Which President was the greatest post-1900

Which President was the greatest post-1900

  • Theodore Roosevelt

    Votes: 20 26.0%
  • Woodrow Wilson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt

    Votes: 37 48.1%
  • John F. Kennedy

    Votes: 4 5.2%
  • Ronald Reagan

    Votes: 13 16.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 3 3.9%

  • Total voters
    77
  • Poll closed .

TelClaven

Banned
I voted Reagan. He established a clear goal and set out to meet it. Although, honestly, I should have voted FDR. Didn't read the question properly.

My Favorite President has to be TR. Rough Rider President FTW!
 
I picked Theodore Roosevelt because he put America in the world spotlight.

Not just that: he engineered the transformation of the US to a modern world power, and was the architect of the modern model of a powerful chief executive. His reforms to provide a better way of life (see, for example, the FDA) for the average citizen, while maintaining a positive climate for business should serve as the prototype for all presidents.

My ranking:

1. TR
2. Ike (he kept a cool head during the worst of the cold war, and paved the way for the future downfall of the Soviet bloc)
3. Reagan
4. Truman
5. FDR (don't forget, there was a sharp recession in 1938 that his policies didn't do much to mitigate)
6. Ford (healing after the Watergate crisis)
7. Kennedy (+rep for winning on brinksmanship but -rep for taking the world to the brink in the first place)
8. Bush the Elder
9. Coolidge (something of an enigma [thank you, Robert Sobel] who might have done some fine things had he not suffered from depression after his son's death)
10. Taft
11. Clinton (a feel-good type who reaped the benefits of much done by Bush; should have sold used cars or real estate)
12. Hoover (authored reforms to end the depression, many of which were simply co-opted by FDR; lousy communicator, though)
13. Wilson (vastly overrated)
14. Johnson (master flim-flam man who committed the US to involvement in a messy guerilla war)
15. Harding (in over his head and he knew it)
16. Carter (in over his head but too stubborn to admit it; in some ways, the US is still cleaning messes from his naivete)

Nixon is not on the list since he's a special case: we'll always wonder what might have been without Watergate. One has to give credit for normalizing relations with China and for the real beginnings of detente, but all of that is overshadowed by Watergate itself.

When replying, remember that opinions are like livers: everybody has one.
 
Not just that: he engineered the transformation of the US to a modern world power, and was the architect of the modern model of a powerful chief executive. His reforms to provide a better way of life (see, for example, the FDA) for the average citizen, while maintaining a positive climate for business should serve as the prototype for all presidents.

My ranking:

1. TR
2. Ike (he kept a cool head during the worst of the cold war, and paved the way for the future downfall of the Soviet bloc)
3. Reagan
4. Truman
5. FDR (don't forget, there was a sharp recession in 1938 that his policies didn't do much to mitigate)
6. Ford (healing after the Watergate crisis)
7. Kennedy (+rep for winning on brinksmanship but -rep for taking the world to the brink in the first place)
8. Bush the Elder
9. Coolidge (something of an enigma [thank you, Robert Sobel] who might have done some fine things had he not suffered from depression after his son's death)
10. Taft
11. Clinton (a feel-good type who reaped the benefits of much done by Bush; should have sold used cars or real estate)
12. Hoover (authored reforms to end the depression, many of which were simply co-opted by FDR; lousy communicator, though)
13. Wilson (vastly overrated)
14. Johnson (master flim-flam man who committed the US to involvement in a messy guerilla war)
15. Harding (in over his head and he knew it)
16. Carter (in over his head but too stubborn to admit it; in some ways, the US is still cleaning messes from his naivete)

Nixon is not on the list since he's a special case: we'll always wonder what might have been without Watergate. One has to give credit for normalizing relations with China and for the real beginnings of detente, but all of that is overshadowed by Watergate itself.

When replying, remember that opinions are like livers: everybody has one.
the only reason for the recession is that with the influx of money received from the new social security tax FDR was able to balance the budget something every president strives to do. Problem is most don't realize what keeps our economy going is the massive amount of capital that we put into it. That's what helped us out of the depression.
Wilson gets a bump in polls cause he passed the amendment that let women vote
 

General Zod

Banned
Theodore Roosevelt, because he was able to implement many reforms checking the ills of early capitalism while maintaining a friendly climate for business, gave a positive impetus to environement conservation and America's spotlight on the international scene. It is difficult to find an importan policy of him that led to major damage in the long term.

His cousin FDR, while he would deserve first rank for his New Deal work up to 1938, made a terrible performance during WWII, wholly akin to GWB. His WWII war presidency, wholly in the throes of hardcore anti-German racist fanaticism and pro-Stalinist sympathies, willfully worked to impement mad genocidal revenge plans that would have purposefully starved millions of German civilians, refused any rational cooperation with the German Resistance which could have cut short WWII by years, and willfully favored the onset of Stalinist domination on Central and Eastern Europe, refusing or denying any alternative policy that would have prevented or lessened the extent of Communist expansion. While WWII had to be fought, and the Cold War was inevitable, it was his fault entirely that it was fought on the Elbe and with a divided Germany, and half of Europe had to suffer Communist tyranny for 50 years. For his own good and the one of America and Europe, he should have died or lost the Presidency before 1940. A moderate Democratic like Truman or moderate Republican like Willkie could have fought WWII much better.

Reagan, while made a stellar performance about bringing collapsing Soviet Communism to its knees without the Cold War turning hot, had faulty economic policies which favored deindustrialization of America, worsened its social ills, and seeded an excessive ideological committment to deregulation, that blossomed in the current economic catastrophe.

Kennedy's appeal is too much rooted in his martyrdom than in his actual Presidential performance. The latter, albeit positive was too short and does not compare with the accomplishments of TR, New Deal FDR, or foreign-policy Reagan.
 
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