People who could have been good US presidents.

Henry Wallace
Sidney McMath
Claude Pepper
Hubert Humphrey
George McGovern
Walter Mondale
Mickey Leland
Harvey Gantt
Al Gore
Paul Wellstone
Bernie Sanders
 
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Thomas Dewey
Wendell Willkie
Charles Hughes
Henry "Scoop" Jackson
John McCain
Alf Landon

And even though this is the After 1900 forum I would still add Henry Clay
 
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Reubin Askew is a good choice. New South Governor with a record of accomplishments longer than Carter's. He was an effective administrator who understood how to wield the power of the executive to get things done. His lack of charisma and moderate positions sank most of his presidential ambitions, but if you get him to the White House I think he'd be one of the all-time greats.
 

Edward IX

Banned
This maybe controversial but I think that time has proven H. Ross Perot was right about a lot of things. I cast my first vote for him. I sort of regret that now because looking back on it H. W. Bush was a very good President and almost anyone from his cabinet would have been a good President.

Jim Baker in particular

Others:
John Connolly
John Glenn
Mario Cuomo
Sam Nunn (who I think would have been a incredible President, ranking in the great column).
Joe Biden
Libby Dole
Jim Webb (not in 2016 earlier than Obama)
George or Mitt Romney (although that 47% comment still pissed me off and was the deciding factor for me.)

I would have loved for Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman to get 3rd terms.

For the record I am a blue dog Democrat type person. Since I am from the South maybe you could say Dixiecrat, but that has negative racial connotations that are bad.

IMHO RFK would not have been a good President, not because of his ideas but his personality.

I like John Glenn and John McCain but both have prickly personalities. Plus people now forget the whole Keating 5 mess.
 
I like McCain, but other than domestic policy differences he strikes me as far too hawkish in the foreign affairs department.
 
Fiorello La Guardia
Eleanor Roosevelt
Alfred E Smith
Earl Warren
Hubert Humphrey
George McGovern
Morris Udall
Edward Kennedy
Bernie Sanders
Norman Thomas
Paul Newman(if- IF- he had gone into politics
& thus acquired some political experience
before becoming POTUS)

Yes, I'm a die-hard leftist!
 
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If I were of voting age in 1988, the apex of the Jesse Jackson trip, I’d have voted for him. His policy proposals would’ve been good in 84 or 88, but his policy stances represented the necessary reversal that needed to take place to combat the Reagnomics-Reagan Revolution consensus. I feel the same way about Mario Cuomo. The others are just good leaders with moderate-to-liberal positions.

Fair enough, my list is seemingly contradictory as well seeing as both Eugene Debs and Robert Taft would be on it haha. Though Taft would be good in spite of himself haha.
 
I was unsure of posting in this thread simply because I don't believe there are any worthwhile people who would run for the position anymore. Our "Leaders" are all charlatans that cater to their donors so therefore have no principals of their own (that can't be bought). I dare say our founding fathers would be shocked and outraged at what our political system has become. Today's politician is bought and paid for by by large corporations or special interest groups that don't give a shit about America except that they get their piece of the pie.

We have become too complacent, too comfortable, too lazy to care anymore. We can't talk to people face to face and trade ideas and find compromise anymore; everything is WIN or LOSE. We have become "ESPNinized", everything is a 15 second hype job, no substance after that because we're on to the next thing.

Since 1960 the only two men (that ran for President) that I think TRULY cared about the United States before their party, were John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Every other winner or loser has been a hack that I wouldn't have trusted to landscape my lawn, let alone run this great country. I think Robert Kennedy might have been someone who might have been different, but unfortunately we'll never know. I think our current President truly cares about Americans first, but will constantly have to fight both sides of the "swamp" and I don't know if we will ever be what the founders dreamed for us ever again.
 
Slavery reparations are DEEP nutjob territory
It’s nutjob territory because it likely wouldn’t benefit you. Even being in an official platform that gained millions of votes speaks volumes. I always found that politicians and people that don’t support reparative policies always get shaky when you note that black unemployment has always remained twice as high as the national average. Their answer has consistently been rising waters float all boats, or however that expression goes, but that’s not connected to reality.

Either way this is about good presidents, not reparations.

Bernie Sanders would’ve been a good one too.
 
Ray Mabus, as an alternative to Bill Clinton. Birch Bayh, Howard Baker, James Baker. John Heinz, Mickey Leland, and Paul Wellstone, if they hadn't died. George Marshall. In the 19th century, John Marshall, Winfield Hancock. And of course, Robert "by the way it is" Kennedy. I agree with the other person who said he's the best president we never had.
 
Let's see...

Charles Evans Hughes
Wendell Willkie
Thomas Dewey
Nelson Rockefeller
John Glenn
Adlai Stevenson
William Scranton
Jack Kemp
Condoleeza Rice
Colin Powell
Charles Dawes
 
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