Monday, February 19, 2007

I continue to be amazed

Rush Limbaugh is fond of saying that for people who lack historical perspective that “history begins when they were born.”

That to me, is the only possible explanation why Bill Clinton would be listed as the greatest president (or even in the top anything) by democrats or that Jimmy Carter even garnered 3% of the overall vote.

Then there is Eisenhower. How can you not like Eisenhower? As bad as traffic is today, imagine how much worse it would be without the interstate system! And when the country, yes it was the “American public’s” opinion, to stop fighting word war 2 without confronting Stalin, Eisenhower came up with a strategy that at least held back communism. It’s a shame people like Jimmy Carter did everything they could think of to undermine that goal.

So as a political science graduate, I now submit to you my list:
1.
George Washington. He had to hold office with no history to be his guide. He was willing to listen to good advice, even when it disagreed with his own opinion. Washington also stands as the only president to be elected unanimously by the electoral college (this is a relative term, he received all the POSSIBLE votes he could receive, which was 50% that was the most you could receive at the time)

2
Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps number 1 in moral courage. Lincoln was unwilling to listen to the nelville chamberlines/jack merthas of his day. He went to war with the south to preserve the union, and when his generals wouldn’t get the job done, he fired them and found someone else who would.

3.
FDR. While his social policies set this country back in several areas and left us with a mess, he got the biggest thing of all right. FDR fought WW2 before the country would let him, realizing it’s importance before public opinion polls ever caught up to the reality of the world (I’m referring to lend/lease). I wonder how different history would have been if FDR finished the war. Would there be a UN? Would we have fought the communists? There is no telling, but FDR’s mistakes are minor in comparison to what he did right. However it’s the greatest failure of every succeeding president to not confront the social policies FDR put in place.

4.
Ronald Reagan. The collapse of the soviet union and fall of the Berlin wall both trace to Reagan’s policies. I can sum up the Presidency of Reagan like this: We are the United States, and we are right. We are not morally equivalent to a government committing mass executions and oppression of it’s own people.

5.
James K Polk. His only mistake was not claiming all of Mexico as territory of America when the Army occupied Mexico city. That would solve our illegal immigrant problem today. The Mexican people would also certainly be better off. Also he managed to get Oregon without going to war with Brittan. Finally, I like that he only served one term and went home.

6-10 are coming later this week; along with 1-5 of the worst presidents.

And of course, the greatest unelected president other then Patton is Joe.

1 Comments:

At February 23, 2007 at 7:34 AM , Blogger Joe said...

Well done! You picked my favorite Presidents. In order, my top 3 are: Washington, Lincoln and Reagan.

 

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