Rate the Presidents of which you of have first hand knowledge ...

[Missourian]

It's funny.

I thought, at first, you were the guy I had beef with last night.

But you just have similar screen names.

Not me...I was on vacation.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Not me...I was on vacation.

You need to own nothing and be happy.

 

[LeroyDumonde]

8) Carter, Reagan, HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden

 

[RhodyPatriot]

First ban in 15 years. Who watches the watchers.

?

 

[SavannahMann]

I joined the Army when Reagan was President so out of fairness I should start there. But I’ll begin with Carter.

Carter gets a bad rap. Honestly he was hamstrung by circumstances. I remember him standing in front of Three Mile Island and assuring the world it would not explode. I remember as a boy the failed Desert One mission. Oddly when the news said it was weather and a mechanical failure that killed the mission I didn’t blame Carter. Seems odd to blame someone for bad luck.

I remember discussing SDI or Star Wars with my cousin. He said that it would be a waste of money and the Russians would just build missiles designed to fool the system.

I said it was common sense. If someone throws a punch, you try and block the punch from landing.

We didn’t know it was mostly propaganda to bankrupt the Russians. As I said. I joined the Army under Reagan. I think he was pretty damned good.

George HW Bush. I went to war with him. I can’t complain about that. Some friends didn’t make it home to see their families. Not too bad. Decent economy. Tax increases made reelection damned hard. Perot made it impossible.

Clinton. Good economy. Decent foreign policy. Some bad things. But every administration has those. He could have handled a lot of things better. Trying to blame OKC on Limbaugh was just dumb. Fair overall. Better than average.

W. Bush. A clusterfuck of an election got him in. PATRIOT ACT was an unconstitutional abomination. The National Security Letters alone should have torpedoed that crap.

The housing meltdown in 08 was poorly managed. There never was a good national response. It was left up to Paulson to fiddle with.

Obama. This is when I realized nobody is ever ready on day one to be President. His early fuckups included the idiotic hotline to report people who were spreading disinformation on Obamacare. That was catastrophically Stupid.

I realized everyone fucks up at first and the learning curve is steep. In time it settled down and he got better. I spent some time considering the first few months of the other administrations and realized they had fucked up too.

So it became an assumption that new Presidents were going to fuck up at first. Ok. Give them time to learn and do better.

Economy rebounded after the housing crisis. The protections to prevent that barn door from opening again were put in place. Economy was fairly good. Obamacare wasn’t the disaster that it could have been. Not too bad all things considered.

Trump. By now I’m expecting the early few months to be a fuck up. And sure enough, it was. Ok. Time to let them learn the job. But as the Trump admin continued I grew weary as year two passed of Trump still not learning.

As we passed year three and Trump still had not learned I gave up hope.

An example. RW types bemoan the idea that any policy needs to be passed around for all the various departments to weigh in on. Trump is the president they will say and he sets policy. Well yes. But the lawyers weigh in on what can be done legally. The various departments weigh in on how the policy will affect them, and their mandates from Congress. They also weigh in on any understandings that might exist with friends and foes alike.

These comments are needed to keep things from being ruled illegal by the courts as every one of the Trump Executive Orders were in the first year.

I don’t expect the President to be an expert of everything. But I do expect him or her to seek advice and exercise good judgement based on facts.

Trump would not learn that lesson. Even as COVID ran amok, his responses flipped day to day depending on the trending Twitter feed.

I said Bush was to blame for the lack of a national plan to deal with the housing crisis. Trump is to blame on COVID. His plan changed based upon a Twit from some idiot somewhere.

If you don’t like what the experts are telling you consult with other experts. Don’t get your advice from morons on Twitter.

What did I say above? I don’t expect a President to be an expert in everything. I expect him to seek advice and exercise good judgement.

Trump could never manage to do that.

That is a fatal error in my opinion. I can stand and support a leader who was wrong and accepts responsibility. I can support a leader who tried and failed using the best plan they could come up with. I can’t support one who is indecisive. And Trump could not stay the course on a policy for an entire day.

I’m not talking about new information changing a direction. I’m talking about Trump literally bouncing all over for approval of whoever he was in front of.

Election 2020. I looked at it and decided that we had to choose between two steaming piles of shit. And I refused to pretend it was anything else. I stayed home for the first time since 1988, my first Presidential Election. I wasn’t old enough in 84.

Trump fucked up in his last year. Trying to pull troops out of NATO in his last few months? Trying to blackmail Ukraine? Playing games with Taiwan? Domestically Trump was bad. Internationally, Trump was a disaster.

Biden. Ok. I was assuming this period of fuck up would be bad. And I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I figured it would be. Oh there were fuck ups. But the normal run of the mill sort. Nothing spectacular.

Biden managed COVID well enough, and his biggest challenge is inflation which is coming down slowly. Unemployment is low, and in time the inflation will stabilize about at normal levels. Mostly that is due to the folks at the Fed. Biden hasn’t taken any leadership on it.

Am I thrilled with Biden? Not even close. There are few worse candidates in my opinion than Biden. I still think he is a steaming pile of shit. However I have revised my opinion of Trump. Trump is a flaming pile of shit.

So while I would categorize Biden as a mediocre President, average I suppose. I do approve of his foreign policy especially regarding NATO and Europe.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

A Ukraine flag in conjunction with an excessively long soliloquy?

The recipe for snooze city.

But I'm a hero.

I withstood it.

 

[Couchpotato]

Trump was the worst man to ever hold office and easily the worst president since Harding.

Wilson is the worst President and by a large margin.

 

[Couchpotato]

candycorn

Woodrow Wilson was a terrible President by far our worst. You don’t know your history

 

[rightwinger]

The Nixon administration put a man on the moon but JFK usually gets the credit.

LBJ put a man on the moon
He was a big proponent of NASA

That is why we have a Johnson Space Center

 

[SavannahMann]

A Ukraine flag in conjunction with an excessively long soliloquy?

The recipe for snooze city.

But I'm a hero.

I withstood it.

There are reasons I approved of the jobs of each President. I was critical of both parties, and critical of some of their signature efforts. I felt it was fair.

I’m sorry if you found it verbose. I’d like to see your opinion of my opinions on each.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Title says it all.

List in order from best to worst the Presidents of which you have first hand knowledge...as in, you were alive and cognizant of either domestic or international affairs. Not when you were two...but when you were civically engaged on the world.

I'll start.

1) Reagan (Great man, Great President)

2) Trump (a flawed man but a good President)

3) Clinton (a flawed man but a decent President)

4-5-6) Obama, the Bush's (not good men, not good Presidents)

7) Carter (good man, terrible President)

8) Biden (Terrible man, Terrible President)

Your turn....

Clinton - deeply flawed human being...good POTUS

Carter - Great human being, better POTUS than given credit for

Reagan - Seemed to be an ok human being, spent far too much as POUTS, he started us on the path we are now on for our debt.

Bush I - Terrible human being, should have been jailed for what took place in Panama/Nicaragua. It is said he ran for POTUS to avoid going to jail.

Bush II - Seems to be an over all good human being, was a terrible POTUS.

Obama - Seems to be an over all good human being, was a terrible POTUS.

Trump - Terrible human being, terrible POTUS

Biden - Seems to be an ok human being, terrible POTUS