Who was the best U.S. President between the Roosevelt's, and WHY?

[Blue3]

Who was the best U.S. President between the Roosevelt's? Please explain why.








William Howard Taft

 
Thomas Woodrow Wilson

 
Warren Gamaliel Harding

 
John Calvin Coolidge

 
Herbert Clark Hoover

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Wilson, but none of them covered themselves in glory.

Taft was never terribly enthusiastic about being President, and failed to smooth over the ideological fissure within his party.

The rest were Business Presidents, at best inactive and silent (Cal) and at worst INCREDIBLY corrupt (Harding) or ill matched to the task before them (Hoover).

[Santander]

Wilson, mostly because the rest ranged from mediocre to terrible.

[This account no longer in use.]

Taft by default.

[beaver2.0]

Woodrow Wilson.

[This account no longer in use.]

What makes a racist who got us involved in an unnecessary war the best president of his era?

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Coolidge.

[Blue3]

Coolidge.

Why?

Woodrow Wilson.

Why?

Taft by default.

Why were the others so much worse? How would you rank them?

Wilson, mostly because the rest ranged from mediocre to terrible.

Why were the others so much worse? How would you rank them?

[/]

Woody

[Intell]

Wilson.

[Mr. Smith]

Wilson by a hair, awful second term (silly WW entry), gold standard first term...slightly better than Taft overall.

The New Deal owes much to Wilsonian thought.

[This account no longer in use.]

To answer your question, Blue3, Wilson got us into a completely unnecessary war; we probably could have made it through World War II without joining in as well if Wilson hadn't joined in WWI. Harding had nothing besides scandals. Coolidge and Hoover both had a part in creating the Great Depression, and Hoover didn't do enough to fix the economy after the stock market crash.

As for my ranking:

1. Taft
2. Coolidge
3. Hoover
4. Harding
5. Wilson

[The Last Northerner]

Warren Harding helped start the economic boom of the Roaring 20s, ended the lawless Palmer raids at the hieght of the Red Scare, freed Eugene V. Debs from prison, formalized US exit from WW1, signed the Washignton Naval Treaty, renormalized relations with Mexico, and tried to pass anti-lynching bills. All in 2 years.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Ranked in order of awfulness:

1. WWII Architect Woodrow Wilson
2. Corporate Pawn William H. Taft
3. Warren "I had sex scandals before they were cool" Harding
4. Naive Patsy Herbert Hoover
5. Calvin Coolidge, top ten president.

[Orser67]

Wilson's foreign policy even today is hard to evaluate. No one can be sure what the world would look like without the US intervention in WWI and Wilson's push for a democratic nation-states. Imo his biggest failure in foreign policy was caused by resistance from isolationist Republicans who opposed US entry into the League of Nations, which left the world with a confusing new order that lacked the most powerful country in the world to uphold it. But I'm a big fan of most of his non-racial domestic policy, including the creation of the Federal Reserve and the FTC, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the 8-hour day for railroad workers, and the permanent introduction of the income tax. He also appointed Louis Brandeis, a key Supreme Court Justice in ending the Lochner Era (though this is almost outweighed by his appointment of the conservative McReynolds), and helped pressure Congress to enact women's suffrage. He did go too far with the crackdown on Communism and dissenters, though.

Harding presided over a return to conservatism, so it's not surprising that I'm not a fan. Coolidge left office just months before Black Monday and deserves as much blame for the Great Depression as Hoover. Hoover was ineffective in combating the Great Depression and failed to veto Smoot-Hawley. Taft was a decent president who actually did bust trusts, though I would have preferred if Roosevelt had maintained more influence over him.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Coolidge and it is not even close.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Coolidge, oh how the Massachusetts GOP has changed.
Harding comes second, basically Coolidge with scandals.
Taft comes third, because mediocrity.
Hoover comes in fourth because his policies didn't allow the economy to correct itself.
Wilson comes in last, he was a racist who got us involved in WWI after promising not to.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I read that Hoover's advisers wanted him to institute New Deal-style policies. If Hoover had listened, he could have been one of the greats.

But nooooo!

[RINO Tom]

Ranked in order of awfulness:

1. WWII Architect Woodrow Wilson
2. Corporate Pawn William H. Taft
3. Warren "I had sex scandals before they were cool" Harding
4. Naive Patsy Herbert Hoover
5. Calvin Coolidge, top ten president.

Bahaha, Taft is a corporate pawn and Coolidge is a top ten President??  Alright, man.

[ScottieF]

Wilson. His first term is among the best ever. His second, unfortunately, is among the worst, but with the exception of Taft who was ok you could say the same thing about all of these guys.

[Gass3268]

There are just too many negatives with Wilson to put him at #1 here.

1. Taft
2. Wilson
3. Harding
4. Coolidge
5. Hoover

[Kingpoleon]

1. Coolidge
2. Taft
3. Harding
4. Wilson
5. Hoover

[SWE]

Warren Harding helped start the economic boom of the Roaring 20s, ended the lawless Palmer raids at the hieght of the Red Scare, freed Eugene V. Debs from prison, formalized US exit from WW1, signed the Washignton Naval Treaty, renormalized relations with Mexico, and tried to pass anti-lynching bills. All in 2 years.

This claim is absurd, but I went with Harding for the rest of these reasons.

[Illiniwek]

ICK. Wilson...