What presidents have you changed your mind about the most?

[A18]

What presidents have you changed your mind about the most?

[BobOMac2k2]

Nixon

[A18]

Nixon

How did you change your mind? Positive to negative? Vice versa?

[Platypus]

[J. J.]

Ford, he showed must better administrative ability than I thought at the time.

[Storebought]

George H W Bush: my opinion of him has declined. He willingly let himself steamrollered by Mitchell and Foley.

[Gabu]

George H W Bush: my opinion of him has declined. He willingly let himself steamrollered by Mitchell and Foley.

Probably completely uncoincidentally, my opinion of George H. W. Bush has gone way up over time.

[TheWildCard]

Bill Clinton I used to really dispise him... But, hey I was a 6 year old just getting used to watching politics and I was over passionate. Now I do believe Bill Clinton was an okay President and is an amazing politician.

[J.R. Brown]

Nixon, he really did alot of good opening up relations with China. Too bad about Watergate. He probably would have been rated as one of the greatest presidents in the history of this country if he hadn't been so paranoid. Does anybody know of any good documentary's or books having anything to do with Nixon's presidency besides Watergate?

[Hitchabrut]

Nixon +, TR -

[PBrunsel]

My opinion of Rutherford B. Hayes has gone way up over the years.

[PADem]

Reagan: +
Ford: -

[12th Doctor]

FDR +

Kennedy +

Johnson  +- (depends on the issue)

Nixon +

Ford +

G H W Bush +

Clinton (slightly more possitve, but that is probably just the rage dying off)

[Bono]

FDR: -
Nixon: -
Reagan: -
Lincoln: -^n
T. Jefferson: a wee bit less

[A18]

Anyone wanna post why...?

[nini2287]

I look more favorably now upon all Republicans since WWII (with the excpetions of Reagan and Bush 43).

[DanielX]

Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Cleveland, Van Buren up. TR, FDR, Wilson, Buchannan  down. 

As you can see, except for TR, my big changes have been as per Democrats.

[A18]

Anyone wanna post why...?

[TheWildCard]

Anyone wanna post why...?

My opinion of Clinton went up because I understand now he was/is a very good politician. But, I do disagree with his policy. I do like the fact that he balanced the budget, though, the Republican Congress played a fairly hefty role in that.

[Dave from Michigan]

FDR,  I use to like him a lot, but after reading a few books and reading some information I learned his policies helped continue the depression and led to some of the big government that we have today.

Johnson more negative mostly more government programs and handling vietnam.  of course the civil rights acts signed by him were a bright spot in his administration.

Reagan more positive, cut taxes brough us out of the bad economic times of the late 70's.  helped win the cold war defeat the U.S.S.R.

Clinton slightly more positive, but I think I just dislike him less that he's gone.  Still disagree with him on lots of issues.  Good things he did, signed NAFTA, and welfare reform. and the budget was balanced (the republican congress is responsible for some of this, but Clinton didn't have to sign it.)  Of course he cut the millitary, raised taxes, banned guns, and tried to do universal healthcare.

A lot of these changes have been because i've became more economically conservative and more for less government over the last 5 years. Although socially I've remained the same.  In fact in 2000 I was rather populist and hoping Al Gore would win.

[BobOMac2k2]

Nixon

How did you change your mind? Positive to negative? Vice versa?

Positive actually.

[Beet]

Reagan

[dazzleman]

I would say that as time has gone on, I have become less of an admirer of Richard Nixon.

I used to like him, partly because liberals hated him, and partly for his foreign policy accomplishments such as the ending of US involvement in Vietnam, the opening to China, and the (temporary) stabilization of relations with the Soviet Union.

But a few things have happened that have caused me to reassess Nixon.  First, additional information has come out about him that has shown him basically to have been a nut, or at least a severely maladjusted person.  In this sense, he had a lot in common with LBJ.

Second, during the Clinton administration, I saw some of Nixon's abuses from the other side.  Personality aside, I see a lot of similarities between Clinton and Nixon, most particularly their contempt for their own supporters and their cynical manipulation of those supporters, as well as their overall contempt for the voters.

Third, in hindsight, many aspects of Nixon's detente with the Russians appear very foolish, especially in light of what Reagan accomplished (albeit in a much friendlier political environment).  While Nixon did have some great foreign policy accomplishments, such as the opening to China, it could be argued that for a time, the Soviets got the better end of the detente stick, and that Nixon was responsible for some of that.  (It could also be argued that the Nixon-Kissinger detente helped set the table for the Reagan policies of defeating the Soviet Union).

So while I am not a Nixon hater, I am not the Nixon admirer that I once was.  I also think Jerry Ford has gone batty in his old age, hanging out with the likes of Jimmy Carter and agreeing with him on all sorts of things.

[Gustaf]

Well, it depends on where you start...I have learned that FDR didn't really stop the depression, on the other hand I now admire his work for a welfare state more. My opinion of Harry Truman has gone down a little, wheras my view of TR has gone up. Lincoln went down, but is now back up again. Washington has gone down a lot, due to his level of partisanship. I have on the other hand begun to realize why so many people like Jefferson.

[Michael Z]

The idea that FDR didn't stop the depression stems from neocon attempts at rewriting history which are designed to change mainstream opinion so the left's one historical figure with mass appeal is smeared and they can go ahead with privatising social security and generally reversing the New Deal.

More often that not people point to unemployment figures as the sole reason why one should believe that the New Deal was ineffective. While it's true that the number of jobless stayed pretty much stagnant between 1933 and 1938, they a) didn't go up, which may have happened during a period without the New Deal, and b) do not take into consideration how many jobs were actually created and other such figures; in other words the unemployment figures until '38, when taken out of context, look pretty bad, but within the context of the time and compared to other relevant statistical data actually suggest that FDR did a decent job ensuring the US economy was stabilised.

Anyway, [/rant]. Onto the topic:

Nixon +  I used to let Watergate and his flawed personality solely influence my opinion of him, but I eventually came to realise that his foreign policy (China, approving Brandt's Ostpolitik, etc) made a huge contribution to the end of the Cold War.

Hoover +  PBrunsel converted me.   An average President, but a great man all round, and not the loser history books tend to portray him as.

If the Bush administration continues its conciliatory approach towards Europe I may add him to my + column soon as well.