Rate Each of the US Presidents (who you have studied)

[Eric the Green]

(06-30-2022, 01:59 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: my list is as follows. I've tried to be reasonable

S: Washington
A: Jefferson, Lincoln
A-: Eisenhower, Bush Sr
B+: Clinton, Adams, TR, Grover Cleveland, JFK, Grant
B-: Trump, Reagan
C+: Carter, Nixon, Jackson, Hoover
C-: FDR, LBJ, Bush Jr, Obama
D+: Harding
D-: Biden
F: Wilson, Andrew Johnson

Thanks for the idea. But rating FDR so low is not "reasonable" 

my list is as follows. S means superior?

S: FDR 
A: Lincoln, 
A-: Washington, TR, JFK, Truman
B+: Wilson, Jefferson, Clinton, Obama, 
B-: Biden, 
C+: Eisenhower, Carter, Jackson, Hayes, Arthur, Polk, Monroe, JQ Adams, Taft
C-: Madison, Grover Cleveland, LBJ, Bush Sr, Adams, Grant, B. Harrison, Taylor, Van Buren, Ford
D+: Nixon, Fillmore
D-: Reagan (that's a generous placement on my part), Tyler, Hoover, Coolidge, Pierce, 
F: Harding, Bush Jr, Trump, Andrew Johnson, Buchanan

Quote:notes:
- Washington is untouchable in virtually any capacity

Except, how much did he really do to shape and improve the country? I'm not so sure. He was rather oppressive toward folks acting up for a better life.

Quote:- Eisenhower would be a solid A if it weren't for those utterly insane confiscatory taxes

That was his good point. He kept the New Deal going. But his CIA overthrew democratic governments and planned an invasion of Cuba, leading to untold problems. He got out of Korea, but into Vietnam. He did little to move the country forward. He tried to ratchet down the Cold War, but failed in the end.

Quote:- FDR gets an A or S for leadership and a solid F for virtually all his policies, so it was hard to place him

His policies get a solid A too, as far as they went, but needed to go farther. No president did more to advance and heal the country, and the war he got us into was just, unlike the war LBJ got us into. And, he won it too, and saved the democratic world, at least until these days when it's under severe attack again.

Quote:- frankly, Watergate wasn't a big deal. taking off the gold standard was. he did a decent chunk for the environment though

Watergate was a big deal. He was corrupt and criminal.

Quote:- LBJ deserves credit for backing Civil Rights reform at the expense of half his party turning on him, but his policies were irresponsible, as was his unwillingness to end the war in Vietnam

We agree there in part

Quote:- JFK was kinda meh, expect for going against the Fed which was fucking heroic.

It was his going after the Steel industry that was heroic. I don't know about him going against the Fed. Most of what LBJ passed was JFK's ideas, and that's A in my book. He proposed a lot that the congress blocked. Had he been able to run again, he would have won by a landslide because the people loved him, and would have got almost as much done as LBJ did-- without getting stuck in Vietnam. He got detente going. He was careless in the way he wanted to connect with the people in questionable and dangerous Dallas, and allowed himself to get killed there.

Quote:- yes, Biden really is that bad. I tried not to be too biased, but...sorry, it's just true

Sorry, but that's just wrong. He is not to blame for conditions today, although I admit he does not foresee problems very well, but I'm not sure anyone else could have done any better. He rolled out the vaccines that Trump refused to do, and brought down the pandemic and brought the economy back. Like JFK, his excellent proposals have so far been blocked by one or two phony Democratic Senators. It seems unlikely that he will get a landslide and a congress like LBJ did, but we are supposed to be in a reform decade now, so maybe it will happen. It's a huge wall to go over, given how reactionary and conservative our system is and has become. The right-wing has virtual control of the government and of red-state society.

Giving Gerald Ford a C- is generous on my part, and he probably really deserves a D. He did nothing to end an inflationary depression and energy crisis, and governed by veto and in ways that harmed the environment. The way we left Vietnam and attacked Cambodia was horrible. But at least the war ended. He did restore honest government at a time when Nixon had destroyed this, and he didn't follow in Nixon's footsteps but instead conducted honest government at a time the country needed it. So I credit him for all that. But he also let Nixon off the hook. I admit Nixon did some constructive things at home and abroad, and even tried to control inflation for a while (but then stopped and let it happen), but he also kept the massacre in Vietnam going, and I was an active protester against that, so I remember him unfondly.

Attacking the Fed I find meaningless and ludicrous, and whining about being off the gold standard is just stupid.