I have a tough time saying but I’d have to say JFK. He planned to pull out of Vietnam, dismantle the CIA, and he may not have done all of the arm-twisting LBJ did to get the Civil “Rights” legislation passed. He also pushed for lower taxes. However, I’m not going to say that he was a good President overall, or even commend him for Executive Order 11110, because I doubt that he would’ve replaced the Federal Reserve with nothing, if his intention even was to get rid of the Federal Reserve.
Every President starting with Hoover increased the Federal debt from the time they took office to the time they left.
I was wondering what other people here thought, although it’s pretty easy for most of us here to say that they were all equally bad.
They were all pretty atrocious. I know this doesn’t address the question, but my favorite president in theory was Thomas Jefferson while my favorite president in action was Grover Cleveland.
I definitely agree. It sucks that “Jefferson the President” wasn’t the same as “Jefferson the Revolutionary”. Grover Cleveland was probably the closest to perfect along with John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and Warren G Harding.
Anyway, JFK was one of the more inconsistent Presidents–he supported war at times and rejected it at other times, and his statements are mostly inconsistent with other statements he makes.
I’d love to know what his intentions were (other than for the President to be able to issue silver certificates) with Executive Order 11110. But we’ll never know.
George W. Bush. He believed in the free market and helped keep us safe from the Islamofascists. A truly great man and an exemplar of true libertarianism.
Kennedy at least got one thing right. He said “Taxes are too high. The soundest way to raise revenues in the long term is to lower taxes now”. Sadly he was killed before he could do anything about it. But judging how he and his brother run the whole steel fiasco (the beginning of the end for the US steel industry) I have my doubts. He was also very fast to backpedal on NASA: as a senator he vehemently opposed the space program as a waste of money. But as soon as he joined forces with LBJ he did a 180° turn. As usual talk is cheap.
Carter… now his record his mixed. He saved Chrysler with a government “loan” (Ron Paul was one of the very few to oppose the Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act: as usual you will struggle to find a more consistent politician), did little to undo Nixon’s monetary policies and meddled with energy production and consumption. On the other side he refused to raise military pay and budget, started to deregulate the aviation industry, issued a pardon to Vietnam “draft dodgers” and ended the military occupation of Panama Canal. Close but still not good enough.
And that’s pretty much it.
Truman was bad (the good things which came out of his presidency were due to the Republican majority in both Houses after the 1946 election); Eisenhower: atrocious. LBJ: horrible. Nixon: probably the worst of the lot, which says it all. Ford: a Nixon with reduced calories. Reagan: a Big Government enthusiast with “free market” rhetoric. Bush I: higher taxes and more spending. Bill Clinton: gave us Hilary Clinton, the stuff of nightmare.
Boy, am I depressed after rummaging through this pile of garbage!
Eisenhower has at least one positive thing going for him: He was the one who put a face on Corporatism by correctly labeling the Military-Industrial Compelx.
As I like to say, talk is cheap. Maybe Ike was somehow cajoled into doing what he did and then remorse bit him back (just like Ulysses Grant), perhaps due to his health issues. Since he cannot defend himself anymore, we’ll give him the benefit of doubt.
But he knew perfectly well what he was doing when he ordered the CIA to reinstate the Shah in 1953. He was well aware the return of Reza Pahlavi on the throne would mean good deals for that same military-industrial complex he later decried. The same military-industrial complex which benefited from the “foreign military aids” US paxpayers paid for, aids Ike completely approved of.
The only thing which stopped him from going to Vietnam when the French asked for help in 1953 was Matthew Ridgeway. Ridgeway was the Chief of Staff at the moment and had been a widely succesful commander both in WWII and in Korea. He was immensely popular among military men and Ike had tons of respect for him. Ridgeway was a strong opponent of any involvement in Indochina. After his retirement in 1955 he continued to oppose further involvement in Indochina but now his voice could be discounted as that of an old, grizzled veteran unsuited for the modern world. In the end he was right.
