Presidents' Day Poll

[Alex]

Probably. Name an accomplishment of a president between Lincoln and McKinley. Or between Madison and Lincoln.

When trying to think about which of our recent presidents will be well remembered in another 100 years I think Reagan is most likely to be so for any particularly positive reason. In terms of historical significance I think the welfare reform of Clinton is way up there with the civil service reform of Chester A. Arthur and look at how well he's remembered by a grateful nation.

I have no doubt that Carter is the best human being in the bunch but in 50 years he's going to be the one that kids in 5th grade have trouble remembering on their history tests (to go along with Benjamin Harrison, Zachary Tyler, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce).

My problem with Carter isn't his politics but his political ineptitude. He had the right beliefs but neither the backbone nor ability to see them through (for example, he is the only president to significantly resist the corrupt water policies of the Western United States but couldn't even control his own executive branch agencies from undercutting him with congress).

I'm not a proponent of a powerful executive so I am mostly fine with the fact that our presidents are quickly forgotten after their term. The best remembered presidents are, for the most part, the ones who fostered a certain national mood (regardless of whether anything in particular came out of it) and that is why I think Kennedy (somewhat unjustly since he gets the glory of never seeing the downslope; I suspect he'd have ended his term in office nearly as unpopular as LBJ ended up being) and Reagan are the only two real candidates on the list.

But then, my personal favorite president (Polk) provoked the most openly expansionist war in our history and was generally considered quite the asshole.

[sleepyjeff]

According the Misery Index, our current President is ranked 6th( 1 being the least miserable and 11 the most ) since the end of WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_...28economics%29

1-Eisnehower

2-Johnson

3-Kennedy

4-Clinton

5-Truman

6-G.W. Bush

7-Nixon

8-G.H.W. Bush

9-Reagan

10-Ford

11-Carter

Not that I totally buy into this ranking system since Presidents don't really have all that much to do with the Nations economy........at least not of the economy for which they are being ranked. Also, this ranking is based on Employment and inflation mainly....nothing about Foriegn Policy and appointment of judges, which, in my opinion have more to do with the Presidency than the economy.

[Not Afraid]

FDR is probably my favorite but I have always been fascinated with our own "Royals" in the form the the Kennedys.

[sleepyjeff]

I can't help but notice that the percentage of people who voted for Clinton in this poll is nearly identical to the percentage of the popular vote he won back in '92.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Very likely, since Tomorrowland preceded JFK by 5 years and the Space Race by three years (which was initiated by Eisenhower in response to Sputnik).

I will not be bothered by linear notions of time

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by sleepyjeff

I can't help but notice that the percentage of people who voted for Clinton in this poll is nearly identical to the percentage of the popular vote he won back in '92.

That's because the wealth of repubs are splitting the vote - say what about Nixion?

[sleepyjeff]

I thought about voting for Nixon.......but I frankly do like Reagan better and if there was a lone vote for Nixon everyone would want to know who did it.

Kinda like I am wondering who voted for Ford

[wendybeth]

Well, Reagan was certainly a much better actor.

[sleepyjeff]

^Yeah, he could cry on que and...no, wait...that was someone else

[innerSpaceman]

I ended up voting for JFK after all. As a three-year-old at the time, I was blessed with only good feelings about him, and have been left with the legacy of his great words ... without any personal knowledge of al the crappy stuff he did.

Clinton also had some great words ... but he governed like a staunch Replublican (and thus I could never understand their loathing of him.)

So I changed my vote.



There have been some pretty suckwad presidents in my lifetime.