Presidential Pondering

Presidential Pondering (Full Version)

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dcnovice -> Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 2:01:25 PM)
No matter whom* the holiday honors, it's an opportunity to pause and ponder the 43 men who've governed the nation. So I'm curious, in a light-heated way, about posters' presidential preferences: (a) Who was the greatest President and why? (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? (d) Who's the most overrated President? (e) Who's the most underrated? *What President(s) does the holiday honor? The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is a bit snippy about this legally being "Washington's Birthday," but many folks now broaden their focus to Lincoln and perhaps others.

jlf1961 -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 2:09:08 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice No matter whom* the holiday honors, it's an opportunity to pause and ponder the 43 men who've governed the nation. So I'm curious, in a light-heated way, about posters' presidential preferences: quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice (a) Who was the greatest President and why? I have to say JFK, he actually worked toward dealing with civil rights issues, as well as other social problems of the sixties. quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? JFK, I liked his philosophy quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? JFK again quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice (d) Who's the most overrated President? There are two in my opinion. Ronald Reagan. I am sorry, but he did not cause the collapse of the Soviet Union, It was a popular social economic uprising, nothing Saint Ronald did led to this event. Obama, he has done nothing to stick to the goals he set for his presidency, he buckled on health care, and has really done nothing more than pander to Republicans, he took the middle of the road and stayed there. quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice (e) Who's the most underrated? Not sure

TheHeretic -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 2:19:28 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice (a) Who was the greatest President and why? (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? (d) Who's the most overrated President? (e) Who's the most underrated? a) Lincoln, for the whole preservation of the union/ending slavery thing. b) I've always like Jefferson. I think he should get his own holiday, but will admit that's also about getting another three-day in, between today and the end of May. c) Nixon, so I could kick him in the nuts. I took a few of his policies very personally. d) Obama. e) I'm not enough of a scholar to have a good thought on that, but I'll be interested to see opinions.

DesideriScuri -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 3:12:04 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice No matter whom* the holiday honors, it's an opportunity to pause and ponder the 43 men who've governed the nation. So I'm curious, in a light-heated way, about posters' presidential preferences: (a) Who was the greatest President and why? What is really sad is that I have never taken the time or made the effort to get to know our Presidents. I am certain that each has merits and shortcomings, and that most could be an acceptable answer to this question. I answer this question only admitting my lack of honest ability answer it. quote: (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? See above. quote: (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? This is an incredibly difficult one to answer. Not because I don't wish to have met any, but that there weren't any that I wouldn't have enjoyed meeting. The ones that stand our most are the first several, who also find themselves among the Founders. I would really love to get to meet Bush 43 alone in a room with the ability to give him "truth serum." I want to know why the fuck he made some decisions he made. quote: (d) Who's the most overrated President? (e) Who's the most underrated? I'm going to have to give the same answer to these as I did to (a) and (b), above. quote: *What President(s) does the holiday honor? The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is a bit snippy about this legally being "Washington's Birthday," but many folks now broaden their focus to Lincoln and perhaps others. I have always thought that "President's Day" was to honor all the Presidents, but fell on the Monday closest to Washington's Birthday simply because he was the first President.

DomKen -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 3:25:42 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice No matter whom* the holiday honors, it's an opportunity to pause and ponder the 43 men who've governed the nation. So I'm curious, in a light-heated way, about posters' presidential preferences: (a) Who was the greatest President and why? FDR for saving the free world and all that. quote: (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? FDR quote: (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? Jefferson. quote: (d) Who's the most overrated President? Reagan. Almost destroyed the nation (might still pull it off) and certain people worship the fool. quote: (e) Who's the most underrated? Carter. Made the hard decisions and got no credit for being right.

nighthawk3569 -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 3:28:46 PM)
(a) Who was the greatest President and why? (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? (d) Who's the most overrated President? (e) Who's the most underrated? (a) John F. Kennedy...he had the balls to stand up to the world on Cuba (I was personally involved in the Cuban Crisis) (b) again, JFK, for a number of reasons...although I didn't agree with him on everything (c) Lincoln...BEFORE he was elected the 1st time (d) Two...FDR and Obama...between them, they've done more harm to the US than all the rest put together...including Woodrow Wilson and Nixon (e) Jimmy Carter 'hawk

muhly22222 -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 4:43:58 PM)
quote: (a) Who was the greatest President and why? (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? (d) Who's the most overrated President? (e) Who's the most underrated? (a) Lincoln. Hands down. No President had to oversee a more difficult time in this country's history, and he did it with aplomb. He is not only the greatest President, he is one of the greatest men of all time. (b) Lincoln is probably the real answer here, too, but for the sake of being different (and bipartisan), I'll say Truman. What Truman accomplished, coming from where he did, was simply remarkable. Farm boy from Missouri, no college degree...all the way to President. Not only that, but he was a man who was firm in his convictions, and was willing to risk his political future for them. Look at the way he ran on the idea of integrating the military, and lost a number of states in the South (at the time, a Democratic stronghold). (c) Lincoln is definitely the answer to this question, although I'll put Washington as a close second. Washington is another one of those men who can be held up in the pantheon of great men of history. (d) This one was hard for me to answer, but FDR was the first one who came to mind. That's not to say that he didn't do some good things (having the U.S. ready, or at least somewhat read, for war before we were dragged into hostilities in WWII, for instance). But economists generally agree that his New Deal actually extended the Great Depression rather than alleviated it. (e) We'll go out on a limb here and say James K. Polk. He gained a significant amount of territory in what is now the southwest United States (at a time when it wasn't frowned upon to do so), managed to avoid war with Britain, passed a tariff, and established a treasury system that lasted until 1913 (he served in the 1840s). Despite only serving one term, he accomplished every item that was on his agenda. That's something that deserves to be recognized.

subrob1967 -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 4:46:39 PM)
A Jefferson B Sam Adams C Jefferson D Clinton E Cooledge

SadistDave -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 8:40:38 PM)
(a) Who was the greatest President and why? I'm going with Thomas Jefferson. There are a lot of great Presidents, but Jefferson presided over one of the most exciting times in American history. Being able to pull off the Louisianna Purchase and still cut taxes shows a lot of economic savvy. He stood up for his beliefs, even to the point of having his own former VP charged with treason. Love him or hate him, Jefferson had characterand believed that doing the right thing was more important than shallow political achievements. (b) Who was your personal favorite (if different from above) and why? George Washington. Well, there's that whole Revolutiuonary War thing... Washington was a terrible general who lost more battles than he won. Yet, he was elected unanimously as President of the United States after the war. I believe he is still the only President to ever get 100% of the electoral votes. (c) Which President do you wish you could have met? George Washington. (d) Who's the most overrated President? Barack Obama. No, I'm not going to go into a tirade about what a piece of shit he is. I can do that in any old thread. Looking at this completely from the aspect of expectations of a president as compared to the legacy they leave behind, I think history will show Obama to be the most overrated President for many decades to come. The expectations of his future accomlishments at the time of his elections are impossibly high. His press was too good, but eventually even his current supporters will realize that there is no possible way he could have lived up to the hype that got him elected twice. The fact that he's a double talking snake-oil salesman will only throw that realization into sharp relief when future generations look back at his 8 years in office. (e) Who's the most underrated? Samuel Huntington, Thomas McKean, John Hanson, Alias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham, Arthur St. Clair, and Cyrus Griffin are the most underated Presidents in American History. People forget that they were all Presidents before Washington because they were Presidents under the Articles of Confederation. The duties and responsibilities of the Office of the President changed under the Constitution however, the Articles of Confederation were the first documents proclaiming this country The United States of America, making George Washington a little bit of a Johnny-come-lately. The fact that most people don't even know that America had 7 Presidents before Washington makes them all the most underrated Presidents in American history. -SD-

Owner59 -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/18/2013 9:34:45 PM)
Lincoln.....for apposing evil. Clinton.....cuz he pretty much beat the cons at every turn. Theodore Roosevelt....what an awesome personality.....one of my heros. Saint Ronnie......the cons pretty much credit everything good that`s happened to him...and seem to want to rerun the the cadaver in every election cycle....lol Carter......a man who made historic peace and has helped tens of thousands live a noble life...in their own home. The man-crush/obsession the rightists have with President Obama is as Freudian as it`s hilarious...... Not sure why the cons call President Obama over rated......He`s popular but extraordinarily......he does deserves the poll ratings he gets...like everyone does. He`s certainly proven himself as competent and resolute and has been successful on many issues and is positioning to deal more blows to the right.They`ve pretty much given up and are for all intents and purposes....is leaderless. But there`s no hero worship.....not like what saint ronnie gets......He get`s the normal ammount of respect due any president. Maybe .........it`s the juxtaposition with the extraordinarily corrupt/inept/imbecilic/failure ridden bush, that makes the president look so damm good.... Or maybe it`s the guilt/shame of supporting such a world-class loser as bush, that pushes our rightists to hate our president so irrationally. Or maybe, it`s the president`s racial makeup....that`s behind the con`s disrespct of President Obama?

SadistDave -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/19/2013 2:27:03 PM)
quote: Or maybe, it`s the president`s racial makeup....that`s behind the con`s disrespct of President Obama? The real problem with the liberals insistence that racism was a factor in the 2008 and 2012 elections is that Obama was elected twice. That creates a big problem for that idiotic mantra libs have been repeating for for years, because it really suggests that the overwhelming evidence is that more people voted for Obama because of his racial make-up than against. But then liberals aren't very good at critical thinking. Perhaps that's why you all keep trying to make your nonsense seem to be true by repeating it for years on end in the hopes that someone will believe you. -SD-

dcnovice -> RE: Presidential Pondering (2/19/2013 5:12:31 PM)
FR Thanks, everyone, for the fascinating and thoughtful answers! James K. Polk was also my choice for underrated. And the pre-Constitution Presidents are, I agree, totally overlooked!

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