Top 5 Best Presidents

#1. Franklin Roosevelt, 1933-1945 (Democrat)
#2. Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 (Republican/National Union)
#3. Lyndon Johnson, 1963-1969 (Democrat)
#4. George Washington, 1789-1797
#5. Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 (Republican)

Worst:

#1. James Buchanan, 1857-1861 (Democrat)
#2. Richard Nixon, 1969-1974 (Republican)
#3. Warren Harding, 1921-1923 (Republican)
#4. Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857 (Democrat)
#5. George W. Bush, 2001-2009 (Republican)
 
My Top 10

I know the standard is to put Teddy, FDR, Lincoln, Washington, Reagan, and Clinton in the top tier.
I am not going to do that because that is obvious. I like all of them, except Reagan.
I am going to do my top 10 Presidents, minus the usual top 5.


My Top 10 List


Richard Nixon


Harry Truman


Dwight Eisenhower


William Taft


Gerald Ford


Jimmy Carter


George H.W. Bush


Andrew Jackson


William McKinley


Zachary Taylor


Time to Explain

My list isn't particularly in order of favorites; it is just the order in which I thought about them.

I don’t care what People say about Nixon, and Watergate. Nixon was framed, and wrongfully impeached. I look at his accomplishments: the last on time budget (1969), Opening up China, attempting Welfare reform (negative income tax), created EPA and OSHA, and attempting healthcare reform (here's the link).http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/03/nixon-proposal.aspx

Harry Truman bungled Korea by not firing MacArthur before he provoked Chinese entry into the war. Well, he desegregated the armed forces, led the way for democrats on civil rights, built of America's security establishment for the cold war, fired MacArthur before things got worse, stood up to militant union bosses who threatened to shut down the economy.

Dwight Eisenhower kept America strong during the 50's when the Soviets were perceived to have swept past America, refused to cut taxes unless they were paid for, negotiated the end of Korean war, continued work on civil rights (1957 civil rights act, but Dems watered it down).

William Taft kept up much of Teddy's work, but in many cases moderated his approaches, was an environmentalist, genuinely didn't want to be President, but had the willpower to complete his one term.

Gerald Ford, despite Chevy Chase's parodies, wasn't bumbling, or stupid. He favored the ERA, continued Detente with the Soviets, pardoned Nixon, established SPecial Education , and called Roe V Wade "a great decision" (you won’t hear any GOP politicians say that now!!!)

Jimmy Carter worked for Human Rights, supported alternative energy, appointed Paul Volker Chairman of FED (Volker reduced inflation by hiking interest rates under Carter, but Reagan later claimed credit for the recovery), returned Panama canal to Panama.

George H.W. Bush was the last good, moderate GOP'er. He never believed any of that supply side crap, raised taxes to reduce deficit, fought NRA extremism, signed Americans with Disabilities Act, wanted to go to Mars, signed Clean Air act.

Andrew Jackson was a hard drinking, gambling, Indian killer. He was the first American populist, eliminated national debt (only time in U.S history).

William McKinley is on this list mostly because his assassination gave us TEDDY. However he also did stuff as President. He led America in war with Spain, gave America it's first taste of empire.

Zachary Taylor is on this list purely Alternate history purposes. I've always wondered how slavery/Civil War would have happened with a Taylor Presidency.

Wishing you well, his majesty,
The Scandinavian Emperor
 
Bill Clinton is horribly overrated by the forum's left; he illegally intervened to support one group of Balkan terrorists over another, repealed Glass-Steagall, and signed NAFTA. The prosperity under him was due to the internet bubble.
 
1. FDR
2. Lincoln
3. Washington
4. Jefferson
5. Polk

This list emphasizes the early expansion of the Republic ("manifest destiny"), hence Jefferson and Polk. If one takes the view that expansion from coast to coast was inevitable anyway, I'd replace the last two with Truman and Eisenhower. To make it ten, I'd put back Jefferson and Polk as 6 and 7, and then add TR, Grant and Monroe. As to Reagan, he did NOT win the Cold War. The Soviet Union tried to reform, and then collapsed, as a result of its own inner dynamics. Republican ideologues put a victor's cap on Reagan; remove that cap and you are left with a hollow shell. If any American president should be singled out re the Cold War, it should be Truman, for adopting the policy of containment which ultimately worked. I don't include the two Bushes, Clinton or Obama because it's too early to pass judgment.
 
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Counting only their Presidential administrations rather than what they did before or after:
1. Abraham Lincoln-Kept the Union together and abolished slavery
2. George Washington-Set important precedents regarding the Presidency and guided the country through its first few critical years
3. James K Polk-Expanded the Union tremendous through the Mexican-American War, kept all his promises as President
4. Franklin D Roosevelt-Implemented some needed New Deal reforms, recognized the threat of Japan and Nazi Germany
5. Ronald Reagan-Instituted needed reforms of the economy, along with Thatcher led the movement away from Keynesianism, took a strong stand against the USSR.

Honourable mentions are: Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Richard Nixon
 
Presidents with the greatest achievements outside their period in office (not listed in order of importance)

1. Grant
2. Eisenhower
3. Rutherford Hayes
4. Andrew Jackson
5. TR
6. Thomas Jefferson
7. John Adams
8. James Madison
9. George Washington
10. John Quincy Adams
 
Presidents who authored works of literary and/or intellectual distinction at some point in their lives (not in order of importance)

1. Jefferson
2. Madison
3. John Adams
4. Grant
5. Eisenhower
6. TR
7. Lincoln
8. Kennedy (for "Why England Slept," assuming he really wrote it)
9. Nixon
10. Obama
11. Carter

Looking at the above list again, I think the order is pretty good except I'd put Grant first and move up Ike between Madison and Adams.
 
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Interesting question, kinda tricky though as they all had some failings.

1 - Washington: In addition to his accomplishments as a general and at the constitutional convention he set important precedents as president, such as keeping the US out of foreign entanglements and the two term limit (thank God).

2 - Lincoln: Kept the Union together and set us on the course to ending racism. Arguably someone else could have resolved these issues with less bloodshed, but he kept things together when the country was falling apart.

3 - Reagen: Revived the economy, modernized the military, and ended the Cold War.

4 - FDR: By committing America to WWII FDR prevented a Nazi or Soviet dominated Europe.

5 - Jefferson: Greatly helped westward expansion with the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark Expedition. Also kept us out of war with France and GB.
 
When you list the <insert number here> list of best presidents you should discount certain of them because of where they stand in history.

In no particular order: Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, and Reagan. Note I put Truman on the list, for what he had to go through when he first took over he basically had no idea what was going on because FDR and his inner circle keep him in the dark and he basically had to hit the ground running without having even any background to what was happening.

remember YMMV on this.
 
1) Lincoln - Saw the country through the Civil War probably better than any obvious alternative could have done.

2) Washington - Got the machinery of the new Constitution up and running. Set the two-term precedent.

3) FDR - Whatever the economic wisdom or otherwise of his policies, he gave people hope at a time when hope was in short supply. I shudder to think of the possible courses America might have followed without him.

4) Jefferson - Louisiana Purchase set the precedent for westward expansion. Confirmed the two-term precedent by following Washington's example. (As the saying goes "Anything done twice becomes a tradition")

5) Truman - Set US on the course of containing Communism. Reasserted supremacy of civil over military power by firing MacArthur. Began Civil Rights Era by desegregating armed forces.
 
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Several people have put Jefferson in the top five and have listed various of his accompishments. They forgot to mention two that would have a curious synergy over the following centuries: the Bill of Rights and the founding of West Point.
 
I don't think Nixon deserves to be in any list of the worst presidents. He was a strong centrist president who inherited someone else's war and was stuck with it. He did some very bad things but he also did some good things, especially in his domestic policy and in reaching out to China. If J. Edgar had been around to restrain Nixon's underlings, there never would have been a Watergate scandal, or at least not a botched coverup. Nixon was psychologically unable to deal adroitly and rationally with the massive protest movement against the Vietnam war, especially when those protests targeted him personally and portrayed him as the fount of all evil. If he'd been president at any other time, history might look very kindly on him. He's not in the top 10 but he's certainly in the top 20.
 
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I don't think Nixon deserves to be in any list of the worst presidents. He was a strong centrist president who inherited someone else's war and was stuck with it. He did some very bad things but he also did some good things, especially in his domestic policy and in reaching out to China. If J. Edgar had been around to restrain Nixon's underlings, there never would have been a Watergate scandal, or at least not a botched coverup. Nixon was psychologically unable to deal adroitly and rationally with the massive protest movement against the Vietnam war, especially when those protests targeted him personally and portrayed him as the fount of all evil. If he'd been president at any other time, history might look very kindly on him. He's not in the top 10 but he's certainly in the top 20.

Nixon used taxpayer money on behalf of his own re-election campaign (i.e. CREEP and it's related shenanigans). That alone is enough to put him in the worst ten. Nevermind that the rest of his presidency also kind of sucked. Nixon's economic policies were too timid to address the economic environment of the late 1960s/early 1970s, his foreign policy was devoted to appeasing the Soviet Union and retrenchment from foreign affairs, and on matters of social policy, he was a throwback to the 1950s. This is the man who implemented Affirmative Action solely to divide and conquer the Democratic Party, and used racial backlash politics to construct a new coalition formed around social issues, while ignoring the pressing economic issues of the day.

Nixon's style of politics has poisoned the political climate in the United States and lasts until this day. Tea Party ideology might be to Nixon's right, but it's strategy is right up Nixon's alley (redbaiting, attacking the patriotism of their opponents, etc.). Furthermore, Nixon's actions as President have made Americans overly skeptical of the federal government and have contributed to the rise of an antimodernist Right (social conservatives bent on banning abortion, same-sex marriage, pornography), an antimodernist Center ('fiscal conservatives' bent on forcing balanced budgets at the expense of economic growth and peddling nonsense about the United States' national debt), and an antimodernist Left (limousine liberals bent on banning GM foods, nuclear power, and hankering for the days when everyone lived in crowded, overfilled cities blighted by slums)

Nixon was the best man in 1972, but only because his opponent was far, far more dangerous in the midst of the Cold War. That does not mean that he was a 'great' President, however. Only that he was markedly less bad (but still bad) than the alternative.
 
Top ten:
  1. Washington, for defining the office
  2. Lincoln, for stewardship through the nation's greatest crisis
  3. TR, for architecture of the modern presidency
  4. Ike, for a calm hand during the worst of cold war brinksmanship
  5. Reagan, for getting the economy going and undoing as much damage as possible that his immediate predecessor caused
  6. Polk, for fulfilling much of the nation's expansionist dreams in a way that caused a relative minimum of friction (including avoidance of a war with world power Great Britain)
  7. Ford, for restoring confidence in the presidency after Watergate
  8. FDR, for his efforts to mitigate the depression (which, given the '38 recession that nearly undid everything, weren't the cure-all many make them to be) and for guiding America away from self-destructive isolationism
  9. John Adams, for his role in establishing a truly unifying central government (as opposed to the looser Jeffersonian confederation concept)
  10. Jefferson, for his demonstrations of exercise of presidential powers and prerogatives (although his inept handling of maritime issues and the Embargo of 1807 damn near disqualifies him)
Just missing the cut: Coolidge

The worst ten:

  1. Buchanan: fiddled while Rome burned
  2. Pierce: helped build the bonfire
  3. Fillmore: another northerner with southern sympathies who helped worsen a bad situation
  4. Harding: inept, and in way over his head-but at least he knew it and said so in so many words
  5. Carter: naive, inept, and a micromanager-a fatal trifecta
  6. Tyler: an incompetent opportunist and consummate antebellum southerner (consider he was elected to the Confederate congress but died before taking his seat)
  7. Madison: provided essentially no leadership to speak of during wartime; his presidency almost cancels his achievements in designing the Constitution
  8. Andrew Johnson: we all know the story
  9. Grant: excellent field general promoted to his level of incompetence
  10. Cleveland: his idiotic Secretary of State Olney damn near got the US embroiled in a war with Great Britain when the latter was at its zenith of power (1890). Hard to comprehend, but true-and all over an exercise of the Monroe Doctrine in South America.
Just missing the cut: Wilson, Hoover

Edit (stealing an idea shamelessly from another entry): a handful, more or less, who should have been president at some point * but weren't...

1. Charles Evans Hughes: no doctrinaire, rigid Wilsonian idealism at Versailles would have avoided poisoned post-war relations with Europe, and likely would have prevented (or at least mitigated) isolationism in the years afterward
2. Wendell Willkie: probably would have been equally (or very close to it) as effective as Roosevelt, and would have galvanized the GOP into a wholesale Vandenberg-like conversion
3. Nelson Rockefeller: OK, so he never got the top spot. But his nomination would've kept the northeastern, TR archetype Republican from have becoming an endangered species (and I should know).
4. Adlai Stevenson: a thoroughly intelligent, witty man; not at all what Joe McCarthy intimated him to be; would've been a good choice in '60 for the Dems
5. Jack Kemp: Another who never got the nomination. In his case: well-reasoned neo-conservatism combined with cabinet experience and a persona honed by years in professional sports would've made him a fine choice in the late '80s / early '90s.
6. Daniel Webster: had the Whigs nominated him in 1840, the nonsense with Tyler would have been avoided, and perhaps the Whig party might have survived. A consensus-builder, he could have worked out some creative ways at accomplishing expansion much along the same lines as did Polk.

I didn't include Ford, TR, or any other candidate who lost in a given year but were president anyhow. I waffled on Dewey: professionally, he has to be included; personally...well, he was described as "cold" and "egotistic", so he probably wouldn't have been all that personally suited to the presidency. Maybe a superb Attorney General, but otherwise...not sure (and this from an ironclad TR Republican).
 
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