POLL

[MoseyWalker]

Poll question: POLL

The best at leading people through the troubles of the time. And WHY

[Critters2]

1. Sponge Bob is an inspiration to me. nt

[RB TexLa]

2. ok, who is "sponge bob"?

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Sponge Bob Squarepants, a cartoon character. nt

[RB TexLa]

4. thanks

[DemBones DemBones]

6. No problem. There's a Sponge Bob avatar if you want to see

what he looks like -- basically a rectangular yellow sponge with arms, legs, and head. I have no idea what the show's like but I think it appeals to various ages.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. roosevelt guided the nation thru the depression and wwII. Need I say more

[donheld]

7. Need I say more? Yes you do

the others didn't have a depression or WWII to lead us through, that doesn't mean one or more of them couldn't have. I'd be Bill Clinton could have.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Considering that Clinton signed NAFTA, which G. H. W. Bush wouldn't sign,

I'm not so sure he'd have been a good president to deal with a depression.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Martin Luther King

Need I say more?

[DemBones DemBones]

11. OK, except the others in the poll were presidents, except Sponge Bob.

It's difficult to compare MLK to any president. He was a great leader of the civil rights movement but that doesn't tell us whether he could have been a good president. Pick any significant person who's never been president and the same is true. Gandhi is another name that comes to mind -- a great leader but we never saw him run the U.S.

[DemBones DemBones]

9. I chose FDR but LBJ deserves a lot of credit, too, even though

he could be an SOB. All in all, I think their accomplishments were the greatest of those listed though it's easy to forget LBJ's. When thousands of Americans were dying in Viet Nam in '65, '66, '67, '68, after he'd promised in the 1964 campaign that he would not send American boys to do what Asian boys ought to be doing, hating LBJ was a national sport. However, if you talk to enough people who remember FDR, you can find those who hated him, too.

Roosevelt's leadership was badly needed. During the Depression and the War, he reassured the majority of people, as Churchill reassured the British. FDR put into place the various public works programs the government funded to put people back to work and get important work done at the same time. We could use some public works programs today for all the people whose jobs have been outsourced and all the kids who finish high school or college or grad school only to find there are precious few good jobs available.

Negatives: FDR declared a bank holiday and some of the banks never reopened, causing many to lose all their money, and hate FDR. But he then instituted the FDIC to end the bank runs of the thirties and give people confidence that the government was protecting their money. (Whether that's true is another matter that concerns me. Our money no longer represents gold and I believe it was FDR who ended the gold standard, so money's only worth what the markets agree it's worth. Scary.)

Additionally, many believe that FDR did not warn the admiral in charge at Pearl Harbor of the intelligence reports of Japanese ships approaching in time to prevent many American servicemen from being killed. It's said that FDR did this because he knew it would galvanize Americans to want to fight the Japanese and the Germans. If true, it was despicable, but not unusual in history.

JFK had charisma and managed the showdown called the Cuban Missile Crisis well but is mainly judged to be a great president because he was assassinated. He also had a charming and stylish wife, who had a lot of influence on womens' styles, and two adorable children. The Kennedys were an exciting change from the Eisenhowers, who were nice people but much older and less stylish. Unfortunately, JFK got us more involved in Viet Nam, didn't manage the civil rights crisis too well and didn't seem too interested in solving the problems of racial unrest and poverty, though RFK did. I was terribly shocked when JFK was killed and I admire what he did but looking back I don't think he was a great president. Good, but not great. If he'd lived longer, he might have been great.

Ironically, it was LBJ who got the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts passed, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. LBJ could be an SOB, was known as the Senator from Brown and Root (think Halliburton) and he got us deeper into Viet Nam, so we all hated him then, but apart from the war, he did accomplish good things. And he did decide not to run again in 1968, which didn't end the war right away but we were glad to be rid of him at that point. It helped heal the country. It's said that he watched a huge anti-war protest outside the White House and decided not to run again. It was soon apparent that Nixon had no "secret plan" to end the war and was as worthy of being loathed as LBJ had ever been.

Carter and Clinton both had successes in Mideast peace accords that kept things under control for a while. Carter tried to convince people to conserve energy and install solar panels, extra insulations, etc., giving tax credits to those who did those things. He inherited problems from Ford and Nixon and couldn't get out from under them.

Times were good for most people when Clinton was in the White House but he did govern like a moderate Republican, not a Democrat, passing NAFTA (which Poppy Bush had refused to do) and "ending welfare as we know it." He talks the talk really well but he never walked the walk like other Democrats have.

So, I say FDR first and LBJ second, with JFK an honorable mention but remembering he only had a thousand days in office. LBJ had the rest of Kennedy's term and was re-elected in '64, giving him six years. Franklin Roosevelt was elected four times though he died fairly early in his last term, but the twelve years of his first three terms gave him more opportunities for greatness than any other president, twice the years Lyndon Johnson had and six times what Jack Kennedy had.