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QuoteReplyTopic: 10 greatest presidents Posted: 16-Feb-2009 at 16:18
For President's weekend I would like to put together a list of the 10 greatest (American)presidents in our history. Please list who you believe are the 10 greatest ever and after combining the results I shall have the list. Here is my list of the 10 greatest ever.
1. Washington 2. Lincoln 3. FDR 4. Teddy R 5. Jackson 6. Polk 7. Wilson 8. Jefferson 9. Madison 10. Reagan
Edited by Red4tribe - 16-Feb-2009 at 16:19
Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.
I'd have Jefferson and Wilson higher and Polk and Jackson lower. Not sure if George Washington should be considered the greatest, he had the prestige and the great statesman qualities but I think Jefferson was a better representation of the American character of the time (Or maybe he was a different aspect of that character)
No John Adams? I would have thought his role as consolidator, despite a troubled presidency would be acknowledged.
I'd put Adams on top of that list. He had vision and foresight, just like his son. And keep Reagan and his ludicrous Reaganomics as far away from the list as possible. He did not end communism it ended itself in Russia through mismanagement, and his spending and deregulation pawed way for what is happening today. Thanks a lot Reagan. Washington has a certain myth around him in America, and that is why he almost always ends up on top.
For President's weekend I would like to put together a list of the 10 greatest (American)presidents in our history. Please list who you believe are the 10 greatest ever and after combining the results I shall have the list. Here is my list of the 10 greatest ever.
1. Washington 2. Lincoln 3. FDR 4. Teddy R 5. Jackson 6. Polk 7. Wilson 8. Jefferson 9. Madison 10. Reagan
1. FDR: Too much to list. 2. Lincoln: Civil War. 3. Washington: Father of country, blah blah blah. Can't tell a lie, blah, blah, blah. Refused kingship. WOW. 4. Jefferson: Louisiana Purchase, Constitution, etc. My favourite prez. Frankly, I've got a giant mancrush on TJ. 5. Teddy Roosevelt: Shoots bears. 6. Harry Truman: WWII, Fair Deal 7. Andrew Jackson: Civil War hero 8. Woodrow Wilson: WWI, League of Nations
9. Madison: I love his wife's delicious cakes & donuts.
10 Bill Clinton: 22 Million new jobs, 8 years of peace & prosperity (dude had good karma), CHIP, portable insurance, Balkan Crisis, Ireland, etc., etc., Nailed Big Tobacco, NRA, Microsoft, and Monica Lewinsky. Remember, he was term limited. Compare him at the end of his second term to FDR at the end of his. I've got a giant mancrush on Bill too.
11. IKE: End of Korean War, 8 years of peace and prosperity, integrated military (civil rights) 15. LBJ: Civil Rights, Great Society 16. Nixon: Impeached, Détente 19. Reagan: Cold War, Prosperity, Trickle-Down Voo-Doo economics, Iran Contra, trained & funded bin Laden and Taliban against Soviets, Lebanon disaster, Grenada joke 20. JFK: Marilyn Monroe, Camelot BS, but a good liberal. 25. Bush Sr.: Recession, successfull invasions of Nicaragua, Iraq. Somalia famine relief. 26. Jimmy Carter: Stagflation. Nice guy, good liberal. 27. Barack Obama: This is my prediction, btw. Empty suit, incessant race-baiter. Even though I'm a liberal Dem, I don't like this guy at all. Although I suppose he's a good liberal.
44. Bush Jr.: $10.7 Trillion debt., $500 Billion deficits, Iraq quagmire, Afghan quagmire, Deep Recession, Enron, Banking/Housing collaspe, Katrina, etc., etc. The only good thing he ever did was the $15 BILLION in African AIDs relief.
BTW, anyone who includes JFK or Ronald "Iran-Contra" Reagan in the top 10 really needs to be whipped. And anyone who doesn't put Dubya at 44 needs to be shot.
1. Washington 2. Lincoln 3. Teddy R 4. FDR 5. Eisenhower 6. Jefferson 7. Wilson 8. Truman 9. Taylor - Stood up for what he believed in and did not back down until the dead. While that may have caused a civil war the US army was more prepared at this time and also he may have had less states abandon the union seeing as he was himself a slave owner. 10. Monroe - Foreign policy helped to link us with Latin America's new republics.
Note - I would love to put JQA on this list for he was the most qualified and experienced president we have ever had. Many of his policies would have greatly helped America yet none of them got through congress so I cannot put him on this list. As for the original Adams the Alien and Sedition acts puts him off of the list for me.
I don't have a favorite but I do like to commend them on their contributions.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - Highway Act. Alot of people did't even concei ve of this
Woodrow Wilson -Allowed the US to benefit from WW1 by producing war arsenal (War Industries Board) ,enforcing the Monroe Doctrine ,and the Fourteen Points.Enacted FTC.
FDR-enacted the New Deal and was a crutch in WW II
Theodore Roosevelt- allowing health care,kicked up dust in Spanish American War.His Sqaure deal ousted the coorpoartions over industry. The takeover of the Panama Canal.
Ronald Regan-maybe considered a bastard now but set up the Contra that took on Radical fundamentalist ,terrorist,and helped curtail communism.
Harry S Truman-enforced civil rights,and crudaded against southern state rights.
Bill Clinton- Reduced crime through out the country,and cleaned up America. Was the only president to give interest in the World Affairs for political reasons that didn't relate to Economic Benefit.
Barack Obama- For running the best campaign and actually has very little history .
1. FD Roosevelt 2. Lincoln 3. Jefferson 4. Washington 5. LB Johnson (on domestic issues one of the best, Vietnam ruined a lot) 6. T Roosevelt 7. Eisenhower (the coup in Guatemala was one of the foulest things done by the US however) 8. Madison 9. Carter 10. Truman
I have to say I don't really know a lot about the 19th century presidents, hence the relatively large number of 20th century presidents on the list
I wouldn't say Reagan tackled the fundamentalists. Far from it. He gave them money, training and weapons.
Not necessarily actually he was very witty and played both sides in Iran- Iraq war, in Iran-Iraq he was very witty were he supplied weapons to both
sides and let them drain out both the countries economies . Remember alot of the mess he was cleaning up was Jimmy Carter's mistake don't think it was his idea to support the Khomeni Ayotollah and it was Carter's adminstration that even supported and fed the Shahs reign,Reagans strategy of straddling the fence seemed to be most effective I think even Bush liked it. He smoked out terrioist Abu Nidal linked to the PLO and put a halt to aggresive manuevers,and even helped the Afghanistan and Russain war when he was in office.
In the Afghanistan and Russian war he didn't think to much of post -mujahadeen warriors in the aftermath. He was intent on destroying his enemies his biggest enemy at the time was Mickael Gorbchev and Left -Wings ,but he was effective.
He was a crusader against communism and battled the Sandistas in Nicuragua,by funding the FDN,of course we know the burdens of comming with that . But like a real president he supports the Rich's interest and not the majority.
Not
necessarily actually he was very witty and played both sides in Iran-
Iraq war, in Iran-Iraq he was very witty were he supplied weapons to
both
sides and let them drain out both the countries economies . Remember
alot of the mess he was cleaning up was Jimmy Carter's mistake don't
think it was his idea to support the Khomeni Ayotollah and it was
Carter's adminstration that even supported and fed the Shahs
reign,Reagans strategy of straddling the fence seemed to be most
effective I think even Bush liked it. He smoked out terrioist Abu
Nidal linked to the PLO and put a halt to aggresive manuevers,and even
helped the Afghanistan and Russain war when he was in office.
In
the Afghanistan and Russian war he didn't think to much of post
-mujahadeen warriors in the aftermath. He was intent on destroying his
enemies his biggest enemy at the time was Mickael Gorbchev and Left
-Wings ,but he was effective.
He was a crusader against
communism and battled the Sandistas in Nicuragua,by funding the FDN,of
course we know the burdens of comming with that . But like a real
president he supports the Rich's interest and not the majority.
I totally concur, though not necessarily point for point.
A lot of F'd up stuff during those crazy Iran-Contra days, including the arming and training of bin Laden, selling arms to Iran, and protecting Saddam at the UN (veto power) when Saddam gassed the Kurds with American made chemical agents.
Originally posted by AksumVanguard
Barack Obama- For running the best campaign and actually has very little history .
And what comic book reality are you quoting from?
Excuse me, but you definitely need to whipped for this one. No, the man most responsible for electing Barack is Bush. In 2000 and 2004, Bush ran on his whiteness and won. He ran as a good ol' boy. Then he screwed up so bad that Obama, a "black guy", was able to run on "Change". (BTW, "change" was a key theme of Bill Clinton in 1992, as well as John Edwards in 2004. "Hope" was another key Bill Clinton theme in 1992, as well as Jesse Jackson's in 1988. Virtually all of Obama best lines are borrowed or stolen. Not an exaggeration.)
The word "change" is a loaded word to say the least. In Barack "typical white person" Obama's case, it was racially loaded. What he was really saying was: These corrupt white people have screwed up everything, only I, Barack Obama, the righteous black man, the noble civil rights lawyer, can save this country. Truth is the guy has never argued a single case nor written a single scholarly paper in his life. Despite being a former Harvard Law Review president, working 8 years a "civil rights" lawyer, and 12 years a "professor" of law. Like Bush Jr., who also graduated from Harvard, he's exceptionally unaccomplished in his chosen field. Truth is, the guy was working as a junior 1st or 2nd year lawyer the entire time he was employed at the prestigious law firm he boasted endlessly about during the campaign. He was nothing more than a pencil and paper pusher, doing tedious and trivial bureaucratic research--doing irrelevant paper work.
Obama is very adept at using loaded language, particularly racially loaded language. Case in point his breathtaking claim about not taking money from oil companies: "I want to bring change to Washington... I don't take money from oil companies." Talk about a loaded statement.
Nobody takes money for oil companies since it's been illegal for 100 years as Bill Clinton immediately rebutted. Translation: I, Barack Obama the righteous black man, don't take money from oil companies, but all the others do. All those "typical white" politicians do. Bush does. Cheney does. Hillary Clinton does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e84X7pjJWZk ---Fox exposes Obama using Bill Clinton's criticism without crediting Bill Clinton. Fox is a joke, but they do report the truth once in a while.
Understand that Obama effectively, slyly, machiavellianly ran as a civil rights leader, a modern day Martin Luther King, a brilliant legal titan like African American Justice Thurgood Marshall, and an American Nelson Mandela no less. He's an suit who never accomplished anything in his life borrowing other men's clothes. Once he put it on, he had the black community and the typical white liberal eating out of his hands.
Ask yourself this question: Would Dr. King play the race card? Of course not, he was a man who fought for justice and equality and paid for it with his life. This is why Obama was able to play the race card time after time and get away with it. Liberal, progressive minded people would never question Dr. King and hence would never question anyone (so seemingly) like him.
As a young man, Thurgood Marshall was a legal lion who successfully argued landmark case after landmark case before the Supreme court--a righteous man, a bona fide legal genius. Nelson Mandela is a man universally regarded a paragon of virtue. These three noble men (King, Marshall, and Mendela) all paid their dues and all were exceptionally accomplished. The Affirmative Action Harvard-educated coke-head Obama brazenly put on their clothes and easily fooled gullible liberals, particularly blacks who he repeatedly trashed as needing "personal responsibility", i.e. he was saying to moderate whites (as opposed to liberal whites who were already eating out of his hands), "I'm black, but I'm not that black!"
Note that in Obama campaign ads, he was constantly surrounding himself with whites, like some holy and blessed "golden child" so different from his mother, with no earthly father, a Messiah no less:
Madonna and Child
Obama The Child
All of his dark skinned relatives were conspicuously missing from his ads, particularly his dark skinned father, whom supposedly inspired one of his books: Dreams From My Father. No mention of his half brothers and sisters in Kenya, much less pictures. He barely even showed his beloved half sister who's 1/2 Indonesian. Of course, he left out the fact that his extended relatives who are running Kenya into the ground with that "typical African" corruption.
Father and the Son he abandoned. Son then runs for prez always careful NOT to show his own father's pics.
Father and Mother, or "a boy from Kenya and a girl from Kansas..."
Obama surrounds himself with "typical white people" in campaing ad after campaign ad, just two examples below:
Mind you, I liked Obama a lot when he gave that rousing speech at the 2004 Dem. National Convention. I was really hoping he would rise and run for prez some day. But after two years of doing nothing but posing?!? Had he beaten Hillary fair and sqare and not resorted to constant and scurrilous race-baiting, I would have enthusiastically volunteered for him. But no, he not only played the race card incessantly, but against the both Clintons, who have impeccable civil rights credentials. F that and F him!
Bill Clinton has one of the best civil rights records out there, black or white, dead or alive. Only people like Frederick Douglas, Dr. King, Justice Marshall, Jesse Jackson, LBJ (who signed and enforced Civil Rights Bill) can beat Bill Clinton at civil rights.
There's no way a black man nor a woman could have won without a white guy like Bush screwing up so ROYALLY, time after time: $10.7 Trillion national debt, $500 Billion deficits, $1 Trillion handed to next prez, quagmire in Iraq, quagmire in Afghanistan, deep recession, banking collapse, housing collapse, Hurricane Katrina, $4/gal gas, etc., etc., etc.
Under such conditions, there's no way another Republican, especially one linking himself to Bush, could have won--even against a black guy or a white woman. When the banking and housing sectors collapse, the typical white person essentially said: I don't care if he's black, I'm votin' for him! I can't take this Bushsh!t anymore!
Make no mistake about it: G.W. Bush is the one who truly broke the glass ceiling, ending the 230 year reign of white men in the White House. 2008 was a horrible year to run for President if you're a conservative white male.
Understand that Obama's pitch line for "Change" is totally worthless if Bush Jr. had a 60%, 75%, or even 90% approval rating as was the case just after 9-11. Bush had ~25% approval rating pretty much for all of 2008. This why his message of "Change" resonated so effectively.
Also, did the GOP play the race card against Obama. Heck yes. But that's what they always do. Nothing new. I was utterly disgusted that Obama and the black community were now behaving just like the people I totally despised, and even against the fellow democrats no less.
For the clueless typical white person who didn't see any race-baiting on the part of Obama: High profile African Americans play the race card all the time. 50% of the time it is done by the idiot who got into trouble, like OJ Simson, Kwalme Kilpatrick, etc. The other 50% of the time, their supporters do, as in the case of Michael Vick, TuPac Shakur, etc.
What was new in 2008 was that now a black politician was doing it, and in the worst way, including against people who simply didn't deserve it:
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