The top 40 US presidents

[Skybird]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12195111

Ranking done by British academic experts. Their top five would have been my top five, too.

Also note this:

Currently being computed, the survey findings will be posted on the USPC website (www.americas.sas.ac.uk/research/USPC.html) on January 17, 2011, just before President Obama starts his third year in office.

from: http://www.sas.ac.uk/465.html?&tx_tt...ash=444f78a086

[Feuer Frei!]

Good to see Ronald Regan in the top 10 (8), i always liked his leadership style.

[Takeda Shingen]

Something in there struck me as interesting:

UK scholars, by contrast, elevated FDR in recognition of the breadth of the challenges he faced as president during the Great Depression and World War II, his confident and inspirational leadership in both of these crises, and the significance of his New Deal legacy.

There is no greater crisis for a nation than to be at war with itself. So, by the criteria listed above, shouldn't Lincoln have won anyway? The American Civil War, by the nature of the conflict itself, was more traumatic for America than both the Great Depression and the Second World War combined.

[tater]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

Something in there struck me as interesting:



There is no greater crisis for a nation than to be at war with itself. So, by the criteria listed above, shouldn't Lincoln have won anyway? The American Civil War, by the nature of the conflict itself, was more traumatic for America than both the Great Depression and the Second World War combined.

Yep. FDR was likely elevated because he was a more socialist than most others. I think FDR did grave damage to the US in the long term since the Entitlements are going to ruin us.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by tater

Yep. FDR was likely elevated because he was a more socialist than most others. I think FDR did grave damage to the US in the long term since the Entitlements are going to ruin us.

Actually, I think that FDR was probably a 'top five' president, just not the top president.

[CCIP]

Well, this is a British experts' list. Given how FDR doggedly tried to support Britain in her worst moments even through isolationist sentiment and red tape at home, I think it's not surprising they're a little grateful to him.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by tater

Yep. FDR was likely elevated because he was a more socialist than most others. I think FDR did grave damage to the US in the long term since the Entitlements are going to ruin us.

How is this even possible? It's not like there's been a socialist agenda in place since Roosevelt held office; I understand that this is your opinion, but I don't understand how you can say "the Entitlements are going to ruin us" when, clearly, there's been lots of other fellows of opposing political theories in office since to undo those Entitlements, if they were so bad. So why are they not undone?

Clearly, Roosevelt deserves mention at the top. Like him or not, he managed the US during the lean years of the Depression (well or not, he did stay in office, so the people liked him enough) and took the country through the trying years of WW2 - the world's first truly global conflict, waged in a manner far different even from the first World War - the first modern war, for sure. Roosevelt did so with virtually no Army and an emasculated Navy that was saved by a few individuals' foresight in investing in submarines and naval aviation. He supported allied nations even before the US got involved militarily, and kept the country moving forward toward economic recovery. He was the first US President, in essence, to project the US beyond the borders of just that nation itself, and it shows in the popular perception of US troops that exists to this day, even after the damage done to the US image by post-9-11 moves into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Does all of this make him "great"? Perhaps, perhaps not. Does it make him influential? Oh, hell yeah. Roosevelt was the first US president to involve the nation on the global stage, at the point in time when it was most needed. I'm not saying that Commonwealth and Soviet forces couldn't have beaten Hitler and Tojo; the price would have been far, far higher for everyone had Roosevelt continued to sit the US out. And the global political situation has been vastly different ever since. For good or ill remains to be decided.

[Penguin]

(yeah I know they are not 40, got bored after 35 )

[tater]

SS is socialism. Setting up Fannie Mae and thus getting the feds involved with home ownership...

Entitlements have shown themselves to be impossible to remove. It's charity, and a pyramid scheme. People like getting free stuff taken from others. Since all of it is paid for by a minority, it is hard to get support for removal since even people who claim to be conservative will whine about getting their due (even if the current "due" is grossly out of sorts with what they should have expected during their working lives).

All the years of SS until recently have run on a surplus. The surplus was then loaned to the government (they bought t-bills with it) to finance government spending beyond their means. That spending was for programs enacted and done during the working lives of those now collecting. So they overpaid for entitlements, then allowed their government to spend that money—ON THEMSELVES—not complain when those of us left with the tab have to pay for their mistakes. Ugh. Anyway, FDR started US socialism in earnest, and all since was simply tagged onto it.

Regardless, rankings are stupid, no matter who you put on top, or what metric you use to make the ranking as they are ALL subjective.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by 0xford

Great Depression was really horrible historical event. But if it didn't happen who knows what would be now. Finally, I am so happy that North and South had found the compromise before I was born.

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