Best President of 20th Century

Reagan. Damnit. Reagan.

 

Somebody read George Will's column last week.
I was going to list Coolidge, based solely on Will's column, but fuck him. Underrated? Maybe?
One of the best?
He was a quintessential that-which-governs-least-governs-best guy. His best attribute wasn't the passage of bills but the killing of bad ones.
He also slept what 12 hours a day.


I think Hoover is a more interesting case. A fucking whiz kid during WWI who should have whipped the Great Depression before it got the level of "Great." Instead, it got bad and he got blamed.

 

That's gonna happen when you let defense spending run wild.
The Star Wars program?
Iran-Contra?

 

What's not to love (w.r.t. Truman)? He stepped into an office for which he was woefully unprepared and acquitted himself quite well. Further, he was confronted with serious, serious challenges that were largely unprecedented. He managed to NOT get suckered into a war with the USSR, he managed to get the Marshall Plan through an opposition Congress, and he strengthened civilian control of the armed forces at a time when that was a pretty dicey proposition.

I have a hard time with the word "best" here, but relative to the more historically consequential presidents -- Wilson, FDR, LBJ and Reagan -- Truman stacks up pretty damn well.

 

I agree with you on Will. Normally I don't read him, but that column caught my eye.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-13/opinions/37077678_1_police-strike-national-debt-new-president

 

Where's the Obama option? Thanks for keeping it credible if not honest of the vast leaning in these parts. But seriously....Nixon?

 

What years of the 20th century was Obama the president?

 

Also not on the list: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

 

I wou

Hell, if woefully unprepared is what you want, I'd make a great president, dammit!

 

LBJ certainly isn't the best (you can't mention him without Vietnam) but he's certainly the guy who grew most in office. From a corrupt wheeler-dealer pol to more statesmanesque creator of the Great Society.

Wilson suffers the most from anything but a casual scrutiny. From a serial denier of civil rights to being pretty racist, he has to be the poster-child for progressive hypocrisy.

 

LOL ... get in line. The run-up to 2016 starts in about half an hour!

 

FDR. He kept the country together when it was about to fall apart again, and that whole WWII thing.