So he had a car accident, probably while drinking, that resulted in a death. Not much different than Laura Bush. As for drunk driving, he probably has a cleaner record than W. As for terrorist apologist, I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’d he do, step on Cheney’s foot and say “I’m sorry”?
I don’t get the reference…
And whither the John Kerry fans?
I think he’s referring to Ted Kennedy’s support for the Irish Republican Army. (A cause also very popular with certain of his constituents, I daresay.)
Dwight David Eisenhower did a pretty darned good job keeping the various allied military prima donnas in line and then ran a pretty darned smooth decade. He made mistakes, but he was steady at the helm when it mattered.
A man I admired for how he handled the crisis of the Spiro Agnew scandal and then the Saturday night massacre was Elliot Richardson. I was very sorry he lost his try for election the one time he ran for the US Senate.
Wikipedia:
Kind of funny a Democrat should come up with a couple of Republican names, so for balance I’ll add FDR and HST here. However, I’m not certain even FDR could deal with the Teahadists in the House.
Hey, I enjoyed Hunter S. Thompson as much as anyone, but i’m not sure I’d be comfortable with him in the White House. I’d pay anything to go to one of his “state dinners,” however.
Just to clarify for those who may be confused (not the jokster I quoted) HST = Harry S. Truman.
I had a HS English teacher who told us a joke from the period: Have you heard about the new Eisenhower doll? You wind it up and it does nothing for eight years.
I wonder if Jerry Brown has, you know, matured enough by now to make a good POTUS. How popular is he as Governor currently?
It seemed like that, but he enforced court ordered desegregation with federal troops. Other presidents might not have done that.
He finally squashed that bug, Joe McCarthy.
He got a Korean settlement done.
He didn’t mess with Fed and treasury policies that allowed the economy to explode.
He oversaw the beginnings of the Interstate Highway program.
The US space program got its start under Ike.
I give him, Truman and the men who came after full credit for standing up to the USSR Communist empire.
Hungary and Suez in 1956 - meh. I always thought more could have been done, but he wanted to avoid wars. Either of those could have been dangerous.
Abusive drug (and probably poison) experiements in the military? Certainly happened during his terms. Probably too free a hand given to the pro-nuke crowd. Too much atmospheric testing.
Abraham Lincoln upon returning to Capitol Hill nearly 150 years later doing his best Charleston Heston impersonation:
“Oh my God. I’m back. I’m home. All the time, it was… We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You screwed it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
I have no objections to Obama in the chair but assuming that we’re picking someone else, I’d probably stick with former presidents, ironically all Republicans:
- Teddy Roosevelt
- Abraham Lincoln
- Dwight Eisenhower
The more I learn about Teddy the more freaking awesome he becomes.
There are a few non-President Democrats I might consider - Bobby Kennedy, or maybe Harold Washington (yes, another Chicago African-American politico).
I’m honestly struggling to think of other people to select. I want someone who both understands America in an intuitive way and can act effectively in a political environment. So foreigners and non-politicians are already at a disadvantage. Plus the older political foreign types tended to favor murder and similar bloodsports as a way of doing business and while poisoning half of Congress would certainly be a popularity booster right now it’s not really a desirable trait in a modern leader.
Nah - I’ll stick with Teddy R. I can live with the occasional defenestration.
Ralph Nader.
He’s far from perfect, but I voted for him in '08, and I’d do it again if he were running this time around.
I have a real problem with the whole “lesser of two evils” “first past the post” “spoiler effect” system. I think it’s inherently unethical and I won’t play into it.
I kind of wish I would choose some really kickass historical figure of the _th century, but I honestly believe Ralph Nader would be better.
That’s exactly why I want him. We need someone who’s opposed to government expansion, but not fanatically opposed to every government program.
Statesman, internationalist, visionary, and he understood what loyal opposition meant … and he practiced it.
And as a bonus, he was a total horn dog (he screwed Madame Chiang Kai-shek on his “One World” diplomatic trip), so there’s the entertainment factor, too!
No, no, I don’t want Ralph Nader for POTUS.
I want Ralph Nader for USAG.
[sound of bowels opening in corporate boardrooms all across America]
In hindsight, it now seems like things would have turned out more or less the same if they hadn’t, doesn’t it? Is there any conceivable Cold War scenario where the USSR wins, or thrives?
Joshua Norton. We could use an emperor again.
Yeah, but we still need a president too, or maybe a PM.