Best president of the last 30 years

Bush I vs. Clinton imo

best at being president, btw, not best person ideologically or personally

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Clinton, easily.

i want to know which one morbius chooses

no copouts

Carter should have been, but the democrats in Congress ruined Carter's presidency. They screwed over Clinton pretty good, too, until they lost control in 1994. Clinton was a great counter-puncher, so he actually looked better after Congress went Republican than he did when the Dems ran Congress.

Bush I had some good points in terms of being somewhat moderate by instinct, but he was almost totally captive to the right wingnuts. And he was married to Babs, who eats babies. So screw him.

most depressing thread ever

the most depressing thing about this was how deluded I am about my own age; I thought for sure this would be nixon on up. holy crap I lived through two presidents before this list even started

there's got to be some closet reagan fans around here right?

I've stood up for Reagan before.

you've also stood up for Sbarro.

Mandela

carter wanted to sort out energy dependence 30 years ago, but never got a chance.

clinton least awful, imo.

plus it was biden and clinton who convinced NATO to change the rules of the game insofar as bombing other sovereign nations went. bush obviously went way farther than they went in kosovo, plus bush didn't really have NATO support, but the doctrine of invasion given (x) or (y) "imminent" factors (genocide, wmd, etc) got its first footholds of acceptance under democratic leadership.

I think that what you see emerging as the world has changed is that a Kerry administration would reflect a willingness to use force unilaterally if one of several conditions pertained: One, international conventions were being violated, they affected American interests and the international community would not step up to the ball. Case in point -- took me a while, and I think he would tell you this if you asked him, to convince Clinton to use force in Kosovo.

-- Joe Biden, summer 2004

― Tracer Hand, Friday, September 12, 2008 1:05 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i voted for clinton obviously, because he was the best of the lot in terms of enacting policies that i agreed with. if i had defined "best" to mean "the most effective president of the last 30 years," though, i would've had to vote for reagan unfortunately ;_;

Reagan is probably the most successful president, even if he was successful at things I would rather he had failed at.

i dont mean best as in 'most successful at getting his goals accomplished,' more 'had the best did good things:fucked things up' ratio.

is clinton avoiding sudan worse than bush i saving kuwait?

Best president of the last 7 years:

* Bush
* Cheney (when Bush was anesthetized)

Decisions, decisions.

Oh sorry,

• Bush
• Cheney

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Clinton

Return to sender.

I might feel more kindly towards Clinton if he'd gotten Alzheimers and disappeared from the public eye, like Reagan. Otherwise I'd vote Clinton for sneakily fulfilling the Reagan Revolution and still getting praise from Dems.

if the list had been extended 50 years, I'd have voted Eisenhower.

Clinton

I didn't/don't like Clinton much, but he beats the heck out of the rest of this list (admittedly my main reason for despising Bush I is for having to live a large portion of the remainder of my years with Clarence Thomas on the SC.)

x-post to alfred: yeah i think for post-war presidents, Eisenhower somehow comes up on top

wait, except for that whole Dulles Bros. paving the way to fuck up foreign policy towards Iran for the next half-century sort of thing

so nvrmind. Clinton it is

Eisenhower minuses: Guatemala, initial response to Brown v. Board of Education. But considering the chance available to him and his posse to undo the New Deal and openly provoke war with the Soviets, he comes off rather better than his successors; and he proved it's better to be underrated than to constantly strain for greatness in the public eye, like his sometime vice president.

I'm kinda inclined to vote Carter cuz he's the only one who's presidency I can't really remember.

ha, actually, I voted for Reagan, cuz that foxy smile still beguiles lots of people, and it won't stop beguiling them any time soon. I posted that priceless remark by a House member today about piling coffins atop Reagan's coffin re the bailout bill.

^^^ weird-o

jesus christ this is so obviously clinton, yeah he didn't do everything you'd like but the question is begging comparisons and the comparison here is pretty clear

what didn't you like?

I'd say he's as repugnant as the rest (Nixon's in his own class, though).

alfred since you voted for reagan maybe you should stfu

haha

I have reagan's presidential portrait hanging in my baffroom

^^it's at the bottom of the toilet, folks.

I misread this: "i dont mean best as in 'most successful at getting his goals accomplished,' more 'had the best did good things:fucked things up' ratio"

In that case, looking "tough" on the campaign by executing Ricky Ray Rector, don't-ask-don't-tell, welfare reform, Telecommunications Act of 1995, and dropping bombs on Sudanese pill factories is just as repellent as Iran-Contra, loyalty oaths, "freedom fighters," Star Wars, and reluctance to address AIDS.

HE PEES ON REAGANS FACE

hanging in my bedroom at home I have a Bill Clinton poster that I got from my retiring high school economics teacher (it's signed "To the biggest Republican I know! -Bill")

"In that case, looking "tough" on the campaign by executing Ricky Ray Rector, don't-ask-don't-tell, welfare reform, Telecommunications Act of 1995, and dropping bombs on Sudanese pill factories is just as repellent as Iran-Contra, loyalty oaths, "freedom fighters," Star Wars, and reluctance to address AIDS."

You are selling Reagan seriously short.

I know!

This must be read more often.

alfred tell us again how much you like reagan or admit you are trolling and or drunk

"I know!"

So then why aren't you stfu then.

no wait tell us how you think gore would have gone into iraq, just like bush did, remember that one?

Like I said, fuckwits, I misread the question: I thought it was "Who did the best job of passing his agenda?"

the name of the thread is Best president of the last 30 years what are you not understanding

I pass my agendas under reagan's eternal grin.

I didn't understand how anyone can look at the horrors we've elected in the last 30 years and think they're the "best" anything except felons.

I misread the question: I thought it was "Who did the best job of passing his agenda?"

I was confused a little too, because there's this:

best at being president, btw, not best person ideologically or personally

and also this:

i dont mean best as in 'most successful at getting his goals accomplished,' more 'had the best did good things:fucked things up' ratio.

And if you're skimming (like ya do) that's something you hafta read twice.

I pass my agendas under reagan's eternal grin.

I just have pictures of the lake and such. But it's an interesting idea to post a picture of a man with questionable bowel control.

if it'd been extended a couple years i would've voted for ford -- a very decent guy.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

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