The Top 10 Best Presidents
We have a poll to the left listing the top 3 Presidents. All historians agree that these three are the best, with the number 1 spot switching back and forth between them. Batshit crazy wingnuts will scream that Reagan is the best and you are communist if you think otherwise. Well, no one agrees with them. As usual.
Here are my Top Ten:
1. Abraham Lincoln
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Lincoln
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – FDR
3. George Washington
“The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.” – Washington
4. Thomas Jefferson
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. . . the Almighty has no attribute that can take side with us in such a contest.” – Jefferson
5. Theodore Roosevelt
“No Man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expedience.” – Roosevelt
6. Andrew Jackson
“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.” – Jackson
7. Woodrow Wilson
“A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits…. a conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.” Woodrow Wilson
8. Harry S. Truman
“When even one American – who has done nothing wrong — is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all of Americans are in peril.” – Truman
9. James K. Polk
“No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.” – Polk
10. John F. Kennedy
“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” – Kennedy
Truman and Polk aren’t in the top ten, in my opinion. And I think you really need Washington #2. Just based on the farewell address alone. Talk about the embodiment of American ideals… Just slide FDR to 3.
Yeah cuz, you know…FDR caused the depression or something.
Washington and FDR are almost tied in my mind. I give the nod to FDR right now because of his example being cited quite frequently nowadays.
Dorian,
Who replaces Polk and Truman? Polk is in the top ten because he expanded the territory of the country to the West Coast, and won the Oregon Territory. Truman is on the list because of his importance in international affairs, establishing the Marshall Plan and preventing Soviet influence from spreading further than it did, and setting the tone for the next 40 years of Cold War.
To the Wingnuts out there…..
Reagan is in the Top 20 in my mind. But then again, so is Bill Clinton.
It is great you selected a Republican as #1 and # 5.
Kennedy and Wilson are over rated and Truman deserves better.
Maybe there is hope for you after all.
I think the negatives of Andrew Jackson far outweighs the positve. That said, I reserve final judgement because I’ve not read a major biography of him yet. The Trail of Tears alone (an open disregard for a Supreme Court ruling and the Constiution) disqualifies him in my mind.
Mike…
Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would be Democrats today.
Madison is in my top ten for sure. He faced quite a tester… everything stacked against him and it ultimately end with good will and the nation still together. He was Lincolnesqe before Lincoln…
I can’t agree with Wilson. I think he is overrated, as is Kennedy.
Ah face it–they were all bums or heroes at one point in time in somebody’s mind. But I love the quotes Del Gem-there are at least 3 I hadn’t heard and am printing this out for that reference. Thanks.
Now about those presidents’ wives……
WHERE IS RONALD REGEAN?!?!?!
actually, I think Jackson should be out of there based on the Native American expulsion. Replace him with either Adams or Madison.
Sure Jackson paid off the national debt and was good for the economy, but the was the case with Hitler for Germany and they BOTH expelled a group of people and sponsored genocide.
True enough. I considered him because of economic accomplishments and his populism.
But James Madison is a good replacement.
Adams was not a good President. He was a good founding father, but his Presidency was horrific. Alien and Sedition Acts?
True, but Adams DID manage to keep us out of war… although the same could be said for Warren Harding and HE was a bigger a-hole than soon-to-be-former representative Mike Castle (i know it is hard to do).. ok so typing as I am thinking, I take back my bid for Adams.
I think you can argue for any of the good presidents being in the Top Ten. Here are the Good Presidents (as opposed to Great Presidents, of which there are only three: Lincoln, FDR and Washington)
Good:
Jefferson
Madison
Monroe
Polk
Cleveland
McKinley
Roosevelt
Wilson
Truman
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Johnson
Ford
Reagan
Clinton
How did FDR cause the depression? He was elected in 1933. The depression started in 1929. Learn your dates and perhaps your math. Other than that this list is solid. Just keep Ragean out of it. I think the depiction of Ragean in Family Guy where he is outside the McDonald’s screaming, “Ragean smash, Ragean smash,” just about sums up that dope’s presidency.
I’m all for replacing Jackson with John Quincy Adams, though his presidency was unremarkable. Still, just to know it would spite Jackson posthumously would amuse me :-).
You have to put Hoover, Kennedy, and Obama in the bottom half – taking wrong political, military, social and economic paths. Hoover taxed and spent, forced bad mortgages, ignored realities and pushed the US into the Depression. Kennedy ignored world pol-mil and allowed nukes to our southern shores. He also social experimented and it took to the 1990 to undo the socialistic moves, not to mention the dramatic increase in tax in the subsequent years. Obama, read the above. He or Geithner speaks and the economy drops. I suspect he will be associated more to Hoover on his pol-mil and more like Kennedy on his personal life.
Hang on to your seat the economy will get worse.