Friday, December 5, 2008

How do you rank them?

So my nearly identical twin Scott Thomas and myself often have what we call our nerd debate in which we try to rank who we think is the greatest US Presidents of all time. The debate is pointless and we often end up picking guys we know will fluster the other (ie Andrew Jackson). It makes me think though. What makes a good US President? How do you define "good"? Do some guys get the benefit of the time period they serve in (ie Eisenhower or Clinton) while others take the shaft for a rough time (ie LBJ)? What do we as American people really want from our President? What do people outside of the US want from the President? Do things like character, vision, competence, economic policy, preservation of liberty, national defense, foreign policy, etc all really matter? Are we willing to sacrifice morals for a healthy America in terms of economics? What is our standard of the President and do we hold all leaders to this standard? I don't really know all the answers to this. But nevertheless I suppose I will continue to have the debate because it satisfies my nerdy history brain.

By the way in case you are wondering...

  1. Abraham Lincoln
  2. Theodore Roosevelt
  3. George Washington
  4. Thomas Jefferson
  5. Harry Truman
  6. Ronald Reagan
  7. James Polk
  8. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  9. Andrew Jackson
  10. Woodrow Wilson

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nerd alert!!!!!

I think because Reagan beat FDR, but FDR beat Truman, and Polk beat Harding, that Fillmore and J.Q. Adams should play in the BCS.