John Fitzgerald Kennedy is voted out; who knows where he would have finished if he’d survived a full term or even two.
George Washington (None, 1789-1797)
Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican, 1801-1809)
James Monroe (Democratic-Republican, 1817-1825)
James Polk (Democrat, 1845-1849)
Abraham Lincoln (Republican, 1861-1865)
Grover Cleveland (Democrat, 1885-1889, 1893-1897)
William McKinley (Republican, 1897-1901)
Theodore Roosevelt (Republican, 1901-1909)
William Howard Taft (Republican, 1909-1913)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat, 1933-1945)
Harry S. Truman (Democrat, 1945-1953)
Dwight Eisenhower (Republican, 1953-1961)
Lyndon Baines Johnson (Democrat, 1963-1969)
William Jefferson Clinton (Democrat, 1993-2001)
Eliminated Presidents:
James Buchanan (Democrat, 1857-1861)
Franklin Pierce (Democrat, 1853-1857)
Andrew Johnson (National Union, 1865-1869)
Warren Harding (Republican, 1921-1923)
Millard Fillmore (Whig, 1850-1853)
Richard Milhous Nixon (Republican, 1969-1974)
Herbert Hoover (Republican, 1929-1933)
Ronald Reagan (Republican, 1981-1989)
Andrew Jackson (Democrat, 1829-1837)
Rutherford Hayes (Republican, 1877-1881)
Ulysses Grant (Republican, 1869-1877)
John Tyler (Whig, 1841-1845)
James Earl Carter (Democrat, 1977-1981)
James Madison (Democratic-Republican, 1809-1817)
Martin Van Buren (Democrat, 1837-1841)
Woodrow Wilson (Democrat, 1913-1921)
Calvin Coolidge (Republican, 1923-1929)
John Adams (Federalist, 1797-1801)
Benjamin Harrison (Republican, 1889-1893)
Gerald Ford (Republican, 1974-1977)
Zachary Taylor (Whig, 1849-1850)
George Herbert Walker Bush (Republican, 1989-1993)
John Quincy Adams (Democratic-Republican, 1825-1829)
Chester Arthur (Republican, 1881-1885)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Democrat, 1961-1963)
I will vote for William McKinley, imperialist extraordinaire.
Barring another runaway, voting closes at 2 PM on Wednesday, December 16.
The voters have not been kind to presidents who took the US to war (look out Polk - you are flying under the radar), somewhat unfairly on occasion IMO, but McKinley does look to deserve the boot next and gets my vote.
After the next departee, we will be left with the top third.
Let’s face it. Power requires ambition and execution; Empires and their leaders need ruthlessness. Without men like McKinley (and Polk) America might not be the strong rich powerful country it is today. Imperialism? Maybe. Would the world be a better place without American superpower? Doubtful. (And as to dispensing with War Presidents altogether, these include Washington, Lincoln, FDR and Truman.)
Taft also; he probably had the least to show for his time in office of any that remain.
Speaking only for myself, I would strongly discourage vote trading. I’d rather each vote be on the merits of each President.
For septimus and JFK’s other critics… although he’s now gotten the boot, if you want to read more about him, I’d recommend The Essence of Decision by Graham Allison (the classic study of the Cuban Missile Crisis); President Kennedy by Richard Reeves (a comprehensive but very readable overview of his administration from 30-some years later); Kennedy’s Wars by Lawrence Freedman (a British historian’s take on JFK’s diplomacy and military policies), and A Thousand Days by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (a fine contemporary account by JFK’s resident intellectual). Read any or all of them, and I think you’ll come away with a higher opinion of the man.
You have a point with Polk, but I think the history of Britain (and France, for that matter) in the 20th century shows us where imperialism leads, and it’s often far from pretty. Had McKinley lived, it could have been worse than our gorefest in the Philippines–which itself could have gone much worse.
Maybe it’s naive, but I am much more a fan of American exceptionalism than American imperialism. I don’t have an issue with a president bringing us to war, but I do have an issue with a president bringing us to a war with no real benefit to us, and a substantial cost to the country we attempt to subjugate.