Ranking of U.S. Presidents by historians

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Good post, SH. I've wandered back and forth many times on my opinion of Roosevelt, but I think we were fortunate to have him there when the war came. The right man at the right time, and all that.

I think it is very important to, as you stated, consider the man with respect to the time. FDR probably would not have been a good President in the 1880's nor in the 1980's. One can't evaluate his programs without evaluating the environment at the time. He was President in some very bad times. He had to do some extreme measures to fix the problems. In the long term, perhaps some of his programs would not have been the best choice. But at the time, FDR did not have the luxury of thinking long term. He had to fix those problems and fix them fast.

I truly think he did the best he could and generally, I think his programs were appropriate for those times.