who was the best president we've had?

Question

i would have to say the top three are george washington, ronald reagan and george w. bush. i hate how so many people hate gwb!!!! he is such a great leader & because of him i can sleep at night... i guess since we're both evangelical christians i can admire his policies.. & i like his twinkling eyes too

Answer 1

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOUR 3 CHOICES...

I WILL ALSO ADD KENNEDY AS WELL.
HE WAS A DEMOCRAT BUT HE WOULD BE A REPUBLICAN IF HE WAS ALIVE NOW.

Answer 2

Presidential greatness can only be measured by the crisis faced.

There are two components, the president and the crisis. But how the president unifies the country to resolve the crisis is the mark of greatness.

The 3 greatest presidents were Washington, Lincoln and FDR
Washington gets greatness mostly for his service in the war rather then president. But it is often said that he was responsible for turning the paper of the constitution into the reality of a nation.

Lincoln had the greatest crises to contend with and that was to save the Union.

FDR had the great depression to deal with then the largest conflict in history to contend with, and on 2 fronts.



There have been other great presidents but none in this category. None where so much leadership and unity was required. None where the consequences were so great.

It is a combination of a great person in a great crisis making great decisions. And being judged great in the light of history.




********** End of my list of great presidents and beginning of my editorializing

I have to disagree strongly with your second 2 choices. Most of us tend to think of great presidents in a more current time frame because our grasp of current events overshadows our grasp of history.



George Bush:
He is not a man of greatness. It is not just that he hasn't unified the country as Washington, Lincoln and FDR did, he has actually made it more divisive. That alone denies him of any greatness. Instead of allying the world he has made it more divisive too. He has lied incessantly, he supports torture and greatness depends on moral actions not just lip service.
He ignored the memo stating Bin Laden was going to attack. He ignored Clinton’s appeal to regard Bin Laden as a true threat. He ignored the State department, He ignored the fact that the Iraq had nothing to do with 911 but by focusing so much of our attention and resources in Iraq, Bin Laden was able to get away and Al qaeda IS the crisis not Iraq.
The crisis of 911 is not in the category of the forming of the nation, the Civil War or World War II or the great depression.
The decisions he made were not great decisions. He did not remove the threat of terrorism, he increased it. Instead of focusing everything on the terrorists, he focused on Iraq. And the terrorists are being unified and growing.

Ronald Reagan:
Reagan had no Great Crisis. The only thing I have ever heard put to him in the category of greatness was to say he won the cold war by out spending the Soviets. But this doesn’t hold up in the light of history.

First, as a byproduct, the Japanese A-bombing was an unmistakable message to the soviets. In addition, Truman’s administration were the architects of the cold war (George Keenan) that every president afterwards followed. The soviets tried to counter our advancement with a space race which was ultimately won by Kennedy. Kennedy also forced the soviets into a public retreat during the Cuban missile crisis. Nixon took China away from the soviet sphere and Egypt dropped the soviets in the 1970’s leaving them without a dance partner in the middle east. Lech Walesa started up all those strikes in the 70’s leading up to Solidarity later on, but sympathy strikes occurred in much of eastern Europe at the time and even in the Ukraine. Then the soviets got embroiled in Afghanistan in the late 70’s.

The soviets were already a dead man walking long before Reagan became president. When he did become president the soviet leaders kept dying, one after another. It wasn’t until Reagan’s second term that Gorbechav came to power and he was a reformer.

As far as outspending the soviets, we out spend China, North Korea and Iran and none of them are capitulating. We outspent France and we couldn’t even get them to join the coalition. We actually outspend the entire world.


Greatness requires a lot more then just someone matching a religious viewpoint.

Answer 3

Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt are the top three. If I had to add a fourth since I put four on the bottom, Thomas Jefferson. Of the top four - Lincoln was the greatest.

Bottom? Andrew Jackson, Nixon, Regan, George W. Bush.

Answer 4

George Washington was the greatest. He took a ragtag group of farmers and won the colonies their independence. The greatest thing he did, however, was walking away after two terms in office despite pleas from congress for him to stay. He was a man of honor and integrity that is so seldom seen in leaders today. I believe that Bush's legacy has yet to be written. If in fifty years there is peace in the Middle East with flourishing democratic governments, then he will definitely secure his place in the top five greatest of all time.

Answer 5

In our lifetime, the absolute best was actually Clinton. Hey, he might like to get a bj once in a while but at least we didn't pay over 3 dollars a gallon for gas, fight needless wars, the v.p. shoots people, we lose space shuttles, and we leave an entire city to rot during a natural disaster. Sorry, but the track record of Mr GWB is nothing short of pathetic.

Answer 6

To me it is a toss up among some really forward thinking leaders. Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt were very forward thinking. Then you have those who knew how to respond to their times Lincoln, FDR and Regan. It is too early to talk about George W. Bush however he is responding to many big challenges.

Answer 7

Theodore Roosevelt
He took the view that the President as a "steward of the people" should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution." I did not usurp power," he wrote, "but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power."

Answer 8

No, you've got it all wrong. The best were George Washington,
Abe Lincoln, Teddy Rosevelt and Jimmy Carter.

Answer 9

i really know who i would pick as my top 3. but i know one thing for sure is that the last three would not be on my list.

The most current, just doesn't sit right with me. I feel like he is a puppet and doesn't always do what he wants.

Clinton had personalty but wasn't great.

Daddy Bush, well i don't know anything about him.

Answer 10

ummmmm ooookaaay..
That's fine if you like him, but wow.. That's disgraceful to all the great president's of the past to push him in front of them like that. I liked Clinton, but there is no way I'd put him in the top three..

I'd go with Jefferson, Lincoln, and uhh Teddy R....

neilmccalister- You must be a republican to claim a racist tyrant as the best president ever.. der.

Answer 11

You did not just put GWB as one of the top three...

Anyways, probably

-Thomas Jefferson
- Teddy Roosevelt
- Franklin Roosevelt

Not in that order