Presidential Rankings

[M]

1. George Washington, no question
2. Abe Lincoln
3. FDR
4. Ronald Reagan
5. Teddy Roosevelt

Side note_ I do not include Bush in the rankings because his presidency is still in progress. If he had been shot this morning I would have put him at 5. I expect him to be higher by 2008, If he succeeds in changing the face of the mideast.

Bottom:
38. Jimmy Carter
39. Rutherford B. Hayes
40. Richard Nixon
41. Ulysses S. Grant
42. Warren Harding

[M]

I do think Reagan should be in the top 5 or at least 10, and not for partisan reasons. He won the Cold War against great domestic and international opposition, and I think more importantly, he restoreds the faith of the American people in their government. After the murders of the Kennedies and Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War, the culture Wars, Watergate, and to top it all off, the disaster of Carter (economic maliase and all), all against the backdrop of the Cold War, the nation had little left to believe in. Suddenly here's this old actor from the patriotic WW2 era, symbolizing the even older proud American era of the open frontier (the "Cowboy"). He makes people believe in the country again, then wins the forty year Cold War (not entirely his doing, I admit, but he played a large part.) After that, most Americans believed again in ideals higher than personal security, in the cause of freedom.

[M]

Peace and prosperity can be achieved many ways. They can be achieved if the Nazis complete world conquest. Isolationism is not a worthy national goal.

I would rank Clinton the better part of middle of the road except for lying under oath, which brings him down to lower part of middle of the road. What great thing did he accomplish for the expansion of the ideal that "all men are created equal"? Nothing.

George W. Bush should not be ranked yet. So far, however, he has shown a moral clarity not seen since Wilson, but unlike Wilson and like Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan especially, he has had the guts to get it done against strong opposition. This is evidenced by his incredible vision of spreaqding democracy and self-determination to the entire Near East.

I put FDR at 3. He did the most ever to expand democracy (our system was truly in danger of collapse during the depression, but he saved it. Then he not just won WW2, but turned the Axis into thriving democracies.) Abe Lincoln is higher, his moral clarity and determination not to allow the Union's split and later to eradicate the evil of slavery make him one of the greatest men in history. Washington, though, founded more traditions about running the country than it is possible to count. Unlike any other president ever, there was broad support for him to be made King or Dictator. He turned all these offers down, and governed with the principles of Locke and Montesqieu. He truly was First In War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of his Countrymen.

 

[M]

This argument is... astonishing. Wow. I am speechless.

Until I remember there are those who apologize for Hitler as well. A lot of them. They rule several Middle Eastern nations.

On second thought, Beet isn't so out of touch with reality.

[M]

MiamiU's list is pretty good, a few places I disagree, but the glaring problem is your ranking of Reagan, which is utterly ridiculous/ Winning the Cold War and restoring the nation's faith in govt is moderately bad? What the heck?

[M]

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.