Clinton

Oh god yes.

Calvin Coolidge is one of my favorite presidents simply because he demonstrates that even if you're not great at what you do, you can still avoid screwing anything up.

Ok, in our lifetimes (as in fairly recent).... lets see

Reagan > Nixon

Reagan > Ford

Reagan > Carter

Reagan > Bush 1

Reagan > Clinton

Reagan > Bush 2

The only one even close there is Clinton, but most people would agree Reagan was a better pres than Clinton.. namely he wasn't impeached.

You have to go back to Eisenhower to find a president that compares to Reagan (please no JFK bs.) I put lincoln #1 because, well, he pretty much saved the country, freed the slaves, um ya and was assasinated (JFK's claim to fame).

It was reagan's policies that set up the boom in the 90's. When the market collapsed in 87 if he had overreacted it could have caused ramifications that could have stunted the growth we saw in the 90's.

Depends whose lifetime we're talking about.

I don't think that being impeached would make someone a worse president than another just for that reason. Nixon wasn't impeached, so can we immediately say that he's better than Clinton as well? How about Warren G. Harding?

And yeah, Eisenhower was fun on the bun (modern presidents could learn from him). But I fail to see how Lincoln was that amazing. Freeing the slaves was generally in the north's interest, both due to the unpopularity of slavery (most people worked in factories and on assembly lines, so who needs slaves) and to cripple the south. He saved the country, but then again, a monkey probably could have saved the country. The north had such overwhelming advantages against the south throughout the entire war that it shocks me that it lasted 4 years. And when it comes to being assassinated, imagine if Reagan was killed. He would have been 10 times more famous than he is now, and that would be scary. Not that I'm bashing Lincoln with this, but it's not like his acts were particularly exceptional.

The main problem with Reagan is that he set us up for a great boom, but it was only temporary. What wasn't temporary was the massive foreign debt he accumulated. That doesn't come and go every couple years or decades.

Out of that crew, Reagan and Clinton are definitely above the others.  They are both overrated, probably due to what you compare them against.  I would say Reagan is much more overrated than Clinton.  I think its because he's further in the past, so people tend to remember that the economy was good overall and forget the bad stuff.

As for the impeachment, that was a joke.  Let's see, Reagan secretly traded weapons to Iran so they would free our hostages, and then funded terrorists in Nicaragua, and he was not impeached.  Clinton got a BJ and lied about it, so he gets impeached.

 well i compared him to the presidents over the last 35 years or so... thus the recent history comment. As far as clinton goes, it wasn't that he lied per say... it was that he lied under oath. Which is perjury... Yes i do think the stupid part is they made such a big deal out of it. FDR, JFK, and I am sure others had adultrous  relationships, it is just the media was more respectful back then.

i'm not in office yet, so i'll have to passe

Clinton wasn't a great president, it was more the fact that he didn't completely fuck the job up, which in comparison to other presidents of recent times (ie. since Reagen) is a massive improvement.

As for the best president to lead the USA... I'm going to have to go with Lincoln followed by Washington followed by FDR. Those three led the USA through its most some of its most volatile times, its creation, civil war and WWII and did a pretty damned good job of it.

RONALD REAGAN!

George Washington