Who is the best [USA] president(s) in your lifetime?
I was born in 1960. The presidents of my lifetime have been JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, Obama, and the current occupant of the White House.The president who has done the most to make this country a better place for all Americans in my lifetime was Lyndon Johnson. Johnson, through his skills as a politician, pushed through profound, life altering legislation that included aid to education, Headstart, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as initiatives for the arts, for the environment, for poverty, for racial justice, and for workplace safety.LBJ gave us the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, two monumental pieces of legislation I do not believe Kennedy could have or would have pushed through Congress.However, LBJ’s legacy is tainted by his failure to pull us out of America’s most immoral war, the American-Vietnam War.Why Lyndon Johnson, a truly awful man, is my political hero | Jack BernhardtThe man who is my favorite president in my lifetime, in spite of failing to live up to the hopes I had for him, is Barack Obama. The man brought decency and decorum to the office, which are so sorely lacking today. He tried to bring Americans together, in spite of concerted Republican efforts to divide us, which the GOP has only doubled down upon today. People also forget the profound unease and even panic gripping the country when he came to office during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.Yet, “No Drama Obama” coolly and calmly led us through the worst economic crisis of my lifetime. He brought dignity to the office and was a proud symbol of America around the globe. No scandals, no indictments, no embarrassments.I was proud to call him president.“When we were lost, he asked us to believe. And try to see ourselves in one another.”I miss him so much.Before I let slip this mortal coil I hope we will once again have a leader who makes us proud to say ‘here is someone who represents the best of America.’
Was Bill Clinton the America's best president ever?
No.I liked Clinton and thought he did a good job. Clinton will never, however be ranked among the greatest US Presidents. Only Presidents who see the USA through a major crisis will be considered truly great.1) George Washington. He literally wrote the rules on how to be a President. He also had to write the rules on foreign policy. His navigation of emerging political parties and the Whiskey Rebellion kept the emerging country from falling apart.2) Abraham Lincoln. Of course he preserved the Union during the Civil War. He also presided over unprecedented feuding by his own Cabinet. As happy side effects, he helped end slavery, plan the Transcontinenetal Railroad and supervise America's Industrial Revolution.3) Franklin Roosevelt. At a minimum he helped end the increasing slide toward the Great Depression by reversing several key vicious cycles. I would like to think his New Deal also drastically stabilized the economy and made America a much better place (e.g., fairer for workers, stabilized the Dust Bowl, made the banking system much more stable and fair). He led the USA through the WWII.4) Harry S. Truman. An accidental President, he led the successful end of WWII. He also presided over the start of the Cold War. Perhaps most important, her resisted calls by extremists from all sides that could have led easily to WWIII (e.g., McArthur's invasion of Korea, calls for use of nuclear weapons). His GI Bill and de-segregation of the Armed Forces will also go down as major achievements.I might add the following to the list: Theodore Roosevelt (Panama Canal, Negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Pure Food and Drug Act, Trust Busting, National Parks) and Woodrow Wilson (Sixteenth Amendment, Seventeenth Amendment, leadership during WWI) and Grover Cleveland (Civil Service) to the list. Many Presidential historians, however, would not agree with me.Thanks for the A2A, Jai
Was Bill Clinton a good president? Was he impeached?
I think he was the best president we've had in quite a while. No, he didn't just follow the policies of GHW Bush--those policies FAILED. In fact Clinton was elected mostly because Bush had caused a recession. Clinton got us out of it and brought us the longest period of continuous economic expansion in peacetime. No small feat, that! He was impeached, but 'impeachment' is really only an indictment, not a conviction. It takes only a majority of the House of Representatives to impeach a president, and if he is impeached, THEN the case goes to the Senate where it takes a 2/3 vote to remove him from office. The Republicans had a majority in the House and everyone knew the vote would be entirely along party lines, so he would be impeached. They knew they couldn't get him removed from office, but they thought a nice juicy sex scandal would neutralize him politically for the rest of his second term. But the plan backfired on them. Clinton's popularity during his impeachment was the highest of his entire presidency! And it was never less than 2/3 after that! And the Republicans lost control of the house in the next election. As for the 'affair', Clinton openly admitted to the charges of having oral sex with an intern. He said he'd never had 'sex', and in fact in a survey most people didn't consider oral sex to be 'sex'! In any case, a great majority of Americans didn't see it as an impeachable offense. Most people saw it as a 'political circus', a cynical partisan vendetta aimed at disempowering Clinton. In fact the guy running the impeachment hearings, Rep. Henry Hyde from Illinois, was found to have had an affair that lasted for years and actually produced an illegitimate child! Hyde called it a 'youthful indiscretion' even though it happened when he was in his 40s. Monica Lewinsky disappeared for a couple of years, then came forward with a book she'd 'written' (through a ghost writer). She was interviewed on TV and then she disappeared again. I feel she was a victim of the Republicans' passionate partisanship. Not that I approve of what she did, but I didn't think it should ruin the whole rest of her life.
Rank the presidents in your lifetime from best to worst?
Reagan Bush II Bush I Clinton Carter Obama
Is Trump the first president in your life time that you respect and support?
I can't remember Bill Clinton. Even as a boy, I knew Bush was an idiot. Obama was a terrible president. Trump is the first president I've loved in my life time