BS: Rate the Presidents

Subject: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 25 May 09 - 08:37 AM

If you were rating the American presidents that you can remember in your life time (number 1 being the best) what would your list look like? This is my list:

1. Eisenhower
2. Clinton
3. Kennedy
4. Carter
5. Ford
6. G.H.W. Bush
7. Nixon
8. G.W. Bush
9. Johnson
10. Reagan

               I don't recall enough about Truman to rate him.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 25 May 09 - 09:36 AM

I had a chat with a crusty old newspaper reporter who met all of the presidents since FDR. And in his opinion:

Best handshake - Bill Clinton
Worst handshake - Jimmy Carter

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Amos
Date: 25 May 09 - 09:42 AM

Interesting notion, Rig, and my list is similar to yours, although I suspect you give Ford too high a slot only because the others are taking up the bottom end of the list, Johnson's reputation was stained by the war, but his record aside from that was better than GWB; but that's a quibble.

A stimulating question.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 25 May 09 - 10:18 AM

That's a good point, Amos. It's hard to place Ford, but he was a really nice guy and the only president on record to fall down the gang-plank getting off an airplane. Just that ought to win him a few points.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: pdq
Date: 25 May 09 - 11:42 AM

Presidents who tried to be bi-partisan and work "across the isle":

1. Gerald Ford
2. Dwight Eisenhower
3. George Bush (41)
(tie for 4 and 5):
George W. Bush and Jonn F. Kennedy

Presidents who said "f*** the other party":

1. Bill Clinton
2. Lyndon Johnson
3. Richard Nixon
4. Ronald Reagan
5. Jimmy Carter
6. Harry Truman

{not the question asked, but something to think about}

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 25 May 09 - 12:04 PM

1. Truman. The Marshall plan. (Actually the Truman plan)
2. Eisenhower. Peace and prosperity, the interstate highway system and opening the St. Lawrence seaway.
3. Johnson. Medicare
4. Nixon Prosperity, opened China kept inflation under control.

5. Clinton. Balanced the budget, left a surplus.Longest period of prosperity in history.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: number 6
Date: 25 May 09 - 02:47 PM

I can't believe the high rankings you guys have given Nixon !?!?!

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Amos
Date: 25 May 09 - 03:00 PM

We forgive our criminals sooner or later. Ten years from now, Bush will be thought of more highly than he is today.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 25 May 09 - 05:17 PM

"Ten years from now, Bush will be thought of more highly than he is today."


You mean he'll be MORE popular than rabies?

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 25 May 09 - 06:05 PM

"I can't believe the high rankings you guys have given Nixon !?!?!"


                Nixon was a multifaceted character. I don't think a week goes by when I don't here some news commentator reflecting on a "Nixon to China moment." And too, some of us suspect that Nixon got caught doing things that other people did routinely and got away with.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 25 May 09 - 07:45 PM

1. Carter, Most honest and sincere
2. Obama, Smartest
3. Johnson, Great Society + Civil Rights
4. Eisenhower, Cars with style
5. Kennedy, Slept with Marlyn Monroe
6. Clinton, Slept with anyone with a pulse
7. Ford, Didn't kill anyone
8. Bush I, Get's credit for sleeping with Barbara Bush (yuck)
9. Reagan, Mental midget
10. Nixon, Crook
11. Bush II, Crook and mental midget

That's the way I stack 'um up... 'er down...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 25 May 09 - 08:07 PM

I prospered under Nixon. As a president he was very good. As a human being he was lower than snake shit in a wagon track.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 25 May 09 - 08:18 PM

Eisenhower
Truman
Reagan
GHW Bush
Kennedy (had he lived, probably higher)
Nixon (His personal demons keep him from being #1)
Johnson (Had he been a Republican would suffer similar fate as RMN)
Clinton
Ford
GW Bush (Ignored domestic issues)
Carter (Could flip with Obama for worst)
Obama (yes! even this early in his term. He may be smart, but I don't think him wise)

I could have ranked Roosevelt, but I only personally remember his war years. Probably would put between Nixon and Clinton.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 25 May 09 - 08:30 PM

C-Span 2009 survey ranks contemporary presidents thusly:
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
5. Harry S. Truman
6. John F. Kennedy
8. Dwight D. Eisenhower
10. Ronald Reagan
11. Lyndon B. Johnson
15. Bill Clinton
18. George H. W. Bush
22. Gerald R. Ford
25. Jimmy Carter
27. Richard M. Nixon
36. George W. Bush
The number is their rank amongst all presidents.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 26 May 09 - 12:34 AM

I didn't rank Obama because I didn't think he's been in office long enough, and I agree with John, I might have ranked Kennedy higher if he'd lived longer.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Neil D
Date: 26 May 09 - 06:02 AM

Eisenhower
Clinton
Kennedy
Carter
Ford
Reagan
Johnson
Bush the Elder
Nixon
Bush the Younger
Too soon to rate Obama but I hope and expect him to end up at the top.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 26 May 09 - 07:36 AM

I porbably would have ranked Kennedy lower had he lived longer... He fell for the old appease-the-right with his war in Vietnam... Seems the Dems are always falling for that same old bull... Maybe now that thr right has been reduced to Blowhard Cheney and Blowhard Limbaugh the Dems won't feel it necessary to crank up and new wars to entertain the right...

But Kennedy was headed right where LBJ ended up and that was an anguished, embattled and bitter washed up politican... Vietnam took a heavy toll on LBJ... That toll would have been Kennedy's to bare and would have eaten him up...

I do find it interesting that som many folks rank Ike so high... All he did was be at the right place at the right time... The 50's was a amgical decade of optimism and economig growth as a natural byproduct of WW II... And alot of us were paying little league in the 50's and have fond memories of those times... Ike doesn't get credit other than he didn't get in the way of a decade that purdy much fueled its ownself...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 26 May 09 - 10:08 AM

Ike did stop the Korean War, which is what Kennedy might have done in Vietnam if he'd lived. I'd say that is the giant unanswered question.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 26 May 09 - 12:54 PM

Would someone please tell me what Reagan did that would qualify him for even being on the list?

He promised a balanced budget, yet he never even submitted one.
He lied about Iran Contra and about Arms for hostages.
He invaded Grenada to take our minds off his lies.
He was so out of it that he didn't even know that Casper Weinburger had resigned.
He appointed losers such as that idiot, Watt, to head the Dept. of the Interior.
He started this whole de-regulation crap that we still have around our necks today.
He cut taxes for the rich making the recession worse. Trickle down is a joke...on the poor!

He never had an original thought, everything he said was written for him. I don't know what his IQ was, but it was probably higher than GW Bush, and his was probably higher than a soil sample.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 26 May 09 - 01:53 PM

He took up eight years of our lives--wasted for sure, but they still need to be accounted for...

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 May 09 - 01:59 PM

1. John Hanson

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 May 09 - 01:59 PM

Um, I only use a cuteness scale....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Amos
Date: 26 May 09 - 02:04 PM

The most common myth about John Hanson was that he was the first President of the United States.

The origin of the claim that Hanson is the "forgotten" first President stems from a 1932 book by Seymour Wemyss Smith titled John Hanson – Our First President. Officially Hanson was the third President of the Continental Congress, successor to the first two men to hold the office, Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean. He was the first to serve a full one-year term, and the first to formally use the title President of the United States in Congress Assembled.

The office of the President of the United States in Congress Assembled was, despite the name, not an executive post. It bears a closer resemblance to the modern Speaker of the United States House of Representatives or Vice President of the United States. The office was in existence from 1781 to 1788, under the Articles of Confederation.

It was replaced by the modern office of President of the United States when the Constitution took effect in 1789. The modern office is significantly more powerful as an executive position.

Rapaire's vote, therefore, is disqualified on the grounds of excessive cuteness.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 May 09 - 05:20 PM

John Hanson also looked remarkably like Kevin Spacey. CLICK!

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 May 09 - 10:18 PM

Okay then Amos:

William Henry Harrison. He wasn't President long enough to screw things up very much.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 May 09 - 10:32 PM

Rig-

"Ike did stop the Korean War"

Yes, I'd also give him credit for finalizing the armistice (the "Korean War" still hasn't ended) but it was Truman who fired General MacArthur after he provoked China into invading North Korea, and then wanted to retaliate with nuclear bombs. I'd give Truman credit for sanity.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Neil D
Date: 27 May 09 - 04:38 AM

Eisenhower did at least two great things that no later Republican president would have done. He at long last, finally used his position to end Joe McCarthy's reign of terror and he warned us about the threat of the military industrial complex. Unfortunately the latter may have already been too late.


Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bee-dubya-ell - PM
Date: 26 May 09 - 05:20 PM

John Hanson also looked remarkably like Kevin Spacey. CLICK!

More like Bob Hope.

Rapaire said William Henry Harrison and since the premise of this thread is rating the presidents in your lifetime... 8<)

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 27 May 09 - 07:46 AM

Gotta agree with Kendall about Reagan's rating... I hhave Reagan just ahead of Bush II (mental midget and crook) and Nixon (crook) but Reagan was pushing hard for the bottom slot in the *rank*ings...

We are just now feeling the the effects of Reagan's cowardness in not standing up the the free marketeers... Reagan was all talk and no walk...

BTW, Kendall, it was under Reagan that the US suffered it largest terrorist hit since WW II... Yeah, the Repubs have made a big deal about the USS Cole attack but never talk much about the Beruit bombing which occured on Reagan's watch...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: kendall
Date: 27 May 09 - 08:12 AM

Was there any truth to the rumor that those Marines were not allowed to carry loaded weapons?

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 May 09 - 09:00 AM

I believe that was reported as being so at the time, Kendall.

When the rescue attempt in the desert of Iran failed, Carter came on television and said, in effect, "I'm the Commander in Chief and I'm responsible."

When the Marine Barracks was bombed Reagan went on television and said, "Heads will roll!"

Who exhibited leadership?

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Riginslinger
Date: 27 May 09 - 09:58 PM

In the short term, Reagan seems to have faired better by ducking responsiblity, rather than owning up to it. In the long term, I'm quite sure Carter will eventually take his rightful place in history.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 27 May 09 - 10:25 PM

I'd rate them all ahead of Clinton and Obama. Nixon being third last.
Nixon resigned before a hearing could be heard for impeachment.
According to what I've read, Clinton was the only president to ever have
an impeachment hearing, and to be impeached. (Three levels of
impeachment: warning, weakened powers, removal from office). He went
through at least the first level. He also made a pile of promises, and
didn't deliver.
Obama: the first two bills that he issued put America three times lower than the worst Bush Jr. deficit. He reversed so many campaign promises, and he can't make a decision half of the time and stick with it. The only thing that he is good for (which is what he has in common with Clinton) is that he is a public speaker, and tells the people what they want to hear. He isn't as effective in the offices, just to the public.
CNN even made a skeptical comment about the overall grade that Obama
received for his first 100 days. Considering that the people thought
that the economy was getting better at the time, when it got a lot
worse since Obama came into office. All of the banks that folded,
all of the homes that were foreclosed. It was on CNN.

One more thing......If Bush Jr. was that bad, he would have been
impeached before his first term was even over. Mainstream media
has forced anti-Bush material on the public since he decided to send
troops to the Middle East, and because he's not a public speaker;
rather than discussing the other half of the issues, and rather than reporting the good things he did in office.

Clinton is the only one to have been through the impeachment process
in part. Therefore, he is the worst in my mind, tied with Obama. Then
Nixon. The rest of my list pretty much looks like the original post.

Subject: RE: BS: Rate the Presidents
From: Bobert
Date: 27 May 09 - 10:40 PM

No, after the Clinton impeachment, the Republicans insured that Bush would get away with anything... Impeachment is something that soured the American electorate... People saw the harrassment of Clinton as pure politics... Impeachment being the culmination... The American people wouldn't have impeached Adolph Hitler after the Ckinton impeachment... They just wouldn't have stood for another one on the heels of Clinton's...

That is the real deal... That is the way historians will see it... That is the real sory here...

Bush was not going to be impeached for anything... He could have shot his wife and escaped impeachement...

Politics and publc opinion ride together soemtimes... There won't be another impeachment for a long, long time and not another until this generation passes and the politics of the Clinton impeachment have been long fogotten...

B~

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: kendall
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:32 AM

So, mention 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: 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 - 12:37 PM

I know ..... just being stoopid.   :)

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: 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 - 04:23 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 06:53 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: 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: Bobert
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:21 PM

Lotta amnesiac Repubs weighing in here...

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 - 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: 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: 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: number 6
Date: 28 May 09 - 08:56 PM

Well said Michael.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 01:59 PM

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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."