# The President Elimination Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 24, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317 "2009-09-24T01:36:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/261 "2009-10-19T18:28:39Z")
> [@stuthehistoryguy](#): > > Let me get this straight: are you folks actually arguing that Jimmy Carter was an effective president? > > Hey, I LIKE the guy! He did his best. It didn’t work out. Our embassies got used for target practice, and OPEC jerked us around like a monkey on a chain. That, and his performance threw the White House to Ronald Reagan, and you saw how much I liked that. Come ON, people! He inherited a shitty situation, and took long enough to get his bearings that the effective responses he came up with (Volcker, but also deregulation of the airline and trucking industries) didn’t see fruition until after his term was over. Camp David was a big deal - what president since has brokered a Middle East peace deal that’s actually held? And, to coin a phrase, He Kept Us Out Of War, which is a low bar to pass, but one that in the latter half of the 20th century only Ford and Carter actually DID pass. Which is not to say Carter was a great president. But hey, Washington didn’t burn down during his administration, either. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/262 "2009-10-19T18:39:49Z")
I still think Arthur was less stellar than either Carter or Madison, but I’m more inclined to keep the _Federalist_ tri-author and “Father of the Constitution” than one of the two ex-Georgia governors ([Lester Maddox](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Maddox) being the other) who sought the presidency in 1976. Carter. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/263 "2009-10-19T19:06:59Z")
Coolidge, for what an earlier poster said about his complaceny prior to the Depression ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/264 "2009-10-20T02:31:14Z")
Madison, get rid of him NOW!!! ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/265 "2009-10-20T02:35:08Z")
Carter. ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/266 "2009-10-20T08:22:52Z")
We’re still overlooking Martin Van Buren, and that’s my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/267 "2009-10-20T09:24:56Z")
Grant. Corruption? What corruption? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/268 "2009-10-21T10:34:51Z")
Grant, again. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/269 "2009-10-21T15:17:19Z")
13 votes so far; voting closes at 8:39 AM (central time) Thursday unless we have fewer than 20 votes, in which case it closes with the 20th vote or at 8:39 AM Saturday. In case of a tie (which seems possible) I propose that voting be held open for one more vote among the tied contenders, and that changed votes be allowed for this purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/270 "2009-10-21T15:17:33Z")
Still Ol’ Kinderhook. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/271 "2009-10-21T20:37:36Z")
Grant ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/272 "2009-10-22T01:34:50Z")
So, how 'bout Wilson for a change of pace? It’s not my vote, I’m just asking! ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/273 "2009-10-22T02:04:54Z")
Taylor! ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/274 "2009-10-22T11:23:50Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Taylor! You may want to rethink that one. Taylor, neophyte that he was, had a political plan to cut off the slave vote in the Senate and strangle that peculiar institution into nonexistence. The southern states’ leadership threatened to secede; Taylor promised to hunt them down and kill them if they did, and he carried the military gravitas to back it up. I’m not a specialist in US history, but my decidedly amateurish opinion is that the Civil War wouldn’t have happened if Taylor had lived. I don’t feel he’s one of the weaker links in the history of the presidency. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/275 "2009-10-22T11:27:48Z")
> [@as\_u\_wish](#): > > So, how 'bout Wilson for a change of pace? It’s not my vote, I’m just asking! [Wilson is usually rated as near-great](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents#Scholar_survey_results). Then again, Madison is usually rated just a bit below, and he’s been taking his lumps in this game. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/276 "2009-10-22T14:02:46Z")
Don’t get me started on Wilson (that time will come, I’m sure, as this game goes on). But he was still far better than Madison as President. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/277 "2009-10-22T14:57:27Z")
16 votes (not counting the Wilson not-a-vote suggestion), now into extra time. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/278 "2009-10-22T22:12:26Z")
Madison for me then. Just to keep the anti-Carter coalition at bay. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/279 "2009-10-24T15:43:28Z")
And we have a 3-way tie between Carter, Madison, and Grant. Sorry if I gave the impression earlier that we were in a tie already; I just meant that we were in the “5 days or 20 votes” part of the round. In any case, anyone who hasn’t voted for one of the current leaders want to break the tie? I’d accept a shift from one of the three onto another, as well. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/280 "2009-10-24T15:57:17Z")
Sure, I’ll switch from Taylor to Grant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317.md?page=15)