POLL: Of all post WW2 prez's, who performed worst?

[svonkampen]

Here it is. Vote on who was the worst post-WW2 American president.......Should be interesting.


I voted Bush II.....Nixon was a crook, but he was very competent. Carter was our weakest Prez, that is for sure. I have doubts about Kennedy. Take that repubs :-) Just to show that, as a liberal I CAN admit to a democratic Prez being a failure....


SvK

[tabs]

U forgot to include Truman as a Post Waqr Prez....according to Historians he rates in the top 10...

Eisenhower..was a delegator..being an ex General he knew when the Military was BSing him...and his famous line as he left office was. "Beware oif the Military Industrial Complex."

Kennedy...was reckless, and tended to ignore the rules of the game...which might have been the real reason he was removed from office...yet he proved to be very level headed in the Cuban Missle Crisis...one influence on his thinking was Barbara Tuchmans bookk the Guns Of August...about the begining of WW1. JFK was also responsible for the Great Arms build up of the 60's...many of actions was due tohis fear of being labeled Soft on Communism...

Johnson...the Great Libertarain...the Civil Rights Act..his ability to twist arms and power in the Senate are things of legend...But his failing was Vietnam.....he believed what the Kennedy Best and Brightest boys told him...Also his Great Society Lefislation has proved to be one massive failure....Welfare...

Nixon...truly a man who had his demons...paranoid...they were out to get him..."Well you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore." and out of that came Watergate. But a superb strategist and poker player...accused his first oponents when running for Congress to be Commies and his greatest achievement was the opening of China...was the Prez who let the $ float on the international currency market by decoupling it from the pegged price of Gold at $35 an oz.. But in the end he thought more of his country than himself...1. by not demanding a recount in Illnois vote in the 1960 election and by resigning office rather than dragging it out..

Ford...even though thought of as having played football to long without a helmet...bumbling and prone to accident he was a competent prez..he was the only prez to have not been elected to the office....also he served on the Warren Commission, and had a long career as Congressman from Grand rapids Mich...

Carter...A protege of Admiral Rickover and a Nuke Submariner....sometime Peanut Farmer and Governor of Georgia..when he went to Washington he didn't know the territory and due to his arrogance got no cooperation from anybody...One of his failing was his inability to delegate authority...some blame him for runaway inflation??? and he did prove to be inept at getting back the hostages in Iran...botched rescue mission..

Regan...The monkey got top billing and Death Valley Days was the perfect place for him....and he finally got the starring roll when he became prez (the great communicator) . Being a son of an Alcholic Regan was a hear no evil, see no evil kind of guy...who didn't like to display emotions. He also said when gov of CA, If you've seen one Redwood Tree you've seen them all." The logging biz was one of his biggest supporters in CA...Ronald was the darling of the Christian Conservatives and it was their rise to power that propeled him into office. While Regan helped usher out the era of Communism, he stepped on the stage at the very time the Soviets were crumbling from internal rot. he also appointed Alan Greenspan as Fed Chief...Another delgator of authority

GW Bush 1....WW2 vet, Congressman, CIA Chief.....by all accounts a very decent guy, a moderate Repblican of the Eastern establishment....OLD MONEY......he got the Regan VP as a sop to the monied end of the Repblican Party...He was a competent Prez...and at the end of Gulf War 1 realized that if Sadam was removed there was no one to take his place, so better Sadam than Civil War in Iraq. Being of money he just wasn't in touch with the common folk...and lost his rebidfor the prez.

Clinton..has the integrity and honesty of a used car salesman... his uncle was one btw...probably one of the brightest prez we have had, yet has no inner core of belief.he'll tell U what U wana hear...got into politics so he could get the girls in bed...After his wifes Health Care Plan went down in flames and the 1994 Midterm elections lost Congress to the Repblicans Clinton largely became a seat warmer.. it was only through executive orders that he was able to do anything..

GW...the II....aka as the Monkey..highly underestimated...Clintons assesment of GW....GW made all the right moves until Iraq...then his administration started to believe what they were saying...GW has been an effective president, yet has been unfortunate to be the bearer of bad tidings. GW coulda bin a Great.. GW is not a detail man and delegates authority like Eisenhower, and Regan did.

[kach22i]

It's almost a tie between Carter and Bush II. Bush II over the long run will of done far worse damage to our nation.

In Carter's case the money that own(ed) this country pulled the plug on him, wanting him to fail. After all his liberal policies such as CETA, which provided some college, education and training for the poor and underprivileged was a threat to the status quos. Fact is sometimes you have to play ball with the big boys (trilateral commission) or else. Carter failed Carter; the rest was all a stage.

In GWB's case, it's a simple case of smash and grab. Took power under a rouse, re-elected via Diebold software. He is a phony; to call him president is equal to calling a rapist a lover. Sold this country via massive spending and debt to China. He has destroyed our chances to isolate and dismantle international terrorism.

[Mule]

We must have a lot of young people on this board. LBJ is #1 with a bullet. Got 50,000 boys killed in Veit Nam. Forced foreign dignitaries to go into the bathroom while he took a cr*p if they wanted to talk to him and dropped his pants on AF1 in a fake mooning of the crowd he had just finished speaking to. Instituted the "war on poverty / great society" in an attempt to whitewash his history as a segregationist. Nobody else is even close.

[tabs]

Kachi if GW took power under a "rouse" then what does that say about the state of Democracy in America....

The answer is....a change in how we address the president...it is no longer Mr President but Hail Caesar....

So many people have opted out of the political process and are apathetic

[aways]

Carter was an absolute disgrace. Botched hostage rescue. Interest rates at 20%. Support for every leftist insurgency he could find. The country hated his guts. Unfortunately for us, Carter hasn't faded away gracefully. He's still the best friend of dictator on the planet from Castro to Hussein.

[tabs]

Geezus fking Christ....every prez gets the blame for the ***** his predecessor left on the plate....Carter and his 20% interest rates, GW for Terrorism...and it goes on...

It's not like when the guy steps into office for the first time that everything starts anew....the policies of the USA don't change with a new prez....and what the last one did or didn't do has to be dealt with by the new guy in office...and since the US govt is like a large ship what you do today first starts to show up on the radar 6 months from now...

Many of U boyz shoot from the hip based upon a sound bite and don't sit down and think .about the situation...

[Mulhollanddose]

Bush-II 46%...You have got to be kidding me.

Clinton did nothing about terrorism - we got 9-11...Clinton left the economy in shambles and falling apart rapidly, Bush revived the economy...Clinton exceeded Nixon's crimes 10 fold - from selling missile technology to the ChiComs, to selling pardons to terrorists and corporate crooks, to violating his oath of office, to dragging the country through the mud to save his own ass (just the short list).

Afreakin amazing!

[tabs]

Awwwweeee come on everybody knows that Billy Bob Clinton is nothin but a WHORE...

I don't even give any of Clintons escapades a second thought ....except what he sold to China...U have to remember that BIlly is from Arkansas and Walmart is located in Arkansas.....

[DaveE]

Originally posted by Mulhollanddose
Bush-II ...Clinton left the economy in shambles and falling apart rapidly, Bush revived the economy...

I've read some totally ridiculous statements since I've been here but this has to take the freakin' prize.

[tabs]

And sure GW come form OLD MONEY and REPRESENTS OLD MONEY....and is gona take care of his friends....AS IF EVERY OTHER PREZ HASN"T DONE THE SAME THING....

GW just plays at being a Right Wing Conserative to keep his supporters happy...but his true heart is with the MONEY>>>>

And what the Liberals DON"T LIKE ..is the fact that they ain't gettin a piece of the pie anymore....so they are hollerin like a stuck pig....whinin about every little thing....Bush could cure Cancer and they would be whinin about how come he didn't cure it sooner....don't U boyz get it....

[tabs]

An Davie your an IDiOT..... the economy was allready slippin even before Bushy took the oath of office....the NASDQ started it's decline in April of 2000....BEFORE the election....

BUSHY AIN"T A BAD PREZ if you look at him in the cold light of day and not with those holier than thou Liberal rose glasses...his only fault so far is that he believed his own spin about Irwreck...

[Rodeo]

Carter and Bush II tie for them most incompetent administrations in my lifetime. The Johnson White House made some early and astoundingly bad decisions on Viet Nam, with negative ramifications that continue to haunt us today. And I agree that his "War on Poverty," while well intentioned, was an abject failure.

The reason I voted for Bush II over these two is that his administration is a perfect storm of mind-bending incompetence and incredible hubris. The result is bold, sweeping executive acts and lousy execution, with repeated failures that could and would have been avoided by a humbler, more rational approach to governing. Also, Bush’s is the most politically driven administration of the bunch, even topping Johnson’s. I give them credit for “selling” just the opposite to the majority of the country that voted for them. Indeed, the most skilled person in that White House is Carl Rove. Unfortunately, the country needs more than a good P.R. man, we need skilled leaders, not political operatives.

Four years ago, after he gave that speech at the World Trade Center site, I remember thinking that I was really comforted that President Bush was our leader. Unfortunately, its been all downhill since then.

[DaveE]

Originally posted by tabs
An Davie your an IDiOT..... the economy was allready slippin even before Bushy took the oath of office....the NASDQ started it's decline in April of 2000....BEFORE the election....

BUSHY AIN"T A BAD PREZ if you look at him in the cold light of day and not with those holier than thou Liberal rose glasses...his only fault so far is that he believed his own spin about Irwreck...

My being an idiot is beside the point. You look at the economy as a whole for Clinton's 8 years vs. Bush's performance and tell me it's performed better. See who the idiot is.

[Racerbvd]

Originally posted by svonkampen
Here it is. Vote on who was the worst post-WW2 American president.......Should be interesting.


I voted Bush II.....Nixon was a crook, but he was very competent. Carter was our weakest Prez, that is for sure. I have doubts about Kennedy. Take that repubs :-) Just to show that, as a liberal I CAN admit to a democratic Prez being a failure....


SvK

You would, but history shows that Nixon was one of the best, and will show highly of Bush II, carter was more than just weak, he paved the way for the problems we face in the middle east today, gave away the canal, again, directly affecting the security of the US.

[skipdup]

DaveE- The recession was inherited from Clinton. It started it's downward spiral well before Clinton left office. Everyone knows this as factual. It's not debatable.

- Skip

[DaveE]

Originally posted by skipdup
DaveE- The recession was inherited from Clinton. It started it's downward spiral well before Clinton left office. Everyone knows this as factual. It's not debatable.

- Skip

"...well before Clinton left office." Hmmm. It started showing signs of weekness in late '99, early 2000, not what I would call well before. Economic gains over Clinton's eight years were astronomical, in terms of the stock market and job gains. To compare the Bush economic performance with the '90s is just laughable by any measure.

[Racerbvd]

Originally posted by DaveE
I've read some totally ridiculous statements since I've been here but this has to take the freakin' prize.

This just shows that you don't have a clue. Clinton inherited a rising economy, this is when the Enron type scandals started and thrived (Bush II pulled the plug on them) Clinton used Enron type accounting for the fed books to gave a rosy outlook that didn't exist. The economy was heading into the toilet all during the least year on the Clinton term.

[skipdup]

Dave- Seems you're changing the argument... "Clinton left the economy in shambles" is what was stated... You then said that statement was "ridicules".

- Skip

[DaveE]

Originally posted by Racerbvd
Clinton inherited a rising economy, this is when the Enron type scandals started and thrived (Bush II pulled the plug on them)

From Bush I?? Jeez, who's clueless here, or has a bad memory? The economy was doing so well that Bush I was booted out. Ross Perot even looked like a reasonable choice to many.