Top 5 US Presidents

Ikohn4ever

Ikohn4ever

CAGiversary!
Feedback
5 (100%)
I was talking about Bush and where he would rank out of all the presidents. I said somewhere between Taft and Grant but that is besides the point. From there we talked about our top 5 Presidents. So I am curious who everyone's top 5 are. You can explain if you want, and you can order them if you want.

My 5 in no order
Washington
Lincoln
Teddy
Clinton
JFK
 
[quote name='capitalist_mao']Why Teddy and JFK?[/QUOTE]

Teddy overcame a lot before he even became president, a man a plan a canal panama, and he became a huge conservationist setting increasing parks and public lands. In addition he was a very energetic president, which he carried over into everything he did.

JFK, cuban missle crisis alone should put him in it. He also pushed for equal rights. Seemed to be one of the most down to earth presidents.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']JFK, cuban missle crisis alone should put him in it. He also pushed for equal rights. Seemed to be one of the most down to earth presidents.[/QUOTE]

Evidence suggests that JFK escalated the Missile crisis with a Reagan-like furvor, not to mention that LBJ was the guy who actually implemented equal/civil rights.
 
You cant say a guy was great when you didnt even live in his time. For all we know Washington was a terrible pesident and did alot of bad things on his own personal time. That why i dont like to pick my favorite president.
 
5. James Polk
4. Andrew Jackson
3. George Washington
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1. Abraham Lincoln


Well, this isn't exactly mine. My AP US History teacher pretty much forced what he thought were the best presidents into our heads. From what he taught us about the achievements of each president, I can say I pretty much agree with him.

This makes me want to take a history class in college.


[quote name='Vampire Hunter D']You cant say a guy was great when you didnt even live in his time. For all we know Washington was a terrible pesident and did alot of bad things on his own personal time. That why i dont like to pick my favorite president.[/QUOTE]

Well, you can base your assumptions on the president's achievements during his time. For example, during Buchanan's residency, there were economic troubles and the country slid closer to war. Then again, sometimes luck can account for whether a president is remembered as a good or bad one.
 
[quote name='Vampire Hunter D']You cant say a guy was great when you didnt even live in his time. For all we know Washington was a terrible pesident and did alot of bad things on his own personal time. That why i dont like to pick my favorite president.[/QUOTE]

then dont post in this thread
 
[quote name='Vampire Hunter D']You cant say a guy was great when you didnt even live in his time. For all we know Washington was a terrible pesident and did alot of bad things on his own personal time. That why i dont like to pick my favorite president.[/QUOTE]

I don't see why we can't have opinions on earlier presidents. Most of us have at least a basic understanding of American history, and hopefully many of us have a lot further knowledge of the subject.

1. George Washington - if only we had listened to him and avoided forming political parties, the cancer of our political body.

2. Thomas Jefferson
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. Theodore Roosevelt

I'm going to only give 4.
 
History teacher here...figured I would weigh in.

1. Washington - sacrificed personal satisfaction for his country. Restrained himself and the office. His farewell address is spectacular.

2. Jefferson - his pre-presidency life is arguably more important to the country (drafting the Declaration of Independence, helped push the separation of church and state while in VA and part of the Constitutional Convention). However, during the presidency, he limited government but expanded the country via the LA Purchase and funding the Lewis and Clark expedition.

3. FDR - I don't agree with most of his politics, but no other president faced such dispirate challenges and responded successfully. Adapted from inward thinking required during the Great Depression to delegating power during a massive two-front war. We became a dominant hegemon through this evolution.

4. Truman - Quite possibly faced the toughest decision of any President: to drop the bomb(s) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or to aim for an invasiona of the Japanese home islands. His decision saved hundreds of thousands of American lives, but at the cost of Japanese civilians. People often forget that targeting without regard for civilian casualties was commonplace in both the firebombing of Japanese cities, the mass bombings of German industrial/population centers. The atomic weapons actually caused far fewer casualties than some earlier convential bombing campaigns. The saved American lives harbingered the baby boom. He oversaw implementation of the Marshall Plan, a successful occupation of Japan and the creation of NATO.

5. Lincoln - The Civil War can partly be attributed to his election, but his even handed administration during war was a model for those that followed him. His assassination cut short his Reconstruction plans that could have avoided many of the abject racism of Johnson's policies.


Runner up- Reagan - Controlled inflation that blossomed in the 70's and at the same time confronted the Soviet Union with both aggression and diplomacy. Increased military spending forced the Soviet Union to spend itself into irrelevence. The diplomacy opened doors to the Eastern Bloc. Some of our best allies today are former Soviet satellites.

OC
 
[quote name='elprincipe']1. George Washington - if only we had listened to him and avoided forming political parties, the cancer of our political body.

2. Thomas Jefferson[/QUOTE]

Wait, the reason you give for your #1 pick is his advice against forming political parties, and for #2 you list the main person responsible for the formation of political parties in the US? Not that I'm really disagreeing with your pick, but that just stood out to me :)

Anyway...
1) Washington - I think its very hard to debate this one. Washington set SO many of the protocols and traditions for what the president should be that stand up to this day. Even the simple address of 'Mr. President' is what he chose, over many titles that others wanted that he felt were too deferential. He helped design Washington D.C., including the White House. Probably his greatest legacy is in choosing to step down after 2 terms and peacefully handing over the office to another (despite the fact that there were MANY who wanted to make him King George.) The United States owes a LOT to Washington.

2) Lincoln - not much needs to be said. Held the country together when it otherwise would have split.

3) FDR - Created so much of what we think of as 'modern America', which has withstood despite decades of Republicans trying desperately to tear it down.

4) Jefferson - It gets harder at this point. I guess I would have to go with Jefferson. (Most of his greatest accomplishments happened before he was elected to office, which is the reason for my hesitancy. He definitely was a great man, easily on-par with Washington. His term as president, though, wasn't quite as great.) His policies of expansion (including the Louisiana Purchase) did a lot to form the US as it exists today.

5) Theodore Roosevelt - even a harder pick, but I would give it to Theodore. He played a major role in the creation of what would eventually become the FDA. He also did a lot of fighting for workers rights and limits on corporate power (though he mostly lost on those issues, during his term in office, though his support eventually did reap rewards by bringing it to the public conciousness.)
 
[quote name='munch']5 - McKinley[/QUOTE]
McKinley? I've lived in the town McKinley was born in nearly my whole life. The local high school is named after him. The local library is in a memorial built for him, and is filled with McKinley memorabilia. And even the people who live in this town think he was kind of a loser president. In school, we had people from the local historical society come give speeches about once per year about him (to build 'community pride'), and they all boiled down to 'He was president. Yup.' because there wasn't anything more worth saying about him.

He certainly wasn't a BAD president. He just didn't do anything worth remembering, other than getting shot. Being assassinated is probably his singular claim to fame as president.
 
[quote name='Drocket']Wait, the reason you give for your #1 pick is his advice against forming political parties, and for #2 you list the main person responsible for the formation of political parties in the US? Not that I'm really disagreeing with your pick, but that just stood out to me :)[/QUOTE]

Fair enough. Perhaps I'm a bit biased as a Virginian, but it's hard to ignore his accomplishments, so many and so great.
 
[quote name='Drocket']McKinley? I've lived in the town McKinley was born in nearly my whole life. The local high school is named after him. The local library is in a memorial built for him, and is filled with McKinley memorabilia. And even the people who live in this town think he was kind of a loser president. In school, we had people from the local historical society come give speeches about once per year about him (to build 'community pride'), and they all boiled down to 'He was president. Yup.' because there wasn't anything more worth saying about him.

He certainly wasn't a BAD president. He just didn't do anything worth remembering, other than getting shot. Being assassinated is probably his singular claim to fame as president.[/QUOTE]

I put him up there simply because he set the style of what a modern US president should be. After him, the US would no longer be focused in the Western Hemisphere and would have interests all over the world. My 5 choice was between him and wilson, so if you don't like McKinley, substitute and move on.
 
Bush
Nixon
Bush Jr.
Hoover
Clinton

And now for the serious answer

FDR
Washington
Lincoln
Kennedy
Eleanor Roosevelt(Not A President...but she basically was)
 
All: We are the mediocre presidents.
You won't find our faces on dollars or on cents!
There's Taylor, there's Tyler,
There's Fillmore and there's Hayes.
There's William Henry Harrison,
Harrison: I died in thirty days!
All: We... are... the...
Adequate, forgettable,
Occasionally regrettable
Caretaker presidents of the U-S-A!
 
I'll list them, but admittedly my knowledge of US presidents is not as good as all yours.

1) F. Roosevelt
2) John F. Kennedy
3) Ronald Reagan
4) Harry Truman
5) George Washington

And now, my top 3 Canadian PM's :D - For those who know 2, a cookie:

1) Pierre-Elliot Trudeau
2) Jean Chretien
3) Brian Mulroney
 
[quote name='sblymnlcrymnl']3.)Andrew Jackson
4.)Teddy Roosevelt
5.)Thomas Jefferson[/QUOTE]

GOD I hate Andrew Jackson. What he did to the Indians was represhensible and while I'd like to say I wish he'd burn in Hell for that I should be fair and say he should be allowed to redeem himself in reincarnation.

My list:
1.Thomas Jefferson
2.FDR
3.Harry Truman. I really respect a President who knows to RESPECT other countries and not suck the cock of Big Business and elect to send the Economic Hitman after them if they don't go for the American businesses. It's called respecting a countries SOVEREIGNTY resonably. I have to say I HIGHLY disagreed with him dropping the A-Bomb considering he did NOT have the intellectual capacity to fully understand or close to understand the reaction unlike Einstein.
4.George Washington.
5.Abraham Lincoln.

-2.John Quincy Adams. Where MODERN Republicanism came from, ugh.
-3.JFK. Granted he did some important things but this man was LAZY, falling asleep in meetings and who knows what else plus I RESENT the fact our country elected the Prom King and Queen. Sure he's a pretty motherfucker but does that mean he could be a good President? Not neccessarily. I will say after the TV debate though Nixon's fate was sealed.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']-3.JFK. Granted he did some important things but this man was LAZY, falling asleep in meetings and who knows what else plus I RESENT the fact our country elected the Prom King and Queen. Sure he's a pretty motherfucker but does that mean he could be a good President? Not neccessarily. I will say after the TV debate though Nixon's fate was sealed.[/QUOTE]

I'd bet that a large portion of that laziness was due to his daily cocktail.
 
[quote name='capitalist_mao']I'd bet that a large portion of that laziness was due to his daily cocktail.[/QUOTE]

Yeah but this is the same father who was NOTORIOUS for being great at manipulating the media to look good and the ONLY reason he lost the chance at becoming President is because he said we couldn't win against the Germans.
Reagan. shudders. GOD only knows what could've happened to this country if we had 8 more years of him.
 
Lincoln
Washington
FDR

Debatable after that, but JFK, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt are in the mix. JFK has the biggest balls of any President, no one else has come as close to nuclear war, and he never blinked.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']Debatable after that, but JFK, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt are in the mix. JFK has the biggest balls of any President, no one else has come as close to nuclear war, and he never blinked.[/QUOTE]

Reagan Tried.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top