12 replies to this topic

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Since there was not enough room to list every president, I limited the choices to those most often included on "greatest" lists by presidential historians.  It's not like anyone was likely to pick Millard Fillmore or Gerald Ford anyway.  But then that's what "Other" is for. 

[*Anastasia]

I say Gerald Ford, simply because he's the only president never to have been elected. But really, my view of American presidents is pretty dim all around.

[Alyster]

As a proud Zeropean I don't really care about internal politics of the US. Hence my consideration here is between FDR who beat the nazis and Reagan who beat the commies. Voted FDR - the states were much more isolationists at the time so he had a harder job ahead of him. 

[Haflinger]

FDR also stopped the Depression. I think I'll have to vote for him.

[King Biscuit]

FDR didn't end the Depression. WW2 ended the Depression. FDR also didn't beat the Nazis. That was Truman.
Unconstitutional New Deal is Unconstitutional.

Voting Teddy instead.

[Alyster]

FDR didn't end the Depression. WW2 ended the Depression. FDR also didn't beat the Nazis. That was Truman.
Unconstitutional New Deal is Unconstitutional.

Voting Teddy instead.

 Yes because Truman signed the last few documents in 1945 he beat the nazis?

[King Biscuit]

FDR died before VJ Day.
Truman ordered the bombing of Japan, thus ending the war.

[*Anastasia]

FDR died before VJ Day.
Truman ordered the bombing of Japan, thus ending the war.

Today I learned the Japanese were Nazis.

[Justavictim82]

Lincoln. Ended slavery and would have done so much for race relations had he not been assassinated that Kennedy/Johnson would have been rendered moot..

[Princess xR1]

FDR might have not ended the recession, but he put plans in place that shaped what welfare is today. Example: Social Security.

[King Biscuit]

FDR died before VJ Day.
Truman ordered the bombing of Japan, thus ending the war.

Today I learned the Japanese were Nazis.

I meant to correct myself.

Someone feel free to find a timeline however.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

FDR was a game-changer.  From time to time, we have a president who is a game-changer, who so fundamentally changes the course of our nation's history that it is impossible to imagine an America without them.  All of the great presidents were game-changers to some degree, but for sheer volume of change, of social progress, it's hard to beat FDR.  Consider: before FDR, black Americans still voted (when they were allowed to vote all) solidly Republican, a habituated debt to the party of Lincoln.  It was under FDR that the nascent civil rights movement found a home in the Democratic party.  From Social Security to the modern military-industrial machine, FDR fundamentally reshaped the American nation, and in so doing reshaped the world.  The United States in 1945 was a far more modern and progressive nation than it was in 1933, the result of the priorities FDR set, the policy he implemented, the legislative priorities he pursued.  Other than the founding of the country and the Civil War, it's difficult to find a period in history that has so profoundly shaped our country, nor a figure so singularly responsible.  George Washington, the Father of Our Country.  Abraham Lincoln, who saved the Union.  Franklin D. Roosevelt, who made us a Superpower.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Oh, and FDR died in April 1945.  V-J Day was in August.  Harry Truman inherited the Manhattan Project and the plan to end the war by dropping The Bomb on Japan without ever having been briefed about it as vice president.  The vice presidency was not taken as seriously then.  In fact, one of Truman's predecessors as VP, John Nance Garner, once famously said that the vice presidency "wasn't worth a bucket or warm spit."  This seems particularly strange given the poor state of FDR's health; it was widely assumed that he would not complete the term to which he was elected in 1944 (which in fact turned out to be the case).  One would think it would be prudent to have the guy on deck, as it were, up to speed.