Who is the best president in your lifetime?

[XemaSab]

"Best" here is intentionally left up to your interpretation.

36 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	FDR
	1 (3%)
	Truman
	0 (0%)
	JFK
	4 (11%)
	LBJ
	2 (6%)
	Carter
	5 (14%)
	Reagan
	0 (0%)
	Clinton
	8 (22%)
	Obama
	16 (44%)
	I'm hella old and my favorite president was way the hell before FDR
	0 (0%)
	Other
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Vodid]

1. Where's Eisenhower? nt

[hfojvt]

3. it's mostly Democrats

Ford, Nixon and both Bushes are missing as well.

[XemaSab]

4. There was only room for one "troll bait" answer

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Buried in Abeline.

[rateyes]

14. lol

good one!

[hfojvt]

2. I was gonna pick LBJ

but then I thought about Vietnam. Carter, but I cannot because I am a South Dakotan.

So JFK for "we choose to goto the moon" although I obviously do not remember any of his Presidency, being a mere lad of 19 months when he died.

[geardaddy]

25. What's the reason behind not picking Carter because you're from SoDak?

[hfojvt]

30. you have to have been there

One of Carter's first acts was to try to reduce the budget deficit. One way he did so was to kill six or seven water projects in South Dakota. Somebody in his administration, although google cannot find the quote said something to the effect of "who cares about South Dakota, nobody lives there anyway?"

Granted, Carter himself did not say that, but he acted like he believed it when he tried to balance the budget at our expense, and this South Dakotan, at least, has not forgotten.

Carter sorta paid a price too. In 1976 Carter lost SD to Ford by 50.39% to 48.9%. In 1980, Carter lost SD to Reagan by 60.53% to 31.69%, and McGovern lost his bid for a 4th Senate term that year too.

Oh, and all those nickels that Carter saved by not developing infrastructure in SD, just ended up going to the rich in the form of tax cuts, and then some.

[geardaddy]

31. Thanks.

I didn't know that.

[dimbear]

5. LBJ got more done than any of the others, but was pretty much an ass.

So what, everybody at that level has to be. LBJ all the way.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Obama

Nixon was sworn in in the year I was born, so I haven't seen a truly great President in my lifetime. Reagan was probably the most popular but he was the worst of all, which says a lot when you consider how shitty the others have been. Obama has the potential to be great and he's at his best when he follows his heart instead of doing what he thinks is the most politically expedient. We're at a crossroads now and if Obama will just do what he believes to be right, I think he could be the Anti-Reagan. The best thing a President can hope for is to be the Anti-Reagan.

[limpyhobbler]

7. Jimmy Carter, sympathy vote.

I only had Carter, Clinton and Obama to choose from so figured hey why not.


on edit:
He tried to make windmills and solar panels an issue in the 1970s. If we had followed that vision we might be a lot better off for it today.
He also introduced human rights as an important consideration in US foreign policy. Not perfect, but a helluva guy.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

8. I agree with you, limpyhobbler

and voted for him for what he's accomplished since he left office, too. Habitat for Humanity.

[limpyhobbler]

9. Yes Habitat and also the work he has done

with election monitoring via the Carter Center.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. President Carter, hands down.

I always knew that history would be kind to him, but I'm reassured to see it in my lifetime.

[banned from Kos]

16. Name one piece of significant domestic legislation Carter pushed through

Other than his deregulatory bills there is nothing.

Superfund? Good bill at the time although short-lived.

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. The Camp David Accords, while not legislation, were an important accomplishment

[Nay]

11. I didn't even have to think about it. Carter. The most moral and forward-thinking president

of my lifetime. Just because Reagan was an asshole who engineered the hostage crap behind his back didn't mean that Carter was "weak" -- it meant that Reagan was an amoral criminal.

[Egalitarian Thug]

13. Since I was technically alive during his administration I go with LBJ.

All of them since I've been old enough to spell President have ranged from bad to disaster.

[1-Old-Man]

15. LBJ

Jimmy Carter has done more good out of office and Bill Clinton has done more politically out of office, but when it comes to accomplishments as President Lyndon Banes Johnson was by far the best President of my lifetime (spanning from Truman to present).

[banned from Kos]

17. Obama by far - broke the logjam on Healthcare Reform, FinReg, gay rights,

averted a severe Bush Depression, regained respect of the world, killed our worst enemies, START, food safety bill, EPA regs --- NOT CLOSE.

[Logical]

28. LOL!

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. I probably have to say Clinton

because Obama hasn't completed his term and it's not really fair or useful to judge his accomplishments yet. Given that, it's Clinton by default. Carter is, along with...don't laugh...Hoover, one of the best men to ever hold the office, but as president he was not especially successful; Reagan? just..no. Bush Senior looks good in comparison to his son, but that's about it. Bush Junior? Not so much Caligula as Commodus; inexplicably popular with many people, prone to dressing up and presenting himself in the guise of a warrior ("Mission Accomplished&quot , and a leader whose term is either an aberration, or heralds the beginning of an irreversible decline. Obama? I'll let you know in four and a half years, the jury is still out (so far, better in many ways than many of the other presidents of my lifetime, but four years is a long time, so I'll have to wait and see).

[slackmaster]

20. Camelot.

[Nye Bevan]

21. Bill Clinton, no question. Raised taxes on the rich,

got unemployment below 5% for 40 consecutive months, reduced the unemployment rate for African Americans from 14% to 7%, and reduced inflation to its lowest rate since the Kennedy administration.

Amazing that many DUers prefer Carter. I guess they just can't get over the Lewinsky thing.

[hifiguy]

23. I think that DU skepticism of Clinton, who was a mixed-bag President

is focused more on things like NAFTA and its ilk, DOMA, his heartless welfare reform and Wall $treet/telecom deregulation. I don't see DUers being moralistic about Lewinsky.

[hifiguy]

22. Domestically, LBJ hands down.

Foreign policy JFK - he defused the Cuban Missile Crisis and was preparing to remove all Americans from South VN following his election.

[libtodeath]

24. President Carter

If the RW media didn`t allow raygun to steal 1980 by making a deal with Iran on the hostages we could very well be energy independent now and enjoying a green lifestyle.
Global climate change would have been averted and our economy would be benefitting all instead of a few.

[Johonny]

26. It would have been nice had congress listen to him

He generally gets knocked for not being able to "work" with congress the way LBJ could. Which is true but I'm too young for LBJ. The thing is his congress seemed much more able to work with Reagan than the liberal ideas Carter had. Also the things they could pass were mostly deregulation ideas that while not all negative were the least liberal of Carters. Had the liberals in congress believe more in Carter we might have gotten prison reform, mental health reform, energy reform etc... but Kennedy and the lot were too busy playing power grab games. Obama and Clinton were much better than Carter at working with congress, but I'm not sure passing the heritage foundations moderate ideas is exactly going to warm over a lot of people. On civil rights Obama and Clinton seems to have the edge in productivity however many might feel he traded leadership on those issues for a rather sour economic ideas. I think it's going to be a trade off to being right but not influential, versus being able to compromise and be less right but perhaps more productive.

[RainbowSuperfund]

27. Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter, if we had stayed on the course he set, we would have avoided many of the problems that seem daunting now.

[Capt. Obvious]

29. A lot of very young people voting in this

Looks like most weren't even born during Clinton's presidency