Forum Game President's Day: Best and Worst Presidents

It was a joke. GhostofPGA put up a list intended to, as he basically said, annoy liberals so I "took the bait" by criticizing one of the elements not intended to bug liberals.

That said, I'm certainly not old enough to have lived through JFK's presidency, that's certainly true. I'd put him in the top-ten, though.

 

I'm not a liberal but regardless, it was hard for me tell that you intended it as a joke.

No harm, no foul.

 

Can you imagine trump being faced with a Cuban missile crisis situation? The world as we know it would have been devastated. Look at how he played chicken with North Korea and the red button crisis.

 

Of all the complaints with Trump, this is one that I don't quite get. He's been the least warmongery type president we've had in a while (though I suppose his military spending is just crazy as all get out), but while he flubbed in the Middle East (like most of our presidents), it seems to me he's done a lot less bombing of countries than our last few presidents. I think in this regard he barks a lot but I think he's all bark...
I think in a Cuban missile crisis type of situation he'd just go say a bunch of stupid stuff and then go play golf.

 

By far.

I like Presidents who don't cause a million Americans to die needlessly.

 

He had been fortunate. No 9/11, no financial collapse, of course he botched Hurricane Maria but to his fans Puerto Ricans aren't really American. And all his failures around global warming, diplomacy, etc make themselves known not immediately but long run.

True, his response to Corona virus is to propose cutting Center for Disease Control 10 percent and World Health Organization 25 percent.

 

I will only judge those who were President during my lifetime, as the media, schools and historians can no longer be trusted to present the truth without bias. Only judged on their performance as President for the Citizens of The United States of America, nothing else. I have included whom I voted for each of my eleven opportunities. Faced with some pretty awful candidates, I voted for my Dad 5 times.

Best:
1.Trump - Trump
2.Eisenhower - too young
3.JFK - too young
4.Reagan - My Dad/My Dad (write-ins)


Worst:
1.LBJ - too young
2.Obama - Obama/Obama
3.Bushbaby - Gore/My Dad (write-in)
3.Clinton - Clinton/My Dad (write-in)
4.Carter - Carter
5.Ford - Appointed by the Deep State
6.Nixon - too young
7.Bushdaddy - My Dad (write-in)

 

It is because of how he leads Americans, and much of the free world, that we have not had similar situations.

And promising North Korea that he would wipe them off the face of the Earth if they attempt to harm US or our allies is exactly how JFK defused the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pretty much everyone with a brain acknowledges he has been brilliant and effective in dealing with our enemies across the board. Between Clinton's Rawanda genocide and his bombing of 1500 Bosnian civilians, and Bush and Obama's slaughtering of 100,000+ civilians all across the Middle East, Trump inherited a world that pretty much despised America. Now, only their corrupt leaders hate America, because Trump upset their apple-carts.

 

In the pre-Nixon 60s, we were taught that Kennedy and Teddy Roosevelt had made a showman splash, but hadn't had the time to accomplish anything. The worst 2 presidents had been the corrupt Harding and the drunkard U.S. Grant.

Decades later, I see that military revisionist history has taken out Gen. Grant. Eisenhower? Ha ha, military historians again. He was considered below average, not very competent, the same as when the other WW2 generals chose him to command them because unlike them, he smiled and mediated the tough guys' differences.

Without ex-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, we still wouldn't have the moon landing, Medicare, food stamps, etc. Kennedy, Carter, Clinton could not have cajoled Congress to pay. After FDR, Johnson got the most done of any president in the 20th Century. He may be top-10 on the list. If he ruined his reputation, going whole hog on Vietnam, then why isn't Bush in your worst 5 for the same?

Yes. #1 is either Jackson or Little Bush, who killed and tortured more but also blew up Clinton's surpluses on purpose. Jackson was an asshole tough guy.

 

Jokes are often misunderstood in forums because of the lack of face to face contact. Body language along with tonal changes impact face to face communication which is lacking in WWW forum communication.

 

Some of LBJ's credited "accomplishments" were initiated by Kennedy.

Also, Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System should not be overlooked.

 

The difference was that Kennedy had a go slow approach because he was afraid of losing the Southern vote. He was convinced by others to pust for the legislation.
However Kennedy could not push the legislation through and this was where Johnson shown. It was a President Johnson that did convinced enough Senators to vote for his legislation.
Now, I love the Kennedy administration and absolutely revere his name but he couldn't swing any Civil Rights legislation.

 

FWIW...

• James and Dolley Madison were known to serve bowls of oyster ice cream at official government functions.
  
  
• George Washington actually has two birthdays: Feb. 11, 1731 and Feb. 22, 1732. The reason? Due to Protestant foot-dragging, the British Empire waited a couple hundred years to replace the Julian calendar with the more accurate Gregorian calendar (named for Pope Gregory). In 1752, September 2 was followed by September 14 (no doubt creating havoc for financial arrangements like wages and rents). To accurately reflect his age, Washington used the ‘new style’ calendar to determine his birthday: February 22, 1732.
  
  
• Harry Truman was the last president to not have a college degree. Ronald Reagan is the most recent president to not have an Ivy League degree.
  
  
• John Tyler, the 10th president of the U.S., had grandsons living in 2018.
  
  
• Dwight D. Eisenhower lobbied to have a tree cut down on the 17th at Augusta National. They told him to buzz off, kept the tree, and it was mockingly named after him. Just in case you were wondering if it’s harder to defeat Germany or get Augusta to change its layout.
  
  
• Lincoln was the first president with facial hair; Taft was the last. Every president with facial hair served in the 52 year period (1861-1913) spanning their presidencies. (This does ignore the fact that Truman occasionally grew a beard on vacation while president.)
  
  
• John Quincy Adams approved a trip to the North Pole because he was convinced that the Earth was hollow and there was a hole at the North Pole which lead to the center of the Earth.
  
  
• Martin Van Buren was the only U.S. president whose native tongue was not English (he was raised in a Dutch speaking household in upstate New York).” And from reader Alex: “Martin Van Buren was technically the first president to be a natural born citizen, as he was the first born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
  
  
• Richard Nixon is the only VP-turned-POTUS not to succeed the president he served under as VP.
  

 

Best: Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Washington, Jefferson, Obama, although tempered by knowledge three were slave owners.

Worst: Trump, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, George W Bush, Nixon.

 

Agreed, but like I said, if JFK had not at least planted the seeds LBJ may never have even got it passed...course, we'll never know for sure how things might have unfolded.
FWIW, LBJ wasn't always pro-civil rights, anything but. In fact he was known by many as a racist, especially depending in whose company he was in. For example, among other things, he had on occasion referred the Civil Rights Bill as the "N_____ Bill".

 

If it wasnt for MLK neither Kennedy or Johnson would have pushed for it at that time. It was all political.
Kennedy had a silver spoon provided throughout much of his life. He wasn't Joe's selection amongst his son's to become Pres.
I was in 7th grade when he has assassinated, it shook the whole world. It was baseball, hot dogs and Chevrolet back then and the media was a different animal. It didn't matter what party you belonged to the country grieved at the loss of our President.
How would the progressive liberals today accept the Kennedy empire?
He totally blew the Blew of Pigs and leaned on Ike afterwards for anything conflict concerns including the CMC. His confidence was shaken from the Bay of Pigs.
He was the one that also ramped up Vietnam in a huge huge way.
Overall a decent president that like all, had baggage, and strengths and weakness's.

 

Sorry, but I don't agree with the context. I don't see the relevance of MLK, that's the same as me saying "MLK would not have happened if his parents had not had sex." And of course it was "political", it generally is.
Neither does JFK's family wealth have anything to do with it...as I pointed out earlier some of our very best presidents were very wealthy.
Ditto for his Father wanting Joe, who was killed, as his first choice.
As far as Viet Nam, that was mostly Eisenhower's doing...Yes, Kennedy ramped it up some but Johnson did it on a much larger scale. During Kennedy's last year US troops numbered approximately 16300....Johnson's last year the troops numbered 536100.

And I already covered the Bay of Pigs...besides, that was Eisenhower's baby as well. Was Kennedy to blame, well yes, because he was the Commander if Chief and he openly admitted that he would accept the blame. Eisenhower was the one who hooked up with the CIA to formulate a plan to oust Castro. JFK took over and voiced his apprehension about the plan presented to him by the CIA...but finally gave the go ahead...he had some VERY bad intel.

 

MLK was meeting with Bobby and John putting pressure on them, my point was, if he had not been so persistent on getting an audience and results, Kennedy wouldn't have done it on his own at that point in time. MLK was 100% responsible for getting that administration to act.

 

100% ?....Well, again, don't we need to give MLK's parents some kudos?

Johnson certainly would not have done it on his own either...but whatever. We can go back and forth all day as to who should receive more credit.

 

Was Marzy one of John Tyler's son's or is Marzy John Tyler's grandfather. I'm going with grandfather because it makes me look younger.

And I'm going to make a declaration - I don't eat no stinkin' oyster ice cream.