Who is Your Favorite U.S. President?

Well...I certainly aint gonna refute your families personal account

But, what I like about what Ambrose did in this book, is he took virtually everything that he used as a point of reference from personal journals from Lewis, Clark, and those around him.

If that is true, then why didn't he contact the family? We didn't give him anything and I happen to know that my family has more of his journals than the U.S. Government does.

Strangely, it was Bill Clinton.
I'm neither Democrat or Republican, but times seemed pretty good under Clinton, and he was always good fun for press coverage. We knew the guy was a sleaze, but he was a fun sleaze, a harmless sleaze, who just happened to do a pretty good job of running the country as well.

Originally posted by GrndLkNatv
If that is true, then why didn't he contact the family? We didn't give him anything and I happen to know that my family has more of his journals than the U.S. Government does.

I'll grab the book tonight when I get home and see where his sources lie. Much of what he used are journals that have been published by Jefferson and Lewis themselves. That was one of the biggest frustrations for Jefferson and Lewis. That, so many unnoficial accounts from the expedition came from other members of the team that put their own journals out before they could, thus reducing the profits of having the first major account the the voyage out in press.

But, please realize, I'm not refuting anything you say, just telling you what I've studied and learned.

The best five presidents by rank,

1. Abraham Lincoln-

Although various criticisms have been leveled against him, it is generally agreed that Lincoln attacked the vast problems of the war with vigor and surpassing skill.

2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt-

He came to the White House at the height of crisis�the economic structure of the country was tottering, and fear and despair hung over the nation.

3. George Washington-

At the war's end he was the most important man in the country. He retired from the army (at Annapolis, Md., Dec. 23, 1783),(1787). Washington presided over this last convention, and his influence in securing the adoption of the1. Constitution of the United States is incalculable.

4.Theodore Roosevelt-

He recognized, from the outset of his first administration, the growing demand for reform that was expressed in the writings of the 1. muckrakers. From 1902 he set about �trust busting� under terms of the moribund Sherman Antitrust Act,

5.Harry S. Thruman-

On the death (Apr. 12, 1945) of Roosevelt, Truman succeeded to the presidency. He assumed power at a very critical time. He was immediately confronted with the problems of concluding the war and preparing for the difficulties of international postwar readjustment. The war in Europe ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945

For anybody out there that wants more information on Great presidents here is a link to them.

www.infoplease.com...

hmmmm, my favorite president...... that's a hard one. my favorite since i've been alive would have to be reagan. over all, i would have to say it would be george washington, but i would have liked if ben franklin had been pres.

Originally posted by thelibra
Strangely, it was Bill Clinton.
We knew the guy was a sleaze, but he was a fun sleaze, a harmless sleaze, who just happened to do a pretty good job of running the country as well.

He wasn't quite as harmless as many think. Check out the book "Compromised: Clinton, Bush & the CIA" by Terry Reed. As governor of Ark. he played quite the role in Iran-Contra on the Mena side of it (money laundering, drugs).

Someone mentioned TEDDY ROOSEVELT.. How could I forget! He was another great. Very progressive.

John Kennedy did some good things, too. (Probly explains his untimely demise.) He:

1. signed a national security directive to start bringing the troops home from Vietnam

2. Fiscally responsible. Got the economy moving in a much better direction.

3. Supposedly tried to take out the Federal Reserve.

He was a war hero, too, having served in the Navy during WW2. While wounded, he saved crewmembers' lives after his PT boat was hit.

Most forgettable president---Gerald Ford. Anyone remember anything that he did?

Clinton is my favorite. I loved his and Gore's "Rock the vote" campaign.
He and Gore were like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And as mentioned in someone's else post, things seemed better then.

Originally posted by elaine
Most forgettable president---Gerald Ford. Anyone remember anything that he did?

Yeah, he fell down. Thanks to Chevy Chase, we'll never forget that.

In my lifetime I would have to go with Carter. Only politician ANYWHERE that could be believed. Basically, a good man.

[edit on 1-12-2004 by intrepid]

Originally posted by elaine
Most forgettable president---Gerald Ford. Anyone remember anything that he did?

He tripped alot. Got shot at, too, by crazy Manson women.

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
John Kennedy did some good things, too. (Probly explains his untimely demise.) He:

1. signed a national security directive to start bringing the troops home from Vietnam

2. Fiscally responsible. Got the economy moving in a much better direction.

3. Supposedly tried to take out the Federal Reserve.

Which is probably one of the many reasons he was assassinated. Seriously, though my favorite Presidents are:

1. Kennedy
2. Carter
3. Regan
4. Lincoln

Favorite Presidents:

1. Lincoln
2. Reagan
3. Truman
4. Nixon (sans watergate)

I like Jimmy Carter ...

First one would be Abraham Lincoln, for having the guts of signing the Emancipation Act and holding true to the end of the war, even when the situation looked grim.

Second one - Franklin Roosevelt, for his ability to raise an entire people out of despair in 1933 (interestingly, a crippled man helped save a crippled nation), and for the way he came through for Britain and Europe in 1940-41.

Third - Richard Nixon, because for all his shortcomings he was cold warrior who had the courage to make peace with China and the Soviet Union. Also built more social housing than any of his predecessors.

Fourth - Gerald Ford. Again, he did something incredibly courageous which sank his own political career - he pardoned Nixon, knowing that if judicial action against the former president was going to go on for another five years, it would tear the country apart. Also, even if he didn't do much, by his plainspokenness and honesty, he re-established trust in the presidency.

1. signed a national security directive to start bringing the troops home from Vietnam

Correct me If I am wrong but I was under the impression that it was Kenney that first ordered troops into Viet Nam not out.



www.digitalhistory.uh.edu... ble.cfm?HHID=617

It was during Kennedy�s presidency that the United States made a fateful new commitment to Vietnam. It sent in 18,000 advisors. It authorized the use of napalm (jellied gasoline); defoliants; free fire zones; and jet planes.

See source above.

Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy because he was a true conservationist, his trust busting and all around maverick - think Bull Moose Party. (we could use that now)

Jefferson - father of the Declaration of Independence, Louisiana Purchase, etc.

B.

Mine was and is John F. Kennedy. He was a great man and no he was not the person who got us initially embroiled in Vietnam. The true originator of that imbrolio was Winston Churchhill. At the Teheran Conference (Nov28~Dec1, 1943) a World War II meeting between then U. S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and then British prime minister, Churchhill, one of the topics discussed was what to do about former colonies, Viet-nam (Indo-China) and others that had previously been under French control after the war if the allies won the conflict. Stalin was for returning the provinces to the native peoples, i.e. the Vietnamese people themselves. Roosevelt was also in favor of this; at that time President Roosevelt's health was noticably in bad condition. Churchhill was adamently opposed. He insisted, even demanded that the French be allowed to reclaim their pre-war colonies...he premise was that if the French were denied the right to reclaim their colonies; those lands claimed by Great Britain under a similar premise would soon revolt and thus would began the decline of the British Empire. Stalin did not budge but Roosevelt, in poor health though not in agreement more or less acquiesed, too ill to argue and with more important priorities immediately at hand he more or less tabled the dispute with intensions to revive the talks at a later date unfortunately he passed away before this issue was resolved.
The Eisenhower Administration first committed troops to Vietnam as advisors after the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu [May 7, 1954]. I recall an American
advisor being killed in Vietnam as early as December 1960. John F. Kennedy was sworn in on January 20, 1961.
President Kennedy did not accept one penney of his $100,000.00 a year salary during his entire term in office...he donated it to charity.
He was opposed to Israel developing nuclear weapons which was a covert operation at that time. In early 1963 he and then Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Both leaders had realized how devating these weapons could be; especially because of the events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.
He was also opposed to the pipeline from the Jordan River that Israel wanted to build. Acknowledging the premise advanced by the Palestinian's that their drinking water, in vitally short supply would be used by the Jews to irrigate land claimed by Israel; he offered instead to give economic and scientific aid to the Israeli's to desalinate the sea water from the Mediterranean Sea in order to help them alleviate the water shortage problem.
In May 1963 Norman Lear produced a movie called "Seven Days in May" a movie involving a plot to kill the president of the United States. In June shortly after the death of President Kennedy's infant son, Patrick, Victor Lasky published a scathing denouncement of Kennedy in a book titled "Kennedy, the Man and the Myth".
The week preceeding the assassination was the most anti-Catholic week I've ever witnessed in my almost 60 years.
The president was killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963. On January 4, 1964 [Facts on File] the state deparment announced, inexplicably that it was going to reverse it's decision on Foreign Policy and subsidize Israel on the pipeline which precipitated the 6 day war and the seizure of Palestinian Land and the assault on the USS Liberty by Israel and the deliberate murder of U. S. servicemen by them on June 8, 1967.
John Kennedy served during a most treacherous period in history, this included the infiltration and subversion of his own Roman Catholic Church.
In 1960 and inordinate number of high ranking prelates in the Catholic Church died under suspicious circumstances, there were probably between 25 and 30 suspicious deaths in one year. Vatican II, a Lateran Council called by Pope John XXIII, sometimes called the Masonic Pope, on January 25, 1959. Convened 1962 and concluded in 1965 this has almost destroyed the Catholic Church. In 1963 Vatican Coins were struck with the image of Juno, who is help in high esteem in Masonic circles.
I've always found it interesting the there has never been a deliberate, dedicated effort to get to the bottom of the Kennedy assassination, not even by
institutions within his religious denomination [Roman Catholics]. That said, the very people responsible for his murder have at the same time continued to keep the Catholic Church, up to now, in a defensive position.
Had he lived there would not have been occupied lands in Palestine, the six-day war, the imbrolio called Vietnam [his 'cold warrior'] Walter Rostow, then advisor to the President was the only person in his cabinet agressively advocating an arms build up in South-east asia in September of 1962, even then Secretary of Defense Robert Mcnamara was in agreement to downsize and let the Vietnamese resolve the confrontation internally, the consensus becoming more or less, that this was in fact a civil war.
Had he lived I doubt that we would have our and Iraqi and numerous other people being killed in an illegal, immoral war. I'm a Vietnam Veteran.
U. S. Marines [RVN (includes TET)Jun67-Jul68].

It absolutely saddens me not to see more people saying Thomas Jefferson! As one man, he did more for this country(and arguably) the world than any other person in American history. Period. If Jefferson had never written the "Virginia Statute for Religous Freedom" it wouldn't have been in the constitution.

As an extra little tid bit. It's a common misconception that the constitution was mainly the work of Madison. While Jefferson was in France, Madison constantly wrote Jefferson for his advice on what the constitution should be and what to have in it.

One more thing. Jefferson WAS NOT an evil slave owner like most text books would have you believe. True he did have a lot of "slaves". Most of them he recieved from inharitence. Plus it is well noted in history that he(on more than one occasion) bought slaves just to give them their freedom. Also, his first draft of the Declaration strongly condemned slavery, but the contenintal congress rejected it. Oh yeah, up to date DNA testing has proved only that it could have been Jefferson or his brother that slept with the slave. They have no clue whether it was Jefferson or not.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with some of the above posts. Political bias aside. Some of you need to skim over history. When putting Ford, Carter, or Kennedy up against the likes of Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Monroe, Adams, and Lincoln as far as the best; they don't stand a chance. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.(although I highly doubt it.)

Im a non U.S citzen so forgive my 10 cents.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my favorite president he helped the USA out of the economic slump and didnt do to badly during WW2. I not a big fan of Truman he let the war in Korea end in a stalemate (not all his fault.) Truman must get credit for putting George Marshalls plan for aid to Europe and Japan into action.

Jimmy Carter is mine, simply because he didn't shrink away from holding Israel accountable for its shocking human rights abuses and its suspicious buildup of arms.