Yay Svend! - For those who don’t know, Svend Robinson is a Canadian politician - and openly gay. I believe he was the first one elected that is openly gay.
He’s from B.C., one of the more ‘liberal’ provinces.
The politicians I admire are the ones who never or no longer have to kiss up to the “machine”. Dwight Eisenhower did his own thing. He kept a moderate course. A balanced budget. He did not always do the “Republican” thing. He did not have to. When segregationists raised hell he quickly sent in the National Guard. Barry Goldwater, after his failed presidential election, when he started voting with his heart instead of kissing up, to right-wing radicals. John McCain would be in this catagory also, along with Jeffords from Vermont.
I admired Bobby Kennedy. He was extremely popular among the poor folks I grew up with. Especially farm workers in central California.
I’ve carefully avoided learning any more about him since he was killed, because I don’t want my bubble burst. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Actually, McCain is just pissed because he was cut out by the softmoney. Not that he’s a bad guy, but he’s not as honest as eveyrone thinks.
I can’t believe I also forgot to add Harry Truman. Yeah, he was a hot head, and flipping out on Molotov was pretty dumb, but the guy was in charge, and he got things done and TO HELL with the machine!
Not really a politician per se, but Eleanor Roosevelt is definitely a hero of mine.
Present day politicans would be either Margret Thatcher or Gerry Adams (strange duo I know).
Do not know too much about present day US politicians, so my historical choice would be Theodore Roosevelt.
Everybody knows…
They don’t get much cooler than Tommy “stick your poll tax up your arse” Sheridan. And he’s MY MSP!!!
I just find it refreshing to be represented by a guy who went to jail for political action, not sleaze. So far as I know he really does live and work for the people. Somebody would assassinate this guy but he’s just TOO HARD - even with three bullets in him, Tommy would still break the guy’s teeth and make him sing the Red Flag before going down.
For the most part I admire any politician that achieves any level of success and still mostly espouses positions out of belief and not expediency.
Ronald Reagan does come to mind (though I disagree with him on at least 60% of his issues) and Ralph Nader is another (though he hasn’t met the “any level of success” threshhold yet and I disagree with him on every major issue except for one.
I lose respect for any politician that supports campaign finance reform (in the sense of limiting campaign and party contributions). I view this as such a stupidly obvious abrogation of my speech and associations that I find it difficult to respect them for it, even if they honestly believe it.
I’ll second (or however many) the mention of Gary Johnson and the few other (though increasing) politicians finally standing up to the stupidity of drug criminalization.
There was a politician in Hawaii that I admired very much. Unfortunately I can’t remember her name (she was the mayor of Maui and ran for governor in their last election).
As for not respecting living politicians because “always some information that comes out” and yet still respecting historic politicians. I would say that this is because when viewed from a historic perspective their personal lives are stripped from the mental image and they are reduced to their political life. This is not to say that politicians are mostly bad people, but simply to say that they are people.
Oh, another, I despise Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco, but do admire the openness and consistency with which he goes about his affairs (if you know what I mean, and I think you do).
I have to say the politician I most admire is Howard Stern. Though his political career was cut short by relentless federal probing into his income, you have to admire the man’s character, integrity, and general good will for all mankind.
Barbara Jordan.
Ferociously bright, savvy and operated from a rock-solid ethical standard.
She was a black woman who entered an entrenched, lily white, bigoted, inane good ol’ boy system and made it work for HER ends through perseverance and excellence–at God knows what personal cost.
She took her world as she found it and damned well CHANGED it–without meaness, pettiness or cheap tactics.
In the System vs. Jordan, the system caved. She was just that good.
She faced down the worst and DID the best. Was she perfect? C’mon. She was human–but one of extraordinary courage, fairness and plain, damned grit. She became a legal scholar and was elected in a time when her “colleagues” suggested she could then clean their bathrooms. She lived to oversee the impeachment of a president. She did it measured, eloquent, Constitutionally sound terms. And her colleagues said–for attribution and for history–“yes, ma’am.”
I have scant patience with those who retreat into cynicism or inertia. We get the public servants we deserve. But sometimes, through all the idiocy and ballhyoo, we get much more.
Veb
[ul] [li] Jimmy Carter[/li][li] Hillary Clinton[/li][li] Paul Wellstone[/li][li] Mark Dayton[/li][li] Bill Clinton[/li][/ul]Dayton, by the way, donated his entire salary to be used toward bus trips for senior citizens to travel to Canada to buy their prescription drugs.
Oh, boy. Did you know Lincoln’s big post-civil war plan for all of the former slaves was to put them on a boat and ship them off to Haiti? Something about alievating the burden or something. Don’t believe the history books about Abe wanting to free the slaves, he just wanted the tax money from the Southern states.
I feel lucky to be from a state that can boast both Bernie Sanders (Independant) in the House of Reps, and Jim Jeffords (Independant!!!) in the Senate. My friend just sent me a picture he took in the NE Kingdom of Vermont of a homemade billboard that reads “Jeffers is a Traitor” Heh.
One of the reasons Lincoln had a plan to deport some of the slaves was because many of them were only first or second generation. Some of them had been BORN in Haiti and Africa.
We had a big discussion of this nature over at Snopes.
I don’t know the man you’re talking about, and it obviously was a sacrifice, but I would be willing to bet that anybody in a position of power has enough savings/assets to donate a year’s salary without causing any sort of dent in their lifestyle
Linkety-linkety-link?
Yes, this is true. He comes from a wealthy family in Minnesota who owned Dayton’s Department Stores (which were just recently bought by Marshall Field). They probably have lots of bucks to burn. But for the many rich politicians who probably could make gestures like this, I don’t hear about many who do. And if others know of enough examples, maybe they would even be worthy of their own thread. (Sorry to requote the whole post, but I wanted people to know what I was talking about.)
I read a book by Gore Vidal which was a somewhat fictionalized version of the White House years. I haven’t found the link, but the book described a meeting between Lincoln and black leaders, wherein Lincoln suggested that the black people should migrate to some other country. If I remember right, in that book the suggestion was New Zealand. I’ll keep looking for a link.
I was very disappointed when I read this, and mentioned this to some friends of mine. They told me that for his day, Lincoln was comparatively enlightened in this respect.
Here is a link that tells more about Gore Vidal’s account of Lincoln’s meeting with black leaders.
I guess I can’t get it to link to the specific page. Click on thumbnail sketches, and then click on “The American Chronicles,” where it gives a thumnail sketch on his Lincoln book.
Here is a quote from that page:
Actually, the book I was reading (Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower0 does refer to Reed’s personal life to some extent. It isn’t an exhaustive source on him, though, so while I admire what I’ve read, there may be disturbing facts out there that would cause me to cast that away.
Perhaps I set too high a standard. For example, many people admire Thomas Jefferson. While I admire many things Jefferson accomplished, he also owned slaves, and I could never admire someone who did that to another person, regardless of the standards of the time. If I am repelled by one part of the person, I can’t really admire them.
There are too few heroes in this world. 
Only two people in politics have ever impressed me as much…
Emporer Norton and Jello Biafra.