Great Republican Presidents?

[Joeve]

Actually, I believe there were THREE truly great Republican Presidents: Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Eisenhower, who IMO is very under-rated because he served in such prosperous times.

As far as I'm concerned, all the rest, especially the pint-sized brain in a ten-gallon hat we have now, were just worthless party hacks fronting for the REAL power behind the GOP: the privileged few who think the only reason for government is to reinforce their hold on power.

Any other opinions?

[LiberalLibra]

1. Isn't "Great Republican Presidents" an oxymoron???

:shrug:

[CWebster]

2. Ahhhhhhhhh,

Clinton

;-)

[Bandit]

3. LOL and I agree.

:-)

[GainesT1958]

5. I wouldn't cede seven years of prosperity...

A Federal budget SURPLUS, reduced National Debt, reduced crime, and better environmental protection to ANY Repub!x(

And, by the way, there IS a BIG DIFFERENCE between Clinton and Dub...enough that I can tell the difference between Democrats and Repubs, that's for sure!

www.damnedbigdifference.org

B-)

[EV1Ltimm]

4. lincoln...

continental.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower

GREAT REPUBLICANS: Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower
BAD REPUBLICANS: The Rest!

GREAT DEMOCRATS: All of them!!!
BAD DEMOCRATS: No such thing!!!

[sierrak9s]

8. Well...

"Great Democrats: All of them?"
I submit the following:
Polk (Mexican War, single-term)
James Buchanan (Leadup to the civil war)
Grover Cleveland, great?
Woodrow Wilson was a howling, screaming Southern racist who singlehandedly set race relations back fifty years.
LBJ is a tragic mix. Domestically, no quarrel with your assessment. But it was under LBJ that our troop presence in Vietnam went from approx 16,000 to its peak of 536,100.

[morstyranni]

21. What about Truman

He dropped the A-bomb and started the nightmare known as the cold war. The thought of that man runs chills down my spine.

[sierrak9s]

22. Truman

Arguable that dropping the A-bomb saved lives. But how d'you figure that Truman "started the cold war" all by himself? Didn't the Soviets' unilateral cancellation of the Potsdam agreement and blockade of Berlin sorta figure in there?
Unless what you're really saying is that Truman was wrong to start a cold war, and should have started a HOT war at that point... ;)

[RummyTheDummy]

7. Ike dropped in my view

When I recently saw a PBS documentary on D-Day. Apparently Ike never personally led troops into battle. Kinda chickenhawkish.

[Joeve]

10. Ike was no chickenhawk

When I recently saw a PBS documentary on D-Day. Apparently Ike never personally led troops into battle. Kinda chickenhawkish.

I would disagree there, first as a matter of definition: a chickenhawk is primarily PRO-war but prefers to let others fight. Not all military men are pro-war, and there were plenty of high-ranking generals who never personally led troops into combat. Patton did, and he was great at doing what he did, but he was a vicious prick who would never have been able to coordinate with the European generals (especially Montgomery, who he was always competing with). Same with that bastard MacArthur, though I credit him for doing an excellent job in Japan after WWII. But he wanted to drop nukes on China, for crying out loud!

It was Ike's role as Commander of the European forces that made him well-suited for the Presidency at that time, he made America's role in re-building Europe much easier because he was already familiar with most of the upper-ranking leaders. Also, the federal highway system was and is domestically a boon to businesses, plus the creation of NASA occurred because of him.

Ike could also be free to speak out against other military leaders, because he had been there: I remember him bitching about how the only way he would be able to get some of his generals to balance their military budgets would be to hand out medals for doing so.

The only problem I have with him is that he allowed the McCarthy hearings to go on too long, a word from him would have stopped it in its tracks...

[leftofthedial]

9. I agree completely

Teddy, Abe, and Ike.

The rest have all been DISASTROUS for America.

[Dob Bole]

11. Wilson bad?

I must say that I can only think of the same three Republican presidents.

Anyway, I don't know much about Wilson's racist leanings, but I do know that, unlike Bush

a)he was the only President with a PhD

b)he was capable of actually winning a war

c)he was a good speaker. He could speak words. In English

d)he created the League of Nations, rather than saying "Bite me, entire earth."

e)he didn't have to pretend to be from the South


So if Woodrow Wilson was a bad president, we can see that Bush is 10 TIMES BETTER!!! YES!!!!

[morningglory]

12. Shame what LBJ did to Goldwater

He seemed to have a lot of sense in his later years.

[MrsMatt]

13. Lincoln & Roosevelt

would hardly be considered Republican in this day and age.
I get a bit testy when I hear the GOP claim to be the party of Lincoln. The Republican party has evolved (or devolved) into such an unrecognizable entity of hate and intolerance that Lincoln and TR are spinning.

[Joeve]

14. That's for sure

would hardly be considered Republican in this day and age.
I get a bit testy when I hear the GOP claim to be the party of Lincoln. The Republican party has evolved (or devolved) into such an unrecognizable entity of hate and intolerance that Lincoln and TR are spinning.

Personally I'd like to resurrect Teddy, hand him a BIG STICK, and point him in the direction of George W. Bush.

At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. In our day it appears as the struggle of free men to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will.

At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth.

Theodore Roosevelt, The New Nationalism

[TheDonkey]

15. Damn dime!

Ike was a raging bigot.

Racist and sexist, he was a horrible present who rode on the fortune America was experiencing regardless of his prescense. The one good thing he did was unintentional in creating one of the most liberal supreme courts in our history (he considered it to be his biggest mistake ever).

Lincoln was the only great republican president. It went downhill from there.

[Dob Bole]

18. Re: Damn Dime

Everybody was a raging bigot back then by today's standards, even Lincoln. People might look back 100 years from now and say that you're one. Things change.

[jiacinto]

16. I will get flamed for saying this, but Nixon

Aside from Watergate and his international agenda, I think that Nixon did some good with some of his domestic policy.

[sandnsea]

17. Lincoln gathered up the masses

He was not a Republican in the modern sense at all. This cartoon sort of sums up the view at the time, racial slurs and all.

http://elections.harpweek.com/1Cartoons/cartoon-1860-large.asp?UniqueID=10&Year=1860

[JackSwift]

19. What's with all the newbie idiots in this thread?

Eisenhower was not a "great" president even by the most generous of analysis. He was adequate in my opinion, but he was chicken in the face of McCarthyism and a milktoast on civil rights when circumstances called on him to lead in these areas. It was under Eisenhower that the Republican party decided that it was going to side on the redneck side of the fence on civil rights issues. He lied to the nation about U2 flights over the Soviet Union when he knew the Soviets had proof. When running for office he slammed George Marshall, his former commanding officer and the only man to give Eisenhower the significant military breaks to get where he was. Without Marshall, Eisenhower would have been another has been former MacArthur staff officer. This was so cowardly as to make Eisenhower unworthy of consideration as a great president. (JackSwift thinks that George Marshall, FDR, Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington were the greatest Americans ever.)

So no, Eisenhower was a turd.

Teddy Roosevelt was a warmongering imperialist, which pretty much cancel out his many, many reforms. Even LBJ didn't go around looking for wars.

[Hubert Flottz]

20. Is that a trick question?

Abe was the last good Republican President! He tried to warn the country about the super capitalists who now back the republican party and have since the end of Lincoln's administration! From that point, until today, every republican president has been under the control of the wealthy few American and foreign super Capitalists IMO! (super industrialists and super bankers)

Lincoln warns:

"I see in the near future a crisis approach which unnerves me and cause me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations (of banking) have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic destroyed."