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[TacticalFox88]

Any answer that's not Lincoln is pretty much dead wrong

 

[Oblivion]

Yeah, we can all agree those internment camps were AWESOME. Great move, Mr. President! Even your wife was against them but hey, what does that bitch know?

And then it was Reagan that apologized for it, so many years later. I don't know why it took so long for a president to apologize for it.

Link? If true, add another bullet point to the list of things that would make the average tea bagger's head explode.

 

[WrathOfOtaibah]

Reagan will always be high on the list, not just because of GOP worship, but increasing Democratic worship. Which, as many have pointed out, did more progressive things than Obama has done so far. The Obama Cult Set for some weird reason, has been trying to blur the differences between Obama and Reagan. A generation down the road and Reagan will always be #1. He will be the new Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln: figures who are beloved regardless of political affiliation.

Also the Grant Presidency was bad because of the spoils system, which was basically government sanctioned corruption. I like the idea of stripping as many rights from the south as possible until it unfucks itself, but the spoils system ruined it.

It's a shame that people like Theodore Roosevelt aren't at the top. Then again, he was so far to the left that he'd be lucky to get 1% of any vote today.

 

[ant_]

Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Washington were by far the top 3.

Spoiler

in my opinion

 

[ToxicAdam]

Link? If true, add another bullet point to the list of things that would make the average tea bagger's head explode.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-08-10/bay-area/17121075_1_internment-war-hysteria-japanese-americans

 

[Talon]

No love for Franklin or Abe? They may have abused the office, but they saved the goddamn country.

 

[Aaron Strife]

teddy you jerks

reagan sucked.

 

[GillianSeed79]

What are you talking about?



Hell, START was proposed by Reagan!

But yeah, too bad he didn't rid the world of nuclear weapons mostly... like every other US president since Truman did, right?

The failed Reyjavik summit. People remember START, but they forget what could have been. Basically, at Reyjavik, Reagan proposed a deal to get rid of all balistic missles within a decade. Gorbachev countered, offering to agree to eliminate ALL nuclear weapons if the U.S. restricted SDI research to the laboratory. The summit ended without an agreement because Reagan wanted to keep his beloved Star Wars.

 

[polyh3dron]

 

[xbhaskarx]

offering to agree to eliminate ALL nuclear weapons

I hate to break it to you, but the USSR/Russia and US would never and will never get rid of all nuclear weapons, regardless of what any Presidents have to say on the matter. Nuclear weapons are here for good

Spoiler

and that might not be such a bad thing given the wars fought by world powers in the second half of the 20th century vs the first half.

 

[Kusagari]

The funniest thing about Reagan is he would be called a RINO in today's GOP.

 

[ChanHuk]

Theodore Roosevelt is far and away the greatest president America has ever had.

If you had a problem with Teddy, he held boxing matches in the basement of the White House. Obama got nothing on Teddy's swag.

Also to answer the question lets look to Al Bundy for the answer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK8gytvGf_Y

 

[Mgoblue201]

Though it shouldn't be taken as a ranking - it only quantifies the percentage of people who consider a particular president the greatest - I still have to lament the fact that Reagen holds so much popularity and fascination today. Fortunately, a few people such as Hitchens still point out the flaws in his presidency.

No love for Franklin or Abe? They may have abused the office, but they saved the goddamn country.

The most unfortunate act that Lincoln committed, I feel, was the draft, but I appreciate the impossibility of his situation. For Lincoln, the dissolution of the Union was not simply the dissolution of a mere nation. It was, as he intimated in the Gettysburg Address, the dissolution of a great experiment devoted to the task of liberty itself. There is certainly something contradictory about the way in which he attempted to save liberty, but he also had a great appreciation for the importance of the situation.

And foremost amongst many of the presidents, Lincoln had a remarkably profound moral compass. Many presidents commit questionable acts in the name of pragmatism, but Lincoln had an acute awareness of the moral complexities that he had to navigate and reserved his power for mostly extreme circumstances. Responding to someone who wanted him to suppress the antagonizing Chicago Times, Lincoln said, "I fear you do not comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens." Unfortunately, Lincoln was in the most extreme circumstance any president has ever faced.

Also controversial was Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus. Though the Constitution does grant the power of suspension under cases of rebellion, it fails to enumerate to whom this power is granted; much of the row at the time involved a debate about who reserved this power.

 

[Lkr]

this is hilarious and accurate

 

[Dreams-Visions]

ITOP: Poll respondents don't know shit about American history. Anything older than 60 years = lost in time or otherwise inappreciable.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Jackson being so low on that list is disturbing.

 

[Spire]

Coincidentally this just came out. I haven't watched it yet as it's four goddamn hours long, but I'm going to try to get around to it soon.