Presidential Rankings

[Michael Z]

I see many Republicans here claiming that Reagan singlehandedly "won" the cold war. He didn't. Reagan's foreign policy undoubtedly contributed to the collapse of the USSR, but the Soviet Union failed primarily on its own accord due to having an economic and sociopolitical system which was utterly unsustainable.

You're also disregarding the involvement of Gorbachev, Kohl, and others.

[Michael Z]

Yes, certainly others contributed to the CCCP's fall, including Thatcher, Kohl, John Paul II, Walesa, Havel, Yeltsin, Schervadnadze, and of course Gorbachev, but certainly Reagan's victory in the Cold War should not rank as moderately bad! Even if you make Iran-Contra out to be as Watergate, MiamiU still ranks Reagan below Nixon! This can only be explained by ideological considerations, which should be strongly avoided as a factor when ranking presidents.

You have a point there.

Lincoln caused the Civil War

Hmmm, I'm not so sure about that. Many historians argue that the Civil War was inevitable, because conflict had been brewing for a long time prior to Lincoln's election.