I know I am not the first person to ask this question. And I surely won’t be the last. But I would really like some input from these boards: Who was the greatest U.S. president of all time?
And to get the discussion going, I would like to submit my own suggestion of at least “one” of the best: Richard Nixon.
Yes, Richard Nixon. I have voted Democrat, literally all of my life. But still can’t help admire Pres. Nixon from afar. He opened up China. He appointed Harry Blackmun to the court (a jurist some people still mistakenly believe was a liberal [he in-fact was a conservative, a proponent of the death penalty and obscenity, and a Republican, when he was appointed]). And Nixon was probably one of the last great moderate politicians, when he was elected. (This was sadly before the Republican party became so polarized.)
I don’t mean he “supported” obscenity. I meant, he believed that there was a concept of obscenity, that was not protected by the constitution. His liberal fellow justices at the time threw out the idea of obscenity altogether, because they believed “obscenity” was in fact protected by the constitution.
First person to mention Reagan gets slapped with a fish.
I’m gonna go ahead and nominate FDR. Turns out you can do a whole lot with 4 terms, and this guy pulled us out of the recession, installed much of the social safety net that still exists today, and all-around was a pretty great dude.
Without Washington, the Republic might have collapsed (as God and Nature intended).
Without Franklin Roosevelt, well, I don’t even know what the USA would look like. Possibly parts would have been broken away by Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries? Or maybe the likes of Truman and Humphrey would have done much the same stuff as FDR did.
I’ll nominate Jefferson for the Louisiana Purchase. The Mississippi River, all the surrounding territories, ports in New Orleans, etc. Exactly how would have passports worked with a French occupied territory in parts of the Ole Miss? What about goods and taxes from Spain in Louisiana itself? Either way, he saw potential, probably not Mt. Rushmore, but at least potential.
With his “Vive le Québec libre” he peed on Canada, a country whose soldiers bled to death by the thousands on French soil freeing it (and the Netherlands) from Nazi Germany, and before that in France in their thousands from 1914 to 1918.
He should have been hanged, drawn and quartered.
No one’s yet mentioned the fourth face on Mount Rushmore? Theodore Roosevelt had great charisma, greatly advanced progressive ideas, and won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Under his guidance, several giant monopolies were broken up, regulation/inspection of meat and drugs began. interstate commerce was regulated. He was a prominent environmentalist, created national parks, monuments and nature preserves, advanced public works, etc. He supported labor, and civil rights for blacks. He was key to the building of the Panama Canal.
If Mt. Rushmore is permitted just four faces, replace Jefferson with FDR if you wish, but definitely keep Teddy.
Bill Clinton. Best manager of the federal government we’ve ever had, least partisan President since Eisenhower, wonkiest President ever, allowed America to enjoy a peace dividend while making our military even more dominant, gets a solid B+ on handling foreign affairs. His only weaknesses were his personal morals(duh) and his lack of aggressiveness at handling terrorism. But it’s hard to fault him for that because he was merely continuing a longtime policy towards terrorism.
Clinton doesn’t meet the standard of “greatness” that historians look for, but I think historians are full of crap because they tend to define greatness as exceeding the Constitutional boundaries set up to contain the executive branch, or even doing away with the law entirely and daring the other branches to do something about it. That’s not greatness, that’s lawlessness. Clinton respected the boundaries of his office in a way that his two successors since have not.
adaher, amazing how we all look at the world so differently! I could look at Clinton’s record and find him to be one the worst using your exact same criteria! Handling foreign affairs? Staying within “constitutional boundaries?”
I’d have to say Lincoln. My hesitation would be that he could almost get an ‘incomplete.’ He was an amazingly great war time President, but we don’t know how he would have been in economics, dealing with Congress, etc. in a peace time environment. I’d make him an MVP President, with only Washington in his class. (Economists have fairly recently argued that he depression in the Untied States lasted longer than it should have due to Roosevelt’s tweaking of the economy, so I’ll put him behind Lincoln and Washington.)
I am unable to choose between Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. Each was indispensible at his point in history. Without Washington, the nation may never have taken root. Without Lincoln, it splits in its first century. Without FDR, perhaps a descent into fascism.
No love for Lyndon Johnson? I’ve always found him to be better than people give him credit for. Great when it came to getting legislation through Congress, he skillfully passed the key 1964 Civil Rights Act along with a few other social measures. He was also witty as hell, which gives him extra points in my book. It’s a shame that he messed up the Vietnam situation, but I’m sure all other presidents made similar mistakes at some point.
Granted, I’m looking at this from across the Atlantic so I may well have missed something
That’s the thing about legislators as Presidents. Great at legislation, but not great at their core job of managing the federal government and being Commander-in-Chief. LBJ could have done exactly what he did had he stayed in the Senate and someone else had been Kennedy’s VP and successor.
