4th Greatest President.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, Grant, McKinley, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, or Reagan, I guess are in the running for #4.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The list of my top ten, in order (which could change):

1.  Lincoln
2.  Washington
3.  FDR
4.  Grant
5.  Garfield
6.  Arthur
7.  TR
8.  Jefferson
9.  Truman
10.  JQA

I see little reason to rank men who accomplished quite little in office above strong and successful executives such as Polk and McKinley.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I tend to judge presidents based on their ability to use their electoral mandate (or lack thereof) to accomplish their agendas, as well as their success in making the United States a stronger and more powerful country. There's a difference between best presidents and favorite presidents, I'll add. Zachary Taylor, for example, could be a favorite president, but during his short time he neither shaped the national debate to suit his aims, nor did he find us a war to prove our mettle in. Had he lived, he'd likely be in both categories right now. There are certain asterisks that will always come with "great", as history shows.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I tend to judge presidents based on their ability to use their electoral mandate (or lack thereof) to accomplish their agendas, as well as their success in making the United States a stronger and more powerful country. There's a difference between best presidents and favorite presidents, I'll add. Zachary Taylor, for example, could be a favorite president, but during his short time he neither shaped the national debate to suit his aims, nor did he find us a war to prove our mettle in. Had he lived, he'd likely be in both categories right now. There are certain asterisks that will always come with "great", as history shows.

Fair enough.  I admit that my top 10 list is my list of 10 favorite.  Obviously, Garfield can't be one of the greats since he wasn't in office that long.  However, the top three are both my favorites and who I consider the greatest.  Grant could possibly be 4th or up there if you count his pre-presidency Civil War leadership.  

Anyway, while the President should make the US strong, I disagree that conquering weaker nations such as Hawaii or the Philippines is necessarily a good thing or something that defines greatness. Luckily for the US, that aggressive foreign policy worked out in the long-term back then, but an aggressive and bad@$$ foreign policy is not only immoral, but it's never guaranteed to work out for a aggressor nation in the end.  FDR was certainly great for being strong abroad, but that's because WWII was a necessary war, not a war of conquest or arrogant imperialism.

The Spanish-American War is called that for a reason.