TR
I’m still showing it 11-7 for FDR getting the boot, despite a late rally.
Like I’ve said, damned interestng.
Yeah, I have it 11-7 as well. (Consider this the morning vote count post). FDR has until 2 PM to come up with 4 votes.
And FDR is out, 11-7.
In an upset, Theodore Roosevelt survives while his younger cousin (and, in fact, Eleanor Roosevelt was more closely related to Teddy than Franklin was) is voted out.
George Washington (None, 1789-1797)
Abraham Lincoln (Republican, 1861-1865)
Theodore Roosevelt (Republican, 1901-1909)
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)
- William McKinley (Republican, 1897-1901)
- William Howard Taft (Republican, 1909-1913)
- Lyndon Baines Johnson (Democrat, 1963-1969)
- William Jefferson Clinton (Democrat, 1993-2001)
- James Monroe (Democratic-Republican, 1817-1825)
- Grover Cleveland (Democrat, 1885-1889, 1893-1897)
- Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican, 1801-1809)
- James K. Polk (Democrat, 1845-1849)
- Dwight Eisenhower (Republican, 1953-1961)
- Harry S. Truman (Democrat, 1945-1953)
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat, 1933-1945)
Voting Teddy, again.
Voting closes Thursday at 2 PM.
I like that we have one from the 18th century, one from the 19th, and one from the 20th. These feel like the right finalists – there’s a reason they have their faces carved in a giant mountain in South Dakota.
Not ready to vote yet.
I’ll draw first blood then:
Washington.
The worst of those listed?
Teddy Roosevelt. We didn’t need an empire.
When I TAed US History, one of our primary source readings was a selection from Washington’s correspondence in support of the Constitution. Before this, I’d thought of Washington as kind of a Reagan-type: a competent administrator with reasonably good judgment, but not a scholar of the issues. In other words, a strong leader to make final decisions, but not a Clinton/Obama type capable of his own rigorous analysis. His correspondence changed that, however–he was a smart man with a very firm grasp on the ramifications of his actions. He was a great American in every sense.
So was Teddy, and I can’t take anything away from him. Geez, he was a great president. He was a thoroughgoing racist and eugenicist, but in this he was a man of his time. Indeed, his views on the subjects were essentially the same as Gandhi’s–or Lincoln’s. Hard to fault him, especially when he’s up against a slaveowner.
With heavy heart, I vote for Teddy, mostly because the challenges he faced, which are easy to discount (he may well have been the first truly **modern **president) simply do not compare with the foundation of constitutional democracy or the Civil War.
Make no mistake, this is a vote ***for ***Lincoln and Washington. I have nothing real to say against Teddy Roosevelt.
Theodore did not build an Empire as President, his acts as President was much more sedate than his 1890s rhetoric led many to believe. What he did do was make the US a World Power to be respected. He also made us a country to turn to for fair arbitration. He established the conservation movement effectively and began the work of cleaning up the food stream.
He also kept the big monopolies from having the free hand they had until him. The country prosper greatly under him and he worked to improve race relations when they were still terrible. He also got the Panama Canal built and that was huge at the time for decades to come.
His overall record was great.
All that said, we are down to the 3 greatest by far. They stand above all others. Men of high principal and great success as President. I respect Washington the most but think he may have accomplished the least and so I will vote:
George Washington, third best overall.
Teddy R
Teddy Roosevelt.
Truly, he was a great man, but as has been noted by others, I just can’t rank Washington or Lincoln below him.
Washington. Great figurehead. Lousy executive.
Maybe it’s because he’s more recent and thus his legend has had less time to grow, but Teddy seems less one of the “giants in the earth” than does Washington or Lincoln. We know FDR from radio recordings, and he even appeared on TV. Teddy’s image appears on film, and we know what he sounded like, although he died before “talkies” debuted. Although Lincoln’s image is known from photographs, we’ve never heard Abe deliver any of his great speeches. Washington, meanwhile, is captured in nothing more immediate than paintings and statues.
Not that this necessarily means I’ll choose the Father of Our Country over the Great Emancipator if that’s the final matchup…
In my mind this is a no-braiiner, Washington and Lincoln made and preserved the Union at extremely critical times in this Nation’s history. Teddy was very accomplished of course and great in many ways, but he simply was not President at time that needed exceptional leadership and vision when compared to the other two.
So, sorry, TR is my vote.
I very reluctantly go with Washington to save Teddy.
Teddy’s trust busting is being glossed over and diminished in importance. The recent string of presidents have forgotten that too big to fail is too big to exist. It takes government regulating to ensure businesses can die from their own greed and mistakes, that there’s any room for competition since for profit always means creating monopolies. Teddy should be the standard, but anymore we now live in a world where corporations must be coddled to preserve the economy.
Even tho I hate to do it, Teddy. I’ll just add that Washington laid down so many ground rules for what a President should and shouldn’t) be, that in a sense there wouldn’t be a Lincoln or a T.R. in the forms in which we know them at least, if it weren’t for George.
Teddy again.
And Teddy pulls out to a 9-4 lead!
Lincoln.