After reading some of the "US Always Pays..." thread it made me wonder who your favorite president is. I'd also like to see if a political topic can remain civil so how about naming your favorite and why keeping it under 50 words? No restrictions on the president of your choosing, anyone from Washington forward is allowed.

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Andrew Jackson. This guy had balls of steel !

Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in duel ? History.com This Day in History ? 5/30/1806

Blue

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My vote is for George Washington. When given the opportunity to be crowned 'king', he turned it down.
I too am curious to see if this can remain civil. Remember gentlemen, these are only opinions.

This question is different than say the question which president was the greatest historical character or something. So these answers would be based solely on time in office.

Its always hard to say but one thing I remember from the only political science class I ever took (rest of my views come from reading history books amd other non-fiction) was that Lincoln and Washington are always at the top of the list.

* Washington because he believed in the republic and practically refused a 3rd term. He set the prescident of the two term executive. At the time many, many wanted a king like executive.

* Lincoln because he preserved the union. Say what you want about his liberal northernolicies but without the Union of North + South we never could have defeated Hitler or the USSR. He is also praised for the emancipation proclamation and pushing the passing of the 13th amendment.

* Rosevelt was instrumental in seeing the US through great depression and then World War II. Leadership like that is not easy to come by. Yes he had his critics but without his leadership things might have been very different. You only have to look at the country of Britain to see how weak, appeasing leadership of Baldwin (before Churchill) came along can affect a great county. The Britt's ended WW1 on top of the world and by 1939 they were weak militarily and had suffered through years of bad leadership.

* Many would argue that Johnsons passing the civil rights act was of huge historic importance as well.

* John Adams was also super super important. There is a great HBO mini series called
John Adams that is a must watch.

Abe Lincoln: Simply because he freed the slaves and "United" the North and South.

PS: A very Close second (Although it wouldn't count since we are only to choose 1) would be Ronald Reagan for ending the cold war.

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Theodore Roosevelt

He was a cattle rancher, a deputy sheriff, an explorer, a police commissioner, the assistant Secretary of the Navy, the governor of New York, and a war hero.

I'd have to say the ones from the colonial days like Washington. It's too bad the US seems to be slowly drifting from it's founding premise: independence from oppression, freedom and liberty for all, and unsurmountable prosperity. What the hell is happening?

H.s.t.

Lincoln , Teddy Roosevelt , FDR , JFK .

Teddy! Read his bio...that man went from sickly little kid to BEAST! The man wrestled (no kidding) with white house staff, and played with his children all while being arguably one of the best presidents we've had. There's so much to him in terms of character alone.

As far as best, all have done good and bad, I'd probably vote George Washington for best. He did good for the nation, and was probably the least bad.


Abraham Lincoln I'd vote is the most oversold president in our history. Slavery ended on his watch, but that wasn't his intentions.

He staged the largest mass execution in American history, he reneged on a deal with the Sioux where the owed them only 1.4 Million for land sold, and instead promised the state of Minnesota $2 million and to kill or remove every Indian in the state, then did the same to the Navajo where his army killed, raped, pillaged, and burned their villages, then forced them out. After the War of Southern Independence, Northern Aggression(anything but Civil) where they perfected murder, rape and pillaging, his troops were ordered to the South West, and Great Plains to demonstrate what they learned in places like Atlanta, Shenandoah Valley, and Savannah.

Abe Lincoln's favorite General?
None other that the man that lead "March to the Sea": William T. Sherman, who wrote to his wife in 1862 that his goal was the "extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least of the trouble, but the people of the South." He said while campaigning against the Indians: "The only good Indian I ever saw was dead," and lamented to his son shortly before his death that he had been unable to kill all of the "Red Sob's."

Abraham Lincoln's idol? Henry Clay.
Lincoln would say of Clay; "During my whole political life, I have loved and revered Henry Clay as a teacher and leader." Lincoln delivered the eulogy at the funeral for Clay. When elected President, Lincoln set about implementing Henry Clay's political philosophies. Throughout Clay's political life he was a strong believer in National Socialism and a complete racist in all references to the American Indian. As Secretary of State Clay would declare: "The Indians' disappearance from the human family will be no great loss to the world. I do not think them, as a race, worth preserving."

Honest Abe's thoughts on blacks, and Slavery?

"Negro equality? Fudge!" -- Abraham Lincoln, Fragments: Notes for Speeches, Sept. 1859 (Vol. III)

"If I could save The Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it" -- Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Horace Greeley

"I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District [of Columbia]." -- Abraham Lincoln, 1862

"The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these [new] territories. We want them for the homes of free white people." -- Abraham Lincoln, October 16, 1854

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in the favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary." -- Abraham Lincoln, "Lincoln's Reply to Douglas, Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858," in "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, ed. Roy P. Basler (New York: Da Capo Press, 1990), p. 445

"I will say, then, that I am not nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races---that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race." -- Abraham Lincoln, "Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate, September 18, 1858, Charleston, Illinois," in "Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings" (New York: Library of America, 1989), p. 636, and in Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, page 371

"Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this.... We cannot, then, make them equals." -- Abraham Lincoln, "Lincoln's Reply to Douglas," p. 444

"What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races." -- Abraham Lincoln, Spoken at Springfield, Illinois on July 17th, 1858; from Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works, 1894, Volume 1, page 273

He suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus and arrested tens of thousands of Northern Anti-War protesters. He also closed down a few hundred Northern newspapers, and invaded the Northern states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, then took over their legislatures, all because those three sovereign states didn't want to participate in his war which they considered unconstitutional.

Honest Abe killed more Americans than WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, and the War on Terror(that's not even including Native Americans during his time in power).


My 2% of $1.00

Abe Lincoln... the man killed vampires.

As it reflects on the state of the nation today, I would have to say Teddy Roosevelt as well.

Teddy before coming president had attended Harvard, fought in the Spanish-American War with the Rough Riders, but what I believe what shaped him was bearing witness to seeing both his mother and first wife die on the same in the same house eleven hours apart when he was 22.

Men of power in business at the turn of the 20th century feared Roosevelt and his anti trust movement, so they helped buy President McKinley's seat in the White House and made Roosevelt Vice President, to keep him in check so to speak. No one could predict that McKinley would be assassinated and Roosevelt would become president. Ushering in the movement known as Progressivism, Roosevelt made quick work of busting up large corporations or trusts in favor of more business regulation and more competition, hence the "Square Deal" was implemented. We could use a big stick in Washington today.

Roosevelt also gave rise to conservationism, paving the way for the creation of National Parks under the Dept. of the Interior.

Others of note include Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, Reagan.

In this order:
Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Lincoln, Reagan

Andrew Jackson only sitting president who paid off our debt, every other one just piled on debt.

Current one can burn in hell.