# Who Was the Greatest President of All Time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 25, 2014, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593 "2014-06-25T07:20:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/61 "2014-06-26T04:02:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Actually, the War on Poverty had considerable success.](http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-war-povertys-surprising-success) What’s surprising about spending a trillion dollars and getting a result slightly better than before you spent the trillion dollars? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/62 "2014-06-26T05:38:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > But he didn’t do any of those things as _President_. Which is why I say, great man, but not great POTUS. During a very rocky period when the states could easily have gone their separate ways, and wanted to, he held the union together by force of his personal prestige, and then gave the example on how to leave with dignity. It was no easy task to get Hamilton, Jefferson and Adams to work together. No one else could have done that. He envisioned trade networks and avoided and set the tone for avoiding entangling alliances. The only reason the current constitution was ratified was because George Washington put his personal prestige behind it and agreed to be president under it. As a Federalist, which his own state would soon repudiate. He was the primary founder of a small country and the way that he founded it gave it the potential to be the most important country in the world. No mean feat. And he did it without letting his enormous ego get the better of him even once. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/63 "2014-06-26T06:33:11Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > 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. English Canadian, I take it? > [@Batistuta](#): > > 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 I’ll say LBJ was the “greatest” (for good or ill) POTUS in the last 60 years. I’m a little more partial to Truman for foreign policy reasons, but in general, I agree with what Truman, Johnson, and Humphrey were doing in moving the USA away from an _de jure_ racist state. That said, a lot of Americans hate LBJ immensely–the “liberalism” that the conservative movement exists to fight is pretty much exactly LBJ’s domestic policy. So there is a better than even chance that any Yank you meet will be worse than indifferent to him. > [@Procrustus](#): > > I think Obama needs to be up near the top. I’ll put him just below Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. For _what?_ ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/64 "2014-06-26T06:50:19Z")
Lincoln or FDR. Washington & Teddy just behind. Clinton is probably top 10, but not a serious contender. LBJ deserves a lot of credit for his domestic policy…foreign policy, not so much. Nixon is a bit better than his reputation, but seriously a candidate? You have to be kidding me. It’s only the current state of the GOP that makes him look sane. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/65 "2014-06-26T11:49:43Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > That said, a lot of Americans hate LBJ immensely–the “liberalism” that the conservative movement exists to fight is pretty much exactly LBJ’s domestic policy. Speaking as a foreigner, I regard LBJ rather disdainfully solely because of the Vietnam War, a disaster he is largely responsible for. Vietnam was **vastly** more ruinous, and just as dishonest, as the Iraq War. To my mind the only reasonable answers to the question are Washington and Lincoln, and everyone else is way behind. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/66 "2014-06-26T13:26:09Z")
William Henry Harrison had nary a scandal, bad decision, or malaprop as President. My vote goes to him. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/67 "2014-06-26T13:31:45Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I think without question the greatest POTUS ever will be President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. I wish I thought of that. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/68 "2014-06-26T16:40:26Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > What’s surprising about spending a trillion dollars and getting a result slightly better than before you spent the trillion dollars? Exactly. The effect to dollar spent ratio is wayyyyy out of whack. The taxpayers got little value for their money. Such programs only provide basic survival and are not geared towards people pulling themselves out of poverty. In fact, it deters it. Give someone just enough kibble so they’ll have little motivation to improve on their own, and do it at the expense of the more capable elements. Then that underclass will typically out-breed other segments of the society which increases the base of the pols providing the kibble. It’s a vicious, vicious circle. Bread and circuses. Talk about dehumanizing. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/69 "2014-06-26T17:33:19Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > English Canadian, I take it? This may astonish you, but Quebec doesn’t take kindly to terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/70 "2014-06-26T17:42:47Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Exactly. The effect to dollar spent ratio is wayyyyy out of whack. The taxpayers got little value for their money. I’d say we get more value out of it then we do spending on aircraft carriers or nuclear weapons we most likely won’t use. The fact is besides Medicare and Social Security, none of the Great Society programs actually use all that much money up considering huge chunks of the federal discretionary budget are taken up by the military, infrastructure, and other non-Great Society program. > [@](#): > > Such programs only provide basic survival and are not geared towards people pulling themselves out of poverty. In fact, it deters it. Why would providing health care to the poor under Medicaid so that they don’t go bankrupt should they fall into illness or an accident prevent people from pulling themselves out of poverty? Why would ensuring children are nourished through food stamps and thus will actually be able to pay attention in school prevent them pulling out of poverty? > [@](#): > > Give someone just enough kibble so they’ll have little motivation to improve on their own, and do it at the expense of the more capable elements. Then that underclass will typically out-breed other segments of the society which increases the base of the pols providing the kibble. It’s a vicious, vicious circle. Bread and circuses. Talk about dehumanizing. So then what would you propose to do in lieu of the Great Society? The status quo before Great Society wasn’t alleviating poverty either. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/71 "2014-06-26T17:50:52Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > So then what would you propose to do in lieu of the Great Society? The status quo before Great Society wasn’t alleviating poverty either. But under it we weren’t spending billions. The value to cost ratio is highly persuasive to not initiate the program. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/72 "2014-06-26T17:55:16Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Oh, dear Og, no. Not no way, not no how. LBJ was an asshole. I’m ashamed to have to admit that he was from Texas. > > For best prez, I gotta go with a tie between Washington and Lincoln. Really? I would think any state would be proud to be the home of the president who gave us Medicare, Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. Of course, on the other hand, there was Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/73 "2014-06-26T18:40:44Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Bill Clinton…. gets a solid B+ on handling foreign affairs. I have walked through the rubble of the pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan that he destroyed with a cruise missile… a plant that was making anti-malaria medication in a desperately poor country. I wouldn’t give him anywhere near a B+. Lincoln was our greatest president. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/74 "2014-06-26T19:18:18Z")
My vote is for Lincoln. I was going to pick Washington but he didn’t become president until 1789. Both had a hand in our most trying times. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/75 "2014-06-26T19:29:23Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Really? I would think any state would be proud to be the home of the president who gave us Medicare, Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. Worth mentioning, though it was long before he was president, was the electrification of rural Texas. No small feat. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/76 "2014-06-26T20:39:21Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > I have walked through the rubble of the pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan that he destroyed with a cruise missile… a plant that was making anti-malaria medication in a desperately poor country. I wouldn’t give him anywhere near a B+. > > Lincoln was our greatest president. > **[Long Walk of the Navajo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Walk_of_the_Navajo)** > > The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo (Spanish: larga caminata del navajo), was the "deportation" and "ethnic cleansing" of the Navajo people by the United States federal government and the United States army. Navajos were forced to walk from their land in western New Mexico Territory (modern-day Arizona and New Mexico) to Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. Some 53 different forced marches occurred between August 1864 and the end of 1866. In total, 10,0 Th... ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/77 "2014-06-26T20:59:34Z")
I vote FDR. Followed by Lincoln then Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/78 "2014-06-27T06:47:11Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > But under it we weren’t spending billions. The value to cost ratio is highly persuasive to not initiate the program. Do you oppose all Great Society programs then? The ones we have spent the most money on such as Medicare and expansion of Social Security have been the most effective. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/79 "2014-06-27T13:54:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > What’s surprising about spending a trillion dollars and getting a result slightly better than before you spent the trillion dollars? Nothing. Did I say it was surprising? But it might surprise **pkbites.** ---
**Author:** ![Robertfchew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/439d5e/32.png) [@Robertfchew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robertfchew)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/80 "2014-06-30T03:26:53Z")
didn’t William howard taft get stuck in the white house bathtub. that’s impressive [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593.md?page=5)