WHO WAS THE GREATEST PRESIDENT OF THE United States of America?

Question

Personally, I believe Bill Clinton was the greatest President of my time and Bush was the worst President of my time (Both of them)

So in order to alleviate comparisons between these too, tell me who do you think was the Greatest President of the United States of America BEFORE 1950 (this way no one says JFK - another Brilliant President)


BEFORE 1950 and WHY?

Answer 1

I would say George Washington - since he stopped America from adopting Monarchial style leadership.

Lincoln - because he united America when it threatened to tear itself apart.

and FDR because he pulled America out of depression.

But still CLINTON WAS THE GREATEST EVER.

Answer 2

I wasn't born until 1960, but I like the way you think. Bill Clinton was a great president and things were good for middle class America! GW Bush is definitely the worst president in history. That's my thoughts and also the mainstream media says that he will go down in history as the WORST!

Answer 3

FDR was the best because he got us out of pretty much an impossible task. He got us out of the great depression by appealing to the people with his fireside chats and forcing congress to cooperate. Secondly, he got us into the most important war that needed to be done. Hitler had plans to attach America after Europe. I'd say Lincoln is second b/c he freed the slaves. Finally, Buchanan was the worse. He allowed the Civil War to happen, in which he could have prevented. Also, Bill clinton is overrated and was pretty much a warhawk. As for Lewinski, that was a poor decision. He was the most powerful person in the world; I can name 10 women better looking than her just in my neighborhood. Thats just a poor decision.

Answer 4

Franklyn Delano Roosevelt because he pulled this country out of the devastation of it's worst depression. Tens of thousands of people were homeless, hungry, jobless, many ill and at rock bottom. There are people who will deny this. But you can't hide from the truth. Too many eye witnesses.
When the war came, he stood like a rock for all of us, and he had the courage, the moxy and the guts to inspire an entire nation to work together in harmony. All the time in a wheelchair.
Now, there will be detractorsabout the depression and the war.

But he had something that our present administration wouldn't have if they were right, he was a LEADER and could inspire nobility and patriotism in all of us! He never divided us, he united us.

Answer 5

Abraham Lincoln hands down! He held our country together with dignity and understood the depths of the divide. After 1950, it would have to be Ronald Reagan, conquered communism without a single shot. Bill Clinton was a clown and a crook.

Answer 6

Clintoon and Carter were the worst ever. Carter's foreign policy incompetence gave first breath to the islamo-fascist mess we have now and Clintoon's unwillingness to face tough issues served only to embolden them to the strength they have today. Clintoon was so concerned with keeping his poll numbers up that he just let the problemns that came to his desk set until new ones supplanted the old ones. This is called "temporizing." You just ignore the problem until it goes away. Clintoon kept the stupid sheep who voted for him enraptured with a new initiative every week. Never mind that the initiative was small and essentially meaningless. The strategy was to "look busy" and not really do anything that might cause even a one-point dip in his popularity.

Answer 7

Lincoln. Hands down. He overcame a lot to get to the Presidency and brought the United States back together.

Answer 8

George Washington. He was the first "president", and therefore united the fledgling country, leading to what is today the United States. Hence "the father of our country". (and the greatest president!)

Answer 9

Lincoln and Wahington are rightly credited with being our two greatest Presidents. Washington basically defined what the office would be for all future holders. Lincoln kept the country from disintegrating, ended slavery, and was instrumental in getting the transcontinental railroad built and enouraging the settlement of the Great Plains.

Lincoln edges out Washington narrowly because he had to fight very hard to get the job done, whereas Washington had earned an enormous prestige during the revolution and almost nobody fought his policies directly during his Presidency.

FDR is the obvious 3rd, even if some of his policies weren't effective and he over-reached on the court-packing scheme, he provided inspirational leadership and helped nudge the nation into preparedness for the war where he helped Russia save the world from Hitler. ( :) Kinda kidding, but the poor bastards in Stalin's armies did most of the ugly work. )

JFK is actually one of the most OVERRATED presidents. He pushed against Civil Rights until public opinion forced his hand, his dad was into some VERY dirty politics, he allowed the ridiculous Bay of Pigs thing to go down and did a lot to provoke the Russians into the Cuban Missile Crisis. The constant threat of an American invasion of Cuba let Raul Castro scare his brother into the Russian alliance.

The most overrated president was Reagan. He was a shameless liar, a fool, and his policies sowed the ugly seeds that were reaped on 9/11.

Reagan's unprecedented and unnecessary buildup of advanced weapons systems scared the Russians so badly that they were ready to start World War III out of fear of an imminent US First Strike in 1983, it also saddled us with a quarter of the insane debt that Bush is intent on increasing and probably delayed the fall of Communism by another 8 years, contrary to the popular myth that his outspending ended it. Communism fell when the people of the Warsaw Pact nations hated their leaders more than they were afraid of us. Building weapons obviously meant to be used on them played into the Communist Party's hands.

Reagan supported the precursors of the Taliban and Al-Queda in Afganistan with weapons and money, and he helped Saddam fight the Iranians and gave him the weapons he then turned on Kuwait. (The fact that he had been such good friends with Reagan and Rumsfeld emboldened Saddam to attack Kuwait because he assumed we would not object.)

The greatest tragedy of Reagan is that he unjustly got the credit for the economic boom that coincided with his Tax Cuts. They were actually caused by the incredibly bad inflation and unemployment of the previous recession, which kept costs down for labor at the same time corporate debts were being erased by a weakening dollar. Because of this Republicans now preach Tax Cuts as cure for everything, even when they suck money up from the Bond market that could instead go to corporate investment.

Reagan got enormous public sympathy when he was shot, he was a good actor and a charmer, which is why people remember him so fondly.

Wilson also gets way too much credit. Apart from being a disgusting person who wrote histories praising the Klu Klux Klan, played a large part in causing World War II by not insisting on better treatment for Germany at Versailles, as he had promised to do. He made concession after concession to Lloyd Geoge and Clemenceau in order to get the League of Nations, which was a joke.

A good argument could be made that we should have stayed out of WWI altogether. The Germany of WWI was nowhere near as monstrous as that of WWII, the British and French governments of the time were nowhere near as innocent as we like to believe. If the Germans had won they'd have put Lenin out of business in very short order, and if Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had held together, there would have been much more peace in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. A lot of innocent Jews would not have died and their descendants would still be enriching the culture of Europe.

On another note James Buchanan and Warren Harding are in a dead heat for last place right now, but most academic historians feel that Nero Bushus will trump them in the end. There were probably have to be some constitutional amendments to prevent anyone from abusing the presidency like that again.

Answer 10

George Washington, because he actually was the commander and chief. He led men into battle and had to literally rally the troops.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought us thru the depression and into WW2, thanks to no term limits.

Why do you say Clinton's the best? He said he would get us universal health care...that never happened.

I am not republican, but I think the best president of the modern era would be Ronald Raygun. The cold war was real and we got to see the iron curtain fall.