Sicem Bait

[olevetonahill]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ranking_presidents

[SicEmBaylor]

Well, they got the worst Presidents right except for Harding. Harding wasn't nearly as bad as most people think.

My top 10 are as follows:

1. George Washington (purely obligatory)
2. Thomas Jefferson (the true Father of conservatism though he was himself not a conservative in the general sense of the word).
3. Calvin Coolidge (The only President to truly govern strictly within his Constitutional role)
4. Ronald Reagan (should be obvious)
5. Grover Cleveland (truly one of our most underrated Presidents. Conservatives should put them near the top of their pantheon of Great Presidents).
6. James Madison (One of our smartest Presidents and his political philosophy closely mirrors my own. He was a Federalist to the point of Constitutional ratification and then a strict Democratic-Republican in its actual application)
7. Dwight Eisenhower (I'm not a huge fan of Eisenhower, but his hands off domestic policy and his covert confrontation of the Soviet Union were exactly right for the times).
8. William Howard Taft (The man is the Godfather of Paleo-Conservatism. His expulsion of liberal Republicans from the Party was one of his great triumphs though admittedly he did it just by being himself and his Presidential accomplishments were few).
9. Franklin Roosevelt (I absolutely positively oppose this man's domestic policy. I would have voted against him 3 out of his 4 elections, but his successful conduct of WWII earns him a place among the top contenders.
10. Andrew Jackson (I have a lot of issues with Andrew Jackson, but he had a fairly decent understanding of the role of the Federal government and kept its size in check.)

[SanJoaquinSooner]

I feel kinda bad when they swallow the hook.

[SicEmBaylor]

I feel kinda bad when they swallow the hook.

Don't you have a flag to burn somewhere?

[bri]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3651/3284366208_47fd6f2b77_b.jpg

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Don't you have a flag to burn somewhere?

http://www.geocities.com/ru00ru00/racismhistory/burningdixie.jpg

[JohnnyMack]

Thomas Jefferson couldn't be more overrated. No shock that SicEm loves TJ though.

[BillyBall]

I think Lincoln benefited from a strong strength of schedule, propelling him in the computer polls.

[OklahomaTuba]

Shouldn't TheOne be on that list by now????

[SicEmBaylor]

Shouldn't TheOne be on that list by now????

No, but I almost put Clinton at #10 on the list.

[47straight]

Thomas Jefferson couldn't be more overrated. No shock that SicEm loves TJ though.


I'm surprised you said that. I agree, btw.

[Okla-homey]

You gotta put Buchanan dead least. He fiddled while secessionists fomented treason and plotted to destroy the United States in order to protect their right to own human beings. A little decisive action, as Jackson had threatened during the Nullification Crisis, might have prevented the most destructive four years of our nation's history.

[SicEmBaylor]

You gotta put Buchanan dead least. He fiddled while secessionists fomented treason and plotted to destroy the United States in order to protect their right to own human beings. A little decisive action, as Jackson had threatened during the Nullification Crisis, might have prevented the most destructive four years of our nation's history.

I actually agree with you on this. I wouldn't have justified armed or aggressive action, but some decision..one way or another..would have been preferable to doing nothing at all. Seceding at that time was political madness and a good example of what can happen when hotheads are in control of the process. Some firmness on Buchanan's part wouldn't have made the situation any worse.

[SicEmBaylor]

In any case, it would seem to me that instead of a list of "best" and "worst" presidents, we should have a list of "most effective" and "least effective."

Because there have been some effective Presidents who made very bad decisions and some less than effective Presidents who tried to do some really great things.

[TMcGee86]

Thomas Jefferson couldn't be more overrated.

Explain. I don't know enough about him to say one way or the other, I just have the doosh on another board who licks his proverbial balls daily so I would love some ammo to throw his way.

[SicEmBaylor]

Explain. I don't know enough about him to say one way or the other, I just have the doosh on another board who licks his proverbial balls daily so I would love some ammo to throw his way.

Respect the doosh -- he's right.

I will say that Jefferson had his head in the clouds more than any other President in US history. His ideas of governing were often utterly and totally absurd and impractical. His "generational sovereignty" idea is pretty damned out there.

Jefferson was brilliant though and all things considered he fell on the right side of most issues even if they were wholly impractical. The genius of Madison in fact was taking a lot of Jefferson's lofty ideas and turning them into practical ways of governing.

[tommieharris91]

Where one places Ronald Reagan can pretty much determine which party that person belongs in. I've seen discussion of this list on another board and most of the deep end pinko lefties put Reagan in the bottom 5 because "he gave the rich too much power."

[olevetonahill]

http://www.geocities.com/ru00ru00/racismhistory/burningdixie.jpg

Which one are you ?

[TMcGee86]

Respect the doosh -- he's right.

I will say that Jefferson had his head in the clouds more than any other President in US history. His ideas of governing were often utterly and totally absurd and impractical. His "generational sovereignty" idea is pretty damned out there.

Jefferson was brilliant though and all things considered he fell on the right side of most issues even if they were wholly impractical. The genius of Madison in fact was taking a lot of Jefferson's lofty ideas and turning them into practical ways of governing.

The words respect and that guy can never be used in the same sentence.

I think Jefferson was a genius. I also love his thoughts on Christianity, I just can't stand this doosh because he fancies himself a Jeffersonian scholar, merely because he lived in Virginia for a few years. He lied about going to The University of Virginia, then tried to say he went to a branch of UV, then when someone called him on it, admitted that he only spent one semester in a community college that is in no way associated with UV. The guy is a first grade asshat.

[JohnnyMack]

Explain. I don't know enough about him to say one way or the other, I just have the doosh on another board who licks his proverbial balls daily so I would love some ammo to throw his way.

I see Jefferson as a very divisive individual. When the United States was formed it was an agrarian based society that accounted for most of the wealth. Jefferson himself was a wealthy land owner who did what he could to fight against things like the formation of a national banking system because he saw it (rightly) as a shifting of the way wealth was amassed. He knew that wealth would shift its concentration north towards the New England states and away from its current home in the south. He launched a pretty nasty smear campaign in the process. He wasn't interested in serving anyone but himself and his fellow agrarian aristocracy.

[SicEmBaylor]

I see Jefferson as a very divisive individual. When the United States was formed it was an agrarian based society that accounted for most of the wealth. Jefferson himself was a wealthy land owner who did what he could to fight against things like the formation of a national banking system because he saw it (rightly) as a shifting of the way wealth was amassed. He knew that wealth would shift its concentration north towards the New England states and away from its current home in the south. He launched a pretty nasty smear campaign in the process. He wasn't interested in serving anyone but himself and his fellow agrarian aristocracy.

You speak as if all of that is a bad thing. I do take issue with the claim that he was wholly and entirely self-serving. Every President is self-serving to some degree, and Jefferson was no different.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Which one are you ?

The flame

[SicEmBaylor]

The flame

Yeah, you're definitely a flamer.