This is my next list inspired by this and this link, I have compiled my top 10 and bottom 10 presidents.
Top 10
10. Kennedy: Possibly the most charasmatic of all the presidents. The Cuban Missile Crisis was handled under him. Also involved with the Space Race. His assassination was one of the worst tragedies of American History.
9. Monroe: His Monroe Doctrine will forever be studied in high schools around the country. Adding huge parts of the country (Louisiana Purchase, Acquiring Florida) also made him a great president.
8. Wilson: Might be the most intelligent of any presidents. Started the League of Nations as well. Great leader.
7. Reagan: His "Reaganomics" approach to the economy was a big success. A former actor, he was able to use his charisma to a big advantage. Getting the Berlin Wall torn down also was a big success.
6. Jackson: Old Hickory was a great leader. One of the first true "dark horse" candidates to win. He also vetoed a popular plan for a national bank.
5. Theodore Roosevelt: Huge man, huge personality. Great fit for the time and place. Enviromentalists love him.
4. George Washington: The first will always be special. He started many of the traditions for the presidents that will follow. Perhaps the most important is that he left peacefully and set a trend of leaving that type of power.
3. Jefferson: Put here more for what he did before he was elected.
2. FDR: Served 4 terms as president, and would have kept going if he had lived. His fireside chats were a first and big success in America. Only thing against him...he married a cousin.
1. Abraham Lincoln: I know this is the easy pick, but really a lesser man might not have stood as firm as Lincoln. He also leaves behind a body of work in his speeches that will not be met again. There are many great stories about his character as well.
Bottom 10 to follow...
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7 comments:
Leave it to you Kenny...never a loss for a top 10!
:)
What, no Millard Fillmore?
Seriously, I'm surprised Truman wasn't here.
Martin van Buren has a street gang in New York named after him. And they're as mean as he was!
Be careful. People might start calling you Doris Kearns Kenny.
I was at a concert last year, and the girl singing did a song at the end called "My Strange Nation." It was a typical pain in the rear, whiny, left wing folk song. Toward the end, she sang of how strange it was that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, but he was both Republican, and gay.
It was the first I had heard of the revisionist historians trying to turn Abe into a homosexual.
Doris Kearns Goodwin addressed this issue in her latest book, and debunks it. Thank goodness.
Can't wait to read your bottom ten!
Abe Lincoln, gay? Never heard that one.
Susan Werner has some great stuff. That song, I'm afraid to say, is not of them. And I'm a liberal.
Yeah, that was a good song, except for the line about Abe putting from the rough.
Jason, there was a book written recently--I cannot remember the title or the author--that referred to letters written between Lincoln and a few of his friends. As they travelled together, they would sleep in the same bed at times, and they were close friends, as the language of the letters indicated.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her book on Lincoln, discounts this. She says that in the 19th century, men were often required to share beds, and it meant nothing sexual. Also, because men wrote more letters than they do now, they were better at expressing their feelings than people are used to today. Her conviction is that Lincoln was not gay. Mine too. A gay man would never have a beard like that, and wear a top hat all the time.
Jason K, I've heard one of my professors talking about this book recently, too. Team of Rivals, is that right? It's my professor's contention that Lincoln wasn't gay either. As you noted, the culture of the day was much different than ours.
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