Since a president is supposed to “serve the country” which in my opinion includes “and its citizens”, there must have been at least one who’s governing directly affected your daily life. (Off course includes the president’s administration)
So I guess the title of the thread is self-explaining.
I’m not sure if this actually placed on the right board… But I would think it is since answers can be debated with/by others who disagree.
And since this board is the most lively “educational” one of this website, and since I reside here most of the time, it is the most obvious place for US members to educate me on this matter.
Grab the occasion and let US-presidential greatness shine into my humble black tents. For maintaining the effect : Type negative comments in this font size
Jimmy Carter inherited a crummy economy caused by the prior 3 presidents. But he made a bad situation worse! Having turned an adult in the middle of his Presidency, his administration affected me negatively. Carters handle of economic issues was sophomoric at absolute best!
Unfortuately for me, the majority on these boards aren’t old enough to remember what it was like to be a young adult back then. It sucked! Carter was a nice guy who would have been a lousy President regardless of when he was elected, but especially during hard economic times!
Nixon, because the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant happened in 72, which gave birth to the pell grant, which is helping to fund my college. Bush is boosting the pell grant budget by $823 million in 2005, so in a way i may be personally affected by his presidency too.
Although it is far more important to increase educational standards, pluralism, democracy, and human rights in the ME – NONE of this is possible without attacking the morally bankrupt regimes that support Islamist terror aimed at destroying civilization.
Ronald Reagan had the most positive impact on my life personally.
Carter was an abysmal president, and I remember a Newsweek cover story which detailed how bad our military had become in comparison with the Soviet Union. I used to have nightmares, as a child, about nuclear war.
Due to Reagan’s policies, the Soviet Union was bankrupted, freedom spread to Eastern Europe, respect for private property and civil rights spread throughout the world and the economy boomed. He made me proud to be an American.
It was the sleaziness of Nixon that got me started following politics.
Carter may have been the most honest, decent and honorable man to have ever served as President. If not him, then Herbert Hoover. I’m spotting a trend here; neither of them will ever show up on the list of great presidents.
Reagan probably is the answer to the question though. He was a horrible president with criminal associates who set back civil liberties and relations with other nations in our hemisphere by 50 years. Due to an accident of history, he happened to be president at the time the Soviet Union finally imploded, and that makes him Saint Ronald. Not hardly.
His simplistic, idiotic handling of the economy had a major effect on my life in the early 80s. The civil liberty violations spawned by the war on drugs continue to this day. His invasion of Grenada was just stupid. The actions taken in Nicaragua were at least immoral, if not actually illegal.
The nation would have been far better off under the semi-compentence of Carter than it was with the active harm perpetrated by Reagan.
Reagan had a negative impact on me financially. Prior to him, it was possible to draw Social Security on the account of a dead or disabled parent either until you were 18 OR, if you were in college, until you were 21. Your surviving parent could draw it on your behalf until you were 18. My father died when I was 15, by which time Reagan had changed the laws so that I drew SS until I was 18 but there it stopped and my mother drew it until I was 16 (10 months). Since my father left no money, this was a major blow and among the reasons it took me forever to graduate college.
I"ll say Bill Clinton. Although I started following politics in 1988, it was the 1992 election that really turned me into a yellow dog Democrat. It was kinda hard to warm to Michael Dukakis!
Ronald Reagan, the man who won the Cold War; and, if you’ll allow a leader from my own country, Margaret Thatcher, the woman who turned the British economy around, was the woman who won the Cold War, and saw off the Argentines. I just about remember the incompetence of both Labour and the Tory governments.
Though I was little, Nixon; who took us off the last vestiges of the gold standard, once and for all decoupling the value of currency from a finite natural resource. Every admin since then has just been trying to understand and get a grip on the implications as they reveal themselves.