I also agree on Teddy Roosevelt; he was probably the last great president.  He was amazingly forward-looking; for example, on environmental issues (which weren't even on the radar screen at that time).  It is a shame that someone like him does not appear on the modern-day political scene.  With all the problems we have at present, we desparately need a great president.

The other Roosevelt, Franklin, is often cited as a great president, but I have a little disagreement there.  He inherited a terrible situation - the Great Depression.  Hoover's "hands off" policies were not working.  The Depression was truly a crisis for the United States, and Hoover did little to deal with it.  It was a national emergency, on the same order of magnitude as a great war, and it called for an emergency response.  If nothing had been done, I fear that Communism (which grows in popularity in desparate economic conditions) may have taken over the country.  In effect, Roosevelt implemented a number of emergency measures - some good, and others bad, which met the Communists part way.  The result was that the economy stabilized somewhat, but it did not recover until World War II.

Franklin Roosevelt handled the war as well as could be expected, but there were problems during that time.  The curtailment of civil liberties was troubling, and it set a precedent which jerks such as John Ashcroft may use now to further their nefarious plans.

Perhaps the greatest problem I have with Roosevelt is that his emergency measures were not set to expire when the crisis was over.  Some, such as the gold surrender executive order, persisted far longer than necessary.  Also, his efforts to expand and stock the Supreme Court with his buddies threatened to compromise the independence of the judiciary.

Heather H.

Stevie, hon--

But of course! ;D

Teddy was the last really great President we had. He knew what needed to be done, and did it without worrying about history--or the polls. He was very effective that way...

Luv 'n hugs,

Jayne Sakura
"Almost-Angel, T-Girl Genius, and Ultra-Flirt"

Okay, since you asked...

I think Teddy Roosevelt was the last Great American President. Everyone from about mmm...Ike forward (and no, I'm not that old!) has had too many problems of one sort or another.

Of the current crop:

Decent: Bush 1, Reagan
Fair: Nixon, Ford, Kennedy
Okay: Johnson, Carter, Dubya
Poor: Clinton

My problem with the past batch of presidents, as well as the current one, is that they pander too much in sound bites. No real depth to their thought; they just spit out whatever they think we want to hear, instead of voicing their own convictions. That is one thing I like about Dubya, Reagan, and (at times) Clinton.

Where Carter has done well is more of a statesman position. He is a diplomat; don't let that "good ol' boy" demeanor fool you--he deserves every award and accolade he has gotten since he left office.

Ford was smart enough to fade back into real life, bless him!

Clinton's problems were actually twofold: One, he had no real sense of power. He tried to run things much like he did when he was a Governor. Two: Hillary. She needed to take some class lessons from some of the former first ladies...and she needed to keep her yap shut. (Can you feel the love here? ::))

Dubya's biggest problem is he is doing things like he is still a ranch boss or a CEO. This is good and bad--good, in that he resolves to get things done...and they do get done. Bad, in that he does not always think through all the ramifications. Hence, I have scored him a notch lower than I probably should. I would hate to have to deal with everything he has had in his term to deal with.

Luv 'n hugs,

Jayne Sakura
"Almost-Angel, T-Girl Genius, and Ultra-Flirt"

Ronald Reagan was brought up in another thread.  That gave me the idea for this one.

When was the last time we had a good president in the United States?  In my opinion, it has been a very long time.

Here are my observations on recent presidents.  What does everyone else think?  Also, when was the last time that other countries represented here had good leadership?

GEORGE W. BUSH.  I have a generally bad opinion of him.  I get angry whenever he opens his mouth to speak.  My main problem is that he and his cronies are religious fanatics with simple-minded ideas of right and wrong.  I will grant that Bush seems to have some ability to handle a crisis, but he does a poor job on a day-by-day basis.  He seems to have little ability as a leader; whatever he wants, people around the world want the opposite.  People just don't trust him.

BILL CLINTON.  I have a mixed opinion of him.  He made plenty of bad decisions, but he understood the people better than most other recent presidents.  He has good leadership skills and charisma, but he is not trustworthy.  I don't care much about his sexual exploits, but if there is a good point there, at least he understands what many other people go through.  Infidelity is quite common.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH.  Bush handled the gulf war well, at least at the beginning.  But he probably should have taken out Saddam Hussein then in spite of world opinion.  The long term damage would not have been nearly as bad as what has happened since.  The economy fell apart during his presidency and he showed little understanding of what the people were going through - he was a rich boy, out of touch with the public.  The growing religious influence in the Republican party turned me off, and he lost my vote.  I supported him (but was too young to vote) in 1988, but I voted against him in 1992.

RONALD REAGAN.  I believe that Reagan meant well, but he has a mixed record.  He was perhaps a little too trusting and possibly naive and he surrounded himself with some untrustworthy characters.  Scandals were the result.  I am sure that he had some hand in the eventual fall of the Soviet Union, which although it resulted in immediate instability, will be good in the long run.  Reagan's tax and economic policies resulted in huge budget deficits from which we have not yet recovered.  It is true that the system that he inherited needed to be fixed, but he did not go about it the right way.

JIMMY CARTER.  Carter had great integrity.  It is rare that one can trust a politician, but one could trust him.  He certainly meant well, but unfortunately he could be counted on to do the wrong thing.  His intentions were always good, but he made bad decisions.  The economy was badly damaged during his presidency, and it took years for the country to recover.

GERALD FORD.  I don't remember him well - I was rather young at the time.  He was left with a terrible situation in the aftermath of Nixon's resignation, and there was probably little he could do.  At least, he didn't actively try to destroy the country.

RICHARD NIXON.  As everyone knows, Nixon was a crook.  While he might have had the right ideas on some of his policies, he will always be remembered for the Watergate scandal.  The Vietnam debacle had already done great damage to the public's trust in the government, and Nixon's scandal made things worse.  We haven't recovered and probably never will.  The days when people felt like they could trust the government are over and will never return.

LYNDON JOHNSON.  This is before my time now.  Johnson did some good on civil rights issues, but he botched Vietnam - that will always taint him.

JOHN KENNEDY.  Kennedy is often remembered as a great president, but I doubt that this would be the case if he had not been killed.  His mob connections may well have become public, and his legacy would have been drowned in the scandal.

This is it for now.  I have opinions on many others, but this post would become way too long.  I will add some of my opinions on historical figures later.

Heather H.

I don't have anything good to say about FDR. I've often referred to the two Roosevelts as our best and worst Presidents, but that was before Clinton.

Yes, Teddy was great. He had the Teddy Bear named after him, so what other proof do you need? http://mywebpages.comcast.net/fashionlab/Images/Smileys/Smile01.gif

Hey, we both like Teddy Roosevelt! http://mywebpages.comcast.net/fashionlab/Images/Smileys/Smile02.gif

The Good: Reagan, Bush 2

The Bad: Clinton, Nixon, Johnson, Bush 1,

The Ugly: Carter, Ford (they weren't evil, just inept)

Those are the Presidents during my lifetime. I was too young to be political during Johnson's and Nixon's administrations. I supported Ford over Carter, but I was too young to vote, The same goes for Reagan's victory over Carter, but I was finally old enough to vote for Reagan for his second term. I voted for Bush 1 for his first term, but he lied about taxes, so I joined the Libertarian Party when the Republican Party failed to punish Bush for his crimes against capitalism. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/fashionlab/Images/Smileys/Laugh01.gif Since then, I've voted Libertarian in the Presidential races. Had Alan Keyes been nominated, I probably would've supported the Republicans in 2000. So far, Bush hasn't been a disaster, but he's still a big government guy, which means I won't be voting for him. Like Carter, I believe Bush's heart is in the right place. Unlike Clinton, I think he believes what he says, I just don't agree with all of his positions.