Can anyone actually name anything Washington did while President, or are we just going off of "THE FIRST, SO THE BEST"?
Of all the things Washington did, the greatest no doubt was the example he set of running for only two terms. He easily could have run for reelection in 1796. He had no health problems then that would have prevented it. He likely would have gotten not only reelected, but also a third unanimous vote in the Electoral College. We like to think there are no great men, only great ideas. But without Washington, the United States would likely have descended into the typical post revolutionary hellhole of being a republic in name only led by a strongman who does anything it takes to stay in power, ostensibly because he is indispensable and is the only one who can run things, of which the two most egregious examples today are Zimbabwe under Mugabe and Russia under Putin.
FDR's hubris that led him to seek third term put that at risk and is both what made the 22nd Amendment necessary and puts him out of the top five in my list.
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