# Most badass presidents in history **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105 "2018-04-25T15:20:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/1 "2018-04-25T15:20:15Z")
What I’m looking for are presidents who did amazing things before becoming president. People like Teddy Roosevelt and his ride up San Juan Hill, or George Bush SR. with his 58 combat missions in ww2 including being shot down. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/2 "2018-04-25T15:40:03Z")
I don’t want to kill the thread before it even starts, but googling “[badass presidents](https://www.google.com/search?q=badass+presidents&oq=badass+presidents&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2999j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)” brings up several good links. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/3 "2018-04-25T15:51:24Z")
Kennedy and PT-109 comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/4 "2018-04-25T16:12:40Z")
With apologies to my Native brothers, Andy “By God” Jackson will always be the top pick for me. And from various biographies he was pretty much like that from birth; kick-ass-no-apologies and damn proud of it. Teddy was sort of driven into becoming a bad-ass from health and other issues and he had the money to be one with some margin of safety. Jackson was more “outlaw biker/bar fighter” bad-ass. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/5 "2018-04-25T16:26:01Z")
I don’t really think that’s “badass”, I’d say it’s more “undisciplined hothead.” Remember what happened to Sonny Corleone? I like people who are like Michael, not Sonny. Of the 20th Century, by far the most badass in terms of “hands-on” experience is George H.W. Bush. Read about his WWII experiences, it’s insane, though not many know about it. He was the youngest Naval Aviator at the time, and went through some harrowing shit repeatedly. He may have been so-so as a President, but he was incredibly heroic as an Aviator. Close behind is Jimmy Carter, who personally participated in the disassembly of a malfunctioning nuclear reactor, risking horrific radiation poisoning and other awful consequences, to save the environment and surrounding people from the same. Again, so-so President, but heroic man. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/6 "2018-04-25T16:33:13Z")
Oh, and [Truman was also pretty badass.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman#World_War_I) WWI artillery was no shit. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/7 "2018-04-25T17:14:02Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > Of the 20th Century, by far the most badass in terms of “hands-on” experience is George H.W. Bush. Read about his WWII experiences, it’s insane, though not many know about it. He was the youngest Naval Aviator at the time, and went through some harrowing shit repeatedly. He may have been so-so as a President, but he was incredibly heroic as an Aviator. You know, there was another 20th Century President whose combat vehicle was destroyed by the Japanese in WWII, and he spent a lot more time in the ocean than George Bush did. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/8 "2018-04-25T17:20:08Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > You know, there was another 20th Century President whose combat vehicle was destroyed by the Japanese in WWII, and he spent a lot more time in the ocean than George Bush did. Did all of Kennedy’s crew survive? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/9 "2018-04-25T18:18:15Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Did all of Kennedy’s crew survive? Bush was the only survivor of his crew. Kennedy had a better record on that point. (Crew of 13, 11 survivors) > [@Naval Historical Center via Library of Congress archives](#): > > On 2 September 1944, Bush piloted one of four aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chi Chi Jima. For this mission his crew included Radioman Second Class John Delaney, and Lieutenant Junior Grade William White, USNR, who substituted for Bush’s regular gunner. During their attack, four TBM Avengers from VT-51 encountered intense antiaircraft fire. While starting the attack, Bush’s aircraft was hit and his engine caught on fire. He completed his attack and released the bombs over his target scoring several damaging hits. With his engine on fire, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member on the TBM Avenger bailed out of the aircraft. However, the other man’s chute did not open and he fell to his death. It was never determined which man bailed out with Bush. Both Delaney and White were killed in action. ([Cite](http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100410115448/http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq10-1.htm)) Three-man TBM Avenger crew: one failed to bail, one suffered parachute failure, and George Bush survived. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/10 "2018-04-25T18:38:18Z")
Teddy giving a speech after being shot sticks in my mind as being fairly badass. From [history.com](https://www.history.com/news/shot-in-the-chest-100-years-ago-teddy-roosevelt-kept-on-talking): > [@](#): > > The horrified audience in the Milwaukee Auditorium on October 14, 1912, gasped as the former president unbuttoned his vest to reveal his bloodstained shirt. “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose,” the wounded candidate assured them. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a bullet-riddled, 50-page speech. Holding up his prepared remarks, which had two big holes blown through each page, Roosevelt continued. “Fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet—there is where the bullet went through—and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/11 "2018-04-25T18:47:10Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > Of the 20th Century, by far the most badass in terms of “hands-on” experience is George H.W. Bush. Read about his WWII experiences, it’s insane, though not many know about it. He was the youngest Naval Aviator at the time, and went through some harrowing shit repeatedly. He may have been so-so as a President, but he was incredibly heroic as an Aviator. George H.W. Bush is the only President who came very close to being tortured, murdered, and eaten by cannibals! Sounds like some sort of joke … but it isn’t. > **[Chichijima incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichijima_incident)** > > The Chichijima incident (also known as the Ogasawara incident) occurred in late 1944. Japanese soldiers killed eight American airmen on Chichi Jima, in the Bonin Islands, and cannibalized four of them. > Nine American pilots escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichijima, a tiny island 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Tokyo, in September 1944. Eight of the airmen, Lloyd Woellhof, Grady York, James "Jimmy" Dye, Glenn Frazier Jr., Marvell "Marve" Mershon, Floyd Hall... > [@](#): > > Nine airmen escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Tokyo, in September 1944. Eight were captured. The ninth, the only one to evade capture, was future US President George H. W. Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot. > > After the war, it was discovered that the captured airmen had been beaten and tortured before being executed. The airmen were beheaded on the orders of Lt Gen. Yoshio Tachibana (立花芳夫, Tachibana Yoshio). American authorities claimed that Japanese officers then ate parts of the bodies of four of the men. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/12 "2018-04-25T18:48:30Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > Teddy giving a speech after being shot sticks in my mind as being fairly badass. > > From [history.com](https://www.history.com/news/shot-in-the-chest-100-years-ago-teddy-roosevelt-kept-on-talking): Wow! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/13 "2018-04-25T18:54:12Z")
After that bad assery, Roosevelt lost the election. “that weak and vicious minds should be inflamed to acts of violence by the kind of awful mendacity and abuse that have been heaped upon me for the last three months by the papers.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/14 "2018-04-25T18:58:12Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > George H.W. Bush is the only President who came very close to being tortured, murdered, and eaten by cannibals! > > Sounds like some sort of joke … but it isn’t. > > [Chichijima incident - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichijima_incident) I mention in a thread some time ago that perhaps that is why he became ill at a Japanese banquet. No one bought it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/15 "2018-04-25T19:01:54Z")
I’d have to say that Teddy is the most bad-ass, but that Jackson was the most personally frightening. The Bull Moose _could_ probably dismember you with his bare hands, but Old Hickory _would_. That said, while I think Teddy Roosevelt was one of our better Presidents, Jackson was one of the worst (bottom five, certainly). Being a badass is completely orthogonal to being a good President. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/16 "2018-04-25T19:14:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That said, while I think Teddy Roosevelt was one of our better Presidents, Jackson was one of the worst (bottom five, certainly). Being a badass is completely orthogonal to being a good President. The Native American community would heartily agree with you. The guy was genocidal in the fine tradition of the Pilgrims and most of the presidents that came before him, including George Washington. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/17 "2018-04-25T19:35:43Z")
Abraham Lincoln was a badass wrestler and street fighter. Four score and seven piledrivers from the top turnbuckle! > **[Was Abraham Lincoln Really a Wrestler?](https://www.thoughtco.com/was-abraham-lincoln-really-a-wrestler-1773577)** > > President Abraham Lincoln was a very good wrestler as a youth and his wrestling exploits were used during his presidential campaign in 1860. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/18 "2018-04-25T20:01:03Z")
Taft. Oh, I’m sorry. I misread that… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/19 "2018-04-25T20:06:51Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Taft. > > Oh, I’m sorry. I misread that… He beat Teddy, who made a speech while he was bleeding to death. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105/20 "2018-04-25T20:08:35Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He beat Teddy, who made a speech while he was bleeding to death. Allegedly, he heroically survived getting stuck in the White House bathtub.\* \*Some pedants insist this is not true. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-badass-presidents-in-history/813105.md?page=2)