My working theory is that history smiles kindly on these figures and maybe we have never had a truly great president. What do you think?
Obviously one can quibble about the definition of greatness ad infinitum, all political leaders have serious and grave failings, from President Obama back to Hammurabi…maybe individuals of semi-mythical status such as Cincinnatus are exceptions.
Kennedy and Reagan both possessed the aura of greatness, they were inspiring and were proud to be Americans and made you proud to be an American. However at the detailed level I find both of them made grave errors and poor decisions, both had some corruption issues, and Kennedy can be reasonably accused of doing very little legislatively due to inability to negotiate adequately with Congress.
FDR was little more than a demagogue who would be objectively considered to be a monster had WWII not happened.
From what I can tell Theodore Roosevelt was the last truly great President. He had that aura of greatness and he was almost non-partisan, choosing to do what was right regardless of the political ramifications. He correctly understood the importance of naval power, and on virtually every major issue that arose during his Presidency he followed a course of action that ultimately has been proven right through the lens of history.
I was in the process of typing a response and it got lost, so… Very much what Martin Hyde said. I think a lot of “greatness” is defined by what the office threw at them while they were there, and so some presidents look good simply by being “fortunate” enough to be in office during a crisis, and others very well may have handled things well had they had such events, but didn’t. So when looking at traditional greats, I have to wonder how well another president might have handled those events they get great credit for, but also how they failed or didn’t fail at other things.
Again, like he says, Kennedy and Reagan were great inspiring leaders, but they had a number of other flaws and scandals and such that I think undermine their actualy leadership capabilities. I also think FDR horribly mismanaged the depression and did a lot of things to dork with the balance of power. Yes, he gets credit for WW2, but I really don’t think he did anything particularly special as the US just plain had a lot of advantages going into the war.
I might have considered Wilson, but his stroke along with the failed League of Nations I think puts him out. I also considered TR, and he’s probably the closest we get, but I feel like he sort of marred himself with how he handled much of his post presidency, but I dunno if we can really count that. And, I dislike Lincoln for many of the same reasons I dislike FDR, so he’s also a no-go. And, being too lazy to think about any others not on the list, I went with the most recent of the ones I do like, which was Jefferson.
I voted Other and was surprised Other isn’t winning the race. 
Teddy Roosevelt should have been an option. Perhaps no one since has been as “great” as Teddy, so he’d be the answer for some threshold settings.
And there are 3 or 4 candidates for Greatest Presidents since FDR I’d consider before either Kennedy or Reagan.
:dubious: 
:smack: Cite?
How about Coolidge? What other president left so much of well enough alone?
I’ve been alive during every presidency from Truman through Obama, and there isn’t one I’d describe as “great.” (Well, I was pretty young when Truman was in office, but I’m assuming if he’d been great, I’d have heard about it.) So in my memory, the only ones who even had a potential for greatness were Johnson, Reagan, Clinton and Obama, and they’ve all fallen short.
So that makes FDR the last.
Nit picking, it should the question should be “Who was the most recent” and not “Who was the last”, unless the US isn’t going to have any more great presidents.
I’m glad that for the moment at least, the poll results here to not reflect Mr. Hyde’s distinct minority opinion. 
FDR. Handled the depression and WWII, either of which would have put him up there with the presidencies of Lincoln or Washington. Washington gets extra points for pre-presidential services. The depression was caused by idiotic fiscal policies of Republicans and FDR led people through an otherwise hopeless time. The Republican talking point that he caused it, or made it worse, or continued it is nothing but lies by the inheritors of those who did cause it and who would cause it again if given the opportunity.
Neither Kennedy, nor Reagan led the country through a difficult time and should not even be considered, but seeing as others have taken a swipe at FDR, I’m going to have a go at Reagan.
Reagan was a shitheel of unprecedented proportions. (And I include here his administration, as he was just an Alzheimer’s afflicted racist figurehead.) He launched his campaign for president in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town of no note or worth other than being the site of some racially motivated murders, which he then did not refer to in his address. He did everything he could to stoke racial resentments, calling poor people welfare queens and deadbeats. Reagan ran up enormous deficits while drastically cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy to the point where the larger a corporation is today the less it actually pays in taxes, sometimes not paying any taxes on billions in profits. He ran up these deficits by buying weapons for wars that were fought forty years before he became president and empowered a military industrial complex that continues to chew up our economy to this day. When he demogogued, such as “I paid for this microphone” he actually plagarized, and couldn’t tell the difference between fact and fiction.
His personal calendar was set in consultation with an astrologer, and he regularly negotiated with terrorists and gave our enemies weapons so that death squads in Central America could pocket the proceeds, funding their assassination war against nuns and priests and others who spoke up for human rights.
He cut and run in Lebannon after the Marine barracks was bombed. He strutted his stuff like a cock on the walk after using the full force of the US military to take control of the island of Grenada from a few dozen policemen and Cuban construction workers.
He raised taxes on the poor and middle class and mid sized businesses numerous times. Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 - Wikipedia
The only saving graces for the Reagan administration where the administrations of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, both of which were every bit as criminal, hateful, venal and stupid.
Ronald Reagan of course.
And this is who I think were the truly great US Presidents:
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James K Polk
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Richard Nixon
Ronald Reagan
I’d love to answer “LBJ”, but Vietnam just makes it impossible for me to do so.
FDR, then.
You are absolutely correct.
That is nitpicking. 
BTW I created the list off the top of my head and did not consider Teddy Roosevelt, primarily because of my ignorance of his achievements.
I also have a few reflections that popularity doesn’t make a president great, though I included Reagan because he was so popular; and being really good isn’t the same thing as being great. I think of greatness as one of these:
Having a vision of what is best for the country that goes against the conventional wisdom, you convince everybody to go your way, and then you turn out to be right.
Embracing a goal that everyone agrees on but nobody knows what to do about, and then achieving it. Maybe even that’s not greatness, just good execution. But it is so rare I think of it as great.
Ronald Reagan.
And when a thread titled “Who are your top 9 Presidents?” pops up, all you’ll have to do is link to this post.
Much as I admire Reagan, there is a mixed record there. So I nominate Eisenhower, who was a legitimate great American even before his very consequential presidency.
Still, at least his post includes the answer to the question.
I voted “Other” because I believe that Bill Clinton was at least on Kennedy’s level.
Couldn’t that just be because of the inadequacies of his two successors.
Nixon is the last President who achieved anything of note rather than reacted to events.