From the OP: “It seems to me that Presidents like JFK and Teddy Roosevelt were like knights, true to their word, and what they believed in.”
If you want to know about JFK’s word, just ask somebody who had a friend or relative at the Bay of Pigs. His word wasn’t much to brag about.
Ronald Reagan is by far the best president during my lifetime, and I say that having voted against him his first campaign. ( I liked Jimmy Carter, and voted for him both times he ran)
Technically, my lifetime goes back to FDR, but Ike is the first Prez I can remember paying any attention to. From Ike to the present day, Reagan was the best for me.
My economic situation has improved the most under the current Bush administration, as I’ve gone from a pretty mundane 9 to 5 job to a job where I’m really making good money, enjoying myself and getting set for retirement down the line. Having said that, I would still choose Reagan as the best president for me. I may not have done as well financially under his administration, but I think the seeds of positive thinking that helped me get on the right track were planted then. He was a great man.
I think some people get so blinded by ideology that they forget how bad the '70’s were. Absolutely dead economy, getting pissed on by every tinhorn in the world because we couldn’t mount a credible threat, and the so-called “malaise” (the Soviets are going to kill us all anyway, so why bother). The '70’s just sucked.
We went into his administration depressed as hell, and came out pretty damned optimistic.
Ehh. Carter made me register for the draft, which cost him serious points in my book. Much as my wife hates to hear me say this, I voted for Reagan for that very reason.
The best thing about America, in my opinion, is the fact a President’s policies (whether you’re in total agreement or violently opposed to them) rarely have an affect the everyday citizen. The only exceptions to that rule are federal employees, members of the military or those whose livelihood depends on a check from Washington. Even in the most extreme cases, whether Atilla the Hun or Chairman Mao were voted in, the checks and balances built into the system (plus the fact Presidents have no power over State & Local governments) precludes any major impact on an individual’s life.
The 70s were in a bad economy? My dad and uncle started their own construction biz, my dad was also a fireman, just hired during the 70s. What hiring freeze? During that decade we, and most of our fellow anchoragites, when from “okay” to “pretty damn WELL”. Things just got better and better for us during those years.
Have you ever heard the word “unemployment”? Funny thing, since 1975, all my unemployment has come when a Republican was President. 1982, 1991, and 2002-3. Go figure.
You are way out of line, rjung. Flaming is not permitted in IMHO. If you can’t separate issues from personalities, then take it to the Pit. Consider this a formal warning.
I’ve never had a president that was good for me. Then again, I don’t know of anyone who is a foreign policy neocon, fiscal moderate, and social liberal such as myself.
What makes it worse is that even in these 3 categories I’m not party-line, for instance wanting to invade more preemptively but more for humanitarian reasons, and not being for a lot of protected class legislation.
It’s even worse when you analyze my fiscal policy, because if I were actually President, i’d be a liberal:there’s a lot of worthy programs out there. However, since in any given list of line items, I’ll consider a great many of them to be pork, for all intents and purposes i’m fiscally moderate.
I liked Clinton when he was coming in in 1992 , but was disenchanted by the time he was re-running due to his foreign policy weakness and his failure to pursue a liberal social agenda.
So in short, Clinton is the president that I remember that worked the best for me, but still I was no fan of his.
Jack Kennedy. He inspired us to be involved. Listening to his press conferences were a joy in themselves. He got off to a rocky start, but turned that around quickly and became a strong and respected leader. He made a real difference in the direction of this country. I trusted him.
Economically, my best gains came in the Clinton years. Clinton was also officially certified non-corrupt. The opposition worked their tails off for years trying to catch him being crooked, looking under every rock, and even whispering that he was a murderer. The best they could do was catch him lying about sex.
