# Think Tank > History >  poll-- best and worst 3 presidents

## ILUVRP

i will be 81 in sept and think a lot about presidents we have had in the last 70 years . so i am wondering what others think their best/worst potus are , my thoughts are .

best 3

1-  eisenhower

2-  kennedy

3-  bush sr


worst 3

1-  johnson

2-  nixon 

3-  bush jr

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## brushfire

1 - Dr Ron Paul

2 - Ron Paul

3 - Paul, Ron

Worst

Take your pick...

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## Krugminator2

Any list without Reagan best and LBJ worst is just wrong.


1. Reagan










2. Clinton distant second


3. Maybe Eisenhower as a distant third

Worst 3
1. LBJ
2. Carter


3. W.

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## Influenza

Woodrow Wilson was obviously the worst. Not sure who the best was.

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## dannno

Judging on performance..

Best 

Trump
Reagan 
Kennedy


Worst

Bush Jr.
Wilson
Obama


Judging on character..

Best

Reagan
Trump
Kennedy


Worst

Bush Sr.
Dick Cheney (Bush Jr's puppetmaster)
Woodrow Wilson

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## RonZeplin

Best 3

Eisenhower
Al Haig
Can't come up with a 3rd, they're all too horrible
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Worst 3

Dumbya Bush
LBJ
Amnesty Ron Reagan

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## Danke

Lincoln has to be worst.  At least the bloodiest.

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## TheTexan

> Judging on character..
> 
> Best
> 
> Reagan
> Trump
> Kennedy


More like Trump #1.  Reagan and Kennedy are OK but Trump's character is terrific, its unmatched how great his character is

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## TheTexan

> Lincoln has to be worst.  At least the bloodiest.


Lincoln is the reason why we are still the *United* States of America.  If it weren't for him we'd just be a bunch of tiny $#@!ty countries like europe

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## CaptUSA

> Lincoln is the reason why we are still the *United* States of America.  If it weren't for him we'd just be a bunch of tiny $#@!ty countries like europe


It must be excruciatingly hard for you to pick just one.  I mean, there are just so many awesome men from which to choose.  The greatest men that have ever lived really - almost gods, when you think about it.

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## jllundqu

Best:

Coolidge
Kennedy
Reagan
Jefferson
Washington

Worst:
Wilson
FDR
LBJ
Nixon
Carter
Obama
Bush Sr.
Bush Jr.
Pretty much the rest of them

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## fedupinmo

Best
Harrison
Coolidge
Trump
Adams
Jefferson

Worst
Obammy
Rail splitting Illinois faggette
Obammy
Both Roosevelts
Wilson

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## brushfire

I agree, Coolidge was good.

Reagan - not so much.   He's way over rated.   He was anti 2nd amendment too - really his administration set us on a very bad course, carrying forward secret wars, nixon's war on drugs, and setting the stage for the loss of liberty we are all enjoying today.

Jefferson - liked the guy, but set the stage for taxes.   While I agree with many things Jefferson wrote, his actions were not always consistent.

Ikenhower, he may have warned us about the military industrial complex, but he played a role in its inception, and if I'm not mistaken, really ramped up our foreign policy.  We can thank Ikenhower for our interventionist foreign policy.

Wilson, Lincoln, Roosevelts - can all rot in hell IMO.

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## TheTexan

> It must be excruciatingly hard for you to pick just one.  I mean, there are just so many awesome men from which to choose.  The greatest men that have ever lived really - almost gods, when you think about it.


It's like being asked which of your children is your favorite.  You're not supposed to have a favorite, but you do.

My favorite is Trump, though Lincoln did basically invent MAGA so its close call

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## Krugminator2

I think this was supposed to be last 70 years.

Obv. Coolidge at the top if you got last 100. Wilson and FDR on the bad list.

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## Occam's Banana

Best: Sy Sperling 

Worst: All the others

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## dude58677

Best-

1) Donald Trump- First and only non-politician and non military personnel to become President. Ending career politics at all levels.
2) Thomas Jefferson- Wrote Declaration of Independence
3) Millard Fillmore- Very laid back

Worst-
1) LBJ- Used a military draft for Vietnam
2)FDR- Military draft, first major abuse of 16th amendment, allowed Japan to attack
3) George W Bush- Allowed 9-11, politicized 9-11, used 9-11 to justifying war in Iraq which created ISIL and ISIS

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## oyarde

Top two worst in past 118 years are Wilson , LBJ obviously , I might slide Obama in at the third worst spot for fines for not having health insurance . The three of them are the anti liberty . Tough to pick the three worst though  and leave out FDR and Nixon so I can give them honorable mention for bad . Ike would be best after Coolidge .

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## Ender

> Top two worst in past 118 years are Wilson , LBJ obviously , I might slide Obama in at the third worst spot for fines for not having health insurance . The three of them are the anti liberty . Tough to pick the three worst though  and leave out FDR and Nixon so I can give them honorable mention for bad . Ike would be best after Coolidge .


Interesting that no one mentions Harding who was probably the best president in the past 100+ years. 

He pulled the country out of a huge oncoming depression and did many other things that contributed to Coolidge's legacy. Scandals by some of his  administration, combined with a mysterious death, have faded Harding into oblivion & many have put him as one of the worst presidents when he was, in fact, one of the best.

After doing my own research it seems to me he was probably JFK'd & his great service was flushed down the memory hole.




> Prosperity restored
> 
> Harding died of a heart attack on August 2, 1923, having fulfilled his goal of restoring prosperity. The night of his death, his wife Florence had been reading an article to him from the Saturday Evening Post entitled "A Calm Review of a Calm Man" by Samuel G. Blythe. "There is nothing so political as the Presidency," Blythe observed, "and the better a politician a President is the better President he will be."* Blythe reminded his readers that things had been in a bad way when Harding came into office, but now America was "the only legitimately prosperous country in the world." Prosperity, he continued, "extends from coast to coast, from the Canadian border to Mexico. Labor is universally employed at high wages. Money is plentiful. All lines of business are flourishing. And there is no other country in the world of which this can be said." 
> 
> Blythe's account was accurate. Harding's policies, put into practice by men like Charles G. Dawes, succeeded in turning the country around. This was not easy with a fractious Republican party at odds over regional and economic issues. Nevertheless, Harding cut income tax rates for Americans at every income level. According to economist Benjamin Anderson, employment and businesses rallied as a result of "a drastic cleaning up of credit weakness, a drastic reduction in the costs of production, and on the free play of private enterprise."* 
> 
> It had been Harding's hope that inequality of income would decrease as foreign markets expanded, creating more economic opportunities; he worked hard with Herbert Hoover and Charles Evans Hughes to achieve this. Harding also modified his position on the tariff, coming to favor a degree of flexibility. He entered the White House having won an overwhelming mandate. He succeeded in healing a divided country by combining fiscal conservatism with some socially progressive attitudes. His efforts to end lynching and his belief in racial equality showed him to be more enlightened than many of his countrymen. They entitle him to be regarded as one of the first modern civil-rights presidents.
> 
> The policies of Harding and his successor Calvin Coolidge were undone in the 1930s, when President Hoover adopted the statist measures that laid the foundations for what would become the New Deal. With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a new kind of welfare state was created, and progressivism began once again to flourish. Surveying the situation in 1940 after the economy's downturn and what people were beginning to call a new Roosevelt depression, Dawes penned a warning:
> ...


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-we...ing-seriously/

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## Suzanimal

> Best: Sy Sperling 
> 
> Worst: All the others


He's not only the president, he's also a client.

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## NorthCarolinaLiberty

> Woodrow Wilson was obviously the worst.



The reason you humanist progressives don't like Wilson has nothing to do with liberty.  You don't like him for some of his "right" leanings.  For example, Wilson said:

America was born a Christian nation."


Wilson also liked the film Birth of a Nation and was denounced as a segregationist.


When will you and your friends be taking down his statue somewhere in America?

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## euphemia

I think we fortunately avoided the worst Hillary “I eat embryos for lunch” Clinton.  We have Trump to thank for that.

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## Anti Globalist

Best
Jefferson
Madison
Cleveland
Harding
Coolidge

Worst
Wilson
Franklin Roosevelt
Johnson
Obama

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## enhanced_deficit

> Any list without *Reagan best* and LBJ worst is just wrong.
> 
> 
> 1. Reagan
> 
> 
> 
> .


Seriously?
Is that taking into consideration  that of all US Presidents in history  Reagan was  the  biggest supporter/funder of violent extremist Islamist  Jihadis  and   that 9/11  & resulting   Iraqi/Afghan Freedom wars cost America   trillions of dollars and injury/death of millions of Americans?

He even dedicated Space Shuttle launch to honor violent Islamist Jihadi  militants.      Al Qaeda was birthed in sanctury of same Jihadi  militants. Even to this day, America is still engaged in its longest war  history fighting the very militants Reagan armed/funded.
Just this week, two US troops were killed in Afghanistan. Many more have died/lost limbs in past 17 years .

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## Influenza

> The reason you humanist progressives don't like Wilson has nothing to do with liberty. You don't like him for some of his "right" leanings. For example, Wilson said:
> 
> “America was born a Christian nation."
> 
> 
> Wilson also liked the film Birth of a Nation and was denounced as a segregationist.
> 
> 
> When will you and your friends be taking down his statue somewhere in America?


So if the reason I don't like Wilson is because he was a segregationist, that has nothing to do with liberty? Really? lol... 

BTW, when you make retarded posts like this, are you really 100% sure in your accusations, like you mentioned? Or is that a facade? I think swordsmyth may need to induct a new fellow in his paranoid schizophrenic club

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## Influenza

> Seriously?
> Is that taking into consideration  that of all US Presidents in history  Reagan was  the  biggest supporter/funder of violent extremist Islamist  Jihadis  and   that 9/11  & resulting   Iraqi/Afghan Freedom wars cost America   trillions of dollars and injury/death of millions of Americans?
> 
> He even dedicated Space Shuttle launch to honor violent Islamist Jihadi  militants.      Al Qaeda was birthed in sanctury of same Jihadi  militants. Even to this day, America is still engaged in its longest war  history fighting the very militants Reagan armed/funded.
> Just this week, two US troops were killed in Afghanistan. Many more have died/lost limbs in past 17 years .


must spread rep around

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## thoughtomator

Best President = King George III. Check out that low low tax rate!

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## dude58677

> Best President = King George III. Check out that low low tax rate!


It would be very difficult to get a zero income tax through legislation. What can be done is pardons of tax evasion. Donald Trump has pardoned people involved with the Bundy ranch which is very close to saying you don't have to pay taxes esp since Donald Trump owns a hotel business that is his intention.

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## Krugminator2

> must spread rep around





> Seriously?


Reagan had the best foreign policy of any modern president. He only used military force a few times. And they were small scale. He had the wisdom to cut and run in Lebanon. Grenada was justified and successful.  And retaliating against Qaddafi's attack on American soldiers was justified. There were no humanitarian missions.

And he wasn't passive aggressive like cuckold Jimmy Carter. He made it clear, "We win, they lose." His ability to tackle issues head from a position of strength ended tensions without firing a shot.

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## acptulsa

> Judging on performance..
> 
> Best 
> 
> Trump
> Reagan 
> Kennedy
> 
> 
> ...


Any list that has Wilson under the worst, but has neither Harding nor Coolidge under the best, is one crappy list.

For those of us who can actually count to 70, as the OP requested, there have been no best presidents since 1938.  There have been mediocre presidents and there have been awful presidents.  But there have been no good presidents.

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## gaazn

Why is Jimmy  Carter always considered a bad prisident.  When was not fighting wars a bad thing?

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## Krugminator2

> Why is Jimmy  Carter always considered a bad prisident.  When was not fighting wars a bad thing?


Well.... He escalated tensions with Russia and put us on the brink. He dealt with them in the worst possible way. He and his diplomats went radio silent. He dealt with them passive aggressively. Reagan set the moral tone that there is only way good guy here but we are going to talk things through and deescalate tensions.

Domestically, Carter put price controls on gas which lead to shortages and gas lines. He put a windfall profits tax on the oil companies, because they apparently didn't have economics textbooks available in the White House. He raised taxes in the middle of a slow economy. He thought you controlled inflation through balancing the budget not through monetary policy. Inflation got so bad they had to issue Carter bonds in different currencies.

Then he is giving speeches from the Oval Office about how America's best days are behind and we should just accept a lower standard of living. He let the Iranians walk all over him with US hostages. It took an ass kicker like Reagan to get the country out it slump.

I don't understand the dislike here for Reagan. He wasn't perfect but I would be okay naming a minimum of one street after Reagan in every city. Two in bigger cities.

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## NorthCarolinaLiberty

> So if the reason I don't like Wilson is because he was a segregationist, that has nothing to do with liberty? Really? lol...



Yes, really.  Progs decry segregation in private settings, so you base your dislike on a different principle.






> BTW, when you make retarded posts like this, are you really 100% sure in your accusations, like you mentioned?



I am 100% sure that you are paid.  And I don't say anything about a person unless I am 100% sure.  Not 99%.  Not 99.9%.  Not 99.99%.  100%.





> Or is that a facade?



I think you need more practice with your own facade.  Better call your co-workers Zip and TheCount.  LOL






``

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## Influenza

> Yes, really.  Progs decry segregation in private settings, so you base your dislike on a different principle.
> 
> 
> 
> I am 100% sure that you are paid.  And I don't say anything about a person unless I am 100% sure.  Not 99%.  Not 99.9%.  Not 99.99%.  100%.
> 
> 
> I think you need more practice with your own facade.  Better call your co-workers Zip and TheCount.  LOL
> 
> ...


This folks, is what religion does to you. You are willing to believe just about anything without a shred of evidence, as long as it fits your narrative. The ultra-far right (and far left) are both religions at this point. They are the loudest idiots, yet few of their ideas have any factual basis at all to them. You ask NCL for evidence, he will never actually give any, he'll just say "IVE SEEN ENOUGH OF YOUR ILK" or "YOU AREN'T WORTH IT" or "YOU TYPE LIKE ANOTHER PERSON I HAVE IDENTIFIED AS BEING A PAID SHILL WITHOUT EVIDENCE." And the sad thing is, some people will read this and think that I'M the idiot, and that NCL is the rational one. LOL.

Anyways, you do nothing on this forum besides constantly post strawmen and ad-hominems. My opinion is this: all forms of involuntary segregation are bad, state-enforced and privately-enforced. But the state should not force the desegregation of private establishments, mainly because freedom of association, as well as it being difficult to draw the line on what constitutes "protected classes" and what doesn't.

But it still means that Restaurant Owner X is _probably_ a piece of $#@! for disallowing Group Y from his business. I say probably because it depends on the defining characteristics of Group Y. (Once you do the slightest bit of thinking, you will realize that things in this world aren't so black and white, unlike the world of paranoid schizophrenics who constantly worry about DEMONCRATS and PAID COMMIE SHILLS)

What will NCL's next logical fallacy be? Tune in next time to find out!

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## NorthCarolinaLiberty

> This folks, is what religion does to you.


I never mentioned religion.






> You ask NCL for evidence, he will never actually give any, he'll just say "IVE SEEN ENOUGH OF YOUR ILK" or "YOU AREN'T WORTH IT" or "YOU TYPE LIKE ANOTHER PERSON I HAVE IDENTIFIED AS BEING A PAID SHILL WITHOUT EVIDENCE."



Why are you putting words in quotation marks that I never said?





> Anyways, you do nothing on this forum besides constantly post strawmen and ad-hominems.



Hmm; lemme list the "ad-hominems" from Influenza:





> No, you $#@!ing idiot.





> I would love to personally beat the living $#@! out of each one of you RPF trump supporters, but must of you $#@!ing idiots are too scared to even show your face in this thread





> yet we have idiotic trumpeteers posting this autist's $#@! on RPF





> Lol it doesn't even matter how obviously fake the article is, you idiots will eat it up





> Uhh, Trump didn't run in 2012 you idiot. .





> I'm keeping it vague because I don't wish to spend too much time articulating my opinion to an idiot





> I don't know if this bxm guy is trolling or just a complete idiot,





> You are one of the most idiotic posters on this forum,...





> I refuse to be lectured by a racist idiot...












> What will NCL's next logical fallacy be? Tune in next time to find out!



But I'm the one making fallacious posts!  Ha ha ha ha!!!!!







`

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## Influenza

> I never mentioned religion.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why are you putting words in quotation marks that I never said?
> 
> ...


Yes, after you constantly post strawmen and make accusations based on 0 evidence, I use insults alongside actual arguments to highlight what a retard you actually are. The content of YOUR posts, on the other hand, are exclusively logical fallacies. Nice life you have, by the way. Do you really have time to parse through all of my old posts, cut out the many coherent arguments and leave only the insults? Yes, I employ insults in my posts, and I think it probably works. Do you see the fundie presbyterian crowd posting on these forums anymore? Luckily they are all gone

and btw, why do you constantly have like 3 times as many spaces as necessary between your statements? It's really annoying to constantly delete all the time. I know the internet is rather new for you but maybe you could work on formatting for the rest of us

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## Influenza

And by the way, your logical fallacy in that post is "poisoning the well"

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## Anti Federalist

> But it still means that Restaurant Owner X is _probably_ a piece of $#@! for disallowing Group Y from his business. I say probably because it depends on the defining characteristics of Group Y.


Whoa, hold the phone...you're *admitting* individuals can be judged on the defining characteristic of the group they are part of?

And that a business owner's (or anybody else for that matter) "Piece of $#@! Quotient" can be determined by who they exclude or associate with?

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## NorthCarolinaLiberty

> I use insults alongside actual arguments to highlight what a retard you actually are. 
> 
> ***
> 
> Yes, I employ insults in my posts,...


Best sig material I've seen in awhile!  





> Do you really have time to parse through all of my old posts,


Yes, I do chief.  Tell your boss about my hard work.  Maybe he'll hire me too!







> It's really annoying to constantly delete all the time.


Why, looky there.  Another worker complaining about his job!

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## Influenza

> Whoa, hold the phone...you're *admitting* individuals can be judged on the defining characteristic of the group they are part of?
> 
> And that a business owner's (or anybody else for that matter) "Piece of $#@! Quotient" can be determined by who they exclude or associate with?


Lol you are really stupid. The term "group" is vague. It could mean something like people with criminal records, people without shoes or a shirt, people like you who are overtly racist. Or it could mean people who are black, mexican, jewish, etc. Having prejudice against some of these groups can be understandable, while against others it may be detestable.

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## acptulsa

> Why is Jimmy  Carter always considered a bad prisident.  When was not fighting wars a bad thing?


Carter was a good president.  But he was plagued by an uncooperative Congress, a hostile media and even CIA operations designed to embarrass him.

He just wasn't a member of The Club in good enough standing to suit the powers that be.  And he was too focused on helping American citizens, even at the expense of the corporations and The Agenda.

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## Anti Federalist

> Lol you are really stupid. The term "group" is vague. It could mean something like people with criminal records, people without shoes or a shirt, people like you who are overtly racist. Or it could mean people who are black, mexican, jewish, etc. Having prejudice against some of these groups can be understandable, while against others it may be detestable.


Oh, OK, got it...and *you* decide what is "understandable" and what is "detestable".

STFU...

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## Anti Federalist

> Carter was a good president.  But he was plagued by an uncooperative Congress, a hostile media and even CIA operations designed to embarrass him.
> 
> He just wasn't a member of The Club in good enough standing to suit the powers that be.  And he was too focused on helping American citizens, even at the expense of the corporations and The Agenda.


I never thought Carter was a "bad" man, but he was a dunce when it came to economics.

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## Influenza

> Oh, OK, got it...and *you* decide what is "understandable" and what is "detestable".
> 
> STFU...


Of course I decide. As do you, dumbass. Except my discrimination isn't based on arbitrary genetics and birthplace, unlike yours. I thought that's what the free market was supposed to be about? That people make decisions voluntarily on which products they should and shouldn't buy, what kind of people they should and shouldn't be involved with...? Jeez, your world view isn't even coherent within itself. Sad!

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## NorthCarolinaLiberty

> Lol you are really stupid. *The term "group" is vague.* It could mean something like people with criminal records, people without shoes or a shirt, people like you who are overtly racist. Or it could mean people who are black, mexican, jewish, etc. Having prejudice against some of these groups can be understandable, while against others it may be detestable.



LOL.  The term wasn't vague when you started because you said, "But it still means that Restaurant Owner X is probably a piece of $#@! for disallowing Group Y from his business."

You went from a specific industry of restaurant owner "probably" being a piece of crap to something more muddled that has no probability attached to it.  You did it because you got caught.  You paid people are pure comedy gold!

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## acptulsa

> I never thought Carter was a "bad" man, but he was a dunce when it came to economics.


That he certainly was.  Him and every other Democratic president since Grover Cleveland.

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## trey4sports

1. Grover Cleveland
2. John Tyler
...
...
...
3. Coolidge, Maybe?


worst 3
1. Wilson
2. FDR
T3. Truman
T3. LBJ

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## trey4sports

> Ikenhower, he may have warned us about the military industrial complex, but he played a role in its inception, and if I'm not mistaken, really ramped up our foreign policy.  We can thank Ikenhower for our interventionist foreign policy.
> .


It was Truman who was really the father of the modern day military-industrial complex.

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## PAF

> 1 - Dr Ron Paul
> 
> 2 - Ron Paul
> 
> 3 - Paul, Ron
> 
> Worst
> 
> Take your pick...


+ Rep

NO president has ever promoted individual liberty, private property and contract rights. ALL presidents have served the central government, leading to central bankers in the early 1900s, which is repugnant to a free society. Some worse, others worse yet, bones to appease the people to keep the duopoly alive.

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## Sammy

Best:
1.Calvin Coolidge
2.Grover Cleveland
3.Martin van Buren

Worst:
1.LBJ
2.Lincoln
3.FDR

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## Ender

> Any list that has Wilson under the worst, but has neither Harding nor Coolidge under the best, is one crappy list.
> 
> For those of us who can actually count to 70, as the OP requested, there have been no best presidents since 1938.  There have been mediocre presidents and there have been awful presidents.  But there have been no good presidents.


True!

I mentioned Harding's legacy when this thread was first started- but no one still knows who the heck he is.

I also think JFK was a playboy who woke up & tried to do what was best for the country- but we all know the end to that story.

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## Working Poor

Worst

LBJ, Bush sr&jr, Clinton

Best
George Washington, Andrew Jackson,

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## acptulsa

I can't imagine higher praise than this:




> Coolidge is the first president to figure out that what Americans want is to be let alone.

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