Who is your favorite president?

[Wetzelbill]

I like Martin Van Buren because he looks like a rooster.

[SharonRB]

1. The Big Dawg

and JFK.

[petepillow]

2. Gerald Ford, obviously.

[acmejack]

13. Obviously? Why in God's Name?

Other than giving Chevy Chase a lot of great material, terrorizing golfers on neighboring fairways and cheating the American Justice system of some much deserved grist, I repeat what distinguishes this man? Not a bad man, mind you by any means, probably one of the more decent men to ever reside there, but...

I'll take James Earl himself for a living Pres. Thomas Jefferson for the lifetime accomplishment award/

[petepillow]

17. i was just kiddin. he was the first 'obviously not a good president' that

popped into my head.

[acmejack]

24. whew!

[twaddler01]

66. Worse than Bush?

:shrug:

[Webster Green]

3. JFK...

He was eating acid and fucking Marilyn Monroe.:P

[Wetzelbill]

31. tough to top those accomplishments

:evilgrin:

[SaveElmer]

4. Best...or most interesting...

Best:

Lincoln, FDR, Washington

Most Interesting: Grant, Truman, TR

I actually think highly of Grant, though his performance as President wa subpar

[mdmc]

6. I like Jimmy Carter

(I really liked the t.v. show Benson).

I also like Harry Truman. That man could campaign!:kick: And big dog rocks too.

[Wetzelbill]

34. Grant is a very fascinating man

his life was a struggle for success. He never could find financial security. He spent the last months of his life knowing he would die from cancer, yet he wrote his memoirs furiously so that his family would have something left over when he passed on.

[SaveElmer]

39. Exacty right...

And it turned out to be a bestseller...and is still regarded today as the best written, most lucid military memoir in history.

He was a success in war, but not alot else, though I think a needed re evaluation of his Presidency is going on. He simply was not as bad as many histories have portrayed him. At the very least he tried to put teeth into Reconstruction.

He is an underrated American hero who ought to be remembered more positively.

[Wetzelbill]

46. I agree wholeheartedly

he definitely should be reavaluated. I'd like to read that memoir. Haven't gotten around to it. He's a really interesting guy though. Booze was a big flaw for him, but the man was a leader. Very much a regular guy. Politics just wasn't for him, I don't think. His nature didn't fit well in that world of expediency.

[napi21]

5. Kennedy! I was one year too young to vote for him, but

he had a real connection with people! Lots of people talk today about rich men not being able to communicate with the average citizen, but that's not true! Jack sure did!

[Blackthorn]

8. Chavez. n/t

[melody]

7. Historically, John Adams, Recently, President Gore

Oh, wait, I forgot I'm in Juntaville --

A tie between Kennedy and Carter with Clinton -- for sheer relative sanity -- bringing up the rear.

[Katherine Brengle]

41. I second John Adams--as far as I can tell from history, I believe that he

was a man of integrity and ideals who knew how to bring those ideals to life. Plus, the descriptions I have read of his personality kind of remind me of myself :).

Recently... ew... How about Jacques Chirac? (JK)

[melody]

50. John Adams was indeed a man of great integrity

He actually refused to attack Thomas Jefferson with information Adams knew would bring about his defeat, because it was the wrong thing to do. Adams did this after Jefferson (one of his closest friends) made up a fake story to attack *him* with to thereby win the election. They don't make 'em like John Adams anymore. If they did, he'd be under sedation somewhere, I'm afraid.

Dunno about Chirac, he's got kind of a spotty track record, from what I can tell, but I tend to restrict myself to my own culture when discussing such things, since it's what I know best.

[NJ Democrats]

9. I love FDR!!!

Let's Go Roosevelt!!!
FDR! FDR! FDR!

[enigmatic]

10. I was President of the Millard Fillmore Fan Club in Middle School

I still have nightmares about it...:)

[Wetzelbill]

36. try being an enforcer for the Van Buren Boyz

I had to work my way up the chain by roughing up people who dared to challenge our turf. :)

[noonwitch]

57. F F Fil, L L LMO, O O ORE Fillmore Junior High!

Silly Brady Bunch reference.

[immoderate]

65. Millard Fillmore's Birthday was a big event at Brooklyn Tech.

I am BTHS class of '63. We whooped it up. Freshmen would ask, "Who's Millard Fillmore?"

--IMM

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

11. Gotta go with the Dawg...

...he's human, he's flawed, he gives a crap about his country.

Second choice would be Jimmy Carter, because he's still serving...LONG after leaving office.

:toast:

[file83]

12. George W. Bush!!!!

I kid, I kid! :rofl:
But seriously, my vote goes to Dwight D. Eisenhower - he's the one that warned us about the Military Industrial Corporate Complex that has now corrupted our entire political establishment to the core.

[Twist_U_Up]

14. George Washington......He grew hemp nt

[ThomWV]

15. Al Gore

And he will be again too ......

[LittleClarkie]

35. He needs to get a move on then

He doesn't have any organization set up yet. I personally think he's good right where he is, being a firebrand.

[Uncle Joe]

58. I would also say Al Gore followed by

Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George (we did not fight a war of independence just to put another king on the throne) Washington.

[saltpoint]

16. Politically, Kennedy was breathtaking. And while Pierce was a true

failure politically, he was extremely respected personally, including by the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julian Hawthorne.

[SaveElmer]

27. Actually...

Pierce was a longtime friend of Hawthorne. In fact Hawthorne, Pierce and Jonathan Cilley were very close frineds. Cilley was killed in a famous duel with another member of Congress in 1838.

[saltpoint]

29. Yes. Hawthorne might even have been considered an early spin doctor

with that bio of Pierce. A very sunny view of the candidate!

[madokie]

18. The big dawg no doubt about it.

The only president in my life who truly gave a shit about me.

[WI_DEM]

19. Carter on a personal level, FDR is the Greatest--except for Lincoln

[grytpype]

20. William Henry Harrison.

He did less damage to the country than any other president.

[madinmaryland]

56. Didn't he leave us with John Tyler?

[Clarkie1]

21. Thomas Jefferson. n/t

[Grillydad]

22. Everyone's forgetting FDR

The man was the most influential person of the 20th Century.

[YOY]

23. Taft

Just because I can substitute his name for Shaft in Isaac Hayes' classic theme from Shaft

Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?
TAFT!
Ya damn right!

Who is the man that would risk his neck
For his brother man?
TAFT!
Can you dig it?

Who's the cat that won't cop out
When there's danger all about?
TAFT!
Right On!

They say this cat Taft is a bad mother
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
I'm talkin' 'bout Taft.
THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

He's a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
BILL TAFT!

[Wetzelbill]

38. yes, you have the spirit of the thread, my child

Now go forth and channel to the minions! :)

[YOY]

49. Sadly I think I am the only one who got it...

Sorry Bill.

[InvisibleTouch]

25. Hard to pick a favorite.

Of our living presidents, I love Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and ... Al Gore and John Kerry should legitimately be on that list too.

Of the historical/before-my-time presidents, I have a fondness for JFK, Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.

If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Clinton - not only because I admire him personally, but because life was so good while he was running things. Seems like a whole different world now.

[f-bush]

26. FDR/JFK

[Wetzelbill]

40. those are my two faves as well

I was screwing around with the Van Buren thing. A kid made that comment on Olbermann's show tonight. :)

[SeattleGirl]

28. Hmmm, I see you watched KO this evening.

But to answer your question, my favorite President is JFK. A close second is Clinton.

[Wetzelbill]

42. ahhh... you caught my joke

Spank me!

[LittleClarkie]

30. John Kerry

Le sigh.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. Nelson Mandela.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

33. Lincoln, a man who welcomed differing opinions into the Whitehouse

Instead of surrounding himself with a bunch of bobbleheads. And for various other reasons.

[FreedomAngel82]

43. I loved that too

And I loved how he educated himself about the military to help out as well.

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Here's mine

In ficition land- Jed Bartlet

In reality- Bill Clinton and what should have been John Kerry and I of course love JFK and FDR

[Katherine Brengle]

45. Mmm... President Bartlet... Or President Shepherd from The American

President--liberal AND cute.

:popcorn: I definitely have to watch that movie now...

[Raine]

44. Franklin D Roosevelt

without a doubt! :thumbsup:

[Auntie Bush]

47. The Big Dog and JFK. n/t

[mitchum]

48. Hugo Chavez

[Wetzelbill]

62. No soup for you!

[Harald Ragnarsson]

51. Either Roosevelt, leaning towards Teddy

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
Theodore Roosevelt

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
Theodore Roosevelt

To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase it's usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very properity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
Theodore Roosevelt



"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star", 149
May 7, 1918

[Lucy - Claire]

52. Bill Clinton.....

I was too young to appreciate Jimmy Carter but I wanted him to win, it was the first US election I was aware of. I was 8 and in Britain. I remember my primary school teacher asking our opinions on it and who we would vote for. It was quite something when us 8 year olds were saying the words " Reagan is a war monger."
I also love FDR, I loved studying him in History, he was an amazing man. But I choose Bill Clinton because I was thrilled when he was elected and I still love him now. I love him for his part in the Northern Ireland Peace negotiations, the fact that the world felt like it was in safe hands with him in charge and because he maintained his dignity, his focus on his job and showed no bitterness whilst his personal life became the topic of debate and he and his family were called names and had the most terrible accusations printed in the press.

[Wetzelbill]

55. welcome to DU

yes, I know Bill Clinton is a flawed man, but I always admired his ability to stay above the hate directed at him. His dignity throughout that ordeal kept him popular. And, he had an interest in Peace negotiations, such as the Northern Ireland, and Arab-Israeli ones. The man is a statesman, and may even be as great an ex-president as Jimmy Carter has become.

[BlueIris]

53. Kerry.

:-)

[Wetzelbill]

54. ahhhh.....

us dreamers have the knowledge and small consolation of being right. :)

[LSK]

61. same here

:)

[Roxy66]

59. Isnt that what a little kid said?

[Wetzelbill]

60. yup

right on! You get the prize behind door number two..

Actually, I have no prize. :(

[Crazy Guggenheim]

63. Either TR or FDR.

:popcorn:

[Wetzelbill]

64. pretty solid choices

I like both.

[radar]

67. I'll go with the 1st one...

George Washington. He could easily have kept the power of governing with himself & the military.

"At the close of the Revolutionary War in America, a perilous moment in the life of the fledgling American democracy occurred as officers of the Continental Army met in Newburgh, New York, to discuss grievances and consider a possible insurrection against the rule of Congress...."
The HistoryPlace.com George Washington prevents the revolt of his officers
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/washington.htm

[Odin2005]

68. FDR

The New Deal kept the US from going Communist or Fascist during the GD, and he got us through WW2, all from a wheelchair. Who can beat that?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

69. What about Chester A. Arthur?