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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan rated way too low in new July 4th presidential poll

Posted on Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 06:03 PM

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The latest ranking of the American presidents in a Siena College poll of historians is listed below just in time for July 4th.

There are several surprises and choices I strongly disagree with .

Lincoln was the greatest president period.

He faced down the very destruction of the United States and an internal war that neither of the Roosevelts,or even Washington faced in their lifetime and he conquered it all.

John F.Kennedy deserves to be much higher on the list as does Ronald Reagan.

Though Kennedy only served less than one term he defined an era and reshaped the presidency in an incredible way.

Apart from the style points he also began the herculean task of changing the attitude towards minority rights and set off an immense but gratifying struggle that lasted up to our current president, whose race and skin color would have automatically blocked him in the Kennedy era.

It took Ronald Reagan to pound the last nail into the coffin of communism and help free up numerous small nations as well as Russia itself in his time. Again, he confronted the biggest challenge of an era and came out ahead.
Both Reagan and Kennedy made great speeches, both in Berlin .

Kennedy's 'Ich Bein Ein Berliner' and Reagan's 'Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.' both aimed at the destruction of communism will last for ever .

Both inspired Americans too, with their style and substance. Ask any Republican or Democrat today who their favorite president is and they will name Reagan on the GOP side and Kennedy on the other.

They continue to inspire too .

Why then put Woodrow Wilson ranked ahead of them? He was the man who blundered into the First World War and helped create the useless League of Nations?

Seems to me he failed the biggest test of his time.

Here is the complete list
F. Roosevelt 1
T. Roosevelt 2
Lincoln 3
Washington 4
Jefferson 5
Madison 6
Monroe 7
Wilson 8
Truman 9
Eisenhower 10
Kennedy 11
Polk 12
Clinton 13
Jackson 14
Obama 15
L.B. Johnson 16
J. Adams 17
Reagan 18
J.Q. Adams 19
Cleveland 20
McKinley 21
G.H. Bush 22
Van Buren 23
Taft 24
Arthur 25
Grant 26
Garfield 27
Ford 28
Coolidge 29
Nixon 30
Hayes 31
Carter 32
Taylor 33
B. Harrison 34
W.H. Harrison 35
Hoover 36
Tyler 37
Fillmore 38
G.W. Bush 39
Pierce 40
Harding 41
Buchanan 42
A. Johnson 43

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34 Comments

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irishwxman | Jul 08, 2010, 06:28 PM EDT

Well I wouldn't be a widow back then; A) because I'm not a woman, and B) I wasn't born. Social Security is a total waste of time and money. Bush was right when he suggested we do away with it. Its more government entitlements. FDR was a loose cannon and was far from the best President in the USA. The only thing he did right was fight WW2.

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IrishAndProud | Jul 08, 2010, 02:53 PM EDT

McNamara, people MY age won't even be able to use social security when WE need it, because it will be bankrupt (even though I've had my money confiscated to pay into it, all my working life). As it's been said, socialism always fails because eventually you run OUT of other peoples' money.

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McNamara31 | Jul 08, 2010, 11:04 AM EDT

If you were a widow back then, left with five children to raise, you wouldn't call Social Security a "waste of time."

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irishwxman | Jul 08, 2010, 12:29 AM EDT

Proof of government education. FDR number 1? He was arguably one of the WORST presidents of all. He grew government to a size that rivals Obama's latest stunt in the white house. His own party started to side against him for over reaching. New Deal? Total failure. Social Security? Waste of time.

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hancock | Jul 07, 2010, 08:17 PM EDT

Obama has done nothing. He might have passed legislation that will fail and sink this country. Europe thinks were nuts. I repeat Europe thinks were nuts. As far as Fox news goes should we just have a far left media in this country? What are you liberals so afraid of?

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IrishAndProud | Jul 07, 2010, 03:00 AM EDT

What better, further vinidication of Reagan...than for him to receive the scorn of such bitter, predictable Obamaniks and leftists (same difference) on this post? It's GREAT! He's still driving them crazy, even all these years later! And the best part is, there's not a thing on earth they can do about it.

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Monsoonman | Jul 06, 2010, 09:19 PM EDT

McBro: I regulary read the Huffington Post to see what is going on inside their fevered brains, it does give me food for thought. Then of course to balance everything out I top off my day with the astute posters of IC!

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McNamara31 | Jul 06, 2010, 03:33 PM EDT

Monsoonman..We are in total agreement on Edwards being slime; however I have to answer the rest using this example of some Fox reporting I watched over the weekend. The crash of 1929 and the more recent crash of 2008 is now known to have been caused by the banks rabid greed that operated in an environment of deregulation then and during the Bush term. The GOP has tried to spin this as “those people” who bought houses, who “couldn’t afford them” caused the crash, when the key point is, if the deregulation allowing the banks to increase their "debt to savings" ratio from 12 t0 1, in place from 1929, to the 40 to 1, by Bush, the banks could not have legally taken on the debt that caused them to fail. Well this weekend Fox did a whole show on how the “baby boomers” who were raised by 1950 mom’s, who had survived the previous 1929 depression, spoiled their children, gave then everything and they grew up to cause the crash of 2008. Pure Spin and Junk….Right now Obama is pushing for regulations on the banking industry and they are trying to spin again in favor of big business and the banks, to place the blame “away” from the pending bank regulation. Typical of what they do on a nightly basis. It’s easier to blame it on “those people” and place attention “away” from the real problem at hand.

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Monsoonman | Jul 06, 2010, 10:11 AM EDT

Funny, but most actual taxpaying, productive American citizens think President Reagan was one of the greatest presidents of all time. He made the soviet bloc collapse, causing widespread peace and freedom. He rescued the economy of the world and got our hostages freed in Iran. Our friends trusted us and our enemies feared us. The only ones who are bitter towards him are the communists and socialists who saw their soviet union crumble.

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DennisQ | Jul 06, 2010, 08:16 AM EDT

Like Nixon before him, Reagan surrounded himself with criminals. We've largely forgotten about that aspect of the Reagan years because Bush Sr. pardoned them all. Reagan avoided impeachment by denying knowledge of what his subordinates were up to, and prosecutors declined to investigate further. Historians will decide whether Reagan was more of a dope than a crook; but either way, his present reputation as a "great" president will plummet.

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Monsoonman | Jul 05, 2010, 09:39 PM EDT

McBro: If the rest of the media had done its job and scrutinized obama before the election, demanded answers from him regarding his qualifications and background, I doubt he would have been a nominee. Fox News and the National Enquirer seem to be the only news outlets who don't mind digging....Remember the National Enquirer is nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for outing the dirt bag john edwards, it wasn't hard to do if you just scratched the surface. They're doing it with St. algore too.

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McNamara31 | Jul 05, 2010, 04:34 PM EDT

Hancock...And one last thing you have to appreciate, when FDR was fighting the greed of the banks during the depression, he didn't have to fight the nonstop, full out demeaning machine of FOX News.

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McNamara31 | Jul 05, 2010, 04:26 PM EDT

hancock...A few come to mind…Since 2009 Obama, was able to pass a healthcare package, while not perfect, protects Americans from going bankrupt, just because they "got sick” or had a pre-existing condition. Every president, since Nixon tried and failed, to pass health reform before Obama. Obama is presently passing financial regulations, so the greed and pillage of banks and financial companies that caused the crash 2008, will not fall on the everyday American for a bail out which was the case created by the previous administration. He also passed major credit card reform that restricts the amount of interest and fees placed on Americans by credit card companies. Soon after the crash of 2009, they were raising rates in excess of 38%. He also passed the Lilly Ledbetter law, prohibiting wage discrimination which was primarily happening to women. He’s managing two wars, the largest oil spill in America’s history, increasing job growth that was in "mass decline" during the Bush term. Simply stated, Obama’s policies closely resemble the leadership of the president in the number 1 position on this list, F. Roosevelt.

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IrishAndProud | Jul 05, 2010, 06:30 AM EDT

Ronald Reagan was by far and away the best American President in my lifetime (Nixon was politically brilliant, but was ultimately done in by his own runaway paranoia). Reagan won 44 states out of 50 the first time (in 1980) and 49 out of 50 the second time. Can't do much better than that. The USA loved him, and still does. Any not-so-amiable Reagan critics will not be remembered, nationally; Reagan will, fondly. As for JFK, not anywhere near the top of my list, but still quite conservative compared to the Dems of today...certainly far more so than his youger brother Ted.

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hancock | Jul 05, 2010, 01:38 AM EDT

Mac read it again, why is he 15?

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