dark crystal wrote: » JFK was both those things too....
Manic Moran wrote: » Face it, outside of his being attacked by a rabbit, what do people in Ireland know about the presidency of Jimmy Carter?
wretcheddomain wrote: » For reasons unknown to me. Has nobody ever heard of the Al Shifa Pharmaceutical Plant bombing?
Cody Pomeray wrote: » Clinton. When I was growing up he was the symbol of an America that still represented the mottos of which Obama has only managed to make a blunder - hope, and equality and justice.
Rascasse wrote: » Only Clinton could win this poll, mostly due to two reasons. 1. Democrat 2. Oirish
Rascasse wrote: » And it was he that I voted for (due to him being the impetus for the moon landings). I expect he will lose out due to being ancient history to most on Boards.
IvaBigWun wrote: » I'll go with Clinton, he looked the part, spoke the part and his surname wasnt Bush. Job done.
cerastes wrote: » If thats the case then this guys answer is the right one From that list, Id go with JFK, helped avert a nuclear war Id go with FDR though,
dtpc191991 wrote: » JFK had alot more failures than successes e.g. Berlin, Bay of Pigs. Personally JFK took a huge gamble taking on Russia on that agressively at Cuba personally I am of the opinion that it was more Khrushchev seeing sense and backing down than Kennedy doing anything particularly special that averted nuclear war at Cuba.
Manic Moran wrote: » I have to say, looking at the list there, none of them struck me as being particularly 'great'. Maybe I just have a very tight definition of it. I suspect that a lot of the reasons people may think a certain President is the best is partially related to "how closely his philosophies married with their own", and partially also simply due to exposure. Face it, outside of his being attacked by a rabbit, what do people in Ireland know about the presidency of Jimmy Carter? Of course, such polls have been done before. After a little hunting around, it seems that the consensus of historians has been that the best president of the list above is Lyndon Johnson, who at the time of my writing of this post, has received 0 votes at all from this august group, who probably can't get past the word 'Vietnam' and don't know of his other policies and successes. NTM
cml387 wrote: » Jimmy Carter is head and shoulders above all the presidents in the poll (although of course the greatest ever was FDR). He was dealt a cruel hand in the Iranian revolution and the economy but set up the Camp David peace process for the middle east. He is opposd to the death penalty and remains to this day a campaigner for human rights and disease eradication.
cerastes wrote: » I understood he didnt listen to the hawks calling for a nuclear strike on the USSR, no doubt Krushchev played his part, but he wasn't a US president
Bullseye wrote: » Ok so you like him because he agrees with your values basically.
Killer Wench wrote: » Totally agree with this post. I find it ironic that the two Presidents who advanced the greatest policies on behalf of White and Black Americans were two known bigoted individuals - Lyndon B Johnson and Abraham Lincoln. Kennedy had taken interest in the Civil Rights movement when he was assassinated; LBJ, as a Southern Democrat, could have walked away, but instead, he became a true champion of the movement. He spear headed the Civil Rights Act 64 and the Voting Rights Act of 65. Behind closed doors, he referred to Blacks as "n*ggers" and he spoke snidely about Black leaders.
Cody Pomeray wrote: » The fact that clinton had pretty impressive economic and political successes (despite his own personal failures) is almost not even that relevant.
dtpc191991 wrote: » Indeed I would agree and rightly credit him for ignoring the Hawks. The point I was trying to make is that Kennedy often gets far too much credit in propular history due to Cuba and that even his role in the crisis' outcome is often overstated.
wretcheddomain wrote: » Totally agree with this ~ much more credit should be given to Khrushchev and why anyone would praise JFK when it was he himself who persisted with the mad nuclear doctrine.
dtpc191991 wrote: » Unfortunatley biggotry seems to be a staple of Black Civil Rights even Lincoln himself was highly racist by modern day standards and only emancipated for strategic millitary purposes and tried to delay doing so until he had a program in place to have all the former slaves shipped off back to Africa or too a new African colony mining nation in South America.
Manic Moran wrote: » Can someone explain the Obama vote? In comparison to, say, the Civil Rights Act, or thawing the Cold War, what has he done? ACA doesn't come close.
