BS: Rate the Presidents

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 02:53 PM

From: kendall
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:05 PM

LB Johnson said of Ford: "He played too many football games with no helmet."

Does anyone remember who responded to that quote by saying "Gerry's problem isn't that he played without his helmet. He played center so long he got used to looking at the world upside down."

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 10:21 PM

"Seems like a good joke to me Rig. Should one of us explain it to you? ;-)"

                      Please, Jack, explain it to me, if you think there is something I don't understand in all of that!

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 05:44 PM

I'd pick Nixon as one of the worst...not that he didn't make some adroit foreign policy moves...he did. His deep negativity, personal vindictiveness, and paranoid attitude, however, rendered him absolutely unfit for office...and resulted in his eventual resignation. He'd have been impeached if he hadn't resigned, and rightly so.

G.W. Bush was one of the worst too, but not near as bad as his V.P. I think it was Cheney who was really running the show and Bush was out front like Charlie McCarthy (the puppet). In a more perfect world Cheney would be tried for war crimes, but I think Obama is quite wise not to push for that. It would only create a huge partisan mess that would distract people from doing something positive instead at a very crucial time of financial crisis.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 04:10 PM

1. Obama, had any of the others been in office or if MaCain/Pay-in gotten in we'd be rioting in the streets by now screeming "Panic" & fighting England over pounds & oil in the mid-east.

2. Clinton, morally he wasn't fit but we did better under him than the all the Bush/Ronnie yrs & the Bush yrs that followed. Had he not been hounded & dogged by the repub's throughtout his terms he might have gotten far more accomplished but thanks to Republican roadblocks & hounding they again, as they're trying to do today fowl whatever possible in their next bid for power

3. Carter. Probaly the only Prez who took full responsiblity for his actions & always tried to do what was right & best (at the same time) for his nation. Morally he can't be beat. It's ashame that his potential didn't shine until after office but again I blame the republicans for holding him back in order to get Ira/Contra Ronnie in.


at the bottom of the barrel I'd put Daddy Bush followed Ronnie & at the very bottom buried under the slim above would be GW Bush, by far the worst of all

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,Jack The Sailor
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 03:30 PM

Seems like a good joke to me Rig. Should one of us explain it to you? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,Jack The Sailor
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 03:29 PM

For doing long term damage it would be hard to make a case that anyone was worse than Reagan. The bait and switch that he pulled saying that tax cuts that stimulate the economy when it was in fact the unprecidented increases in spending, the iniation of deficit spending and the war he started between the politicians and the actual government. The bumbling in foreign policy including the mess he created in eastern Europe. We are still paying for his misplaced priorities and his childish, stupid simplistic ideologies. Just as we will be paying for his disciple, Bush jr. in 30 years. Eisenhower, Nixon and Bush I, at least, were pragmatists and grown ups.

Obama had two choices when he came in. Increase the deficit to try to minimize the damage Bush had done or preside over another great depression.

Reagan worshippers are stubborn enough to choose the latter rather than abandon their misplaced ideology. The USA would be far better off if objective economics were mandatory in the schools along with evolution and other non-"faith based" beliefs.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 10:01 PM

This post--stolen from Amos on another thread--describes exactly why Reagan must be listed as the worst of modern presidents:


Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning writer for the NYTimes, writes:

"..."This bill (the Garn-St. Germain bill) which was the beachead in de-regulating financial organizations, is the most important legislation for financial institutions in the last 50 years. It provides a long-term solution for troubled thrift institutions. ... "All in all, I think we hit the jackpot." So declared Ronald Reagan in 1982, as he signed the...

He was, as it happened, wrong about solving the problems of the thrifts. On the contrary, the bill turned the modest-sized troubles of savings-and-loan institutions into an utter catastrophe. But he was right about the legislation's significance. And as for that jackpot — well, it finally came more than 25 years later, in the form of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 31 May 09 - 09:50 PM

...and then there's the joke LBJ thought was so funny about the Mexican kid that was found crying outside the local pool hall.
                Somebody came by and asked him why he was crying, and the kid told the guy, "They told me my Daddy died five years ago, but I just found out he came by on election day to vote for LBJ, and he didn't even come by to see me."


                Funny fellow, that LBJ, what?

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:31 PM

lol, Capt'n... Did Lyndon really say that??? I used to have a great little book entitled "Quotations of LBJ"... It was a takeoff on Mao's "Quotations from Chairamn Mao"...

LBJ was a funny man in a country kinda way... One of the quotes was "Don't spit in the soup, we've all got to eat..." Kinda sounds like something outta "Quotations from the Capt'n"... You know, real homesy...

I remember moving into a 3 story row house with a bunch of hippies back in the early 70's and, well, these folks weren't into washing no dishes... The kitchen was disgusting so my first morning I came down and, geese Louise, you ain't never seen such a mess in the kitchen so, I threw every plate, pot, pan, knife, spoon and fork out the back door into the weedy backyard... Then I went upstairs to my room, found a poster board and marking pen and wrote, "Don't spit in the soup, we've all got to eat (Lyndon Johnson)... Wash yer fu*king dishes!!! I said that" and hung over the sink... Ahhhhhh, it worked... Well, after they retrieved everything form the back yard, that is...

Thank you, LBJ...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:05 PM

LB Johnson said of Ford: "He played too many football games with no helmet."

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:34 AM

That's pretty much how I see it, Rig.

Yes, Ford seems to have been a nice man and a reasonably good person to have in the White House. The media crucified him much the same way they did one of our Canadian politicians (Joe Clark), simply by making fun of him for not being "cool" enough...lacking charisma, in other words.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:29 AM

It's really kind of too bad about Gerald Ford. He was a really nice person and the Republicans turned him into a comedic fall-guy. Of course, someone who didn't have his pesonal charm would never have been able to pull it off.

               He came into the presidency through the back door, not having ever been elected to anything but a House seat in Michigan, and then he pardoned Nixon.

               Frankly, I think he had to pardon Nixon. The public trial of a former president would have torn the country apart. I think Obama is in the same boat with the prospect of prosecuting former Bush Administration members for torture. It could develop into civilian shootings in the streets, and probably would.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Peace
Date: 30 May 09 - 05:05 PM

I kinda liked his wit. When Gerald Ford first took the presidency over, he said, "Remember, I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln." Pretty cool.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 30 May 09 - 04:38 PM

Had Al Gore been selected by the 7-2 Republican appojnted Supreme Court then, IMO, 9/11 would be just another day... Nuthin' special...

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 May 09 - 01:20 PM

That depends on whether the project went forward or not. And that depends on who was involved in planning and orchestrating it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 30 May 09 - 01:08 PM

But if Florida had gone decisively for Al Gore, I wonder what would have happened after 9/11...

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 29 May 09 - 01:59 PM

I won't say anything about American voters electing blind hogs to public office.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 29 May 09 - 01:01 PM

He proves the old saying, "Even a blind hog will find an acorn sometimes."

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 29 May 09 - 07:38 AM

He was also in office when the 1965 immigration reform law was passed, that slimy piece of legislation that is tearing the country apart now. He must have signed it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 29 May 09 - 07:27 AM

LH,

I don't think that LBJ's accomplishments can be dismissed that easily... Yes, the Civil Rights Act's time had come... But the dometic agenda (Great Society) wasn't a shoe in and wasn't like an egg waiting to hatch and LBJ had to work evry hard and call in alot of "markers" with his old buddies in Congress to get them thru...

For that, he does get credit...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 09 - 10:29 PM

That's certainly true, kendall, but everytime I saw LBJ pick one of his beagles up off the ground by the ears, I thought to myself--"this is a man who has no feelings; this is a man I would not trust."

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 09:02 PM

All bias aside, GW Bush failed at everything he put his incompetent hand to, including the presidency.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:56 PM

Well said Michael.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Michael Harrison
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:48 PM

Actually, the time to rate a president is just before he becomes one - and we, the American electorate, maintain the dubious history of doing a piss-poor job of that.........................mwh

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:34 PM

Yes, he did pass some progressive domestic legislation. I think that was basically because the time had come rather than because LBJ was particularly progressive. American society was ready to make the change and enough people wanted it, so it happened.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:12 PM

Yeah, LBJ was a sleezey kinda southern politican but...

... for reasons unbeknownst to me (or historians) this guy did push thru alot of domestic policy that still stands today and as much as I hate to say it he...

...deserves credit for that... No, make that alot of credit!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:48 PM

"Johnson was part of the "Texas Mafia", one of the most corrupt political cartels in the entire U.S. of A... it includes both Democrats and Republicans... plus a bunch of rich oilmen."

                That sounds like Bush I and Bush II. But I agree with you, Little Hawk, LBJ just came off as so sleezy, it's hard to believe he was not involved in the Kennedy assassination(s).

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:21 PM

Lotta amnesiac Repubs weighing in here...

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:13 PM

I was speaking of Great Depression to more recent presidents.
Clinton being the only one ever to have been impeached.

I don't have too much knowledge of the presidents before that to make
that type of statement, other than Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's successor? I heard about him being a bad president, but didn't read
too much about him to know about impeachment.

The only thing I knew about Grant was not for his work while in
office, but his part in the Union Army, and for capturing John Wilkes
Booth, and the others involved in Lincoln's assassination.

I didn't mean literally Clinton being the only one ever in history, but just out of the ones I remember. But mine looks similar to the
original. Truman tied for first, Nixon and Clinton are last.

Eisenhower /Truman
Carter
Ford
G.H.W. Bush
Kennedy
G.W. Bush - I know that many would place him at the bottom, but I
admire a man who takes initiative, makes a decision and sticks with
it, and for never backing down while every one slanders him. It's the
role of the underdog I'll have to take on this side, because no one
is as tough as Bush Jr. these days to put up with what he had to put
up with. Still, "not quite big enough to surpass the ol' man.

Johnson
Reagan
Nixon
Clinton


Obama is still too early in to rate his presidency. Some people were
calling him the best president since Lincoln before he was even
elected and sworn in. He's starting out at the bottom, and once his
term is over, it would make sense to place him in a ranking.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:53 PM

Johnson was part of the "Texas Mafia", one of the most corrupt political cartels in the entire U.S. of A., and it includes both Democrats and Republicans, by the way, plus a bunch of rich oilmen. I suspect that he was in on the plan to prematurely remove John Kennedy from office with a bullet. I'm not saying I know he was, I'm saying I suspect it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:36 PM

Well, Slag, we almost agree on Johnson!

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:19 PM

1. Millard Fillmore

2. Warren G. Harding

3. Jefferson Davis

4. Chongo Chimp (theoretically)

5. Pat Paulsen (as above)

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Slag
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:42 PM

1. Ronald Reagan

2. Harry S. Truman

3. John F. Kennedy

4. Gerald R. Ford

5. Richard M. Nixon

6. George H. W. Bush

7. William J. Clinton

8. Dwight D. Eisenhower

9. George W. Bush

10. Jimmy

11. Lard Butt Johnson

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:09 PM

Grant was a great General, but he surrounded himself with cronies who screwed things up.Crooks and thieves. Typical republicans.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:05 PM

Thanx Cutumudgeon.

I knoew one of them had that 'S'.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bill H //\\
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:00 PM

How about the greatest EX Presidents---2 must win this hands down

Harry Truman----he never wanted to commercialize the office with high paying speeches and writings. He finally did get a small pension. Actually left office and drove home in his car w/ no Secret Service and did some sightseeing---OK it was a different time---perhaps a better one and in no small part because of him.

Jimmy Carter---more diplomacy and good works ever since he left office. Had some trouble in acting tough as Pres. but showed his idealism---so---Greatest Ex-Pres.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: curmudgeon
Date: 28 May 09 - 04:57 PM

Ulysses Simpson Grant, The solitary "S" was in Harry S Truman.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 04:51 PM

Ulysses S. .... yes much more profound, especially with that 'S' which signifies nothing really. But put together as U.S. Grant ... whew, watch out !

Didn't U.S. Grant get himself into some serious sh&t when he was president?

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 09 - 04:23 PM

I'll have to take your word for it, LH. But the idea of Hiram Grant taking Vicksburg has kind of a ring to it, don't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 May 09 - 04:07 PM

Are you kidding? Ulysses is much more impressive sounding than Hiram, specially if you were living back in the mid-1800s.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 09 - 04:04 PM

If your name was Hiram, why would you want to be called Ulysses? Anyway, nobody would want of impeach Grant.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 12:37 PM

I know ..... just being stoopid.   :)

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 12:06 PM

President Grant's real first name was Hiram.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:53 AM

Hiram Abiff ??

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:32 AM

So, mention Hiram.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:09 AM

No mention of President Grant in regards to impeachment.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:23 AM

It would be interesting to know how history treats him today. Of course his vote wouldn't have mattered if one or more of the other senators had voted the other way.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:12 AM

Andrew Johnson was impeached but he escaped by one vote. Senator William Pitt Fessenden of Maine cast the deciding vote against and he was hounded out of office by the Johnson haters in Maine.He died a broken man a few years later.

It's interesting that this man was vilified in his lifetime, yet he has three streets named for him in Portland Maine.William, Pitt and Fessenden.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 May 09 - 02:58 AM

Damn shame that Chongo has not gotten a chance to govern. Then you'd see something.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 27 May 09 - 11:13 PM

Andrew Johnson was impeached. Neither Johnson nor Clinton was convicted.