Who are the Great Moderates in U.S. History?

Question

If you were writing a book about great moderates, who would you include?

Answer 1

There is no such thing as a great moderate. Moderate, by definition, is not inclined to greatness. It would be like asking: Who are the great mediocre?

Answer 2

Virtually all elected heads of state are moderates and yes that includes our current president George W. Bush and our last president Bill Clinton.

Moderates rarely fall into the catagory of great. Moderates are called moderate because they lack the passion required to do "great" things and have them noticed by others.

Answer 3

There are some that profess to be moderates but the term basically means middle of the road, passionless, etc. This kind of person will generally never make it is politics, just not enough passion.

I believe the term is applied to those with ideologies a political party does not embrace but the party is afraid to offend them so they keep the rhetoric down.

Answer 4

Right now - John McCain and........gulp (am I really saying this) - Joe Leiberman. Also, in the house, my local rep - Ed Pastor (South Phoenix) - check how often JM & EP are in the media together, despite being Republican & Democrat - a couple of good guys.

But I'd also pick Thomas Jefferson - gets my vote as greatest ever president. I get the impression he was "too busy being president, to get involved in politics". After all, who thinks he did a bad job on the constitution - seems like both extremist groups accept it.

I'm a radical moderate & I['d pretty much vote for John McCain, whatever party he ran for - actually I DID vote for him in 2004.

Final thought - if we see Colin Powell in a position, where he can speak for himself, maybe he'll turn out to be moderate too - he was out of his depth, swimming with sharks, in the Executive. Seems like a pretty compasionate guy, for a soldier ;-)

Answer 5

Bill Clinton. Gerald Ford. Dwight Eisenhower. Jimmy Carter.