Our Greatest Presidents

I pick Washington and Eisenhower.

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I win...

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Shahryar's picture

I didn't much like Carter but I think he must have been the best in my adulthood. At least the best person. I was a kid when Kennedy was President so my opinion might be different than if I'd been older. I liked Kennedy. He was like the nice Dad in the Neighborhood. He wasn't a Grandpa like Ike, he had young children, he wanted us to go to the Moon and be physically fit and he "was a doughnut". (Ich bin ein Berliner) I believe to this day that he didn't go along with the program and that's what got him killed.

From what I've read about Presidents before my time I suppose I like Jefferson the best. Pierce probably had the best wardrobe. But you know, having lived through all of these Presidents I have to wonder if they haven't all been power hungry ego-trippers, willing to do what was necessary to maintain that power. Lincoln, they say, was pretty good. Same with both Roosevelts. I'd prefer FDR over Teddy. Anyway, my short list, in order of when they served, comes from those I've mentioned.

Jefferson
Lincoln
T. Roosevelt
F. Roosevelt
Kennedy
Carter

Let's look at the Presidents from my lifetime that I didn't put on that list.

Truman - don't remember!
Eisenhower - didn't stop the Cold War when he could have
Johnson - hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?
Nixon - crook, right wing weirdo
Ford - Might have been a decent football player
Reagan - oh my god! Reagan as President plus poisoned Tylenol and our society has never been the same
Daddy Bush - Head of the CIA. Our version of Putin. Or maybe Putin is their version of Bush
Clinton - sleaze. Tsongas could never believe that Clinton was winning. Neither can I.
Bush Jr - Puppet of the warmonger Cheney. If you count Cheney as Pres. then Cheney - warmonger
Obama - Bush disguised as an African-American. Very skilled liar.

wow. Ten of them in my lifetime. Soon to be eleven and if it's not Bernie then whoever it is won't make my list of best Presidents, that's for sure.

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snoopydawg's picture

Native Americans according to Stephen Ambrose in his book Undaunted Courage
He pushed for the exploration of the lands west of the Mississippi.

And Carter wasn't the nice president that people thinks he was. I will look for the link I saved that details his term in office.
And he wrote the Carter doctrine that stated that all oil sold must be in US currency.
That's why a lot of our brutal puppet dictators had to be removed. It wasn't because of their human rights violations like Bush said was the reason why Saddam had to be removed. Remember that he used chemical weapons on the Iraqis during the Iraq and Iranian war. We gave him those weapons and the coordinates of where the Iranian army was.
The reason for Saddam and Gaddafi being overthrown was because they didn't want to use petrol dollars anymore to sell their oil.
Just a friendly FYI.

Here's the article about Carter's blood drenched presidency.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/18/jimmy-carters-blood-drenched-legacy/

I think that almost every US president has been guilty of war crimes going back to when the Monroe doctrine was signed if not all of them. Remember that the victors get to write the history.
Smile

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

lotlizard's picture

In Germany a company based in the same town I lived in was accused of breaking the embargo on both Iran and Iraq during the war and shipping goods with military use to Iraq.

Lower-level law enforcement had put a lot of work into preparing the case.

The company pulled out documents proving it had secret Defense Ministry and NATO authorization to do so. End of case.

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riverlover's picture

Just yesterday I was cursing at the tiny blister pack surrounding a tiny Zyrtec equivalent. And that is why exist childproof caps that are difficult for arthritic hands to open, where is that child? Gateway to clamshell packaging, save us from ourselves.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

That's being pretty harsh on Jill Stein.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

And George Washington, how could you leave him out?

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snoopydawg's picture

MIC, but remember he was responsible for its rise during his presidency.
But he saw that it would grow out of control and that is why he warned us.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

In 1940, Eisenhower was assigned by FDR to go around the nation and get the industrialists on board with the war buildup plans. These industrialists were in some cases the very conspirators who had plotted to oust FDR from office and install an American Mussolini. Therefore, Eisenhower knew exactly of which he meant in his Farewell Address. My complaint is that he did nothing while in office to thwart them. He left that for JFK, and they took him down when he was about to end our participation in Vietnam.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Thanks for commenting.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Some things never change.

In current liberal democratic theory, the approved role for the public is “spectator” (rather than “participant”). Thus, the rising opposition to the neoliberal assault on society elicits rejection and the suppression of their speech. Such disobedience has always been of concern to the dominant classes.

Just keeping to American history, George Washington regarded the common people who formed the militias that he was to command as “an exceedingly dirty and nasty people [evincing] an unaccountable kind of stupidity in the lower class of these people.”

In Violent Politics, his masterful review of insurgencies, William Polk concludes that General Washington “was so anxious to sideline [the fighters he despised] that he came close to losing the Revolution.” Indeed, he “might have actually done so” had France not massively intervened and “saved the Revolution,” which until then had been won by guerrillas — whom we would now call “terrorists” — while Washington’s British-style army “was defeated time after time and almost lost the war.”

h/t Noam Chomsky

Little wonder that the US Constitution allows for rampant predatory capitalism with no protections or rights conferred upon the people.

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hecate's picture

she was a good president. Also, Frederick Douglass. Eugene Debs. George McGovern. Russell Means. Annabella Piugattuk.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I was born at the end of Truman's presidency. Ike came in next. You know the rest. As long as the only thing that matters is the 1%, we will never have a good POTUS. As for before I was born, I don't feel qualified to comment, as I was not around to be either abused or rewarded by any of them.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11