Favorite president of the 20th century

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Vote away

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Coolidge, definitely

How come you voted for Reagan then?

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1-Carter
2-FDR
3-Teddy Roosvelt
4-Clinton
5-Eisenhower

Why do Democrats like Teddy Roosevelt? He makes Bush look live a dove.

Not domestically.

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Reagan, but I will point out that G. W. Bush is a strictly 21st Century president.

Hence he's not on this list.

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Seems like most people vote for Reagan but post for FDR.

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I'm surprised no one has voted for Eisenhower. I thought he enjoyed some bipartisan popularity.

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Bush would never attack corporations or stand up for the little guy's rights the way Teddy did.

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Bush would never attack corporations or stand up for the little guy's rights the way Teddy did.

If you mean trust-busting efforts, of course he would (and McKinley started that policy). If you mean something else, please explain.

Well, I meant a modern equivalent of trust busting. And what about Teddy's efforts for natural conversation? Bush just wants to do away with that and allow Alaskan oil drillings.

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Hi Everybody, My vote is Bill Clinton.

Good choice!

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I'm surprised Johnson is as popular as Clinton and more popular than Theodore Roosevelt.

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Toss up between Truman and Reagan.

An old New Dealer who dropped the bomb vs. the guy who did away with the New Deal once and for all and produced stockpiles of nuclear weapons. If you're into foreign policy, Truman presided over the end of WWII while Reagan gets (too much) credit for ending the Cold War. I guess this one's up to you. However, domestically the country was doing a lot better under the Truman administration, so I advise you vote for Truman. Unless, of course, you're in favor of urban poverty.

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I feel so alone...

The one and only Hoover voter!

Sorry. Well, I haven't vote in my thread yet. Perhaps you can convince me to vote for Hoover?

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Would the Ford voter please stand up?

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You should vote for Hoover because he was a man who led the greatest relief work in world history as head of the World Food Corps from 1919-1921.

As President he was the first President to try to help the unemployed and poor.

He was a kind man who worked hard, belived in the American Dream, and always told the truth.

First point: I know that was really great, but unfortunately he wasn't president then. It's like the Carter-paradox--great guy as well, but rather ineffective president.

Second point: What about the progressives? I don't mean to get into an argument about the Great Depression, but A LOT of people fell into poverty on Hoover's watch.

Third point: Well, it kind of goes back to the first point. Even as a more liberal-minded person, I'll give Reagan credit for being a charmer (e.g. "Honey, I forgot to duck"). However, I just disagree with his decisions too much to vote for him.

And what about the veterans?

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Hoover might have been a great guy, but I'd rather rate the president than the man. If you had lived under his presidency, I'm not so sure you would have thought so favorably of him...

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JFK would have been up there really high if only he wouldn't have gotten shot and thus not given a chance to really leave a Presidential legacy.

I think this is really unfair. So, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Berlin wall and/or the Cuban Missile Crisis just don't count because JFK was shot? However, some might argue that BECAUSE he was shot, he left more of a legacy than a number of other presidents.

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Actually I was hoping one more person would vote, then I would vote to earn 50 votes, but I guess the observation will do now too: Overall, 20 votes were cast Republican presidents and 28 votes were cast for Democratic presidents. This shows that while the Democrats could be the more popular party, they lack one decisive point--unity! Even the most popular Democrat, FDR, couldn't compete with Reagan whom most conservatives could back. The real Democratic party should take things like this into consideration.

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Sigh... whenever I make a poll, you always vote for Reagan.

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How about making a poll about who the crappiest president of the 20th cty was. See if they still vote for Reagan.

Haha! Good idea!

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Crappiest would have to be Carter.  You remember him, right?  He's the guy Reagan beat.  HAHAHA     Oops.  I should have said that he is ONE of the guys that Reagan beat.

What makes Carter worse than, say, Harding?

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Harding was a bit before my time, quite a long bit of time actually.  My opinion of him can only be formed by what I have read about him.  As you know, historical analysis changes over time. 

As far as I know, Harding's aren't likely to get any better. You might want to say that he got lucky to die before all his scandals were exposed. Someone even tried defending him by claiming that he was probably too dumb to know how corrupt his Ohio gang really was. Anyway, it never fails to amaze me how overwhelmingly popular he must have been at least in 1920!

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CSPAN historians rank them (20th century only)

1. Franklin Roosevelt
2. Theodore Roosevelt
3. Harry Truman
4. Woodrow Wilson
5. John Kennedy
6. Dwight Eisenhower
7. Lyndon Johnson
8. Ronald Reagan
9. William McKinley
10. George Bush
11. Bill Clinton
12. Jimmy Carter
13. Gerald Ford
14. William Taft
15. Richard Nixon
16. Calvin Coolidge
17. Herbert Hoover
18. Warren Harding

Not sure I agree with all of them...

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Taft busted more Trusts than did Teddy Roosevelt.  Why did they rank Taft so much lower than T.R.?  Must be a popularity contest

Taft preserved more wild life too. However, Taft's administration was marked by scandal which caused TR to run again in 1912. Arguably Taft may have been more progressive than Teddy but since he just followed Teddy's policies, Taft wasn't original which is probably why they rated him so much lower.