Best Speaker of the House in your lifetime

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Legitimately can't imagine any Republican saying Pelosi; for that matter I struggle to imagine a swing voter who plausibly could vote Republican saying this. Might be useful to see this poll broken down by party, I guess. I will say that Pelosi was probably "best" at her job in a technical aspect; she was a master at counting votes, including on the other side, and knowing exactly what the standings were. Boehner is in a distant second and all the other Speakers are then way behind.

I interpreted the question "best" to mean the most effective at their job, rather than your own personal favorite.

I leave that to interpretation in my polls. That's why I regard Reagan as one of the worst presidents in part because he was successful in implementing his vision. Others have different standards.

I am going to go with Boehner, which is amazing considering I supported Pence's challenge to him in late 2006.

Huh, I followed politics at the time and this completely fell under my radar.

I do have Boehner as my favorite Republican Speaker. At least he always came to the table with a deal.

[RC]

O'Neill was good but Nancy edges him.

Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo chill

[Mr. Smith]

Tip O'Neill had a great understanding of politics for his day ("All politics is local.")

He was the Speaker from 1981-1982 when the Democrats held a majority in the House, but the Republicans had what was referred to as an 'ideological majority' combining the Republicans (maybe not the Eastern liberal Republicans) and the conservative mostly Southern Democrats (like Earl Hutto.)

As the Democrats had a majority, O'Neill presumably could have attempted to have blocked most of Reagan's Agenda, as the Republicans have done in the Senate to Democratic presidents even with a minority by abusing the filibuster, (The House committee chairs had more power at this time, and maybe could have stood up to O'Neill though), but O'Neill decided that due to the 1980 election results that Reagan had earned a mandate to have his agenda implemented if it could earn majority support in Congress.

Of course, O'Neill may have also been concerned about a large scale defection of conservative Democrats to the Republican Party, but given that the term 'boll weevil Democrat' still existed in the South, I think that would have been unlikely.

Given him and Teddy's actions with St. Ronnie's predecessor, I hesitate to see what makes him that great.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I am voting on basis of job performance and overall impact on the public square.
On that basis...
Gingrich: D- (His role in the 1994 GOP revolution happening weighs against him and his overall tenure as Speaker is one I disapprove of, though he does get some positive credit for ending the deficit)
Hastert: C (effective, but at passing bad stuff. The guy's bad on his own merits for obvious reasons of course, for reasons that are known...Also not a fan of his "'Majority of the Majority" nonsense)
Pelosi: A (Not perfect, but she's a brilliant politician and I will miss her.)
Boehner: C+ (Not a Tea Partier and cut deals with Obama. There were worse House Rs)
Ryan: D- (Not a fan of his vision and he was pretty ineffective. Net negative for him on net, though him being ineffective was a good thing for the country given context.)

[Benjamin Frank]

Tip O'Neill had a great understanding of politics for his day ("All politics is local.")

He was the Speaker from 1981-1982 when the Democrats held a majority in the House, but the Republicans had what was referred to as an 'ideological majority' combining the Republicans (maybe not the Eastern liberal Republicans) and the conservative mostly Southern Democrats (like Earl Hutto.)

As the Democrats had a majority, O'Neill presumably could have attempted to have blocked most of Reagan's Agenda, as the Republicans have done in the Senate to Democratic presidents even with a minority by abusing the filibuster, (The House committee chairs had more power at this time, and maybe could have stood up to O'Neill though), but O'Neill decided that due to the 1980 election results that Reagan had earned a mandate to have his agenda implemented if it could earn majority support in Congress.

Of course, O'Neill may have also been concerned about a large scale defection of conservative Democrats to the Republican Party, but given that the term 'boll weevil Democrat' still existed in the South, I think that would have been unlikely.

Given him and Teddy's actions with St. Ronnie's predecessor, I hesitate to see what makes him that great.

I didn't say he was great, if you're referring to what I wrote, I said he had a great understanding of politics for his day.

I didn't actually express an opinion of him overall. I was just pointing out, since my lifetime is a longer than most people's here, what I remember about him.

I was making the point that O'Neill was from an era when politicians didn't attempt to block the agenda of the opposing party as a routine matter. Whether that is good or bad in general, or good or bad specifically regarding Reagan's agenda is up for every individual to decide for themselves.

I think Carter was his own worst enemy when it came to dealing with Congress.

[President Johnson]

Queen Nancy