The best President in American history

[palo5]

Can't make this a poll, because I can't list all 44 of them, and almost no one knows anything of most of them anyway, so say what you think

Who was/is the best?

[Daniel Maher]

Abraham Lincoln was the greatest U.S. president. The 2nd greatest president would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

[grossnex]

I always thought George Washington was the best President. There were no expectations & he didn't even want to be President.

He was like, "What, leading the Patriots wasn't enough? Who do you people think I am, God? I gave you freedom. Ah what the hell. OK."

I always thought he got the shaft from American History. You could tell from our money. He's on the 1 Dollar Bill. Seems like they're short changing the guy just a bit, don't you think? Strippers & poor people are the only ones who ever see the guy's face.

Although they gave him a good phallic symbol in Washington DC.

[marlon]

Originally Posted by grossnex

I always thought he got the shaft from American History. You could tell from our money. He's on the 1 Dollar Bill. Seems like they're short changing the guy just a bit, don't you think? Strippers & poor people are the only ones who ever see the guy's face.

To be fair good ol' George has been on it since 1869, surely the dollar meant something then? It is still the most common bank note in the US, and as numero uno (first) president, the $1 seems appropriate.

[Mad Koala Bear]

At the risk of being a bit controversial, I'd say that were it not for the tragedy of Vietnam and his escalation of the war there, LBJ could have been a great reforming president, who would now be remembered instead for his Great Society with its advances is civil rights.

[hudley]

Calvin Coolidge. He stayed out of the way.

[shodan2011]

Originally Posted by damp-patch

At the risk of being a bit controversial, I'd say that were it not for the tragedy of Vietnam and his escalation of the war there, LBJ could have been a great reforming president, who would now be remembered instead for his Great Society with its advances is civil rights.

Robert McNamara (and others who knew Johnson) have said that Vietnam destroyed Johnson. He essentially let the Pentagon and the CIA have their own way, to a point. It was only after a couple of years that Johnson realised he'd been played like a piano with regards to Vietnam, and it was too late to stop the lunatics from running the asylum. It was one of the reasons Johnson didn't run in 1968 - his mental state was already deteriorating at that point.

JFK probably would have still passed the civil rights bills that were on the table before his assassination, but let's credit LBJ for pressing ahead with the civil rights advances.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by palo5

Can't make this a poll, because I can't list all 44 of them, and almost no one knows anything of most of them anyway, so say what you think

Who was/is the best?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._of_presidents

There are actually only 43 to choose from because Grover Cleveland gets listed twice. He got beat in the 1888 presidential election by Benjamin Harrison, but stood again in 1892 and defeated Harrison in his turn. Given that even then presidential candidates had to face tough and competitive selection, this was a remarkable achievement in and of itself. Grover Cleveland is at once the 22nd and 24th POTUS.

Which of them was the best? It's a harder question than which was the worst IMHO because we are more conditioned to criticise than to praise. Also, to be a contender, I think you need to be more than a bland office manager, so the best one will have been proven so in a time of crisis.

On balance I'd say IMHO that Harry S Truman was the best. He had a very difficult term of office and was much vilified in his time, but my good opinon of him stems from the following reasons:

• He stood up to Stalin at Potsdam and later. One of FDR's worst failings was his naiveté in dealings with Stalin, epitomised by appointing the egregious Joe Davis to be the US Ambassador to Moscow. Truman knew a villain when he saw one and made very clear that the Yalta line, which he did not negotiate but was stuck with, was as far as Stalin could push his luck.
• He took the really hard and right decisions on dropping the nuclear bomb on Japan. He had seen the tapes of the Los Alamos test and knew how horrific this weapon was. I'm glad the cup passed to him and not me, but I won't cchicken out of endorsing his decision because it was horrible. It may be the worst bullet a President has ever had to bite; Mr Truman bit it without flinching.
• He sacked General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur was a turd and more vain than Naomi Campbell. Sacking him was an excellent day's work. Damn shame he didn't bust Curtis Le May's ass to Private First Class while he was at it.
• He at once orchestrated the NATO/UN alliance in the Korean War and prevented the escalation of this dangerous conflict even though China and Russia foolishly made plain their involvement as illegal combatants.
• He approved and supported the Marshall Plan under which the shattered European economies received both capital to rebuild and economic support. The postwar prosperity of Europe was in no small part Mr Truman's legacy; he had the rare gift of enlightened self-interest and appreciated that America would benefit if Europe was prosperous and peaceful.
• He broke with the most ill-educated policies of his predecessor, FDR, and Hoover before him, and removed the excessive import tariffs which had stifled trade during the Depression. Mr Truman pursued a free trade agenda. I would argue that history has vindicated his decision.
• Having inherited the Morganthau plan Mr Truman made the mistake of trying to implement it. It was at once wicked and stupid; only the visceral hate felt towards the defeated German nation in 1945 can explain how the Allies decided to dismantle German industry and take away the livelihoods of tens of millions of people. So stupid and cruel...and self-harming. People in Britain went hungry until in 1953 on really short rations so that the people of Germany would not downright starve; thanks partly to the Morganthau Plan. It was Mr Truman who decided in 1947 that the stupidity had to stop, that a prostrated and starving Germany was actually a Bad Idea. Winston Churchill had said this to FDR in 1944 but FDR didn't listen to Churchill very much. In fairness, ignoring Churchill was often a very good move.
• Harry Truman was a pioneer of health care reform in the USA, long before LBJ. He was deeply shocked when as Vice President he learned that more than a third of applicants to join the forces in 1941-2 were rejected due to medical problems mostly related to malnuitrition. The Depression has done terrible harm to the health of the nation's potential soldiers. Truman was arguably the first president to address the point that letting the poor go without medical cover was and is not actually in the national interest. Screw morality; it wasn't even clever.
• Mr Truman created the security of the Western alligned nations in western Europe and the Pacific. Arguably it was a hegemonic empire of client states asking "How High?" whenever Uncle Sam said "Jump!", but I am one of the billions who owe personal freedom to this protection which the USA gave to her friends. It was no free ride, and indeed Britain had one of the most expensive and uncomfortable seats; but it was still better than walking.
• Lyndon LaRouche and his talking head, Alexandra Perebikovsky, both revile Harry Truman for not bankrupting Great Britain when instead he gave permission to Clement Attlee to devalue the pound sterling, as he had a veto over that under the Bretton Woods agreement and could have said "no." I want Mr LaRouche and Ms Perebikovsky to both eat shit and die, so their low opinion of Mr Truman is as good as an accolade as far as I am concerned.

I know there's no poll and its only a figure of speech, but I vote for Harry S Truman.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by hudley

Calvin Coolidge. He stayed out of the way.

Hmm. He stayed out of the way of the speculative bubble which led directly to the worst economic conditions in the 20th Century, years in which my grandfather cut logs in a workhouse in return for foodstamps. Thanks, Calvin.

[haroldeye]

Scoundrel #8 is one of the best posts I have ever read.