NationStates Jolt Archive

I found the "Rank the Presidents," thread kind of confusing, and it seems tedious having to list all 40+ of them in order. So, I'll make it simple. Just name your top 10, preferrably in order (from best to worst), though you can also list them chronologically.

My top 10 (in chronological order):

1.George Washington
2.Thomas Jefferson
3.James Madison
4.James Monroe
5.Andrew Jackson (except for the Trail of Tears, of course)
6.John Tyler
7.Andrew Johnson
8.Grover Cleveland
9.Calvin Coolidge

My top 10 (in chronological order):

1.George Washington
2.Thomas Jefferson
3.James Madison
4.James Monroe
5.Andrew Jackson (except for the Trail of Tears, of course)
6.John Tyler
7.Andrew Johnson
8.Grover Cleveland
9.Calvin Coolidge

Top 10...... wheres 10??

Top 10...... wheres 10??

Those are the only 9 I liked.

You forgot Ronald Reagan.

You forgot Ronald Reagan.
You forgot poland.

Those are the only 9 I liked.

LMAO!

You forgot poland.

:confused:

9.Calvin Coolidge

You like that idiot, who sat on his porch as the Great Depression approached and did nothing?

You like that idiot, who sat on his porch as the Great Depression approached and did nothing?

Blame Hoover, he basically reversed all Coolidge's policies and, once the Depression started, made it far worse due to his meddling.

You forgot poland.
That is the greatest comeback ever. I know sit in awe of your abilities to make the rest of us look like fools (unless you stole the line from somewhere, or it was a reference to real life, in which case I take it back).

That is the greatest comeback ever. I know sit in awe of your abilities to make the rest of us look like fools (unless you stole the line from somewhere, or it was a reference to real life, in which case I take it back).
Almost as good as a comeback as "You forgot [insert my favorite president here]".

Blame Hoover, he basically reversed all Coolidge's policies and, once the Depression started, made it far worse due to his meddling.

I suggest you read the essay "Why the Money Stopped" by John Kenneth Galbraith. Coolidge was warned repeatedly that the Stock Market was unstable, that the countries financal attmosphere was like a house of cards and that the whole economy was at the core unstable. And yet he did nothing, simply "dismissed the matter from his mind". Although Hoover contributed in his own disasterus way, the main fault lies with Coolidge, Hardings and their classical economic policies.

(Also, Hoover continued Coolidges policies, he did not reverse them).

David Rice Atchison pwns all other US Presidents.

(Yes, I'm already aware of the facts, but I don't care. It's still a cool story.)

I hate or at least dislike the policies of all of them. Theodore Roosevelt had style, though, and Jefferson had a few good ideas, but he didn’t use them in his presidency. Lincoln may or may not have done what he had to do, but its interesting to look at old speeches and see how, over time, he gradually became less of a white supremacist, to the point of saying the black man should have the right to vote.

So, I think I’ll do my list of my most hated,

1. “That Bitch” FDR (Policies as lame as his legs)
2. Lyndon B. Johnson (Idiot, Warmonger, Soldier Killer)
3. John F. Kennedy (Mob affiliate and general asshole)
4. Nixon (Damn commie with his price controls)
5. Eisenhower (Way to warn about the “military-industrial complex” while running the administration that created it, bastard)
6. Carter (Ineffective loser)
7. Ford (His ineffectiveness spawned Carter, making him only slightly less worse)
8. Bush sr.
8. Clinton
8. Bush jr. (bunch of Rebulicrat bitches)

BEST
1. Washington---gave up power, totally unknown idea
2. Lincoln---Pulled country through the worst of times
3. FDR---Pulled country through the next two worst times.
4. Jefferson---Doubled size of country, gave vision of a continental nation
5. Teddy Roosevelt---Pulled country out of the doldrums of late 19th century, started thinking about the environment.
6. Truman---Lots of guts and took responsibility for his actions.

Ten is almost 1/4. Not that many deserve honor.

WORST

1. GW Bush---So many things and so little room. Destroyed a united world. Attacks another country without cause. Takes from the poor to give to the rich. etc. etc. etc.
2. Grant---Fair general, poor president.
3. Andrew Johnson---No leadership ability. Allowed corruption of the south, which contributes to resentment even today.
4. Reagan---Mind was deteriorating. Committed TREASON by selling arms to the enemy and giving the money to a group Congress specifically said not to fund (against constitution.)
5. Hoover---Believed in "hands off" when the country needed "hands on".
6. Coolidge---Set up Hoover for the fall by doing nothing.

Again 10 is too many. About another 20 deserve little honor. The rest get a passing but not honorable grade.

Best

1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. Lincoln
5. Truman
6. Eisenhower
7. James Monroe
8. Regan
9. Clinton
10. John Adams


Worst

1. GW Bush
2. Nixon
3. Bush
4. Johnson
5. Hoover
6. Coolidge
7. Harrison
8. Garfield
9. Grant
10 Tyler

My top ten US presidents.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Bill Clinton
4. Woodrow Wilson
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Theodore Roosevelt
7. George Washington
8. John Adams
9. Andrew Jackson
10. Harry S. Truman

Worst Ten

1. Warren G. Harding
2. George W. Bush
3. Richard Nixon
4. Gerald Ford
5. Herbert Hoover
6. James Buchanan
7. Andrew Johnson
8. George H.W. Bush
9. Martin Van Buren
10. Jimmy Carter

5. Hoover---Believed in "hands off" when the country needed "hands on".

Bullshit. Hoover definitely believed in hands-on. He was a wage and price control freak, just like Mussolini. His enormous meddling in the economy made it a lot worse. Read America's Great Depression by Murray N. Rothbard.

1.FDR- self-explanatory
2.Lincoln- >federalism:eek: :sniper:Lincoln<
3.Carter- Worthless piece of shit who backstabbed allies over "human rights" abuses while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in communist countries
4.Johnson- Arch-communist (Great Society, "bridge building" with the Soviets, sanctions against Rhodesia, etc.)
5.Nixon- Socialist ("We are all Keynesians now"), even more pro-communist than Johnson (SALT I, recognizing Red China, backstabbing our allies in Indochina)
6.Hoover- Incompetent bastard whose meddling made the Depression much worse
7.Wilson- Internationalist whoremonger
8.Clinton- Chinagate
9.George H.W. Bush- Never met a dictator he didn't like, NWO whore, etc.
10.G.W. Bush- Self-explanatory

Top 22, first being best, twenty-second being worst:

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. George Washington

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt

4. Harry S. Truman

5. Theodore Roosevelt

6. Thomas Jefferson

7. Andrew Jackson

8. Dwight D. Eisenhower

9. Woodrow Wilson

10. James Madison

11. John F. Kennedy

12. Ronald Reagon

13. Richard Nixon

14. James Monroe

15. John Q. Adams

16. William McKinley

17. John Adams

18. Martin Van Buren

19. Zachary Taylor

20. Rutherford B. Hayes

21. Chester A. Arthur

22. James A. Garfield

Five Worst, fifth being best, first being worst:


5. Andrew Johnson

4. Ulysses S. Grant

3. George H. W. Bush

2. William J. Clinton

1. James Buchanan

5 Best:

1) FDR. The New Deal
2) Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation took guts.
3) Jefferson. The Louisiana Purchase.
4) Washington. Not taking kingship when offered.
5) Garfield. Not sure why.

5 Worst:

1) Reagan. The disaster that was his presidency was mitigated only by his accidentally doing good every once in a while.
2) G.W.Bush. See above, except he hasn't had 8 years yet.
3) John Adams. "The Constitution protects freedom of religion, but not freedom from religion."
4) Andrew Jackson. Started the wholesale massacre of Native Americans.
5) James Madison. Bourgeois elitist.

How anyone can consider Clinton one of the worst presidents is beyond me. His administration shattered every single previous economic record.
A detractor could say it wasn't his doing... but from my understanding to consider him as one of the worst presidents you must base it on things that went wrong that he is directly responsible for. I fail to see any.

Interesting.

A Canuck mentions Harding. People! He was by far the worst President ever! Even the man himself said he should not have had that position.

As much as I admire Madison, he was a rather mediocre President. A brilliant man for Constitution, but President?.

FDR is hated again :) Ah well, I guess it's a generation thing. My grandparents, etc., who lived during his time; like him. But hey airmchair economic forcasting is fun.

Hmmm maybe he should have tried "trickle down" economics? ;)

Hmm poor Jimmy. Meh. I don't hate him as I figure he was just a case of Peter Principle. Jimmy the President :eek: Jimmy has probably done more for people after his Presidency then any of the others. You will never see the shrub doing anything like Habitats. He has had a sliverspoon life.....

I had doubts about Truman. I guess he might be replaced by Polk, but I'll stick with him.
Harding is on my worst list in case you haven't noticed. :rolleyes:

How anyone can consider Clinton one of the worst presidents is beyond me. His administration shattered every single previous economic record.
A detractor could say it wasn't his doing... but from my understanding to consider him as one of the worst presidents you must base it on things that went wrong that he is directly responsible for. I fail to see any.

It's republican math. If it was great, then it's because of the economic policies set forth 10 years ago.

My fav:
1. Abraham Lincoln- I don't care what he did or didn't do, nor what he would have done had he had time for domestic policy (though he was probably a moderate). He kept the union together.
2. Ronald Reagan- No, it is not inapropriate to put him so high on my list. He changed the way people percieved America and its government, and they liked him for it. More significantly, he gave America moral backbone that had been deteriorating from thist country since the fifties.
3. Harry Truman- A strategic genius. Probably has the most responsibility of any president for ending the Cold War by starting it off right.
4. George Washington- Managed to keep nation together during its most critical and turbulent years, being its first decade. Also gets accolades for centralizing government and being the only US president to have led troops into battle while sitting in office.
5. Woodrow Wilson- Correctly saw the world changing, and rushed to realign the US with it. We refuse, at our own peril.
6. William McKinley- Made the US a world power.
7. FDR- Horrible in his domestic policy, but brilliant in his handling of WWII.
8. Teddy Roosevelt- Worked on what McKinley left him, only more popular.
9. James Polk- Engineered the expansion of the republic.
10. Thomas Jefferson- a heavy state's right advocate, which I am not. Yet he probably came closest to my ideaology than any of the presidents.

Interesting.

A Canuck mentions Harding. People! He was by far the worst President ever! Even the man himself said he should not have had that position.

But how many wars did Harding get us into?

But how many wars did Harding get us into?
Inaction won't get into or out of anything.
7. FDR- Horrible in his domestic policy, but brilliant in his handling of WWII. I personally feel that he was utterly brilliant at both. So much of what America's ecnonomy takes for granted today is thanks to FDR and Keynes.

Oh, and the worst.
1. Warren Harding- Idiot bar none.
2. Andrew Jackson- Despotic, a manipulator, and a man that never understood that others may be smarter than him (reason for Kitchen Cabinet).
3. James Buchannan- Saw the Union collapsing, and did nothing about it.
4. John Adams- Played with fire with the politically motivated Alien and Sedition acts. Nearly set a dangerous precedent to this union.
5. Ulysses S. Grant- Poor guy. Brilliant general, but headed the most corrupt administration in the US. Just look at Credit Mobilier.
6. FDR- Yes, he appears on both lists, for there were two FDRs: peacetime and wartime. Peacetime was horrible.
7. Lyndon Johnson- Closest thing the US has ever had to a socialist dictator. There's a good reason why detente started under him.
8. Herbert Hoover- Exacerbated the Great Depression from a severe correction to a dismal period in American history with his tarriff.
9. Ike- Aloof and lazy. Let the nation run on autopilot.
10. Millard Filmore- Perhaps one of the most uneventful presidencies in US history.

I can't help but take offense when someone places FDR (and perhaps even Andrew Jackson) on the worst list leaving out G dubya and/or his father.

FDR's acomplishment in pre-war domestic policies is simply staggering.

What's so staggering about FDR? He was a fascist. Read, for example, The Roosevelt Myth by John T. Flynn.

Would you believe me if I told you I already have?

To call FDR a fascist is to not understand what a fascist or fascism is.

Would you believe me if I told you I already have?

Sure, why not?

The book is very well written and his views are very well constructed, and based in sound reason. But they are invariably socialist or social-democratic in nature. FDR was a modern-liberal. I wouldn't have expected Hitler to write nice things about Karl Marx.

Maybe George Washington in the top 10, even though he was a failure as a president, but John Adams? John "Alien and Sedation acts" Adams? Come on, he ranks as one of the worst presidents of all time.

The book is very well written and his views are very well constructed, and based in sound reason. But they are invariably socialist or social-democratic in nature. FDR was a modern-liberal. I wouldn't have expected Hitler to write nice things about Karl Marx.

Actually, the author was libertarian-leaning. He supported a free-market, with a few restrictions. He thought monopolies should be broken up and some of the bigger businesses regulated to a certain extent, but on the whole, he was capitalist.

I guess I'll contribute my own list:

1. Theodore Roosevelt
2. John Quincy Adams
3. James Monroe
4. Calvin Coolidge
5. James K. Polk
6. Grover Cleveland
7. Ronald Reagan
8. Abraham Lincoln
9. Dwight D. Eisenhower
10. Thomas Jefferson

Maybe George Washington in the top 10, even though he was a failure as a president, but John Adams? John "Alien and Sedation acts" Adams? Come on, he ranks as one of the worst presidents of all time.

I personally like Adams a lot as a Founding Father, but not as a President.

I personally like Adams a lot as a Founding Father, but not as a President.
This is about presidents, not founding fathers...

This is about presidents, not founding fathers...

I know, I'm just saying, though.

Actually, the author was libertarian-leaning. He supported a free-market, with a few restrictions. He thought monopolies should be broken up and some of the bigger businesses regulated to a certain extent, but on the whole, he was capitalist.John T. Flynn was by american standards... a socialist.

John T. Flynn was by american standards... a socialist.

By American standards, maybe. But he did favor free enterprise. A better term for him would be progressive.

Favorite Presidents:

1) Thomas Jefferson. The combination of his ideas, the expansion of America, and the lack of any wars or conflicts during his time despite threats...
2) Abraham Lincoln. For restoring a semblance of stability to the Union and getting rid of slavery. Yes, it was important.
3) George Washington. Setting all the precedents for the future.
4) Franklin D. Roosevelt. Breaking them. Also, I like socialism, being a member of the working middle class.
5) Theodore Roosevelt. Not for his policies, which I don't particularly agree with, but because of his personality...
6) John F. Kennedy. For attempting to maintain peace, the personality issues, and that socialism thing again.
7) Harry S Truman. ...I'm not all too sure again...
8) Grover Cleveland. For speaking out against the spoils system.
9) Chester A. Arthur. For ending it. (And doing little else of note.)
10) William J. Clinton. The economy did well under him and some of his policies were socially and economically liberal. However, I don't consider his presidency that much of a success.

On the other side, the worsts:

1) George W. Bush. For 9/11, invading Iraq, the economy downswing, Katrina, Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the Supreme Court justices, the nuclear option, and a ton of other shit that he's dumped on America.
2) Richard Nixon. See Bush. At least he had the decency to resign on us.
3) Ronald Reagan. I disagree with his social and economic policies, and let's not forget treason.
4) John "There is freedom of religion, but there is no freedom from religion" Adams. Alien & Sedition acts, too.
5) Ulysses S. Grant. Corruption. Failed presidency.
6) Warren Harding. Corruption, bad economic policy.
7) Gerald Ford. Come on, you give us this guy who wasn't even elected?!
8) George H. W. Bush. The new taxes thing, the Gulf War, and economic policies.
9) William H. Taft. Personality-wise, a failure. Presidency not a resounding success either.
10) Lyndon B. Johnson. Great Society etc. were fine, but overall not one of our finest Presidents. Plus the personality issue.

Now this list I like.

What's so staggering about FDR? He was a fascist. Read, for example, The Roosevelt Myth by John T. Flynn.
A fascist is an extreme conservative as a communist is an extreme liberal. FDR could in no way be a facist. Maybe Reagan with his 100 ship navy, when the Pentagon said they wouldn't know what to do with 100 ships. (They put a bunch in mothballs.) Or GW for going to war for no reason.
If anything FDR was a socialist with such a "liberal" idea as Social Security. (Isn't it funny that "conservatives" will defend to the death ideas that their grandfathers saw as "liberal"?)

Maybe George Washington in the top 10, even though he was a failure as a president, but John Adams? John "Alien and Sedation acts" Adams? Come on, he ranks as one of the worst presidents of all time.

He wasn't a failure as a president. I'm not sure what your babbling about. The guy single handedly stopped a lot threats to the young republic even after the Revolutionary war was over such as the newburg conspiracy and the national debt issue. He did it by using the prestige he was viewd by in his citizens, and flat our rationalization by using some of the republic's best minds at the time. (Hamilton, Jefferson) He next to Jefferson are the prime examples of how a president should really be.

Clinton himself could have been great if it wasn't for his gun grabbing and interventionalist policies, but the man had no real threat to the country to deal with in comparison to Washington, Truman, FDR, and Lincoln.