February 20, 2006
Prezdents' Day
The Maximum Leader ranks his Top Ten U.S. Presidents. No real arguments from me, although I'm a bit puzzled as to what LBJ was doing on his list last year (getting supplanted by John Adams this time around).
The eldest Llama-ette was asking me about good and bad presidents at dinner last evening. Beyond some of the most obvious - Washington, for example - I found it rather tough to answer. One has to define the success of a given presidency relative to the times. The office of the late 20th Century bears little resemblence to that of the mid-19th Century, after all. This is tough to explain to a seven year old.
UPDATE: Sheila unleashes a torrent of Presidential Posts. Click n' scroll, but get a fresh cup of coffee first.
LBJ ranks as one of my 10 worst, certainly.
Posted by: The Colossus at February 20, 2006 11:25 AMI'd rank FDR pretty low. His economic policies did nothing to end the Depression (GNP in 1940 still wasn't equal to 1929). He saddled us with the Ponzi scheme of social security. Court packing. He rounded up and imprisoned natural-born Americans based solely on their ancestry.
Posted by: rbj at February 20, 2006 01:55 PMYes, but as we are not having this conversation in German, I'd have to take the other side on that discussion :-) . . . I'm a conservative Republican, and I have to rate FDR as either 2 or 3.
For me, I judge Presidents on their willingness to take action. Roosevelt was re-elected by the people because they saw he was trying -- even if, ultimately, his economic policies weren't working. I give him credit for that.
And WW II was the greatest challenge since the Civil War. He could have fought the war and lost, or opted not to fight it at all.
He made mistakes. So did Lincoln. His victories were greater, though.
Posted by: The Colossus at February 20, 2006 02:26 PMI should have been more specific. "Greatness" is a slippery concept as we can all agree (I think). LBJ was on my first list for many of the same reasons as FDR. Not because I believe he was a successful president - or one that I care for. I mentioned him specifically for his tremendous expansion of Federal power, reach, and authority. As I said, I don't approve of or agree with many of the programs (in idea or execution) of which we are speaking; but it takes lots of power, use of power, and authority to grow the government so much. There is a certain type of "greatness" in that.
If I were ranking presidents according to how much I liked them I'd have to include Coolidge, Hoover, and Ike.
Posted by: The Maximum Leader at February 20, 2006 03:13 PMI should have been more clear in my last comment. I am referring to LBJ. A second reading makes it seem as though I am saying that FDR was not a successful president.
Posted by: The Maximum Leader at February 20, 2006 03:16 PM
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