# Favorite US Presidents elected during your lifetime **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150 "2005-03-25T04:03:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/41 "2005-03-25T20:55:24Z")
I wouldn’t say “favorite,” but for “least annoying,” I’d plop down Bush Sr., Carter, and Clinton, in no particular order. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/42 "2005-03-25T21:36:28Z")
Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/43 "2005-03-26T00:13:51Z")
1. Reagan. 2. Carter 3. GWB 4. GHWB 5. Clinton ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Ann\_Thrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@Ms\_Ann\_Thrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Ann_Thrope)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/44 "2005-03-26T00:36:45Z")
I was born the year JFK was assassinated so remember next to nothing about him, or Lyndon Johnson. By the time Nixon came around I was starting to pay attention to politics, and date the loss of my political and spiritual virginity to 1972/1973 and the Watergate scandal. All I remember about Gerald Ford was that the man couldn’t remember to remove his glasses before he took his sweater off. Or was that just a Saturday Night Live skit? At any rate, there’s only one name on my list for favorite president during my lifetime, and that would be Jimmy Carter. Didn’t like Clinton, always felt he was a Republican dressed in Democratic clothing. Here’s my list of hated, with Reagan leading the pack 1 – Reagan 2 – Nixon 3 – Dubya 4 – Bush Sr ---
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/45 "2005-03-26T01:20:52Z")
Since Ford wasn’t elected: 1)Reagan 2)GHW Bush 3)G Bush 4)Nixon 5)Carter 6)Clinton ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/46 "2005-03-26T03:14:37Z")
Clinton is by far my favorite president elected during my life. I didn’t like Carter as a child, but now I have come to admire him. The Camp David accords were a major accomplishment. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/47 "2005-04-10T14:27:47Z")
1: Reagan 2: George W I didn’t care for Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush Sr. or Clinton, that’s it for my lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/48 "2005-04-10T14:35:55Z")
1. Jimmy Carter By far and away the most moral and decent president 2. Lyndon Johnson The Civil Rights Act outweighs Vietnam 3. Bill Clinton Peace and prosperity, fiscal responsibility 4. John Kennedy Just think of GWB in office during the Cuban Missile Crisis 5. George HW Bush Actually quite capable and restrained compare to his offspring 6. Richard Nixon Now we’re getting down in the dregs 7. Ronald Reagan The most overrated in history. His legacy is bankrupting the treasury 8. George W Bush Perhaps the only truly evil president in history If Ford had been elected, I’d stick him behind JFK ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/49 "2005-04-10T21:29:05Z")
Top ten, in no particular order:[ol][li]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[_]Reagan[\*]Reagan[/ol][/li] 🙂 Actually, it would be [ul][li]Reagan[_]Eisenhower[_]LBJ[\*]Bush Sr.[/ul][/li]Carter was an incompetent bumbler, Nixon’s domestic abuses outweighed his foreign policies, Kennedy damn near caused WWIII, and Clinton’s major accomplishment was to push Congress over to the Republicans. So perhaps he should go on the list somewhere. Ford accomplished essentially nothing, and it is too soon to tell with Bush Jr. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/50 "2005-04-11T02:35:52Z")
Born during Johnson II (or 1 1/2), and he didn’t run again, so… Best to worst: Clinton Nixon Carter Bush I Reagan Bush II I’m a Dem but I really like the EPA. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/51 "2005-04-11T04:18:34Z")
My list of presidents is pretty short. 1. Reagan (good. He helped bring down the Soviet Union.) 2. Bush Sr. (okay.) 3. Clinton (a decent president, but personally a greasy scumball.) 4. W Bush (He handled 9/11 well, but Iraq was a big mistake. Still, if Iraq pulls together, I might have to move him up to third place.) I was born while Carter was president, but I don’t remember him, so I’ll leave him off the list. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/52 "2005-04-11T21:41:53Z")
1. **Carter** (a decent man, but not a terribly good administrator.) 2. **Clinton** (a tolerable conservative who blew some good opportunities.) 3. **Ford** (I know he wasn’t elected, and that he didn’t do a whole lot, but I think that he had some ethics, despite his Nixon association.) 4. **Bush Sr.** (Decent foreign policy, but a dud domestically at a time when we needed a good domestic president. Bad fiscal steward.) 5. **Reagan** (Saddled future generations with ruinous debt. Ushered the religious right back into political power. Meddled in criminal wars in Central America. Negotiated directly with Iranian terrorists.) 6. **Nixon** (A horribly corrupt criminal who had a couple of shining moments in the foreign policy department. He was a feel-bad president who wrecked the Republican Party, ruined what trust in government we had, and prosecuted Johnson’s foolish war in Vietnam too long, bringing it into Cambodia of all places. Overthrew the legitimately elected government of Chile. And then there’s Watergate…) 7. **Bush Jr.** (Easily the worst president we’ve yet had. Further wrecked the economy, grew the deficit, earned resentment from much of the rest of the world, pandered to the religious right by actively eroding the wall between church and state. Obfuscates policy for the press and encourages public contempt for the Fourth Estate. Stole the 2000 election. A crook, a chisler, a huckster.) ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150/53 "2005-04-11T22:53:33Z")
None of the Presidents during my lifetime have particularly impressed me. I was born during Reagan, but was not in even the tiniest part aware of world events until the first Bush (I remember my elementary school maps starting to change from the U.S.S.R. to Russia - I suppose I could form an opinion out of that if I HAD to, but…). I would say: G. H. W. Bush Clinton G. W. Bush in that order. The goal is to have one Harry Truman in my next sixty plus years of life… though I imagine I’ll end up with a bunch of Carters and Nixons coming at me from all sides instead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-us-presidents-elected-during-your-lifetime/296150.md?page=2)