BEST President in U.S. History...

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Shane Tuttle

Staff
OK, so we have quite a lengthy discussion of the WORST presidents of our country in another thread. How about stating your opinion of who you think has been or is our best president?

I didn't place a poll simply because I'm not a fan of polls. To me, it bears no significant value. A simple format of discussion is my cup of tea. If you want to keep count, by all means read the posts...

My requests are:

1. We don't veer excessively into discusssion of the Civil War including slavery.

2. Debate is obviously welcome to one's pick. It's obvious that counterpoints will bring up negatives. However, I ask that we try to keep the division of this thread overall from the "Worst Presidents" thread.

3. This discussion is for ones that have or is currently serving, NOT ones that might be our next president. There's plenty of discussion in other threads on our candidates.

My definition of "Best" presidents is on two fronts:

1. Your personal favorite subjectively speaking regardless of objective works.
2. President that performed his duty as originally intended.
 
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madmag

New member
Harry Truman.

I wanted to pick from Presidents that served in my life time. I admit I consider myself a Republican, but I think Truman made tough decisions and was true to his duty. Once Harry made up his mind what was right then polls or opinions did not matter. Not to mention he is virtually the only President I remember that went into office without a lot of money and left the same way. He spent the rest of his life living in a modest home just 12 feet of the street in MO. Can't find that kind of integrity now days.

Since it's my lifetime, can I give Honorable mention?

FDR, lead the Country in some of it's darkest hours.
JFK, made you believe anything was possible.
Reagan, true conservative and understood what makes this Country great.
 
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cool hand luke 22:36

New member
Kind of hard to say who was best, but Gerald Ford would be on the short list.

Just by virtue of being a steady, decent, normal person he was precisely what the Nation needed after the Nixon resignation.

And, in fact, he did a good job of restoring public confidence in our government, despite the controversy over the pardon.
 
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Forwardassist

New member
All men are created equal, except for the ones I own and like to have sex with...
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I didn't know Thomas swung that way. :D
Yes he did like having relations with his female slaves.
To be fair to Jefferson he did state in his writings that he did not agree with Slavery, and though it should be abolished. But at the time wealthy land owners in the south and even in the north owned slaves. At the time it was too ingrained in the fabric of our society to go against it. None of the founding fathers, even the ones who did not own slaves and hated the practice, did anything to end slavery.I am sadden that it took another 75 years before it would finally end.

My choice would be Lincoln.
 
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Shane Tuttle

Staff
My personal favorite would have to be Teddy Roosevelt. He just reminds me of what it would be like to be the luckiest nephew in the world.

I know Reagan may not be the best "on paper". He really ruffled my feathers in 1986. He definitely isn't perfect. But, I do believe he was a great leader and carried out his duties as a president honorably overall.
 
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MisterWilson

New member
Thomas Jefferson, because his VP shot that worthless statist Alexander Hamilton.



While I understand that the show was a little cheesy and had poor casting and direction (IMHO), the TV series "John Adams" gave great perspective into how things likely went down during the creation of our country.

I won't say it's perfectly accurate, I just don't know, but I feels more truthful than the perspective we're left with in grade school.
 
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HJB

New member
Lincoln... the best man for the job, during the most difficult period of our history.

I think Reconstruction may have went a little smoother if he had not been killed.
 
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madmag

New member
Lincoln...
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Agreed, if I had not limited myself to my lifetime that would have been my choice. Without Lincoln's will power and determination our nation would have remained torn apart.
 
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joeybolz

New member
You may be on to something. He did nothing. I wish more of today's politicians would follow his lead.
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Interestingly enough after posting that I decided to go do some reading on Millard Fillmore as I knew very little. Seems he was much more than most people know.
He was self made from poverty but was known to have started out as a pettyfogger (old timey definition for an ambulance chasing lawyer) According to some he was a limited government pro constitution type of president. He also marked the demise of the Whig party. In his later life he turned down an honorary law degree from Oxford University citing that since he had never had the benefit of a classical education (Latin) he couldn't accept an honorary degree that he couldn't read.
 
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