Favorite President

[RCMerchant]

My favorite is Lincoln-for obvious reasons.
Second- Franklin Roosevelt.

[indianasmith]

Of all time?  Abraham Lincoln, with Theodore Roosevelt running a close second.
In my own lifetime - Ronald Reagan.  I loved that man and was proud to serve under him.

[RCMerchant]

Of all time?  Abraham Lincoln, with Theodore Roosevelt running a close second.
In my own lifetime - Ronald Reagan.  I loved that man and was proud to serve under him.

I figured out  you liked Teddy. 
As far as Reagan goes- back in the day- I hated him.

Now- I wish Reagan was President. And thats saying something. I would welcome Reagan with open arms. I would BEG him to replace Donald Trump. He had principals. Trump has none.

[indianasmith]

I wish I could give you karma for that, Ronnie!

[Svengoolie 3]

Of all time, either teddy or FDR. Both controlled big business because they knew it needed to be controlled for america to survive and succeed.

In my life, Obama. Anyone the right hates that much must be good.

[RCMerchant]

In my lifetime? Jimmy Carter. He's a nice man and honest man.
As far as Obama goes. I liked Obama. I just wish he wasn't stonewalled so he could have done more.

Worse President-well, ya know... the moron in office now.
Andrew Jackson.
Andrew Johnson.
Nixon.

I like Teddy R. too. He was a rock star.

No fans of Millard Fillmore out there?   

[indianasmith]

Fillmore was better than he gets credit for.
Andrew Jackson was not the villain he is often portrayed as; he was purely and simply a man of his time.
Nixon did a lot of good, but it was wiped out by his crimes.
James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson were bloody awful.
Trump may well wind up at the bottom of the heap, but in all honesty, it takes 25 years or more for history to cast its verdict on a Presidency.
That's why our opinions about recent Presidents are just that - opinions. 
The jury is still out.

Underrated all the way around, IMO:  Grover Cleveland.

[Allhallowsday]

Well, I admire LINCOLN and TEDDY ROOSEVELT and FDR would be my favorite.  In my lifetime?  JIMMY CARTER.  He's a good man. 

James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson... I'd take the worst one over the current clown act. 

[RCMerchant]

Nixon did a lot of good, but it was wiped out by his crimes.

Besides Watergate, he also backed up the McCarthy witch hunts of the 50's.
And prolonging the Vietnam War.

But he did get China to open up to the West- I'll credit him with that.
Though Kissinger likely had more to do with that then Tricky Dick.

[indianasmith]

Nixon did a lot of good, but it was wiped out by his crimes.

Besides Watergate, he also backed up the McCarthy witch hunts of the 50's.
And prolonging the Vietnam War.

But he did get China to open up to the West- I'll credit him with that.
Though Kissinger likely had more to do with that then Tricky Dick.

The difference between Nixon and McCarthy is that Nixon actually caught a REAL communist spy, Alger Hiss, who was a very high-ranking official in the State Dept.  Stalin had managed to infiltrate every branch of the military and every single department in the executive branch by the end of World War II - that's a matter of record now.  McCarthy launched his fake witch-hunt for imaginary Communists because he was jealous of the acclaim Nixon had earned for catching a real one.

Nixon ended the Vietnam War; that was his plan from the start, but he didn't want to scramble out completely, all at once, and abandon our ally.  He did his best to make sure South Vietnam would be able to stand on its own, but then Congress violated the terms of our withdrawal and cut ALL aid to South Vietnam.  When the NVA made their last big push, SV was unable to stand, in the end.  They were a weak, corrupt ally, but they were our ally, and Nixon tried hard to do right by them.

All water under the bridge now, of course, a topic for historical debate rather than heated argument.  But it is worth remembering, amid all the bad he did, that Nixon was a remarkably intelligent and accomplished man whose greatest crime was cheating to win an election he was going to win anyway.  It was completely unnecessary, but his paranoia and anger at his political enemies got the best of him, and he destroyed himself.

[RCMerchant]

Nixon did a lot of good, but it was wiped out by his crimes.

Besides Watergate, he also backed up the McCarthy witch hunts of the 50's.
And prolonging the Vietnam War.

But he did get China to open up to the West- I'll credit him with that.
Though Kissinger likely had more to do with that then Tricky Dick.

The difference between Nixon and McCarthy is that Nixon actually caught a REAL communist spy, Alger Hiss, who was a very high-ranking official in the State Dept.  Stalin had managed to infiltrate every branch of the military and every single department in the executive branch by the end of World War II - that's a matter of record now.  McCarthy launched his fake witch-hunt for imaginary Communists because he was jealous of the acclaim Nixon had earned for catching a real one.

Nixon ended the Vietnam War; that was his plan from the start, but he didn't want to scramble out completely, all at once, and abandon our ally.  He did his best to make sure South Vietnam would be able to stand on its own, but then Congress violated the terms of our withdrawal and cut ALL aid to South Vietnam.  When the NVA made their last big push, SV was unable to stand, in the end.  They were a weak, corrupt ally, but they were our ally, and Nixon tried hard to do right by them.

All water under the bridge now, of course, a topic for historical debate rather than heated argument.  But it is worth remembering, amid all the bad he did, that Nixon was a remarkably intelligent and accomplished man whose greatest crime was cheating to win an election he was going to win anyway.  It was completely unnecessary, but his paranoia and anger at his political enemies got the best of him, and he destroyed himself.

I ain't gonna argue with a history teacher.  
There are many more reasons I think Nixon was despicable-but I won't go into that.
But those are my personal feelings about him.
Like you said- its a matter of opinion.

Question for you, Indy.
Didn't Reagan start out as a Democrat in his early years?

[indianasmith]

Yes he did!  He was a strong supporter of FDR in the 30's, but then after the war he saw the Democrat party trending further to the left than he was comfortable with, and he became more and more conservative.
He liked to say: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me!"
But to his credit, his politics rarely got personal.  He maintained warm friendships with people on both sides of the aisle, even when they fought epic battles over policy.  Even his political rivals generally conceded that Reagan was a genuinely nice guy who loved his country dearly.

[lester1/2jr]

I hate all the presidents.  lincoln started a war that killed 600,000 americans almost all of whom had nothing to do with slavery. great problem solver there

roosevelt gets credit for ending prohibition, but honestly the best president was bush 1. you forgot he was there. we need more mediocre bueaurcrat presidents less "visionaries" leave that to the private sector

[RCMerchant]

I hate all the presidents.  lincoln started a war that killed 600,000 americans almost all of whom had nothing to do with slavery. great problem solver there

I don't believe he "started" the war. The war started itself.

[Svengoolie 3]

I hate all the presidents.  lincoln started a war that killed 600,000 americans almost all of whom had nothing to do with slavery. great problem solver there

roosevelt gets credit for ending prohibition, but honestly the best president was bush 1. you forgot he was there. we need more mediocre bueaurcrat presidents less "visionaries" leave that to the private sector

Hmmm, let's see.....wasn't he the wimp that got us into iraq after it abosrbed the family ran oil corporation called kuwaite? How was that our business?

Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator and a mass murderer but he did keep the radical islamofascists out of iraq. After the shrub took him out it opened up the middle east to islamoifascist groups like ISIS.