he was very quiet, someone came up to him at a state dinner or function, and said to him, "i have a bet with my wife that i can get you to say more than two words"
coolidge just looked at him and said "you lose" and turned and walked away.
silent cal.
worst:
andrew jackson, if they'd have had ovens or gas chambers back then he'd of used them on native americans. or the man coolidge succeeded
Nominate who you think is the Greatest & the Worst Presidents ever to serve..
not that i am going to get into this thread (it has flame-bait written ALL over it), but what are your criteria for "greatest" and "worst." is this based solely on personal opinion? i mean, in the modern era (let's say since fdr) almost every president has done some things exceptionally well, and failed in other respects. i would love to hear what some of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers would say about some of the nominations made here. they'd probably tell you stories like "yeah, he SOUNDS good, but lemme tell you what REALLY happened..."
not that i am going to get into this thread (it has flame-bait written ALL over it), but what are your criteria for "greatest" and "worst." is this based solely on personal opinion? i mean, in the modern era (let's say since fdr) almost every president has done some things exceptionally well, and failed in other respects. i would love to hear what some of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers would say about some of the nominations made here. they'd probably tell you stories like "yeah, he SOUNDS good, but lemme tell you what REALLY happened..."
well then let me tell you about nixon.
bad stuff:
enemies lists
illegal break-ins
illegal wire-taps
abused executive privilige
used the fbi to investigate enemies listers.
used irs to harass enemies listers
paid people to commit perjury
destroyed evidence
lessened the presidency
good stuff
détente with soviet union
established relations with china
continued johnson's war on poverty and other "great society" programs
began the end of the viet nam war.
from his first inaugural;
"Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear. He could say in surveying the Nation's troubles, they concern, thank God, only material things.
Our crisis today is the reverse. We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth."
not that i am going to get into this thread (it has flame-bait written ALL over it), but what are your criteria for "greatest" and "worst."
No....This is definitely NOT intended as a flame bait..
.
Mind you, I am coming to believe some Ai'ers flame bait for the hell of it..regardless of the topic...eg " How wet is water " will get the steam rising..for instance..
I really am fascinated by this topic..I studied American history in Highschool....& have always loved the subject..It is amazing to think that people in Australia would have it on the curriculum..But I enjoyed it & still do..
But your point is noted re Greatness Vs Worstness.
I did think about it Rok, and thought it best to leave it open..
Remembering & respecting the fact that there are many Ai'ers who are under 30 as well those who are over 40..So we've all seen em come and go...( Presidents that is )& we're all bound to have different measures of greatness and worstness....
Worst: Carter, great human being, bad president, he was too nice of a guy to be effective.
Best: Lincoln, not b/c of emancipation(that was great) but b/c he was able pull it together during the most bloody and contentious period of US history.
JFK? what did he do, spent money on NASA(I like it) get us involved in Vietnam (bloody mess), Cuban missle crisis (showed us that he had some balls, showed us why he had a medal of honor), phillandering (It's good to be king), Bay of Pigs (another bloody mess) balances out that he was a strong man and mostly an effective president the greatest? No.
FDR. A close second. What can I say the man fought the Great Depression, and mobilized the nation against one of the greatest evils ever.
Reagan, the great communicator, very effective in what he wanted to accomplish, people still worship that man's terms in office.
Teddy Roosevelt, the rough rider, the mans man, don't know enough about his presidency
Jackson, dirty genocidal bastard, may he rot in hell with Hitler and Stalin.
[edit: oops-- forgot my vote. Lincoln is my favorite, because of his character and conviction. Of course, not man people liked him at the time. Heck, he didn't even have top billing for his "Gettysburg Address." I think he followed the dwarf, er.., people-of-small-size-tossing contest.
I find it interesting that no-one has mentioned Washington, Hoover or Truman...\
I mentioned Washington.
I used to think Truman was one of the greatest. Then I read Coulter's new book, and I had second thoughts. She *claims* that Truman only became "anti-communist" towards the end of his Presidency and openly called Stalin "Uncle Joe". His administration was riddled with communists and worse...Soviet Agents (that's a fact...not Coulter's opinion). So, I'm not sure anymore. I still have a favorable impression of him at this point...overall.
jimmac:
Quote:
An easy one. The best Kennedy. The worst Richard Milhous Nixon. Especially now that it seems he ordered the break in.
I ask you to believe me that I'm not just disagreeing with you for fun here. I just don't get the choices. It's a question of criteria.
Kennedy was one of the most popular and historically well-liked Presidents. He was inspiring (as you know better than I) and challenged the nation to greatness. He cut taxes (*cough*!). He laid out the bold moon mission initiative. While some point to the Cuban missle crisis as a success, some other folks believe that Kennedy shouldn't have allowed the the missiles there in the first place, and completely screwed up with the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy was a good President. But "the best"? I really disagree. Not when compared to the likes of Washington, FDR, Reagan, Lincoln, Jefferson, etc.
Nixon: I can understand why you'd say that. I can't include him on the list though, because he was actually a very skillful man in the Presidency. He is often considered the greatest President in history on foreign affairs. He greatly reduced the forces in Vietnam and began to win the war at the same time. He was extremely intelligent and well-liked before "the incident". Unfortunately, power corrupted him and he comitted some horrendus crimes. I don't think it's a fair label to call him one of the "worst" Presidents as a result of these crimes. One of the most corrupt? Yes. But the man was not bad at his job by any stretch of the imagination.
Worst: Carter, great human being, bad president, he was too nice of a guy to be effective.
it's often been said president carter's failure as a president was because he was "too nice" of a guy.
i think his real failure was that he micromanaged everything in the white house to death. he didn't let people do their jobs, he even had to have final approval over the scheduling of the white house tennis courts.
harding once lost all the white house china in a card game.
Comments
calvin coolidge.
i am totally serious.
he was tremendous.
he was very quiet, someone came up to him at a state dinner or function, and said to him, "i have a bet with my wife that i can get you to say more than two words"
coolidge just looked at him and said "you lose" and turned and walked away.
silent cal.
worst:
andrew jackson, if they'd have had ovens or gas chambers back then he'd of used them on native americans. or the man coolidge succeeded
warren gamalial harding, what a corrupt scumbag.
Worst: Richard Nixon
Best: FDR.
Harding of course was a rat bastard. Teapot Dome anyone?
Originally posted by Eugene
I don't know about Coolidge. Nothing he did stands out. He just rode the 1920s and handed it off to Hoover just before the bubble burst.
Harding of course was a rat bastard. Teapot Dome anyone?
he was the gerald ford of his time.
Originally posted by Rick1138
Worst: G. W. Bush, for obvious reasons
Best: FDR.
Yes...obvious.
Best: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Reagan
Worst: Wilson, Carter, Clinton, A. Johnson,
Nixon, while corrupt, was not a "bad President" skill-wise.
http://www.listentome.net/stuff14.html
^ Comprehensive list.
Worst: Harrison, Andrew Johnson, Carter (sorry).
Originally posted by aquafire
Nominate who you think is the Greatest & the Worst Presidents ever to serve..
not that i am going to get into this thread (it has flame-bait written ALL over it), but what are your criteria for "greatest" and "worst." is this based solely on personal opinion? i mean, in the modern era (let's say since fdr) almost every president has done some things exceptionally well, and failed in other respects. i would love to hear what some of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers would say about some of the nominations made here. they'd probably tell you stories like "yeah, he SOUNDS good, but lemme tell you what REALLY happened..."
Originally posted by rok
not that i am going to get into this thread (it has flame-bait written ALL over it), but what are your criteria for "greatest" and "worst." is this based solely on personal opinion? i mean, in the modern era (let's say since fdr) almost every president has done some things exceptionally well, and failed in other respects. i would love to hear what some of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers would say about some of the nominations made here. they'd probably tell you stories like "yeah, he SOUNDS good, but lemme tell you what REALLY happened..."
well then let me tell you about nixon.
bad stuff:
enemies lists
illegal break-ins
illegal wire-taps
abused executive privilige
used the fbi to investigate enemies listers.
used irs to harass enemies listers
paid people to commit perjury
destroyed evidence
lessened the presidency
good stuff
détente with soviet union
established relations with china
continued johnson's war on poverty and other "great society" programs
began the end of the viet nam war.
from his first inaugural;
"Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear. He could say in surveying the Nation's troubles, they concern, thank God, only material things.
Our crisis today is the reverse. We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth."
this guy was f*cking shakespearean!
Originally posted by rok
not that i am going to get into this thread (it has flame-bait written ALL over it), but what are your criteria for "greatest" and "worst."
No....This is definitely NOT intended as a flame bait..
.
Mind you, I am coming to believe some Ai'ers flame bait for the hell of it..regardless of the topic...eg " How wet is water " will get the steam rising..for instance..
I really am fascinated by this topic..I studied American history in Highschool....& have always loved the subject..It is amazing to think that people in Australia would have it on the curriculum..But I enjoyed it & still do..
But your point is noted re Greatness Vs Worstness.
I did think about it Rok, and thought it best to leave it open..
Remembering & respecting the fact that there are many Ai'ers who are under 30 as well those who are over 40..So we've all seen em come and go...( Presidents that is )& we're all bound to have different measures of greatness and worstness....
Best: Lincoln, not b/c of emancipation(that was great) but b/c he was able pull it together during the most bloody and contentious period of US history.
JFK? what did he do, spent money on NASA(I like it) get us involved in Vietnam (bloody mess), Cuban missle crisis (showed us that he had some balls, showed us why he had a medal of honor), phillandering (It's good to be king), Bay of Pigs (another bloody mess) balances out that he was a strong man and mostly an effective president the greatest? No.
FDR. A close second. What can I say the man fought the Great Depression, and mobilized the nation against one of the greatest evils ever.
Reagan, the great communicator, very effective in what he wanted to accomplish, people still worship that man's terms in office.
Teddy Roosevelt, the rough rider, the mans man, don't know enough about his presidency
Jackson, dirty genocidal bastard, may he rot in hell with Hitler and Stalin.
Originally posted by Anders
DOn´t know about the worst. But the peanut farmer was the best
I can just hear the fwooshes now.
Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar
established relations with china
"Only Nixon can go to China."
-- old Vulcan proverb.
[edit: oops-- forgot my vote. Lincoln is my favorite, because of his character and conviction. Of course, not man people liked him at the time. Heck, he didn't even have top billing for his "Gettysburg Address." I think he followed the dwarf, er.., people-of-small-size-tossing contest.
Originally posted by aquafire
I find it interesting that no-one has mentioned Washington, Hoover or Truman...
I mentioned Washington.
I used to think Truman was one of the greatest. Then I read Coulter's new book, and I had second thoughts. She *claims* that Truman only became "anti-communist" towards the end of his Presidency and openly called Stalin "Uncle Joe". His administration was riddled with communists and worse...Soviet Agents (that's a fact...not Coulter's opinion). So, I'm not sure anymore. I still have a favorable impression of him at this point...overall.
jimmac:
An easy one. The best Kennedy. The worst Richard Milhous Nixon. Especially now that it seems he ordered the break in.
I ask you to believe me that I'm not just disagreeing with you for fun here. I just don't get the choices. It's a question of criteria.
Kennedy was one of the most popular and historically well-liked Presidents. He was inspiring (as you know better than I) and challenged the nation to greatness. He cut taxes (*cough*!). He laid out the bold moon mission initiative. While some point to the Cuban missle crisis as a success, some other folks believe that Kennedy shouldn't have allowed the the missiles there in the first place, and completely screwed up with the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy was a good President. But "the best"? I really disagree. Not when compared to the likes of Washington, FDR, Reagan, Lincoln, Jefferson, etc.
Nixon: I can understand why you'd say that. I can't include him on the list though, because he was actually a very skillful man in the Presidency. He is often considered the greatest President in history on foreign affairs. He greatly reduced the forces in Vietnam and began to win the war at the same time. He was extremely intelligent and well-liked before "the incident". Unfortunately, power corrupted him and he comitted some horrendus crimes. I don't think it's a fair label to call him one of the "worst" Presidents as a result of these crimes. One of the most corrupt? Yes. But the man was not bad at his job by any stretch of the imagination.
Originally posted by LiquidR
Worst: Carter, great human being, bad president, he was too nice of a guy to be effective.
it's often been said president carter's failure as a president was because he was "too nice" of a guy.
i think his real failure was that he micromanaged everything in the white house to death. he didn't let people do their jobs, he even had to have final approval over the scheduling of the white house tennis courts.
harding once lost all the white house china in a card game.