Comments on: Presidential Greatness

By: fullnelson

fullnelson — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 17:31:23 +0000

I think FDR ranks among the best; he fully understood that, despite his personal fortune, unless the rest of American had jobs and a safety net, all the money in the world in a few hands could not save us. Moreover, he was a “modern” president in that he was most likely NOT a racist, though he could have done lots more. He and Eleanor made Black folks think they actually cared, and maybe they did. (Now if he could have only desegregated the military….) Any president who owned slaves, gave birth to mulatto children, or sat idely by while African Americans were lynched is no hero to me. A president who ignores the rights of 12% of its population is an asshole, even if he poses for pictures with certain “acceptable” negroes, or even puts some in his cabinet.

By: ChrisV82

ChrisV82 — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:02:53 +0000

Also, I think Kennedy and his attorney-general brother would have done great things had John not been assassinated when he did; Bobby and LBJ did not get along.

With what did happen, however, Kennedy isn’t as great as we like to remember. He was a hot stud, though, I think we can all reach a consensus on that.

By: ChrisV82

ChrisV82 — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:01:04 +0000

There’s a lot to be said for Woodrow Wilson; I might even put him in my top ten. One of the great political philosophers of our day, and if memory serves was instrumental in bringing about the UN’s predecessor.

And I agree that Lincoln was a good president, but you can’t compare Republicans/Democrats of yesterday with those of today. Everything changed when FDR became president. Sure, there’s still stragglers like Zell Miller, but for the most part the old party affiliations died out long ago.

I guess that wasn’t really necessary to say, but I wanted to say it!

By: JoeF

JoeF — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 23:13:33 +0000

It should be noted that Nixon helped usher in Medicare/Medicade. I think he gets negative points because he’s just such an unlikable person. That said, he doesn’t belong in the top 10, if for no other reason than how he and Kissenger handled Vietnam.

TR should definetly be on the list. Kennedy’s on there because of how inspiring a figure he was, something that really hasn’t come along since then. I don’t think any president since has managed to successfully challange America in the way he did.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 22:04:33 +0000

These top tens always really show that most people have a hard time naming 10 presidents much less have any inclination how to critically compare the merits of each. The campaign to remember Reagan as the greatest president began before he left office and was firmly in place by the time of the announcement of his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. People always favor the recent past in any of these surveys – like the AFI top 100 movies of whatever. Being another armchair historian I must kibitz and say that John Adams has my vote as greatest president ever.

By: E-Rock

E-Rock — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 14:03:47 +0000

That’s the thing about Lincoln, though. He wasn’t technically an abolitionist President until he got into the thick of things. He was very much a moderate on the issue of abolition until he got into the middle of a big war. And at the time, he wasn’t really considered to be all that eloquent a President. You know the story of the Gettysburg Address and how underappreciated it was at the time. To be honest, though, it was Lincoln’s willingness to do the things he did that makes him my second favorite President.

By: greg

greg — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:35:17 +0000

Well, I guess it was a matter of time before we had an abolitionist President, so in a way I can understand why people would think Lincoln was overrated. It helps that he was one of the most articulate Presidents we’ve ever had and that he’s got that great “pulled himself up by his bootstraps” quiality that Americans love so much.

Not that it’s an excuse for Lincoln’s curtailment of civil liberties or anything, but half the Union Army switched sides during the civil war. I definitely don’t approve of some of what he did, but when most of your best officers and soldiers end up being traitors, I can understand a guy getting a little paranoid. What’s Bush’s excuse?

I forgot I was gonna mention Jefferson. He’s definitely one of my favorite founding fathers, but his presidency itself was pretty ho-hum. The most notable thing that happened during his term was the Louisiana Purchase, but I’ve never been a big fan of manifest destiny (though the term doesn’t technically apply here). The most interesting thing about his Presidency to me is the campaign that proceeded it. It’s unthinkable that someone labeled an “athiest” could get any votes these days, yet Jefferson was elected twice.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 00:20:30 +0000

Kennedy was no great shakes except for one thing: during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he and his brother just may have saved the world by avoiding nuclear war with the USSR.

With Taylor, Nitze, Lemay and the others howling for immediate bombing and invasion of Cuba, with events rapidly spinning out of control, the Kennedys were sufficiently secure, smart, and tough not only to remain immune to the groupthink but also to work the situation to a peaceful conclusion. Amazing, really, considering that they were just a couple of young guys in a roomful of very senior type-A personalities who were used to having their own way. Imagine Dubya in that situation.

Doesn’t make Kennedy one of our greatest Presidents, but for that two weeks in October, 1962, we were very fortunate to have a President who actually had a mind of his own and the guts and maturity to stand firm in a moment of extreme testosterone-fueled irrationality.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 00:11:49 +0000

Word to E-Rock for calling Lincoln out on his rather intense violation of all kinds of rights and laws and just generally being pretty intense. If we were alive in Lincoln’s time we probably wouldn’t like him.
On the other hand, Lincoln may have been our first gay president. Which just goes to show something. I think I just heard a shooting outside my house.

By: sebastian

sebastian — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 22:46:20 +0000

Yeah, Jefferson (and Madison, to a large extent) gave us separation of church and state, without which we’d probably already be a theocracy.

Hey, I think I just answered E-Rock’s question without even trying…