Census Best U.S. President since 1960?

Who is the best U.S. President since 1960, and why?

 

Lex Luthor that one time he was president.

 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, by a country mile. The only post-FDR president to actively challenge his military, gradually breaking from the Eisenhower-Dulles brinksmanship and rollback policies that poisoned the 50s.

-Refused to supply U.S. air support to Eisenhower and Nixon's Bay of Pigs Cuba invasion. (And subsequently sacked the psychopathic Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell from the CIA.)

-Maneuvered the Berlin Crisis from breaking out into full-out war.

-Refused to invade Laos.

-Stood up to U.S. Steel.

-Gave Bobby license to begin prosecuting the Mafia (a threat Hoover dismissed).

-He and Khrushchev, under unfathomable pressure, defied their hardliners and Strangeloves and prevented World War III. Subsequently forged a relationship with Khrushchev, with the aim of ending the Cold War.

-Delivered the most beautiful speech ever uttered by a post-Lincoln president, the American University address (AKA, The Peace Speech) which called for a paradigmatic change in Cold War policy.

-In his last months, he sought rapprochement with Castro and issued NSAM 263 (the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Vietnam by '65).

 

Probably. I was going to do all since World War II in this poll, then was forced to remember there could only be 10 options.

And I agree with your reasoning too.
-Obama is first.
-Then Johnson, for getting Civil Rights done, passing Medicare and Medicaid, and anti-poverty programs. Take away points for Vietnam.
-Then Kennedy, for the Space Race and Peace Corps. Take away points for Cuba.
-Then Clinton or Carter.
-Then Ford or Bush I.
-Then Nixon or Reagan.
-Last is Bush II.

 

Bush II was such a disaster that he ranks behind Nixon? Yikes.

I'm torn between Kennedy and Obama. On the one hand, his peacenikking with the commies is commendable, and he just might have helped prevent WWIII. On the other, it's easier to be the voice of reason when your adversary has the power to destroy you. Human nature makes it easier to convince people of the right thing to do when that right thing involves avoiding Armageddon. People warm up to avoiding Armageddon. They're funny that way.

Convincing people of the right thing and avoiding war is a much taller order when you are superior, because it's exactly when you are superior that you want to flex. And Obama avoided war with an inferior enemy in the face of gung-ho political adversaries very much keen on flexing once again. He also presented a different face of the US, which helped repair America's image abroad to a lot of the world after the Bush years, which can not be underestimated. I remember the different mood and the hope associated with his presidency.

Regarding the domestic stuff, that's not really for me to judge.

 

President Summer D. Reamer

 

His Excellency, Ruler of the Free World, Barack Hussein Obama, the Hero of 400 Years

 

I don't see David Palmer on this list.

 

Of course. Nixon was a crook, but he wasn't a bad president.

One of the many unfortunate legacies of Watergate is that Republicans mostly don't have to contend with his presidency on its broad terms and impact. They just shove it into a category named "Watergate" and ignore the rest of it.

 

Generically, for me, I voted Clinton -- but it's like Clinton 1 and Obama 1a -- but I'd probably disagree with the rest of folks after that. Probably some combination of Kennedy and LBJ for 2 and 3, then Nixon / GHWB for 4 and 5, then Reagan, Ford, Carter, GWB

 

Oh come on....he's history's greatest monster!

 

As for my reasoning behind Obama:
-responsibly hastening the end of the Great Recession, and lowering unemployment (not as fast as anyone would like, but he got it done)
-Healthcare Reform
-evolving on Gay Marriage, ending DADT, executive orders to better ensure equality
-a lot more Clean Energy, much higher fuel efficiency standards, stricter air pollution standards (and indirectly, lower gas prices)
-protecting Internet neutrality
-executive action on Immigration (and many other progressive executive orders)
-new and upgraded Infrastructure (though still lots to get done)
-at least some Student Loan Reform (more people should know about the Income-Based Repayment plan and automatic loan forgiveness)
-reducing the Deficit in a responsible way
-Financial Reform, including gaining the power to break up the big banks if they pose a systemic risk again
-Automobile Industry rebound... and other early reforms and initiatives like Credit Card Reform, Cash for Clunkers, Patent Reform, etc.
-ending the Bush Tax Cuts for those making over $400,000 a year
-Lily Ledbetter Act
-repeal of No Child Left Behind
-expanding national service, such as through AmeriCorps
-improving relations with Iran, instead of what was once felt to be another inevitable war
-opening an embassy in Cuba
-finding Osama bin Laden
-ending our involvement in the Iraq quagmire
-one military action he did get us involved in, in Libya, was handled very responsibly and over relatively soon with minimal costs and zero American casualties... a support role for an international coalition to prevent a genocide, and it was successful
-strengthening ties in Asia that have led to almost all of China's neighbors siding with us
-reaching out to Russia in the beginning, but when Putin went renegade placing tough economic sanctions and diplomatically isolating them
-ending torture
-ending putting people in indefinite detention without due process
-securing loose nuclear materials around the world
-responsibly and effectively handling disasters like Hurricane Sandy (unlike how the previous presidency handled a similar disaster in Katrina)
-his entire administration being nearly completely scandal-free
-his overall reasonable, patient, responsible manner of handling being President

Some negatives:
-I understand his reasoning, but I still think he could have handled Syria better in the beginning
-Too much repeated outreach to Republicans in the beginning, when they were planning on how to deride his presidency since before he was sworn into office
-Should have pushed for more progressive policies while the healthcare reform debate was going on, when Democrats still had supermajorities in the House & Senate (like for Immigration, Taxes, Guns, Infrastructure, lifting the cap for Social Security funding, ENDA, etc.)

 

KnightWriter: How was Nixon not a bad president?

He had Kissinger hijack the Paris peace talks in '68 (promising, via Chennault, both the South and North Vietnamese governments they'd get a better settlement under his administration, and proceeded to renege), prolonged the war for another five years, ended it under terms similar to the '68 agreement, engaged in a barbaric bombing assault on Laos and a secret invasion of Cambodia (so thoroughly destabilizing the latter's society that a psychopath like Pol Pot could conduct his slaughter of over a quarter of the population) and overthrew Salvador Allende's democratic government in favor of the butcher Pinochet.

Nixon was an indefatigable monster, with the blood of at least a million human beings on his hands (and over 20,000 American soldiers).

If there was a just God (which there clearly isn't), he'd have died along with his brothers in childhood.

 

Ghost should be banned for spamming and all these threads should be moved to a forum for middle school football coaches who are forced to teach something so they muddle thru the great man version of American history and do a ****** job of it.

I hope that forum exists

 

Well, since 1960 I'll rate them:

Ronald Reagan
George W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
Richard Nixon
John F. Kennedy

The worst presidents:
Barack Obama
Jimmy Carter
Bill Clinton

 

1. Kennedy
2. Obama
3. Bush 41
4. Carter
5. LBJ
6. Clinton
7. Nixon
8. Reagan
9. Bush 43

Explanations forthcoming.


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it's too early for me to rate barrook so i slipped eisenflower in instead.

reagan
eisenhower
kennedy
clinton
h.w.
ford
carter
johnson
nixon
w

explanations not forthcoming