# Who would you REALLY like to be president **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 16, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054 "2012-02-16T19:28:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/1 "2012-02-16T19:28:27Z")
Suppose that you could choose anyone living or dead and _poof_ make him president starting January 2012. Who would you choose? I assume the following ground rules through the magic of “don’t fight the hypothetical”" 1. The Constitution has been altered so that foreigners can be considered 2. Everyone agrees that your choice is the legitimate president, even if they don’t agree with his/her policies 3. Dead people are allowed to be resurrected at any age you choose, and having been dead isn’t a political liability. 4. You have 11 months to get your choice up to speed on current affairs. 5. Translators can be provided for those who don’t speak English. As I’m not much of an expert at history I’m more interested in what others say, but to get things rolling, I might choose Bobby Kennedy. He is recent enough to be able to get up to speed with what’s going on. Seemed to be a really smart guy, has good Liberal credentials and has become something of a martyr so it would be harder for the right to attack him politically. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/2 "2012-02-16T20:04:20Z")
Me. Seems like a decent paying gig. Lord knows I could use the scratch. ---
**Author:** ![Stelios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Stelios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stelios)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/3 "2012-02-16T20:11:40Z")
Coppercab ---
**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:** [February 16, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/4 "2012-02-16T20:32:55Z")
A non-exhaustive list: George Washington Thomas Paine Alexander Hamilton Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin James K Polk Abraham Lincoln William Seward Theodore Roosevelt Charles Evan Hughes Milton Friedman William F Buckley George Will Richard Nixon Ronald Reagan Jon Huntsman Foreigners too? then add: John Wilkes Richard Cobden John Bright William Gladstone Edmund Burke Joseph Chamberlain Otto Von Bismarck Winston Churchill Margaret Thatcher Adam Smith John Locke Montesquieu ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/5 "2012-02-16T20:37:19Z")
[Will Rodgers](http://stuckattheairport.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/OKC-Will-Rogers.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Stelios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Stelios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stelios)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/6 "2012-02-16T21:04:41Z")
Fritzl ---
**Author:** ![Stately\_Greek\_Automaton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Stately\_Greek\_Automaton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stately_Greek_Automaton)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/7 "2012-02-16T21:17:55Z")
Watching Abe Lincoln deal with modern House Republicans would be rather amusing, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/8 "2012-02-16T21:39:25Z")
Watching Theodore Roosevelt kick ass would be even funnier. That said, the person I would choose would be: Obama. It’s a whole different world. You can’t just resurrect someone and explain to the them that yes, women and black people can hold office, Jews have their own country, we can magically talk to people on the other side of the world any time we want, there’s a series of tubes connecting us all, now there’s Wikipedia, and Cheezburgers, and cable tv. We are who we are because of how long it took us to get here. You can’t take someone from even forty years ago and bring him up to speed in a few months. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/9 "2012-02-16T21:41:48Z")
If I could pick anyone in the world to be President of the United States, I’d pick Barack Obama. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/10 "2012-02-16T21:44:18Z")
> [@Stately\_Greek\_Automaton](#): > > Watching Abe Lincoln deal with modern House Republicans would be rather amusing, I think. > [@Merneith](#): > > Watching Theodore Roosevelt kick ass would be even funnier. Yep; by this time, with evidence at hand, Roosevelt would had taken on the robber barons of today that are polluting the environment, it was reported that a long time ago one of the robber barons had come to see the president to chat about why the president was so mean with the nice monopolies and trusts. Teddy admitted later, that he had to restrain himself from defenestrating the bastard, nowadays I would think he would actually had if confronted by an Exxon executive or the Koch brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/11 "2012-02-16T21:48:41Z")
In order: Barack Obama Winston Churchill Theodore Roosevelt Thomas Jefferson (primarily so I could talk to him) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/12 "2012-02-16T21:58:06Z")
George Orwell. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/13 "2012-02-16T22:39:10Z")
Barbara Jordan. ETA: And not just to see the wingnut heads explode. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/14 "2012-02-16T22:52:18Z")
Dwight Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, or Harry Truman ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/15 "2012-02-16T22:56:12Z")
My first choice can only be Theodore Roosevelt. He is the best. Churchill would be a fair second choice. ---
**Author:** ![Stelios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Stelios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stelios)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/16 "2012-02-16T22:56:37Z")
Stan’s dad. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/17 "2012-02-17T00:24:11Z")
Fun thread idea! _For the “resurrection” list:_ - Bobby Kennedy is a great choice. I’ll second that nomination. - Paul Wellstone - Eleanor Roosevelt - Martin Luther King, Jr. - Ted Kennedy - Shirley Chisolm - Ann Richards - Ben Franklin - Gandhi, although that’s more Utopian than a realistic choice. (Yeah, like “realism” matters in a thread where we could hypothetically pick Genghis Khan! :D) _For the “still alive and barely possible” category I’ll pick:_ - Al Gore - Mario Cuomo - Andrew Cuomo, though “barely possible” doesn’t really work here – I think he’s a very likely future candidate - Bernie Sanders - Eleanor Holmes Norton - Jimmy Carter _For the “still alive and I’m not even that big a fan of his/hers anymore but I’d just enjoy the entertainment of watching all the Republican heads exploding” category:_ - Bill Clinton - Barney Frank - Maxine Waters - Jesus – well, truthfully it’s not that I’m not a fan, but I’m not a believer in his divinity. But he belongs in this section 'cause I think he’d be a helluva lot more liberal than Republicans think he’d be, and the resulting whiplash would amuse me to no end. (And actually, Al Gore and Bernie Sanders would cause much head exploding too, but I _am_ a big fan of theirs, so they don’t make this particular list. :D) ---
**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:** [February 17, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/18 "2012-02-17T00:30:38Z")
Me. OK, that’s not very clear. At the risk of sounding like W Bush, Jesus of Nazareth might not be too bad. Though that would be a king, for sure, not a president. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/19 "2012-02-17T00:31:40Z")
Elias Koteas. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054/20 "2012-02-17T00:32:26Z")
Crapples, I forgot someone on my “Resurrection” list: - Carl Sagan. We need more scientists/visionaries/thinkers in positions of power. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-really-like-to-be-president/613054.md?page=2)