Something I've been thinking a lot about lately. Not a poll, rather have people say who is and explain reasons why. Post the greatest reasons, and maybe some runners up.

Franklin D Roosevelt:

1) Helped America get through Great Depression with New Deal, gave jobs instead of handouts, but actually did something to help the people unlike Hoover.

2) Lead America through one of the scariest times in history, and kept it's morale above what others would have.

3)Spoke weekly to us on the radio, comforting us and assuring us of the future.

4) Had a first lady who actually took an active roll instead of being passive or just plain and abnoxious.

5) Cared for the people of the United States, and did not server one party, but one nation.

6) Did not let a life threatening illness control him, yet he overcame it and still served as a devoted leader to his nation in crisis.


Runners Up:

Abraham Lincoln- Civil Rights and a divided country.

Ronald Reagan- was not politcaly correct and actaully did the hard thing to do, stand up to the USSR and tell them to "tear down this wall!"

George Washington- the usual and obvious reasons.

So, who do you think is the greatest president of all time?

Teddy Roosevelt

I disagree with Reagan

Millard Fillmore, biatches.

William Henry Harrison. Died of pneumonia after less than a month in office, before he had the chance to do any serious harm to the country.

Vetinari.

-... what?

I've posted my thing about Roosevelt about 9,000 times, and so has Brad. He wsa a terrible terrible terrible terrible president as far as the economy goes. He plunged America even deeper into the depression by his "Pump the prime" method. AKA, if you spend more and more money, eventually the economy would rise. The New Deal was one of the worst programs ever devised by a nation.

Not to mention he stocked the Supreme Court with justices that would pass his extremely unconstitutional acts. Agricultrual Act? Fascist 100%. Not to mention a total supply distortion. He was f***** holding back farmers from growing too much food. AND HE BURNED SURPLUS!!! Sure, let's not give it to the starving people. We'll just burn it and artifically change the supply to make prices even higher. Sure, all good for the farmers, but the poor people can't afford the higher price damnit. Good god it is freakin retarded.

FDR kept morale high while he sent America deeper into the depression. That was the only thing that was commendable about him.

Brad, I'm gonna let you handle the facts.

The US still benefits from a lot of the public projects that resulted from some of his programs though. Yeah, he kept spending, but at least he tried to do something. And to be fair, you should really divide FDR's presidency into the Depression and WWII because they were so castly different.

I'm pratial to Teddy Roosevelt because he started the National Park system and the National Forests and the Forest Service, which started a lot of environmental awareness in the US.

Social Security?

That we do. Oh and I'd like to see any other president handle the Depression. I don't think any could do a better job, however probably some of you Massassians could.

[QUOTE=Michael MacFarlane]William Henry Harrison. Died of pneumonia after less than a month in office, before he had the chance to do any serious harm to the country.[/QUOTE]

I could so picture this as a Far Side cartoon. WHH is slumped over on his desk and underneath him is a paper headed "Plan for World Peace, Ending World Hunger, and Making the Ultimate Moonshine."

No, physical projects, like roads, dams, parks, etc.

William Jefferson Clinton. My reasons are my own, but have nothing to do with his personal affairs which nobody should have gotten involved with.

Also making our banks safer to invest in, a more equal distribution of wealth, and many acts that helped progress America technolgically.

We got out of the Depression because wartime production created a need for jobs. No other reason.

Also, why is it important whether any Massassians could do better? Last I checked, no one's touting mscbuck as the greatest President the U.S. has ever seen.

Who took a bullet and still finished his speech?

-I can't remember because I went to public schools.

You realize his Federal Deposit Insurance basically caused the depression in the 1980s. When all those savings and loans banks closed their doors, taxpayers were hit with 500 billion dollars to pay. Not to mention that the FDI encouraged banks to be careless and reckless, as there was no difference in premium offered to a bank that was managed well, or one that was terrible. FDI did the exact opposite to making bakers safer to invest in. It didn't stop any failures. By providing deposit insurnace for banks that let's just say were involved in some risky practices, the government encouraged those practices and those banks just failed because of those same practices that the gov't encouraged them to do. There was a total cost shifting from depositers who received big profits from interest rates from the risky banks, to taxpayers who had to pay off the bailout costs.

I had to look it up, but it was Theodore Roosevelt. The bullet was never removed either. That's hardcore.

FDR was curopt. He just rode the times. Any idiot can be a hero by getting shot. Did he do anything to get himself shot? No. But just cause he happend to be there when at the same time as a mugger, he's a hero, and his inaduquesies are ignored. FDR's the same way. He was a president during difficult times and when we prevailed through them, he was praised just becase he was a president during them. He had detrimental policies. And he was trying to buddy up the the Russians who killed more people in concentration camps than Hitler.

Well, that was disjointed. I hate this keyboard. I'm so glad I replaced it. Thermaltake can't make a keyboard.

The 1980s crash could of happened with or without Roosevelts intervention. And many experts give different reasons for the crash. The FDI didn't say "banks can do whatever they want now" It was the BANKS who took advantage and used that security recklessly.

Wikipedia has a good article that talks about many of the reasons the crash could of occured http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987).

FDR wanted to put faith back in the bank of America, and if he didn't I bet you'd be stuffing cash under your matress by now.

FDR was never shot. And where did the corruption thing come from? As the the Russians, FDR wasn't thrilled to have them as our allies, but they didn't like the Germans much. It was a case of the enemy of our enemy is our friend.

Ulysses! Yay for drunk presidents! I pick him only cause he was a damn good general, not cause of his presidency.

Nixon.
Clinton.

Um, that is exactly my point. The FDI kept insuring banks that were acting recklessly. There was no risk-based premium at all. Would you keep loaning money to someone who is always ending up in debtor's prison?

'Tis my last post. I'll let Brad handle the FDR myth debunking. He knows more than I do.

Well FDR died before the crash in the 80s. His measures were mor short-term than long-term, and I think if he saw the bank corruption after the Depression he would of amended the FDI to deal with those banks.

ULYSSES S. GRANT. Woohoo!

ROCK ON, 2 VOTES FOR THE GRANT!

I might've missed it, but who said he was? If you're responding to my post, I said Theodore Roosevelt.

I vote for Samuel J. Tilden as best president.

[QUOTE=Michael MacFarlane]I might've missed it, but who said he was? If you're responding to my post, I said Theodore Roosevelt. ;)[/QUOTE]


That was for Obi in his rant about FDR.

Ah. I'd gotten the impression he was trying to make an analogy.

You know, most of our revered founding fathers were slave owners.



The USA allying itself with oppressive regimes? UNTHINKABLE

I couldn't tell half of what he was trying to say, honestly.

Definitely definitely definitely FDR deserves the greatest-president-of-all-time title. Every major economic decision he made I agree with 100% and his leadership skills were unsurpassed. This country really needs another FDR right now to get us out of our current crisis, which will only get worse. Bush may as well not even be at the helm.. he hasn't done jack squat.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Oh, and Lincoln is definately a good runnerup. The rest.. hm, I don't think I even remember other U.S presidents.

Well, TR's a major badass, and Clinton's a pimp, but I only feel qualified to select someone I have experienced firsthand, and that's why Clinton gets my vote for best prez.

-I am not a... fan... of Geroge W. bush.

That's because there is no real great economic problem to fix! Increasing the size of the government and spending more and more and raising taxes won't do. We don't need another socialistic New Deal. In fact, we need a LARGE reduction in government bloat. Social Security is all but broke. It was designed to fix a 1930s depressed America. People are living a lot longer than they did in 1930s. You'll have to pour A LOT of revenue into S.S. That's going have to come in through other programs or a tax hike. It should die out and replaced with something better. Preferably, privitization. Yes, energy is pricy. Our dependence on the Mid East is too great and we need to fix that quick. A temporary fix would have been in ANWR but that's been repeatedly shot down. These constant high energy costs will begin to erode the economy esp. if they continue to rise.

Moral of the story: Outright socialism will not work.

I think Clinton was your best president. I believe he's the one who has visited Finland the most times, so that man must have some serious intelligence.

*Cocks weapon* The hell it won't.

-I'm not... advocating anything. All I'm saying is... y'know... bloody revolutions happen. All the time.

Clinton. He loooooved those laydeez.

(And a lot of people think his dawter is hawt)

If you're referring to oil, most of that comes from Canada.