Best and Worst Republican Presidents

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

My personal ranking:

From best to Worst

1) Eisenhower
2) Ford (not in terms of executive competence but in terms of his honesty and decency. He inherited the Presidency at it's nadir and did an admirable job of repairing it's image.
3) Nixon
4) Lincoln
5) Ronald Reagan
6) George H.W. Bush
7) George W. Bush
8) Teddy Roosevelt
9) Calvin Coolidge
10) Warren Harding
11) William H. Taft
12) William McKinley
13) Chest A. Arthur
14) Ulysses S. Grant
15) Rutherford Hayes
16) Benjamin Harrison
17) James Garfield

[NJCardFan]

What's your rational? Garfield didn't even have a chance to lead having been shot after 4 months in office. So, listing him as worst is unfair. And you're reasoning of why you put ford #2 proves what kind of idiot you really are.

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

What's your rational? Garfield didn't even have a chance to lead having been shot after 4 months in office. So, listing him as worst is unfair. And you're reasoning of why you put ford #2 proves what kind of idiot you really are.

I put Garfield last because as you said he didn't have a chance to lead..No one knows what kind of President he could've been, so where should I put him? In the middle, above men who actually led for better or for worse?
And like I said, Ford was a horrible administrator but he inherited the Presidency at it's lowest point and actually managed to inspire some confidance in the nation or the Presidency after Watergate, Vietnam and all the chaos of the '60s. He put an end to a lot of the dirty things that were going on in the CIA and exposed a lot of stuff that few other presidents would've dared to, and he made one of the most controversial Presidential decisions in history for what he felt was (and I agree with him) the sake of the nation, and the health of a former President.

He may have been crappy as President, but then again he never really got to adopt a true "Ford" Presidency; He never really had his own domestic agenda, most of it was a watered down continuation of Nixon's and as for foreign policy his hands were tied by Congress with respect to Vietnam, though he did at least attempt to an even somwhat honorable end to the war by handling the Mayaguez incident well, as well as the noble Operation Babylift.

He also did some really admirable campaigning for women's rights while President, using the power and recognition he had as president to bring more exposure to the cause.

He's last truly decent man to sit in the office, in my opinion. Maybe not the best President, but a very honorable man, which is more than I can say for his direct successor (Carter). He had a role he never really wanted thrust on to his shoulders and did a good enough job. His main foibles were the economy and dealing witht the Watergate Baby Congress.

[lacarnut]

Where is your list of best to worst Democratic Presidents. That would be interesting.

[PoliCon]

Ronald Reagan
Calvin Coolidge
Eisenhower
Lincoln
Benjamin Harrison
James Garfield
Rutherford Hayes
George W. Bush
Chest A. Arthur
William H. Taft
William McKinley
Ulysses S. Grant
Ford
Nixon
George H.W. Bush
Warren Harding
Teddy Roosevelt

The middle of the list is subjective - but the top 2 and the bottom 1 should be the same for any conservative.

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

What's your rational? Garfield didn't even have a chance to lead having been shot after 4 months in office. So, listing him as worst is unfair. And you're reasoning of why you put ford #2 proves what kind of idiot you really are.

Where is your list of best to worst Democratic Presidents. That would be interesting.

1) Truman--Not a bad domestic policy, integrated the military which was a very dangerous political move, ende WWII in triumph and saved hundreds of thousands of American soldiers by dropping the bomb, which is probably the hardest moral decision any President has ever had to make, and never regretted it. He gets high marks for his handling of the USSR by not backing down to them and for his handling of the restructuring of postwar Europe. The last president to truly go no holds barred when fighting a war.
2) John F. Kennedy--Weak on Foreign Policy in many ways but had a pretty good record on domestic policy for his term of office--Approved what was the biggest tax cut in history until Reagan
3) Clinton
4) LBJ---High Marks for the Space Program, his environmental agenda, his promotion of the arts and higher educational establishments, the Civil Rights Act. I don't applaud his expansion of welfare and Vietnam, while it seemed to make sense from the view of the Domino theory, was a tragedy.
5) FDR---I think much of the New Deal was what was needed at the time and applaud the way he guided and reassured the nation through the Depression and the War. He also made a very tough and controversial decision---the internment of the Japanese, which I support.
6) Grover Cleveland
7) James Polk
8) Martin Van Buren
9) Franklin Pierce
10) Jimmy Carter
11) Andrew Jackson--Trail of Tears, etc
12) James Buchannan--Did very little to solve the crisis of the Civil War and instead largely left it in his succesor's lap
13) Woodrow Wilson. Horrible man all around, got us involved in a war we had no business being in, a horribly racist figure who set race relations back decades, just generally a stupid sonofabitch.

[PoliCon]

13) Woodrow Wilson. Horrible man all around, got us involved in a war we had no business being in, a horribly racist figure who set race relations back decades, just generally a stupid sonofabitch.

Interestingly enough the current president shares most of his views and policy preferences

[Chuck58]

Interestingly enough the current president shares most of his views and policy preferences

Beat me to it. I was going to say, Wilson and obama are cut from the same cloth, or same ideology. Further, I also think obama is racist.

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

Interestingly enough the current president shares most of his views and policy preferences

How so?

I personally think he made one of the biggest blunders of the 20th century by involving us in WWI. We should've remained a neutral party. The passengers on the liners were warned weeks in advance that it was incredibly dangerous to be on such liners in those waters, yet they still went. It was a weak reason to go to war but he seized upon it because he was a war monger. He botched the ending negotiations of the war and many of his mistakes (and of course the mistakes of his other international contemporaries) laid the groundwork for World War II.

Again, also a very racist asshole.

Though, he can be credited for slowly starting the Cold War--He refused to recognize the newly formed USSR and even had our soldiers fight against the Soviets in the Russian Civil War.

[fettpett]

Lincoln- saved the Union hard to argue with that

Coolidge
T. Roosevelt
Regan

Each of these Men lead the Country forward in significant times in American History, Coolidge set the tone for the roaring 20's, cut taxes and spending to the lowest levels ever.
Roosevelt set the tone for the American Century, Regan ushered in a new wave of Conservatism and helped push America past the USSR as the worlds lone superpower, also helped bring back Pride in America


Good/Decent
Eisenhower
McKinely
G HW Bush
G W Bush
Ben Harrison

Alright/Bad:

Grant
Arthur
Hayes
Taft
Harding
Nixon
Ford

Not in office Long enough
Garfield- 4 months in office and treated with horrendous medical care that was bad even for that time.