Who were the six best presidents of all-time? And why?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I’ll give it a shot: (best 6 not in any order)
1: Abraham Lincoln– Led the nation through the Civil War, laid the groundwork for ending slavery as an institution in the US (13th Amendment passed after his death)
2:Franklin Delano Roosevelt– Led the nation through the Great Depression, established Social Security, led the nation through WWII
3:Theodore Roosevelt– Helped establish the National Park system, began enforcement of some of the first Anti-Trust laws, to break up monopolies and allow smaller and mid-sized business more room to grow. Laid the groundwork for the Panama Canal project
I didn’t include Washington here, for the sole reason that I didn’t count ‘starting off the line of Presidents’ as necessarily a ‘Great’ Act, although his ability to lead conferences of wildly divergent opinions to workable compromise solutions is a talent sorely lacking in today’s political scene….
I can’t disagree with your rationale for LBJ but he left the nation a mess with his handling of Vietnam and it consumed him. A great leader would have been out in front of the situation, not letting it dictate to him.
I’m with you there….LBJ was a conflicted choice for me…
Washington — because he defined so much of the position
Lincoln — because he solidified what we are and mean as a nation
FDR — because he defined the modern presidency and what the modern US government looks and acts like (both good and bad I suppose)
Ike — Navigated arguably the most dangerous period of the cold war and implemented the strategy for fighting it
Teddy Roosevelt — Established the US as a world power and established conservation and preservation of the environment as an important government responsibility
Six huh? That’s a little tough.
Jefferson ? — for acting on a vision of manifest destiny and modeling that it is OK to be curious as president.
John Adams ? –Had to make up a lot himself. Established many of our diplomatic principles and placed the US in the community of nations
Or Madison? — Probably political thinker/philosopher than president, but a great mind.
Truman? — Thrown into creating the post war world. His best trait was being accountable and listening to some really smart and wise people around him. The anti W.
After that it get pretty thin
What a question.
They all were a mixed bag. Most commentators mention the pluses and a couple of minuses.
Minuses LBJ and JFK it was Vietnam ( gulf of Tonkin resolution anyone ). Adams was Aliens and Sedition. Lincoln it was Habeus, Sherman’s March and the field rules of engagement. FDR is was war powers and the Japanese interment. Truman, for letting Curtis LeMay run a muck ( firebombing civilian populations that live in wood and paper houses, 100,000 dead one night in Tokyo alone let alone Hiroshima and Nagasaki ) and Korea. Ike for Castro and setting up the bay of pigs, the Shah of Iran and a few other nasty central american things. Any of the Southern Presidents until civil war owned slaves. Teddy for fomenting Columbia revolt to create the country of Panama for his canal.
why are you dissing Chester Arthur?
Benjamin Franklin
Danny Devito
Oliver North
Joe the Plumber
Orrin Hatch
Alexander Hamilton
… wait, those are just six people who I’d like to have dinner with.
1) Lincoln.
He was born dirt poor. I mean seriously poor. I think that he represents the best of what a politician can be. A self-made, self-reliant man. An autodidact. Able to connect with people by telling off-color jokes. Confident in his intellectual ability despite his lack of pedigree.
I know its corny, but I always wonder how history would have developed had he not been killed. Reconstruction would have gone way differently.
I read the recent bio ‘Lincoln, portrait of a writer’ and there are several letters he wrote upon his first encounter with slavery that show what a decent empathetic man he was. When writing his good friends, he talked about slaves as if they were human. This was truly radical. Also, despite being (self) schooled in the bible, he was an atheist. I think he represents a universal progressivism, guided by reason and connection with other human beings, that we should all aspire to. I see those qualities in Obama. Lets hope it ends better this time.
2) Washington
You know, he was the American Cincinattus. My guess is that he just didn’t like politics, but either way I respect a man who can say no to power.
3) LBJ
I’m only 25 so I dont understand what vietnam really meant. All I can do is see a machine politician who had the balls (or was forced) to pass civil rights legislation that he knew would lose him the south for a generation.
In my opinion, that is a washingtonian quality; knowing that what you are doing is the right thing to do and doing it despite the obvious political consequences.
4) FDR
Yea I put him below LBJ. That’s because he put japanese in concentration camps. That decision set some terrible executive precedent, and more importantly (in my opinion) solidified the modern jurisprudence relating to presidential war powers. Basically, the court said, as long as everyone is panicking irrationally, the military can round people up and put them in camps. That is inexcusable.
Of course, the stability of the FDR coalition (and the resulting judicial appointments) created a stable, solid liberal jurisprudence that lasted through the late 70’s. In many ways this legal-ideological stability laid the foundation for the civil rights movement [cf. Brown v Board].
Frankly, I think those 4 are in their own realm (although I may have my ass hanging out on the LBJ claim).
I’ll give Eisenhower #5 for warning us about the military industrial complex. Too bad nobody listened.
I’d like to know what question was asked which elicited those six names. That would make an interesting parlor game. What do these six people have in common which might land them on the same list.
Next up: potent potables.
Lincoln – a racist, yes, but circumstances made the man and he held the Union together.
Jefferson – a racist, yes, but brilliant, and a thinker for the ages. Plus, the Louisiana Purchase
FDR- born rich, yet found the way to save this country during the Depression and our republic. A lesser man might have made this country ripe for communism.
Teddy Roosevelt – the original environmentalist/conservationist.
LBJ – signed the Civil and Voting Rights Acts knowing what it would do to the Democratic Party in the South.
Harry Truman – strongest character of any President in a half century. Not appreciated during his time, but I believe he stands the test of time.
I like your list, but I can’t accept a list that doesn’t include Washington. I really can’t see Truman as a greater president than George.
It’s like Judaism without Moses or Platonism without Socrates. Washington is the first stone in the foundation of the Republic. Only Lincoln and FDR can compare to him for essential leadership and personal courage.
Anyone who doesn’t mention JFK as one of the greats has truly no understanding of how close to nuclear war we really came.
Whatever else one thinks of him, he and his brother were alone in opposing a nuclear solution during the Cuban Missile crisis. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here to bitch and moan about past president’s today, period.
His handling of the missile crisis is legendary, but it followed the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs. At least he took a long look at the “group think” that led to that disaster and didn’t repeat it with the missile crisis.
And he set the moon program in motion.
But his presidency was short and without a real chance to achieve much.
He inherited the Bay of Pigs from Eisenhower, so revered above. Why do people blame Kennedy, who had only just taken office, with something Eisenhower started and approved?
And the CIA LIED to Kennedy about it. They said it would be a native Cuban uprising and that we’d just be providing support.
He learned fast and hard. But he did learn. Eisenhower didn’t. After overthrowing Arbenz in Guatemala and Mossadegh in Iran, both Democratically elected leaders, he was targeting Castro next.
He could have pulled the plug on a truly stupid plan and he could have provided air support as the plan required. Instead he did neither and ensured failure.
And if Castro had been overthrown, the missile crisis wouldn’t have happened and we wouldn’t have had the Cuba thorn in our side ever since.
My preference would be to overthrow the Cubas with blue jeans, MTV, trade and tourism, as we did eastern Europe, but no one was thinking that in 1959.
Actually – Kennedy DID authorize air support, but the CIA canned it. The CIA has neatly rewritten that history. The CIA had designed the plan TO FAIL, assuming Kennedy would send in the Marines and launch a full scale invasion. Air cover might have thwarted that plan.
Then they turned around and blamed the lack of air cover on Kennedy.
Kennedy was furious at the CIA for all their deceptions, and fired the Godfather of the CIA, Allen Dulles. He also created the DIA so as to place covert operations in the future under a more formal military chain of command. He didn’t live long enough to make that happen. Gee I wonder why, not.
It’s outrageous, REAL history. And it’s sad how many otherwise progressives have fallen for the lies.
And I should clarify – the CIA didn’t “can” it, they blew it. I can’t prove they did it on purpose, but I strongly suspect it.
Kennedy gave the Navy authorization to fly cover for the CIA’s planes, but the CIA’s communications with the Navy got mixed up (deliberately?) and it appears that the Navy planes arrived an hour too late. That wasn’t Kennedy’s fault.
There is also the account of a Bay of Pigs veteran who had been tasked with blowing up the bridge Castro’s troops crossed over. Had the bridge been blown as planned, Castro’s troops couldn’t have gotten to the Bay of Pigs to stop the landing. The guy said the order to blow the bridge, which he was to get directly from the CIA, never came.
There are other accounts, all of which add up to this: the CIA wanted a full scale invasion, and appeared to sabotage its own smaller mission in the hopes of lighting the match for the larger invasion. THAT is the one Kennedy would NOT authorize, and Kennedy’s blaming the CIA (privately – publically, he took the blame) put him squarely in the Agency’s crosshairs from that point on.
Any Order
FDR–Social Security, got us out of the Great Depression
Jimmy Carter–maybe not so much for his Presidency but what he has done since he left office.
Bill Clinton–Put the first dent in Regan Revolution and proved that Dems. could win the White House.
Abraham Lincoln..
John F. Kennedy..
I would say Barack Obama, but you question is posed in the past tense.
SMARTEST presidents were:
Thomas Jefferson.
Limiting to what they did in their term in office:
What exactly does “best” mean? There are several kinds of greatness – vision, accomplishment, reconciliation. We are better for visionaries like Jefferson, Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, Carter. And we are better for the accomplishments of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ. And for the reconciliation that put the country back together. Now, who are the reconciliatory presidents?
I won’t give my own list, but just a comment. Twenty years ago, when I was just a lad, the list of “greats” was considered pretty much set, and it was:
Lincoln
Washington
Jefferson
F. Roosevelt
either Wilson or T. Roosevelt
I find it interesting that Wilson is now considered not so great, and Jefferson is not as revered as he once was. Whereas Truman, Eisenhower, and LBJ have gained in prominence.
well, the constants are Washington, Lincoln, and FDR.
Most of the rest have rather glaring downsides, which people tend to judge ahistorically these days.
Wilson’s racism is hard to overlook. Teddy’s raw imperialism is no longer in favor. Polk’s land grab is now seen as suspect. Eisenhower is remembered more for the Shah and the Bay of Pigs than for his many accomplishments.
My grandmother, who is in her late 90’s, and is not ideological or conservative, says Eisenhower was the best president of her lifetime. I think she started out with Taft. Seen through the lens of a century, Ike provided solid leadership, a good economy, and peace. It’s not surprising that he looks good in retrospect. And every president since, until this one, had huge flaws.
I agree that the constants are Washington, Lincoln, and FDR.
But why has Jefferson gone out of favor? This seems to just be a style thing. Earlier generations greatly admired him. Perhaps his hypocrisy about slavery seems more salient now than it did 20 years ago. Anyway, I find it interesting.
I think Jefferson’s popularity has always been primarily based on his total life not just his presidency. Writing the Declaration of independence, and being such a smart and interesting guy. As president, most of us only remember the Louisiana Purchase. Very important, but does that qualify him as great?
modern scholarship hasn’t been kind to Jefferson, and not just about slavery. The excellent recent bios of Washington and Adams show Jefferson (as sec of state and then vp) as a backstabber, organizing political opposition from inside the cabinet.
Washington, Monroe, Lincoln, FDR, Jefferson, Jackson.
I don’t like Jackson for the Cherokee trail of tears but we live in what should be called a Jacksonian democracy 170 years after him.
Carter was hamstrung by the economy and oil prices of his time. But his pardon of all the Vietnam draft dodgers was a very good thing and led to healing the nation as opposed to Ford/Nixon
Interesting that you list Monroe. He doesn’t normally get good marks as a president. As a founding father? Yes. Not as a president.
The top three are easy:
Generally, Presidents have been pretty mediocre. The country has been amazingly fortunate that at the two times of greatest crisis — the Civil War and the Cuban missile crisis — there were Presidents who were as great as the crisis they faced.
Washington (got the new federal gov’t off to a good start – pace Articles of Confederation)
Jefferson (Louisiana Purchase)
Polk (expansion, not considered right today, but made this country wealthier)
Lincoln (saved union, abolish slavery)
Teddy Roosevelt (progressive)
FDR (Social Security, adapting gov’t to modern economy)
LBJ (Civil rights, Medicare)