bush 2 +Co. were 'allowed' to get away with.---As far as contemporary US media thinking of themselves as some kind of watchdogs--I would not want trust them to even watch paint dry anymore.US media has sunk to an all time low,kind of like how low US politics has sunk.Where are the great 'public servants' that America used to have.

 

Well, there was the matter of flagrant obstruction of justice, not to mention misuse of government agencies. The man used the CIA to "get" the FBI, he used the IRS to "get" congressmen, he used the FCC to "get" the Washington Post. And that's probably just the tip of the iceberg. He was totally paranoid and he evidently believed he was above the law.

The wiretaps weren't even the worst of what he did.

I do agree with you that if it hadn't turned into a feeding frenzy in the press, most of that stuff would have never seen the light of day. But once they smelled blood in the water, they were all over him because they never liked him ... that "Tricky Dick" image stayed with him his entire life.

Basically the same thing happened to Clinton. Lying about screwing your intern hardly compares to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, etc., but the press already had their precedent ... and they all wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein.

 

Regarding Clinton it was absurd and UNacceptable that they made such a big deal out of him and the intern.--It was such a non-issue.In many European nations for example they do not care about a politicians personal sex-life.If he or she does a good job thats what matters and should matter.Thats how I feel too.--JFK was a womanizer,but the media did not publicize it.Alot of other great public servants of the past screwed around a little.No big deal ,its their personal business.--Seriously what qualified person with character (in other words a true public servant) would want to run for political office in the US now a days.

 

Nixon... I don't know why. He's just cool to me.

 

What you say is true, but it wasn't the doing that got him in such trouble ... it was the covering it up. It was much the same with Watergate. The break-in itself was barely worth a couple of inches on the inside pages of the Washington Post.

It was the cover-up that led to Nixon's downfall ... the cover-up required obstruction of justice, evidence-tampering, perjury, and contempt of Congress. Plus the fact that the press hated him, and couldn't wait to see him gone.

And then we had the sordid spectacle of a former President of the United States having to be pardoned for any "high crimes and misdemeanors" that he may have committed while in office. A sorry affair.

 

I can just see Nixon himself responding to that ...

Well now, and let me make this perfectly clear, as you know, I am not one to be cool. But I was cool when it counted. Oh yes, those fellows at the Washington Post may not believe it, and let me be perfectly clear, I may not be a crook, but I am cool. The time will come when you won't have Nixon around to be cool anymore, so let me be perfectly clear, I am cool. Haldeman, I want you to get right on this ... make sure that everyone knows I am cool. How much ... uhh ... how much persuasion will it take to get Congress to admit that I'm cool?

 

No, there was nothing cool about Nixon.

 

1. Roosevelt
2. Kennedy
3. Truman
4. Eisenhower
5. Johnson
6. Clinton
7. Ford
8. Carter
9. Bush Sr.
10. Reagan
11. Nixon
12. Baby Bush

I started with Caliente's list, inserted Ford, and moved Clinton and Nixon up. Clinton's big lie pertained to a personal matter, not the responsibilities of his office, and I gave Nixon some credit for improving relations with the Soviet Union and China. Visiting both those countries was a very big deal at the time he did it, and laid the foundation for the progress that came later. Nixon also got us out of Vietnam. That is far more than BabyBush got done.

 

Yeah, it's hard to know about Nixon. If you could discount the Watergate thing, he'd clearly be much higher in the list, perhaps ahead of Johnson.

Of all the men on the list, I think Nixon is the most fascinating study from a psychology standpoint, just because he was so strange. I remember reading a little story about him ... someone told a joke at a Cabinet meeting one day, and everyone laughed except him. He just said "Now that's funny. That's funny." But he didn't laugh. He recognized the humor, but he couldn't make himself actually laugh. Is that kinda creepy or what?

How in the name of all that's holy this man ever got elected to the highest office in the land is one of the most bizarre occurences of the 20th century.


Clinton's big lie pertained to a personal matter, not the responsibilities of his office

True, but like I said earlier, it wasn't the act that was the problem, just like the Watergate break-in itself wasn't the problem.

 

People can be very good at what they do for a living and still be extremely dysfunctional in other ways. Just look at profesional atheletes, actors, and musicians. You have to be a master politician to win the Presidency, but you don't have to be good at anything else, including life in general. Nixon proved it.

I consider Watergate to be far worse because the break-in itself was an illegal activity, and it was done in an effort to gain political advantage. Monica was not under age so she was fair game, and what she did with Bill was strictly for fun. I personally think that Hillary should have kicked his ass and the Secret Service should have looked the other way, but it was her call to make. Maybe she beat him in a way that didn't leave any visible marks. She's a smart lady.

My top 6 presidents are the ones that I consider to have been effective to some degree, while the bottom 5 are the ones I think of as failures, on balance. That leaves Ford in between, in the gray area.

 

That's why I left him off my list altogether. I don't remember a single thing about his administration, other than comedians making fun of him tripping on stairs and things.

 

Well, at least Ford didn't do anything memorably harmful.

You may already know that he used to be a top-notch college running back, before football helmets had facemasks. He did not play pro football because it was not a viable career option. The only significant financial value of football talent back then was a college scholarship. It really bothered him that he later got a reputation as a klutz.

He is the only president that I have seen in person. He spoke inside the big shopping mall in Winston-Salem (Hanes Mall) while he was in office. I remember the moment and the visual, but nothing that he said.

I keep trying to come up with something George W. did that could be labeled an accomplishment, since I had to spend 8 years of my life living in "his" country, but I can't do it. I'm not that talented at twisting facts.

 

You could say the same about Reagan.

My rule of thumb is one memorable accomplishment per year. If an administration can point to one lasting achievement per year, I think you can say it has done well.

All the men at the top of this list meet that criterion.

But in the 16 years of Reagan and Bush II, can you point to even one lasting accomplishment between the two of them? That's mindblowing.

 

Reagan at least got inflation under control.

Bush had


well



theres


hmmm

the Do Not Call list

 

Give me caller ID and forget the Do Not Call list.

A little story about caller ID .... years ago I had a stalker calling me late at night, not too long after we got caller ID. After three or four of his calls, I notified the police and gave them his number. I asked them to "convince" him to stop calling me, and while they were at it, to nominate him for a Darwin award.

 

I'm sure THEY would count 16 years of making life miserable for liberals and Democrats as an accomplishment.

 

Top 3: Roosevelt- Truman- Clinton

Bottom 3: Regan- Nixon- Bush II

Obama the Llama will be given a grade by this time next year.