who is your favorite u.s. president?

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favorite old-school president: lincoln, for all the usual reasons - the second inaugural address is still spine-chillingly awesome. second place: either of the roosevelts, despite TR's dodgy imperialist tendencies. i also find LBJ pretty interesting, and wouldn't mind reading a good bio.

favorite president in my lifetime: easily clinton, though i've only actually lived through 4 of them.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 10 February 2005 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

CARTER

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 10 February 2005 08:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah probably Jefferson but Carter's definitely second.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 10 February 2005 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, Jefferson and FDR, but Carter is most certainly third.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 10 February 2005 08:49 (twenty-one years ago)

woodrow wilson (but i should probably do more research before answering)

― youn, Thursday, 10 February 2005 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

FDR

― lukey (Lukey G), Thursday, 10 February 2005 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

JFK - Live fast, die young (ish)

― Kevan (Kevan), Thursday, 10 February 2005 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Taft. the old dog.

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Thursday, 10 February 2005 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

McKinley, but mostly because of that great blues song about him

― Oh Dadaismus, Poor Dadaismus, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' (Dad, Thursday, 10 February 2005 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Herpes or Syphillis.

― The Velvet Overlord (The Velvet Overlord), Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

President Fillmore (bowls!)

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Clinton, hottest

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually Ok FDR for those photos from Yalta, esp the one where he's looking mordantly amused at someone (prob Churchill I suppose)

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

LBJ

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Lincoln for asking the band to play "Dixie" if nothing else. Wait, we still have the South because of him? Fuck.

JFK for saving my toddler ass in the missile crisis, LBJ for domestic stuff only. Everyone since has sucked shit.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

muddy waters = mckinley morganfield
howlin wolf = chester arthur burnett

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Who's Skip James? Seriously.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

john quincy adams adams

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok he comes third ("Quincy" was an advantage already)

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

why wd anyone name their kid after CHESTER ARTHUR?

(haha while i wz researching this my eye fell on the phrase the "assassination of garfield" and my heart raced briefly)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"tippecanoe and tyler too"

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

ODB

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Dwight D Eisenhower for no other reason than he always had a friendly smile in his official presidential portrait.

― kate/papa november (papa november), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Something about "dead presidents" teehee

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

John Quincy Adams. Son of a former president, elected despite trailing in the electoral and popular votes. Hmm...

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:46 (twenty-one years ago)

CLIN-TON!

― Dan M. (OutDatWay), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

hey the K in james k. polk stands for KNOX!!

that wz k-unexpected!

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Why?

― Oh Dadaismus, Poor Dadaismus, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' (Dad, Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

cz of the n-sound i guess

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

also it makes him "new wave"

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

How wonderful still to be surprised by such a thing

― Oh Dadaismus, Poor Dadaismus, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' (Dad, Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

... you mean as in the obvious Vibrators' reference? (xpost)

― Oh Dadaismus, Poor Dadaismus, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' (Dad, Thursday, 10 February 2005 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

well i always knew he wz james *K* polk, i just didn't know it stood for a word w.an n-sound, so i wz surprised

i think i wz thinkin of the cramps more

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Lincoln, easily, not least for having inspired Sandburg's magnum opus. For a long time the representative American, but I'm sadly not sure it's so anymore.

― briania (briania), Thursday, 10 February 2005 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Having grown up in Scotland I instantly thought of John Knox, but I wish I'd thought of the Cramps first instead

― Oh Dadaismus, Poor Dadaismus, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' (Dad, Thursday, 10 February 2005 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/img/tr.jpg

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 February 2005 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Historically, FDR.
In my lifetime, Clinton.

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 10 February 2005 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I read Merle Mitchell's Lyndon when I was in high school. I admired his tenacity and his social programs, but he really was such a lying, cheating, boarish, shitty Texan asshole. And his beagles hated him.

I like Franklin Roosevelt. Best president of my lifetime was easily Clinton.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 10 February 2005 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

hey youn, stop liking woodrow wilson, he was a segregationist klan-loving asswipe

my favorite president is fighting shirley chisholm, unbought and unbossed and INDIE AS FUCK

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 10 February 2005 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

we went this far in the thread and no one said William Henry Harrison. WTF?

― Allyzay, Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll rank them as follows:

1. Washington, 'cause he didn't allow us to become a monarchy or dictatorship. His two terms and out with no fuss was a great precedent to set in a fledgling republic and without it, we might very well never have had the folowing.
2. Lincoln, for obvious reasons and despite some otherwise bad tendencies.
3. FDR, for the optimism he injected at one of our lowest points, for the help he gave the downtrodden, the stability he built into the U.S. economy, and for the war effort.
4. TR, for realizing the danger unfettered money represented to our democracy and for his conservationist policies.
5. LBJ, perhaps the most complicated and tragic president in some ways, for the Great Society programs.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Tombot OTM. Runner up: Polk.

― Ian John50n (orion), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

also: David Rice Atchison.

― Ian John50n (orion), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I got a soft spot for the last Whig president.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Lincoln. Guy was a poet.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

oi allyzay!! "tippecanoe" = whh!!

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just wondering if any of the Clinton-lovahs are willing to consider the proposition that he enacted more of Reaganism than Reagan ever did...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I would agree, Morbius. Harold Bloom once wrote "that fool Reagan, and his parody, Bill Clinton," pissing off this former Clinton acolyte. Eight years later I thought about it and realized he was right, in that both could deliver speeches filled with inconsistent banalities and make people believe them.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

David Rice Atchison was never a president. Just because Zachary Taylor delayed his oath of office for a day doesn't mean that his term didn't start on time.

Samuel Huntington, on the other hand...

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

LBJ is simultaneously my favorite and least favorite president.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 10 February 2005 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Carter is one of my favorite ex-presidents but I don't remember what was so great about his Presidency itself.

I am sappy and buy into Kennedy mythos despite knowing all the problems with that.

Otherwise, FDR, Lincoln, and Clinton.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 10 February 2005 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Clinton, easily. I mean, I think even *I* would blow him.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a toss-up between Carter (overall likeability and moral virtue) and Nixon (comedy goldmine and archetypal fallen figure)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

which u.s. presidents have actually, personally, killed people?

― f--gg (gcannon), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

tyler, for being the basis of a particularly awkward moment on curb your enthusiasm.

― stockholm cindy's secret childhood (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Jeez Alfred, don't send my equilibrium careening by pointing out that Harold Bloom and I agree on something.

(btw, I agree that Fidel is chiefly responsible for Cuban suffering, but I don't think a hardcore embargo is the way to thwart him)

It's amazing how Clinton attracted so much gay support after signing the Defense of Marriage Act. Pure ignorance -- as long as he made some friendly speeches, it was like the high-school drama club queens cooing, "Ooh, the quarterback TALKED to me!!!"

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

presidents be robbin' cradles!

― stockholm cindy's secret childhood (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

a particularly awkward moment on curb your enthusiasm.

I think this is redundant.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

FDR

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Pearl Tyler, son of John, didn't die until 1947!

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex In SF totally OTM. I wish someone would write a book compiling LBJ's greatest swears.

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

highlight of carter's presidency was when he held a press conference to announce he was changing the part in his hair.

― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Quotations from LBJ

"Never trust a man unless you have his pecker in your pocket."

"I'd rather have him standing in the tent pissing outside than standing outside of the tent pissing in."

"I want real loyalty. I want someone who will kiss my ass in Macy's window, and say it smells like roses."

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Carter saw the planet venus! MJ-12 forced him to keep it under wraps though.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Read the Robert Caro bios.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 10 February 2005 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I was fascinated from a very young age (like ever since I can remember) with Lincoln, so I guess I still have to say him. I should (re)read a biography, I remember when I was young reading every biography I could find on him (and Harriet Tubman, I must have had some weird fascination with slavery or something), culimnating in that monster two-volume biography when I was like twelve, but I never read another thing about him once I hit puberty, wtf?

In college I read a lot about LBJ, I don't like him the best or anything but I'm still pretty fascinated with him.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 11 February 2005 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, sure, L.B.J. can lead cabinet meetings while receiving an enema, but if George Shrubya tried to hold a conversation with you while taking a shit, we'd never hear the end of it.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 11 February 2005 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

thanks, PP. presidents just don't know how to swear like that anymore. are there any lbj even anecdotes without swearing?

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Friday, 11 February 2005 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

erm, 4xp

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Friday, 11 February 2005 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Something like "The Democratic Party at its worst is still better than the Republican Party at its best." No swearing there unless you count "Republican".

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 11 February 2005 00:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll give props to those I think have gone unmentioned:

Eisenhower - so non-partisan, both parties wanted to nominate him for president and, of course, his famous "beware the growing military-industrial complex" speech.

Madison - brilliant mind who penned a large chunk of the Constitution and the subsequent Federalist Papers and was Jefferson's favorite protege'

Best-person-to-almost-become-president-who-never-ran would have to be Will Rogers who once quipped: "I don't belong to any organized political party - I'm a Democrat"

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Friday, 11 February 2005 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

TRUMAN

(this is a serious answer, btw)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 11 February 2005 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

omg truman pwned all. he was right about civil rights, communism, and republicanism! noone else batted a 1.000 like that. too bad about the a-bombs, tho.

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Friday, 11 February 2005 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

also, good at swearing.

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Friday, 11 February 2005 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't really think of one... really. There are presidents and there are shithead presidents. Hard to pick a favorite among 'em all. I'd pick one well before my time, and that wouldn't be fair.

Carter was a great guy but terribly overrated. All I remember are the odd-even days of gas rationing, not being in the Olympics in 1980, that insane jackrabbit that tried to jump on his canoe and attack him, and that MST3K episode where a Carter looking guy blasting an uzi was given the line "Have some malaise, sucka!"

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 11 February 2005 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

There was also a great SNL skit about Carter & 3 Mile Island. He also didn't get all lavish with the inaugural thing. He walked for chrissakes. But it is his humanitarian efforts of his post-presedency that he will probably be most remembered for. Either that or his brother, Billy.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 11 February 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

donut -
that was "Warrior of the Lost World", a classic. Thanks for the reference, it really turned my frown upside down!

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Friday, 11 February 2005 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

grover cleveland

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 11 February 2005 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

jesus you guys, clinton was a creep!
i'd've shot pretty much any us prez of my lifetime (late '62→now) if i was the kind of guy who shot people...fuck em all. fuck em & SHOOT EM

― forbidden or obsolete (24 hour troubleshooter), Friday, 11 February 2005 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

or shoot em & then fuck em, which do you reckon

― forbidden or obsolete (24 hour troubleshooter), Friday, 11 February 2005 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

btw have any of you seen that movie WILD IN THE STREETS & is it any good?

― forbidden or obsolete (24 hour troubleshooter), Friday, 11 February 2005 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Truman was a fuckshit, a machine politico from the get-go, and incinerated a few hundred thousand Japanese as a warning shot to Stalin. He gave good quote.

Nixon is probably the most fascinating prez of the last 50 years, as in a Shakespearean villain. There's a new book "Nixon at the Movies" which examines both his moviegoer identity (he screened 3 a week at the White House -- everything from The Last Picture Show to faves like Patton and Double Indemnity) and how Hollywood culture reflected and opposed him. (Also quotes an '80s aide whom RN told during Iran-contra, "Reagan will survive, because at the end he will say I didn't know because I'm an idiot, and everyone will agree. That was never an option for me.")

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 11 February 2005 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't know anything about grover cleveland but i'd've voted for him just 'cause of his name, that is a ultra cool name for certain

― , Friday, 18 February 2005 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Clinton, I'd rather have a president that likes to fuck rather than go to war!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Friday, 18 February 2005 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Clinton went to war several times in his presidency, he just did it on a somewhat smaller scale.

― Kip Pitcher, Friday, 18 February 2005 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Calvin Coolidge- Because at least he knew enough to shut up.

― Harmonica, Friday, 18 February 2005 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

See, he's just fucking with them!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Friday, 18 February 2005 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"Reagan will survive, because at the end he will say I didn't know because I'm an idiot, and everyone will agree. That was never an option for me." Nixon had the highest IQ (140-something) of any president we have records for (basically any president that's been in the military since World War I). There's actually a theory that anything above an IQ of 120 or so is more of hinderance than a help to a president (they have almost an infinity of variables to think about)

― Josiah Burke, Friday, 18 February 2005 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

grover cleveland

his election ended 24 years of unbroken republican presidency.

he is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms (he was the 22nd and 24th).

he is the only president to be married in the white house and was the first to have a child born there.

apparently and apparently not, the baby ruth candy bar was named after one of his daughter, who died in infancy.

he called his favorite hunting rifle "death and destruction".

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 18 February 2005 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

He also had a rubber jaw.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Dennis Haysbert.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

"On July 1, 1893, Cleveland underwent an operation in which a cancerous lump on the inner left side of his upper lip (his cigar-chewing side) was removed aboard the yacht Oneida, sailing along New York's East River. The operation was kept secret even from the Vice President and Congressional leaders, to avoid panicking Wall Street or worsening the nation's economic crisis. Word of the clandestine operation finally emerged several years after Cleveland's death, some 25 years after the operation. (see 'Presidential disability prior to 1967' in Acting President of the United States). The prosthetic piece put in the lump's place was made of India rubber; the lump was preserved and is on display at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." From Wikipedia.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Cleveland's veep was Adlai E. Stevenson, the grandfather of Adlai Ewing Stevenson II who ran against Eisenhower in '52 and '56.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Jefferson, although not necessarily for his presidency. Also, FDR, with big bonus points for Eleanor.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 18 February 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Looking at Cleveland's record(s) in office, he seems an OK guy until you see what he did to get re-elected.

From Wikipedia:

"After running on a platform which included the claim that a Republican victory would lead to civil rights for blacks and then "Negro domination," Cleveland was elected again in 1892, thus becoming the only person ever elected to non-consecutive terms as President."

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I still wonder why, if we have a non-president like Franklin on our money, we can't put a non president like Frederick Douglass there as well. I can't think of any American more deserving of the honor, with the possible exception of MLK, Jr.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

A tale to chill your spine:

"On June 29, 2002, President George W. Bush declared himself temporarily unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office prior to undergoing a colonoscopy which required sedation. Vice President Dick Cheney acted as President for a little over two hours that day (from 7:09 a.m. to 9:24 a.m.), whereupon Bush transmitted a second letter advising resuming the powers and duties of the office."

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

toss up between the Roosevelts

― ()ops (()()ps), Saturday, 19 February 2005 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The thing I worry about, Michael, is what if George W. Bush actually did had the powers and duties of the office?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 19 February 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

six years pass...

last 100 years: Carter
all time: lincoln or john quincy adams

― jay lenonononono (abanana), Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:01 (fourteen years ago)

grew up on coolidge avenue, so i'll take lincoln then fdr

― mookieproof, Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:11 (fourteen years ago)

last 100 years: Carter

you are mad

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:19 (fourteen years ago)

Even if I didn't count Jefferson, the Adams family, FDR, and Lincoln, Carter's short temper, micromanagement, pettiness, and backhanded acceptance of the military industrial establishment and open embracing of deregulation make him not just a tool but a charlatan.

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:21 (fourteen years ago)

if Carter had just been upfront about what a militarist he was, and hadn't been stupid enough to let the Shah in, we might've been spared the last 30 years of Reaganism.

― your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:28 (fourteen years ago)

no wai

but happy belated birthday <3

― mookieproof, Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:29 (fourteen years ago)

carter was pretty bad

― buzza, Saturday, 23 April 2011 03:39 (fourteen years ago)

TR all the way! Then Madison

― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Saturday, 23 April 2011 04:28 (fourteen years ago)

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