Dave
Who’s been the best US President?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
I thought Washington was quite unpopular at the time? Seems to make it on these lists mainly due to being the first.
Didn't or wasn't able to?
Didn't. He had the house and the senate in his first two years.
This. I think Roosevelt 1 has a strong case for being placed as the "worst" president in this elite tier.
Eh? He could have ruled for life if he wanted to.
Alf Landon 4 lyf?
Anyway, I think a similarly interesting conversation is, who's the worst US president?
Buchanan, Harding, or Drumpf?
Buchanan, Harding, or Drumpf?
That is a bit misleading, as he only held a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate for around 4 months. Not that I think he was ever as progressive as initially advertised; that was evident when he picked Biden as VP.
Anyone mentioned Bartlett?
Lincoln/FDR
JFK ..The only president who wasn't a warmonger but he didn't subscribe to the Amercian views about war so they killed him
A president whose gangster father used his organized crime connections to help get elected maybe isn’t the best example of ‘best’.
Teddy actually normally does flip flop with Jefferson between 4th and 5th.
Those 3, plus Franklin Pierce and Andrew Johnson.
1. Thomas J Whitmore
2. That WW2 dude
3. Morgan Freeman
2. That WW2 dude
3. Morgan Freeman
FDR?
The New Deal helped get them out of the Great Depression
Made the decision to go to war which ultimately helped win it (albeit only because they were attacked)
Seemed to have his eye on what was coming in the future = military industrial complex.
Won four terms which is a record.
Or Lincoln for his role in ending slavery and getting them through the civil war?
There haven't been many good ones for the world at large.
The New Deal helped get them out of the Great Depression
Made the decision to go to war which ultimately helped win it (albeit only because they were attacked)
Seemed to have his eye on what was coming in the future = military industrial complex.
Won four terms which is a record.
Or Lincoln for his role in ending slavery and getting them through the civil war?
There haven't been many good ones for the world at large.
the perfect list
He was seen that way while still in office. Clinton also did very little and LBJ's social contribution merits inclusion in the best of list, despite Vietnam which wasn't a war of his making. Foreign policy was never his thing.
FDR was a warmonger?
I'm not American so i only know what I've read with passing interest in various books but i thought his presidency became troubled during his second term. Both internally with lots of back stabbing and publically with the tax rebellions and treaties.
What i meant by my second point was the achievement of the US founding fathers seem to get conflated into ranking Washington so high. Could just me needing to read up more on Washington himself though.
One of those things is not like the others
He's probably one of my favorite politicians overall! One day in retirement I'll make it through the Caro volumes
It was two years. Granted, their actual working days were abysmally low hence the caveat you've noted but still, a fair bit of legislation was passed.
He’s definitely fascinating... but he bears a lot of responsibility for the fiasco in Vietnam and shouldn’t be close to the top 4. That said, the Caro history would be a great summer read.
Now, had he drawn us down in Vietnam instead of escalation and had focused on his domestic agenda - then he’d absolutely have been in the mix... but that’s what makes his presidency so interesting in my book.
Working days is not the caveat here. He did not have 2 years to push whatever legislation he wanted through.
Woodrow Wilson, simply by being the inspiration behind the naming of my favourite musician.
If we had separate rankings for domestic and foreign policy, I think LBJ would be in the top 5 for the former from what I've read. Sadly, the Vietnam war was a disaster.
I feel like Clinton’s stock has fallen as time has gone by. He was the last president to run a surplus and was generally seen pretty favorably at the time. His philandering and misbehavior has been seen differently in the #MeToo era however (rightly so) and the long term effects becoming apparent of criminal justice reform and NAFTA have really hurt his legacy.
'Groovy' Grover Cleveland, the only one to serve two non-consecutive terms in office!!
Trump, in a recent speech, mentioned that he was setting up a National Garden of Heroes. People he name-checked ranged from Lincoln to Dr King to the Wright brothers, but also Ronald Reagan. Does Reagan merit inclusion though?
Regan is the reason American politics is so fecked. He is also the reason that alot of American manufacturing businesses are now struggling massively.
Reagan is a top 10-15 president, as much as I dislike his idealogy
We have had many shitty presidents
He’s the closest republicans are gonna get to the second coming of Christ, so no doubt he’d get a mention.
I note that Trump hails Dr King, who's safely deceased and was pacifistic in his protesting.
Always worth posting
The answer has to be Lincoln because of the civil war and he was one of the few who could make the top hat look work. A man of many talents.
The answer has to be Lincoln because of the civil war and he was one of the few who could make the top hat look work. A man of many talents.
Wasn't he the bloke who married his family member or something like that?'Groovy' Grover Cleveland, the only one to serve two non-consecutive terms in office!!
Abraham Lincoln was a white supremacist:
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/was-abraham-lincoln-a-white-supremacist-37626Abraham Lincoln quote said:
They had a super majority for the first half of that congress, then for the last half they were vulnerable to filibusters. The dems still had control of the senate and house for two years. While they achieved a good deal legislatively before and after the super majority, as the dismal record of the next session shows, it still didn't meet the expectations that Obama's presidential campaign generated. This is why there is a perception he didn't get (enough) things done.
Due to deaths and other happenings, they only held that briefly during the summer and then continuously from the end of Sept 2009 to the beginning of February 2010. That is the four moths I was referring to.
I don’t know why I’m arguing this as I’m not normally an Obama apologist...oh well.
It’s a speech he made in his Senate campaign against Stephen Douglass, with the other accusing him of supporting intermarriage, a big no no even for the Northern anti slavery voters.
He also backed the Liberia solution but was reprimanded for it by Frederick Douglass and by the end of his first term already changed his view and before he was assassinated already started preparing for blacks’ s right to vote.
They all were white supremacists to one degree or another back then, it’s how their views evolved that mattered. The North didn’t do to war to free the slaves, it was to preserve the Union. The abolitionist movement gained strength as the war became bitter and the Northern citizenry became more and more receptive to punishing the South by freeing slaves. When Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the 4 border states were excluded from freeing theirs.
Due to deaths and other happenings, they only held that briefly during the summer and then continuously from the end of Sept 2009 to the beginning of February 2010. That is the four moths I was referring to.
I don’t know why I’m arguing this as I’m not normally an Obama apologist...oh well.
fair enough. Go, enjoy life! We'll all blame Ted Kennedy.Andrew Johnson.
Buchanan was simply an incompetent man placed in a tumultuous time when emotions reached boiling point with Bleeding Kansas.
Johnson actively sabotaged the fruits of the war and gave the slaveowners back their power. That has repercussions to even today.