Of all the great men who have been President, who could get elected today?

[dawg]

Washington? Well, maybe. He was a tall, white, Christian, southern man.
John Adams? Fat little yankee John Adams? No way!
Thomas "Jungle Fever" Jefferson? No way!
Araham Lincoln? Tall, gawky, something looks wrong with him Abraham Lincoln? No way!
James Monroe? 5'4" James Monore? Not a chance?
Franklin Roosevelt? Not a chance. Can you imagine the field day the rightwingers would have with his disability? And his wife?

[ladjf]

1. Jefferson, Adams and Ben Franklin would not be allowed to

teach in today's right wing public schools in the South. Way too liberal

[sarge43]

2. If he switched parties, Teddy Roosevelt might have a shot.

Otherwise, too moderate and even progressive. The right-wingers would kneecap him.

Another thing that would spike Lincoln; he had a high almost squeaky voice.

[BlueIris]

11. Teddy Roosevelt would beat the rightwingers to that kneecapping

at least three months out. Probably more like six. And then he would gloat about it. Silently.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_the-5-most-badass-presidents-all-time_p5.html

[sarge43]

20. You're right and they probably wouldn't know what hit them.

No, he wouldn't gloat silently; he'd write a book about it.

[PVnRT]

17. He would be considered almost Lieberman-esque here

Yes, he was very progressive on the environment and in going after trusts, but he was also an imperialist.

[sarge43]

21. True enough. n/t

[Glorfindel]

3. Actually, it was little Jimmy Madison who was 5'4"

James Monroe was 6' tall. But neither of them could get elected today. Probably Warren G. Harding could, though. (Speaking of great men!)

[dawg]

5. Good catch.

That's who I meant.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. None. Andrew Jackson might make it under the right circumstances...

... but I'm not sure how "great" he was. Plus he's not on your list.

[dawg]

6. I'm sure he would make the cut.

He was an asshole. And a Southerner.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

19. In today's world he would be guilty of several counts of murder

Jackson was forever shooting people and being shot by people in duels, bar-fights, etc.

(As President he was in chronic pain from the many bullets in his body.)

On the other hand, if Bush could be competitive in 2004 after invading the wrong country then Jackson's claim-to-fame of capturing News Orleans after the war of 1812 was over might work out for him.

(Unlike Bush, Jackson acted in good faith in the battle of New Orleans.)

[HopeHoops]

7. None of the above. A) None of them were fucking morons; B) They were all too liberal.

I STILL haven't figured out how Obama got elected (well, other than my wife and I both voted for him). Clinton was a bit of an anomaly as well. The shrub fit in perfectly with Poppy and Grecian Formula 44 Ronbo. I thought Carter would be the last intelligent president the country ever had. Clinton proved me wrong and Obama has given me the same hope that maybe, just maybe, the country isn't as stupid as it seems to the rest of the world.

[dawg]

8. I'm beginning to think that we just got *kinda* lucky with Obama.

If the economy had not been plunging headlong into the abyss, we would probably be dealing with President McCain this very day.

P.S. I say *kinda* lucky, 'cause although he is a brilliant man, Obama strikes me as being politically naive and somewhat ineffective.

[HopeHoops]

10. He's ineffective because he's too damn honest. At least Clinton knew how to bullshit.

I'm not encouraging President Obama to get a hummer from an intern or anything, but he could DEFINITELY use some pointers on "how to bullshit" from Clinton. He's got the same problem Carter had. America didn't want to hear "the economy is fucked, we're facing an energy crisis, put on a sweater and turn down the heat, I'm putting solar panels on the White House". They wanted to hear Reagan's mantra - "Don't worry. Be Happy."

[Ineeda]

13. What was lucky for us was McCain's VP pick. Otherwise, who knows? n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

16. I don't agree that the economic "plunge" saved Obama

at least insofar as it was the actual event that helped him. I think that it did give people an opportunity to see each of the candidates' response to the crisis and most people apparently came away with the impression that Obama responded to it in an intelligent, thoughtful, and responsible manner whereas McCain's *response* (if it could be called that) was simply nonsensical and overly dramatic. I think that McCain saw the crisis as his way to pump up his (weakening) campaign and if that were the case it could be said to have spectacularly backfired for him in the end. :eyes:

In general, I think that the "momentum" was clearly with the Democrats in 2008 and just about anybody could've run on the Democratic ticket and won. Furthermore, Obama's significant margin of difference and win in several formerly "red" states doesn't give any credence to the idea of us being "lucky" IMHO. He clearly was the superior candidate and McCain fumbled badly by nominating (or allowing the party to nominate) Palin when it became clear that she was WAAAAAY out of her depth as the VPOTUS (and McCain's potential successor).

[treestar]

22. Nonconstructive "criticism" very vague

thanks for the repuke talking points. Geez.

[dawg]

27. to be more specific, I'm critical of the President because ...

1. He always attempts to compromise with those who are not dealing in good faith; like Charlie Brown, he doesn't seem to realize that Lucy is *always* going to pull the football away.

2. He uses right wing memes and frames waaaaaaaay to often when he speaks. He thinks (I believe) that this will help him in reaching out to moderate republicans. In reality, it undermines our positions on a deep psychological level and cedes the framing of issues to the other side.

3. Doesn't seem willing or able (probably just not willing) to "catapult the propaganda". Not saying he should lie, but good grief - the man passed a huge middle-class tax cut, and yet no one realizes it. Most people probably think he has raised their taxes, including some on our side. With all of this debate about making the Bush tax cuts permanent, why not start one about making the Obama tax cuts permanent?

[RaleighNCDUer]

23. My theory? He was the Dem who was running, and they needed a

Dem in office when the Bush tax cuts expired to the Dems could be blamed for 'raising taxes'.

Let the Dem win, and spend a few years on a holding action keeping anything from getting done, then roar back as 'change' and kick the Dems out and proceed with looting the treasury.

[Auggie]

9. JFK

[BlueIris]

12. My beloved JFK would so totally get elected.

And then reelected. Lots.

[AnArmyVeteran]

15. I think his son was murdered because he could have walked into the presidency.

JFK Jr could have been elected easily and I'm sure the right wingers knew that. There have been a lot of democrats who were killed in small plane crashes under Bush when republicans were trying to maintain control of the congress. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I understand about the conditions in which JFK Jr was flying, but it would have been easy for republican thugs to tamper with an unguarded plane. JFK Jr would have won the nomination in 2000 over the very inept campaigner, Al Gore, and then easily won the election against the buffoonish Bush. At least JFK Jr would have debated Bush better than Gore did. Gore was one of the worst democratic candidates in my lifetime. He could have destroyed Bush in the debates, but either decided not to, or he didn't have a clue about Bush's horrible record as Texas governor.

[rucky]

14. Truman, Ike, Teddy

that's about all I can think of.

[Arkansas Granny]

18. The one with the most money.

[BlueIris]

24. Yeah, who was that, by the way? DU historians?

Who was history's richest president?

[jpljr77]

25. Washington. I've always heard that, and Forbes confirms...

Here is the http://www.forbes.com/2003/02/14/cx_da_0214pres.html">Forbes piece from 2003.

The richest Presidents in order:

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Andrew Jackson
Zachary Taylor
Theodore Roosevelt
Herbert Hoover
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
George W. Bush

[Golden Raisin]

26. Only those who would be

considered multi-millionaires in today's currency.