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Forums - General - Best Modern President?

 

Best Modern President?

Barack Obama 44 20.85%
 
George W. Bush 21 9.95%
 
Bill Clinton 90 42.65%
 
George H.W. Bush 4 1.90%
 
Ronald Reagan 47 22.27%
 
Jimmy Carter 5 2.37%
 
Total:211
Kasz216 on 12 October 2010
Rath said:

Kasz, noname. Mind trimming the trees?


Sorry about that.

Nothing more to trim though.

At "worst" you could give Johnson/Nixon, Pierce/Buchanon or Bush/Obama status...

except Nixon actually did more good things... and eventually turned around the failed plans of his successor.

Heck, even the civil rights achivements of Johnson were actually put through by Nixon.  Nixon was the one who ended up leading to the most desegregation.

There isn't really much more to say then that.

It always amuses me though, how democrats usually hate Nixon while republicans don't.

If you look at Nixon's presidency...

He has way more in common with democrats then republican.  Universal healthcare, increased government jobs, used kensyian economics left and right.  His healthcare plan makes Obama look like a conservative.

He wasn't a great president... but he wasn't any worse then Johnson.



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Kasz216 on 12 October 2010
Mr Khan said:

To reply to Kasz without having to trim the quote tree:

 

You're oversimplifying. It would be physically possible to have a contest of shooting skill and reasonably replicate the variables surrounding it in a controlled environment. It is impossible to do so for Presidential Administrations, or indeed for any historical anything (like saying: Hitler would've kicked Stalin's ass if it weren't for X or Y. Sure you can say that, but you have zero ability to prove it). You can't refine all variables down to a point and level the playing field to compare presidents objectively. It's based purely upon the positives, and anything else borders on revisionism

But you can.  Or at least you can refine most of it away to judge presidents objectivly.

To not consider the times, factors and external threats is nothing but pure lunacy.

It's like saying the best soldiers are those who server during peacetime, because they don't die.



Kasz216 on 12 October 2010
HappySqurriel said:
fighter said:

There is no good president in that list.

 

Clinton and Obama are OK - the first one had more work done as he didn't inherit Bush Jr's disastrous administration

Bush Jr. was an aberration from beginning to end - and there is actually no equivalent in any other real & modern democracy

The rest is meh / meh / meh


Not to (really) defend George W. Bush, but I think a lot of the criticism he receives is not really justified ...

When you consider how many of the problems that define the Bush administration were caused by things outside of his control, or were based on decisions that were fully supported by both political parties (and the American people at the time) it isn't unreasonable to suggest that Al Gore or John Kerry's presidency would have been just as problematic; and a lot of what people "hate" Bush for are problems that were a result of the time of his presidency, and not necessarily problems because of his presidency.

On top of that, we get to see the results of the choices he made and we can never know the results of the choices he didn't make; and at times I see people assuming perfect outcomes from the opposite decisions. Some people (like me) might argue that the loose monetary policy and questionable lending practices during the Bush administration encouraged a housing bubble that crowded out conventional economic growth; but you have to consider that this conventional growth might not have happened in the absence of these (insane) policies, and the US could have experienced a lost decade in the wake of the dot-com bubble and 9/11.

I'm not saying Bush was a good president because I really think he wasn't that good of a president, but I do think it is fair to say that he (probably) had the most challenging presidency of any of the ones in this poll; and a very good president might only look average if they were running the country at the same time.

Oh, I'd agree that Gore and/or Kerry likely would of sucked as much.  Though that's less to do with the diffculty of the times then it does the ineffectiveness of the men.



SmokedHostage on 12 October 2010

I voted for William Rodham Clinton.

Mostly because I love how butthurt people get when folks say he was the 'black' president.



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MasterZack on 12 October 2010

Barak!!!



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Tigerlure on 12 October 2010

I don't know why people are picking Reagan. What exactly did he do that was so great? From what I've read, unemployment was a problem in his administration like it is today. I picked Clinton, because the worst thing you can say about him is the scandal. Obama is only halfway through his presidency, but I think he's done a decent job. I just wish Republicans would stop blocking all of his policies.



Nirvana_Nut85 on 12 October 2010
Mr Khan said:
TheRealMafoo said:
Nirvana_Nut85 said:
Raze said:
Nirvana_Nut85 said:
Raze said:

None of the above. The last good president the US has had was Theodore Roosevelt. They've all been criminals since.



Actually the last great President was JFK. He had some good policies and defied the "privately global banking elite owned" federal reserve by taking their right to print money for the U.S and started printing the dollar from the National Treasury, he refused to go along with a false flag attack (Operation Northwoods) planned by the joint cheifs of staff, which would have caused the U.S to attack Cuba and he also played a fairly large role in the eventual Civil Rights Act.

You cant be sure how he would have turned out if he didnt take a bullet to the face. He could've gotten just as messed up. Plus the ties he had with very sordid people, never know where it could've led to. My choice still stands. =)

I have to disagree, there was a reason why he took a bullet to the face, because they thought he was going to be a puppet president (like Bush and Obama) and he ended up being quite the opposite. Now this in my belief was mainly due to his brother (RFK) who was his advisor, but had he not taken the bullet I bet you the Vietnam War would  have never happened as t is widely believe that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was itself a false flag that LBJ allowed to happen.

if Obama was shot and killed the month he became president, he would have gone down in history as the greatest who ever served.

That's the thing about people who get killed (JFK, Lincoln)... we always think from the point of view of optimism. JFK didn't have time to show how ineffective he would have actually been.

I like to think that Kennedy (and Khrushchev) are the reasons we're not all living in nuclear winter right now. If nothing else, that makes him worth it

Though i generally agree that the Kennedy worship is misplaced from him being killed before his time (but that happens outside the presidency a lot too. I entirely doubt that John Belushi would be remembered as fondly as he is if he hadn't destroyed himself), but Kennedy's problem was that he really came in with no mandate. The election of 1960, despite being one of the closest in American history, was really a pointless election (in the sense that it didn't pivot on any major issue, kinda like the election of 2000), and Kennedy entered the presidency much like W did, lacking a mandate.

@ Mafoo - If Obama was shot and killed anywhere from now to 2011, there would be mourning but people would still look back on his policies and see how much of a puppet he was instead of bringing real change.

JFK wouldn't have been ineffective, there's a reason he go killed. He did the opposite of what everyone thought he was going to do. He went against the tide, with of course the advice of RFK who was the mastermind behind him (He would have been a hell of a president had he not been killed). Also had Kennedy not been shot, the U.S most likely would have not been in the shambles it is today because he would have taken out the federal reserve which he was slowly doing (he had plans to abolish it). If you look at what he did in such a short time he really was the best modern President to date.

@ Raze - I agree with you on that one (no pivitol point) I have to disagree wit the worship part. People who actually research the things he did to go against the banking Elite and the power's that be respect him for what he tried to do in his short time as President.



" Rebellion Against Tyrants Is Obedience To God"

Kasz216 on 12 October 2010
SmokedHostage said:

I voted for William Rodham Clinton.

Mostly because I love how butthurt people get when folks say he was the 'black' president.


Heck, even he was probably more like the 3rd-5th "black" president.

As far as "being part black" is considered.



mhsillen on 18 October 2010
Tigerlure said:

I don't know why people are picking Reagan. What exactly did he do that was so great? From what I've read, unemployment was a problem in his administration like it is today. I picked Clinton, because the worst thing you can say about him is the scandal. Obama is only halfway through his presidency, but I think he's done a decent job. I just wish Republicans would stop blocking all of his policies.


I guess you were not born yet and didn't live thru the Ford and Carter terms.

The misery index was the lowest until Obama's presidency.

Reagan lifted the country out of a terrible malaise brought back confidence.  For those who don't remember or who were not around then you might not understand.  The economy rocketed, my pay which was hovering at 5.00 an hour in the late seventies hit 14.00 an hour in the first 4 years of uncle Ron. And I was doing the same job as a machinist.  



mhsillen on 18 October 2010

I didn't like Reagan during the first 2 years of his term due to the MSM's depiction of him.  Then his charm and good humor and my pay going up I decided that the MSM was full of shit. After that he became uncle Ron to my friends and me.