pan6467

If you could choose any of our past presidents who would you choose to hold the office today?

Let's not rip apart others choices as this is based on opinion and evryone is entitled to theirs. Just put all partisan politics behind and have fun.

My choice would be FDR. The man was able to get us out of the Great Depression, keep morale high for a war and maintain the US's good name.

If the government would only use his examples of how to rebuild an economy we would be well off again.

He invested money into corporations R and D. Which jump started the industrial revolution of the 20th century and made us the greatest nation on Earth. (Of course WW2 helped but he was funding R and D's before the war and corporations like Hoover, Westinghouse, Tappan, etc. flourished)

He helped build an infrastrure, knowing that those workers would help the local economies by spending their pay at the local stores.

He also knew that if you helped out a poor man and gave him hope, that man could achieve anything. Setting up a true system where an unemployed man could live until work was found.

Found ways to get education to improve and thus allowing all men and women the best possible education in a public system.

He did whatever was necessary to improve the US and knew the greatness we had in us. He prepared the country for the future.

He never put us above anyone. He allowed the Brits and even the Soviets to take credit in WW2.

He had a great vision for the UN. Today it is nowhere near what he envisioned.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

mml

Nicely done, pan - I couldn't agree more. FDR would be my choice as well.

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mystmarimatt

aye, i'll third that motion. and let's not forget that managed to convince the press to help him out in hiding his disability. any man with the ability to hold the press on a string like that is cool in my book. jk.

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Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

archer2371

Martin Van Buren!!!!


































heh heh, j/k. FDR's cuz, Teddy.

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"This ain't no Ice Cream Social!"

"Hey Grif, Chupathingy...how bout that? I like it...got a ring to it."

"I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, or what this place is, or where in the hell O'Malley is! My only choice is to blame Grif for coming up with such a flawed plan. Stupid, stupid Grif."

pinklily

FDR for me. We need his experimental touch.

crow_daw

Well, my immediate first response before reading all the others was FDR as well. However, just to name someone different, personally Clinton always made me comfortable. I thought he was just badass. He just seemed like the type that wouldn't take any shit. I dunno, I liked Bill.

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pan6467

Bill was a good man with very good ideas and a vision for the future. He just was never able to do anything because of the scandals.

Martin Van??? interesting, one of the few least remembered, yet a very interesting man. here's a link.... http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/mb8.html

As for Teddy Roos, Archer he was my second choice.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

crow_daw

I'm glad that I've already gotten someone to agree with me on that. I was expecting to catch hell for that choice.

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"We each have a star, all we have to do is find it. Once you do, everyone who sees it will be blinded." - Earl Simmons

JBX

George Washington, because he didn't want it. His motives were true. He was not a power monger or he would of been King.

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"Youth and Strength is no match for Age and Treachery"

Dostoevsky

You know what guys, I don't want to start any name calling or other nastiness here but....

I would just like to point out how different my opinion of FDR is from yours. I see FDR as being the root of many of our problems today. Without having any textbooks or notes in front of me let me explain why.

First of all Roosevelt's fiscal actions did not pull us out of the depression, they actually made it worse. The War pulled us out.

2-Roosevelt's New Deal programs paved the way for many of the publicly funded programs that bleed tax payers dry today. Tax rates skyrocketed with him in office and have been high ever since. I once saw a graph of the rates and couldn't believe how low the federal rate was before FDR.

3-Before FDR, the states had lots of political power. FDR changed this by making the states dependant on the federal government through the power of the purse. This transition paved the way for the federal government to become more intrusive in our lives.

I could go on but I'm tired and I know that no one in here will read this objectively anyway so what's the use?

My choice for president would be any one of the Framers of our Constitution. Those guys really understood what it took to protect private citizens and allow them to live their lives without interference from government and politicians. 200+ years later that document is still holding up against the slow but persistent erosion of freedom that we allow our elected leaders to facilitate. All politicians today are pretty much the same to me. I suppose I'm a reactionary but I wish government would play a minimalist role and leave people the hell alone. This is of course, why I don't like FDR. I'm not trying to start a battle with the FDR camp, I just want to voice my opinion.

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It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.

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Boo

The skill required today could only be displayed be THE MAN and his patriots. Drum roll....






Nixon. Just crooked enough to get the job done.

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Zeld2.0

Certainly your opinion is defenitely entitled and taken but as you said - no one will ever take anything objectively because even the things you've listed are going to be subjective to not only you but others.

As some have said, 'facts in politics just don't exist.'

------------


Anyways my personal stand? I'd be on the motion for FDR as well not based upon what action he did or didn't, but for his character.

He was what one could call a 'strong man' but one who worked with both people and Congress. And he was there in the two greatest crises other than the Civil War in American history.

His strong personality, will, and ability to work with everyone in the most dangerous of times and so on would probably be my first choice, especially given the times...

But to be honest, a list of the top rankings of Presidents I found a while back says that I would agree with any of the top 5-6: Franklin D Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison

HarmlessRabbit

Hear hear, I'd pick Jefferson, myself. Franklin was a bit of a kook, but I'd take him over any over any president that I can remember (Reagan onward).

However, when you say:
I can't agree. I'm unsure of your source, but I suspect you're quoting from Jim Powell's book. Powell stands alone in his assessment of FDR, and, as a member of a Libertarian Institute, he certainly has an Agenda (with a big capital A).

For example, see this list:
http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/...successes.html

Now, I'm not saying that you should trust me more than Powell. But, if you're relying on a single source for your information about FDR and the Great Depression, you're selling yourself short. Read a few different sources, conservative and liberal, and decide for yourself.

Zeld2.0

Reading up on posts and stuff anre thinking about it again, I realized how many presidents there are out there that in the publics eye may be poor but may be ranked extremely high for what they did achieve.

The classic case IMO is Lyndon Johnson:

The guy who won in the biggest landslide in history in 1964 ended his run with just one term. He was brought down by the Vietnam War.

But that often masks how effective of a president he was - he was the master at getting Congress to work for him. Imagine one of you in his shoes trying to get the Civil Rights Act and Voter Rights Acts to pass when you have the Southern coalition planning to block it - the fact he brokered the deal and got a large overwhelming majority to vote in favor is amazing.

It's just surprising at times to see him in the top 15 constantly....

Okay now im just rambling facts

KellyC

FDR, the fact that he didn't let his disability get in the way of his job showed what a great man he was.

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Aletheia

Good O' TR.

Delvid

How about Harry Truman. He recognized what needed to be done and did it. And he is from Missouri.

mystmarimatt

Don't you mean...Van Ruin?

Mwahahahaha...

I love out of date jokes.

__________________
Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

archer2371

I was trying to think of a president that no one really even talks about, not even history teachers. And yeah, out of date jokes are the best because you still laugh, only it's because they're so stupid.

__________________
"This ain't no Ice Cream Social!"

"Hey Grif, Chupathingy...how bout that? I like it...got a ring to it."

"I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, or what this place is, or where in the hell O'Malley is! My only choice is to blame Grif for coming up with such a flawed plan. Stupid, stupid Grif."

assilem

I could not have said it any better.
But I think Bill Clinton is just dreamy!

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fuzyfuzer

i would have to say TR because he did some really good things during his term even though he threw the rep. party into dissaray

if you want some presidents few remember try:

Mckinley
polk
the first johnson
the adams's
or tyler

just to name a few

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VTBrian

I agree, I had to do a paper on the man and his achievements a few years back this was the same conclusion I came to. Although I am a huge suporter of a minamilist government, so I supose that I am biased. Despite that bias; however, I don't think there is much question that it was the war and not FDR that pulled us out. Again like Dostoevsky I understand this is all subjective I could very well be wrong.

I would pick Washington, one of the greatest men of his or any other century.

ARTelevision

Abraham Lincoln. He did what he believed was the right thing to do. He ignored the vagaries of public opinion and endured scandal, bad press, mockery, and elitism.

I see the Civil War as being paradigmatic of our continual internal struggle with the two major mindsets of the population. The hardest thing to do is hold our Union together and ensure its survivability into the future. Polarization as a result of ill-formed opinion and politicalized allegiances, wishful thinking, and anti-government polemic is endemic to our society. The cycle has repeated itself over and over again - it's our perverse destiny to be at war primarily with ourselves. A strong executive with an historical vision is job one.

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nanofever

Adam's "Alien and Sedition Act of 1978" kind of kills the arguments that he was for libertarian governing.

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ganon

definitely not fdr. I would pick teddy, because he was a great balance between the business interest, the working interest, and the countries interests in the rest of the world. fdr sold our liberty for security. and now we cannot escape the web of government he has weaved around us.

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BenChuy

But teddy was worse than Any Bush in showing off power to get things done HIS way without any thought of other countries or the bad relations that festered thereafter. He kinda screwed us with his badmouthing/intimidation of japan (WWII) and interference in south America.

He pissed off a lot of people without need. He was an ego maniac to boot; congress was screwed by him many a time.

My vote is for the good Wilson. He was fair, balanced, against war but knew that things were getting out of hand and that America needed to stop foolish aggressions. If the european powers had not shat on his 14 points and the Isolationists in America had not done the same to his League of Nations, WWII would not have happened.