<p>This is just going to turn into another fruitless debate. It obviously depends on whether you are Democratic or Republican.</p>
<p>I don't think so. I think I listed just as many Republicans as Democrats in my assessment of the 5 best. I'm a serious fan of many Republicans, despite my Democratic affiliation.</p>
<p>Yeah leaving Reagan/Bush and Clinton out b/c any dem will have Clinton and any card carrying Rep will def have Reagan (almost sacrilege not to) and usually Bush. Also about Andrew Jackson my US Hist AP teacher said you either love him or you hate him which is funny seeing this board. I obviously don't think it matters to anyone but everyone's list will include at least two of the following: Washington, Lincoln, FDR.</p>
<p>Here's a few interesting sites. A list where actual historians ranked them (<a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/hail/rankings.html)%5B/url%5D">http://www.opinionjournal.com/hail/rankings.html)</a>. Not that it means anything.</p>
<p>Here is a conservative point of view: <a href="http://www.conservativetruth.org/archives/brucewalker/02-17-02.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.conservativetruth.org/archives/brucewalker/02-17-02.shtml</a></p>
<p>As for myself. I am a fan of Reagan's foreign policy but I do believe he widened the gap between the rich and the poor with his silly, self-indulgent trickle down economy. I think that Clinton is pretty good, not great but not far down either, many took his bad personal choices to remark on his presidency skills. I for myself think Lincoln's the greatest b/c to have a country pull apart and bring itself back to together again in 4 years is astounding. And for my worst is the man who undone all of Lincoln's beautiful work Buchanan. Now GWB is surfing toward the bottom for me. I don't think his theocratic ideals are good for a nation built on the premise of the separation of church and state.</p>
<p>There I said my piece. Btw I am a Democrat but try to look at both parties fairly before I decide on voting, not based on which party they are in.</p>
<p>Don't say people who rank gw bush at the top are idiots, cuz apparently most of the country liked him better then the democrat challenger. I'm a republican so i think that clinton and LBJ were terrible, but i could see why democrats would like them. I like bush, i don't personally think he is Reagan level, but i could see why people like him. </p>
<p>BTW- just for fun, biggest landslide ever (i think)- 1984 Reagan/Bush vs. Mondale/Ferroro</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm a republican so i think that clinton and LBJ were terrible, but i could see why democrats would like them. I like bush, i don't personally think he is Reagan level, but i could see why people like him
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm a Democrat, but I don't think that a Republican is terrible simply based on party affiliation. Consider them based on their merits. Shouldn't LBJ at least be given credit for his Great Society reforms and his tireless efforts to stamp out racism?</p>
<p>Yes, I'll always appreciate LBJ for his domestic efforts, even though all the Vietnam War (which he escalated US involvment in) did was to prolong the inevitable fall of the South and cause a lot of destruction and deaths.</p>
<p>Andrew Johnson has to be the worst president. He tried to stop Congress from passing civil rights acts, and Congress got so mad he avoided impeachment by just one vote. For the rest of his term he was basically ignored.</p>
<p>Grant was a good general but a bad president. Just like Harding, he was an honest, if naive and trusting, guy who surrounded himself with corrupt people.</p>
<p>Wilson is my favorite racist. Except for his cold view of blacks, he was very progressive and idealistic, albeit naive.</p>
<p>Hoover is wrongly blamed for the Great Depression. There was no way he have prevented it, and because the world's economists still believed in classical theory at that time, there was no way for him to know how to fix it. He was a brilliant planner and engineer, and at any other time he would have gone down in history as a good president.</p>
<p>many of hoover's policies actually made the effects of the Depression even more adverse.</p>
<p>Johnson didn't oppose the laws because he was against civil rights, he just didn't believe that it was the federal government's place to legislate on the matter.</p>
<p>The Best in no particular order:</p>
<p>Teddy Roosevelt
Jefferson
Washington
FDR
Lincoln</p>
<p>Worst (in no particular order):</p>
<p>Johnson
Hoover
Grant
Bucchanan
Carter</p>
<p>Wildcards (could go in either list depending on who you ask):
Clinton
Jackson
Kennedy
Wilson
Reagan</p>
<p>I don't think you can judge GWB yet.</p>
<p>It really amused me to see someone rank both GW Bush and FDR a while back. They seem very different to me.</p>
<p>My rankings, in no order:
FDR, Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington
For fifth, I'd tie Wilson (good guy, good foreign policy ideas, but racist), Teddy Roosevelt (good environment, good domestic, Bush-like foreign policy), LBJ, Kennedy, and maybe Clinton (really smart and kept everything running smoothly, which looks good nowadays, but not particularly remarkable. Maybe if Congress had been a little more amenable to his health care dreams).<br>
There are probably other really good presidents that I haven't learned as much about.</p>
<p>Best (No Order)</p>
<ol>
<li>FDR</li>
<li>TR</li>
<li>Lincoln</li>
<li>Jefferson</li>
<li>Washington</li>
</ol>
<p>Worst (No Order)</p>
<ol>
<li>Grant</li>
<li>Carter</li>
<li>Bucchanan</li>
<li>Andrew Johnson</li>
<li>GWB </li>
</ol>
<p>Wildcards</p>
<ol>
<li>Clinton</li>
<li>LBJ</li>
<li>Reagan </li>
<li>Wilson</li>
<li>Jackson</li>
</ol>
<p>Ah yes, Grant. Definitely one of the absolute worse.</p>
<p>best
1. FDR
2. ABE LINCOLN</p>
<ol>
<li>Thomas J.</li>
<li>GW</li>
<li>Teddy R., Truman, JFK, LBJ ?????</li>
</ol>
<p>It has always bothered me how everyone loves JFK. If you look at the US under his presidency (for the few years that he was president) there were major problems, especially w/ foreign policy (namely, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis). Yeah, he did start the peace corps, but that was one of the few effective things that he did. He is soo overrated because he was assasinated. If he was not killed, I seriously doubt he would make any top 5 president list at all. </p>
<p>My list:
FDR
Jefferson
Wilson
Reagan
Lincoln</p>
<p>Bottom 5
GWB
GHWB
Grant
Carter
Jackson</p>
<p>Cuban Missile Crisis as a negative about JFK? JFK avoided war, which easily could have escalated.</p>
<p>Though I do agree with you that his death makes him seem like he is a better president than he was, but he did better than you give him credit.</p>
<p>i like intheory's 5 worst....and actually...i think several Republicans will look back in the future and realize how conservative Clinton really was....everything is too divied on partisan lines nowadays rather than absolute ideology...Clinton pushed some REALLY conservative legislation and got a majority of it passed....I'm particularly fond of the 96 Welfare Reform</p>
<p>My bottom 5:
37. Martin Van Buren
38. James Garfield
39. John Tyler
40. James Buchanan
41. Andrew Johnson</p>
<p>My top 5 (in no order):
1) Jefferson
2) Lincoln
3) Clinton
4) Andrew Jackson
5) FDR (although it is now speculated that his policies worsened and elongated the Great Depression)</p>
<p>My 5 Worst (in no particular order):
1) Reagan (he didn't actually do very much while in office and people were too enamored with his personality than his actual politics)
2) GWB
3) Fillmore
4) Carter
5) Van Buren</p>
<p>to put Reagan in the worst 5 is political blasphemy!...repub/demo divisions shouldn't be seen as a basis for classifying a president as good or bad....that's absurd</p>
<p>His tax policy benefited even teh lower class Americans...it exempted many of them.....he was successful in reinvigorating national pride and did shield off the long lasting effects of inflation with his influence in monetary policy....he increased relations with the Soviet Union like no other president before him...his major contribution to the presidency was that he made the use of television as a means of communication with the public a popular method for presidents...at the conclusion of his second term, the U.S. went through its longest period of peacetime economic stability....no recessions, no depressions....no need for anyone to comment on his increased spending on national defense that created a deficit, or the Iran-Contra affair...we already know about those :)....though his policy did create deficit, he kept the market economy and international trade very stable</p>
<p>Best:
1.FDR
2. LBJ
3. Abe
4.Carter
5. Kennedy</p>
<p>Worst:
Reagan
Jackson
Dubya
Herbert Walker bush
Buchanan</p>
<p>Personally I think the best landslide in history was the 1964 election. Sadly however that election was completely reversed in terms of numbers voting for each candidate in 1984. Ah, the 60's were the good old days of hippies, student activism, and boundless optimism. Now we have pessimism, students concerned about grad school, and conservatives posturing as if they are kings of the world.</p>