Amercans: Who are your top and bottom 3 presidents from 1900 onward and why?

DannyNL

DannyNL

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America is so divided politically: one person's hero is another person's tyrant. Nobody bats 1000 and when you're leading a country as powerful as the United States and making important decisions on a daily basis obviously you're not going to please everyone and you're not going to make the right choice every time out. There is no president without scandal.

So from McKinley onward, who do you feel were the 3 best and worst presidents and why? Which had the greatest positive and negative effects on the country's culture, moral, economics, world standing, etc etc.
Which were the greatest and worst representations of America?

I'd ask that Trump be excluded from either list given the fact that he's only a little over half a year into his term and I'd rather not see this turn into another tired "pro Trump vs anti Trump" thread.
 
Obama was the worst president in our history. This is the most obvious, because he stands out by far with creating more debt and creating more division this country has ever seen. His wife also created the worst school lunch one can imagine!
 
OK, a first pass at this:

good
Eisenhower
Truman
Reagan

bad
Carter
Woodrow Wilson
Ford

edit:
I think an additional rule should be to keep Obama out. His administration is still too close to use to really have a good perspective and unemotional analysis. I also think both your top three and bottom three should include at least one Dem and one Repub.
 
Wilson was awesome because the US profited like crazy from WW1, while mostly staying out of it. we didnt join in until the fight was mostly over, and became rich in the process.

FDR saw the US through two of the top 3 biggest crisis in our history imo. he did a lot of crazy shit to deal with the depression, but people had literally never seen anything like that before. we'd had depressions before in 1873 and '93, but no one had ever seen an industrial depression on that scale. he basically said at one point, "we're gonna try some shit." some of it worked, and some of it did not. then WW2 of course.

Kennedy. i think his resolution to the cuban missile crisis alone puts him among the best. all of his military advisors were pushing for war. meanwhile, he, a civilian, had the confidence to ignore them, and use his brother as a back channel to khruchev and get the situation resolved without ww3.

ill have to ponder the bottom 3 a bit more.
 
JonnyRingo84 said:
Wilson was awesome because the US profited like crazy from WW1, while mostly staying out of it. we didnt join in until the fight was mostly over, and became rich in the process.

FDR saw the US through two of the top 3 biggest crisis in our history imo. he did a lot of crazy shit to deal with the depression, but people had literally never seen anything like that before. we'd had depressions before in 1873 and '93, but no one had ever seen an industrial depression on that scale. he basically said at one point, "we're gonna try some shit." some of it worked, and some of it did not. then WW2 of course.

Kennedy. i think his resolution to the cuban missile crisis alone puts him among the best. all of his military advisors were pushing for war. meanwhile, he, a civilian, had the confidence to ignore them, and use his brother as a back channel to khruchev and get the situation resolved without ww3.

ill have to ponder the bottom 3 a bit more.
Click to expand...

Good list. FDR seems to be a very polarizing figure, depending on how someone feels about welfare.
 
Jim Bob said:
Obama was the worst president in our history. This is the most obvious, because he stands out by far with creating more debt and creating more division this country has ever seen. His wife also created the worst school lunch one can imagine!
Click to expand...
Even in the 1900s, I'm sure Hoover, Harding or Bush Jr. would give Obama a run for his money ;)

Anyways, top 3:

FDR
Eisenhower
Teddy

bottom 3:

Hoover
Harding
George W. Bush
 
Top three are

Teddy,
FDR,
Eisenhower.

Bottom three are
Harding,
GWB,
Nixon. Less Watergate, Nixon would have been an effective president, but he did too much damage to the moral fabric of the nation.

I realize that 5/6 listed are Republicans. If I had to choose a worst Dem, it'd be Carter, but hes simply middling, and better than Ford, Coolidge, and Hoover.
 
Quipling said:
Top three are

Teddy,
FDR,
Eisenhower.

Bottom three are
Harding,
GWB,
Nixon. Less Watergate, Nixon would have been an effective president, but he did too much damage to the moral fabric of the nation.

I realize that 5/6 listed are Republicans. If I had to choose a worst Dem, it'd be Carter, but hes simply middling, and better than Ford, Coolidge, and Hoover.
Click to expand...

Surprised you were the only one to have Nixon in your bottom 3, I would have thought he'd be #1 on most people's list for, like you said, the damage he did to the moral fabric of the nation and his acceleration of the "war on drugs" which of course has been an epic failure forever.
 
DannyNL said:
Surprised you were the only one to have Nixon in your bottom 3, I would have thought he'd be #1 on most people's list for, like you said, the damage he did to the moral fabric of the nation and his acceleration of the "war on drugs" which of course has been an epic failure forever.
Click to expand...
Other than the water gate scandal and his corruption, I actually think Nixon had a lot of good stuff during his presidency. Ending the war in Vietnam and the draft in the military, founding the EPA, funding cancer research, lowered the voting age, normalized relations with China, pro-woman stance, helped desegregate a lot of schools/colleges/businesses/etc., etc.

Nixon accomplished quite a bit. It's too bad that his tenure ended in corruption.
 
Top:

Eisenhower (R)
FDR (D)

Bottom 3:
Reagan (R)
Carter (D)
GWB (R)

Most overrated:
JFK (D) by far

Most underrated:
Nixon (R) by far

Edit: will add reasoning later
 
Last edited:
Top 5:

1. FDR
2. Theodore Roosevelt
3. Eisenhower
4. Kennedy
5. Obama



Bottom 5:
41. Clinton
42. G.W. Bush
43. Hoover
44. Harding
45. Reagan
 
Top:
1.FDR
2.Eisenhower
3.JFK


Bottom:
1.Harding
2.Hoover
3.W Bush.
 
Any libs who put FDR in top 3 better explain how they can do so given the internment camps.
 
Good:
1. FDR - WWII, The Great Depression, Works Program, Social Security. Where the country was when he took office vs. where we were when he left.
2. TFR - national parks, progressive reforms.
3. Woodrow Wilson - maintaining our isolationism for so long during WWI and profiting from that insanity

Bad:
1. W 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, GFC, tax cuts, cost the country trillions of dollars, etc, etc.
2. Harding
3. Hoover - thisisfine.jpeg
 
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