<p>I understand some of your parents teach you to love Bush...but jesus how can ANYONE consider him one of the best Presidents of all time??</p>
<p>probably because they are retarded.</p>
<p>Nixon is one of the top of my list. He had the most brillant foreign policy during the Cold War.</p>
<ol>
<li>Abraham Lincoln</li>
<li>George Washington</li>
<li>Ronald Reagan</li>
<li>Thomas Jefferson</li>
<li>Dwight Eisenhower</li>
</ol>
<p>...</p>
<ol>
<li>Jimmy Carter</li>
</ol>
<p>FDR
Lincoln
JFK
Polk
Jefferson</p>
<p>If you're going to have a list of worst presidents, you've got to include James Buchanan. What a failure at...everything. :)</p>
<p>anybody that says george w. bush is one of the greatest presidents of all time needs to get a reality check...usually, great presidents have been ones that have contributed to the presidency...gw has actually pushed the limits so far that he's taken away from the presidency...he'll fall in to the average or the below average category whenever he leaves office....wow....and Carter may have had good character...but as an executive he was an absolute failure.....he couldn't coordinate his plans with Congress, legislation was deadlocked, the bureacracy was so disorganized...he was just a bad chief executive....but...he was a nice guy...the only thing that killed him was his lack of skill in office.</p>
<p>i thought it was an undisputed fact that carter was the worst president of all time.</p>
<p>A president must be honest, responsible and intelligent. Carter was all of the above. I believe he was a great president, but unfortunately, he was not a good politician. Reagan was not too bright, Bush Jr is even less bright and unethical, Clinton was smart, but he was not responsible and Bush Sr was unethical.</p>
<p>Another question my friends and I have talked about is the most overrated and underrated Presidents. I would say FDR and LBJ, respectively.</p>
<p>Jimmy Carter? Wow...I'm from Georgia and I even think he was one of the worst presidents of all time. Good guy--yes. Good president--no.
Top president, also my political hero- Ronald Reagan</p>
<ol>
<li>FDR</li>
<li>Wilson</li>
<li>Jefferson</li>
<li>Clinton</li>
<li>Kennedy</li>
</ol>
<p>...</p>
<ol>
<li>McKinley</li>
<li>Coolidge</li>
<li>Dubya</li>
<li>Dubya's evil maker</li>
<li>Reagan</li>
</ol>
<p>yeah, I'm a crazy raving liberal</p>
<p>Reagan for sure, but followed closely by George W. Bush.</p>
<p>i guess alukaszewicz is kidding...</p>
<p>Um, no, I'm not actually.</p>
<p>No probably not, he believes that a theocracy is the best form of governent</p>
<p>Oh that explains it!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Another question my friends and I have talked about is the most overrated and underrated Presidents. I would say FDR and LBJ, respectively.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree, altho even if FDR is overrated he is still one of the greatest presidents of all time.</p>
<p>LBJ's reputation is marred by Vietnam, but many of his oft-criticized (at the time) social programs are now taken for granted as being a part of American society.</p>
<p>Harry Truman is also underrated, if merely by that fact that he had to follow FDR.</p>
<p>I like LBJ. he's a much better president than Reagan IMO.</p>
<p>I'm going to give five and an argument for and against each. They are in no particular order.</p>
<p>FDR- Pros: FDR brought the US through what may have been one of the most troubling periods of US history. Not only did he lead the US through the Depression, he basically led us through the Second World War. He gave Americans faith in America when there was no reason to have any.
Cons: He saw the Constitution as a piece of paper. To him, abridging rights in a time of war was just an unpleasant necessity. Not only did he intern the Japanese-American population, he threatened the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>LBJ- Pros: Led the greatest expansion of civil rights in US history. His tireless efforts to change American perceptions and laws regarding ethnic relations mark him as probably the single most important politician of the 20th century as far as race issues are concerned.
Cons: Some argue that he used the Vietnam War as a way to divert attention from an otherwise noble effort (Great Society.) There is no doubt that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a poor excuse to launch a protracted war that cost 50,000 lives. </p>
<p>Lincoln- Pros: He kept the nation together in the most divisive era of American history. Although his reasons for going to war with the Confederacy were not over slavery and the plight of the black American per se, his efforts nonetheless paved the way for abolishing that most heinous of American institutions.
Cons: He, like FDR, saw the Constitution as a roadblock to his efforts. He violated basic rights without wavering, and saw duress as a legitimate reason for exercising almost tyrannical power.</p>
<p>TR- Pros: He led an ascendancy of international recognition for the United States. His efforts in "busting trusts" and progressive reform helped move along needed recognition of the issues affecting the American laborer. He also helped people recognize the need for National Parks and protecting our natural resources. Finally, his work in developing the Panama Canal helped the West develop in ways it never would have otherwise.
Cons: Like his cousin, he seemed to have something against the Japanese (not really, but consequentially). His work mediating the Russo-Japanese war did little but stop Japanese from coming to the US. His aggressive pursuance of the Monroe Doctrine helped further the notion that the US has the right to essentially treat Latin America as an extension of itself.</p>
<p>Reagan- Pros: Reagan's foreign policies helped end the Cold War, and helped move along the efforts toward nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
Cons: In ending the Cold War, Reagan created one of the largest deficits in American history.</p>
<p>Runners-up: Wilson, Andrew Johnson, Clinton, Jefferson, and Eisenhower</p>
<p>WOW...some ppl are SERIOUSLY overrating GWB....he's a HORRIBLE president....he's murdered the economy, his preemptive action doctrine failed to gain even 40 percent public support, his social security program has VERY little support in BOTH congress and the public...and this is in a Republican controleld congres....he's got so much ill will towards him in congress, because of this filibuster gig...GEEZ....</p>