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Other Teams Receiving Votes.

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Fenian_Bastard, Apr 23, 2007.

  1. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    I think Washingtpn is a 1 seed because he was the presidency. The Framers were willing to give Washington anything he wanted -- he could have been King George I. But his vision of a limited executive was evident in the Constitution itself (other than being Commander-in-Chief and being able to appoint various positions -- with the advice and consent of the Senate -- the President is given very few powers within the Constitution). And Washington's presidency was, if nothing else, an exercise in defining the office. At a very basic level, the idea that the president should only serve two terms comes from Washington. And our romanticism with the office seeking the man, not the man seeking the office, comes from Washington. He is the basis for the entire conception of the presidency.

    My entirely biased Top 16 seeds:

    1 seeds: Washington, FDR, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt
    2 seeds: Eisenhower, Truman, Jackson, Jefferson
    3 seeds: Monroe, Polk, J. Adams, Reagan
    4 seeds: Wilson, Cleveland, JFK, LBJ

    This is tougher than you might think. We can all name 6-8 presidents who did well -- I think most of us would hard pressed to argue that any of the 1 or 2 seeds were bad presidents. After that, it is a mixed bag that is entirely dependent on how you view little things. I give John Adams a great deal of credit for establishing the peaceful transfer of power between opposing political parties. It was something completely new in world history: a head of state turns over power to a rival without being forced to by the sharp end of a bayonet. But besides that, there is little to distinguish Adams.

    On the flip side, it hurt to leave Madison off. He is easily one of the 10 greatest Americans ever. But he was a mediocre president who had no idea how to manage a war. I think he gets into the top 15 of a lot of presidential polls based on his service leading up to the presidency.
     
  2. Clever username

    Clever username Active Member

    Spluh? Can't say I ever even learned that to forget it.
     
  3. Clever username

    Clever username Active Member

    Intriguing argument. I was thinking strictly in terms of what they literally did/did not do while in office, which was shortsighted.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    No. 1: Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Jefferson
    No. 2: TR, Jackson, Monroe, Wilson
    No. 3: Truman, John Adams, Madison, Polk
    No. 4: Eisenhower, Clinton, Reagan, JQ Adams


    Remember, you have to rate Eisenhower as president, not on his war experience. LBJ was a two-termer, but his presidency had fallen apart at the end. And for all the good he wanted to do, JFK still put us into Vietnam.
     
  5. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    I am only rating Ike in terms of his presidency. He led us through postwar prosperity, gave us the interstate highway system, had great Cold War leadership, was willing to publicly support Brown and go toe-to-toe with Faubus, set events in motion for the U.S. to win the Space Race.
     
  6. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    LBJ was a 1 1/2 termer, and things started falling apart badly almost as soon as he took office for his elected term in 1965. The Watts riots that summer signalled things starting to go downhill for him, and then he just kept wading deeper and deeper and deeper into Vietnam.

    Interesting what-if: If LBJ had run and been re-elected in 1968, he would have ended up serving over nine years -- about as long as is constitutionally permitted. On the other hand, as it turned out, he died on Jan. 22, 1973 -- two days after the end of what would have been his second term -- and it's hard to see him lasting that long if he had remained in office.
     
  7. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I should have said by the end, not at the end. And I meant he was in office for two terms -- partial was still a term. He was still a stubborn foof who should have stayed in the Senate.
     
  8. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    Here is March Madness, presidential-style. I used Wikipedia's average historical ranking and put into a 42-team tournament. Here is your field. If we want to make this a separate thread, let me know.

    EAST REGIONAL
    Play-in games
    No. 32 Richard Nixon vs. No. 33 James A. Garfield
    No. 24 Rutherford B. Hayes v. No. 41 James Buchanan
    No. 25 George H.W. Bush v. No. 40 Franklin Pierce
    ---
    No. 1 Abraham Lincoln vs. Nixon/Garfield winner
    No. 16 James Monroe v. No. 17 Grover Cleveland
    No. 9 Dwight Eisenhower v. Hayes/Buchanan winner
    No. 8 Andrew Jackson v. GHWB/Pierce winner

    MIDWEST REGIONAL
    Play-in games
    No. 29 Herbert Hoover v. No. 36 Millard Fillmore
    No. 28 Gerald Ford v. No. 37 Ulysses S. Grant
    -----
    No. 4 Thomas Jefferson v. Hoover/Fillmore winner
    No. 13 James Madison v. No. 20 William Howard Taft
    No. 12 John F. Kennedy v. No. 21 Bill Clinton
    No. 5 Theodore Roosevelt v. Ford/Grant winner

    SOUTH REGIONAL
    Play-in games
    No. 31 Calvin Coolidge v. No. 34 Zachary Taylor
    No. 23 Martin Van Buren v. No. 42 Warren Harding
    No. 26 Chester Arthur v. No. 39 Andrew Johnson
    ----
    No. 2 Franklin Roosevelt v. Coolidge/Taylor winner
    No. 15 Ronald Reagan v. No. 18 William McKinley
    No. 10 James K. Polk v. Van Buren/Harding winner
    No. 7 Harry Truman v. Arthur/A. Johnson winner

    WEST REGIONAL
    Play-in games
    No. 30 Benjamin Harrison v. No. 35 John Tyler
    No. 27 Jimmy Carter v. No. 38 William Henry Harrison
    -----
    No. 3 George Washington v. Harrison/Tyler winner
    No. 14 Lyndon Johnson v. No. 19 John Quincy Adams
    No. 11 John Adams v. No. 22 George W. Bush
    No. 6 Woodrow Wilson v. Ford/Harrison winner
     
  9. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Yeah, I would suggest a separate thread for more play... this could get lost in this title...
     
  10. Clever username

    Clever username Active Member

    No. 12 John F. Kennedy v. No. 21 Bill Clinton

    Wow. That one might get the highest ratings.
     
  11. JackyJackBN

    JackyJackBN Guest

    Doc, after several conversations with one of the Directors of the Truman Memorial, I decided to run over to Independence on a recent visit to KC. It's worth a day, at least; I only had three hours, so I have to go back. I can't recall another man who came into the office so small and came out so large.
     
  12. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    Yeah, for me it would be between him and Monroe for my last No. 1 seed. Truman was a great man.
     
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