underrated presidents

[galaxy21]

Who doesn't get enough credit?


Jimmy Carter: I hate how everyone says 'politicians lie to us and don't treat us like grown ups' when Carter did exactly that and everyone hated him for it. He was the first president to try and get people to solve their problems like adults.

Warren Harding: I don't know why he's remebered as one of the worst. Since it seems like he was quite average.

Lyndon Johnson: Okay, Vietnam is difficult for anyone to get past but I always admired how he knew singing the civil rights act was political suicide for the democrats, and did it anyway. I don't know if JFK would have done it, knowing it could potentially wreck his presidency.

Richard Nixon: Similar to Harding, he wasn't a great president, but it seems unfair to call him one of the worst. He did a lot of good while he was in office and would probably be a democrat by today's standards. He didn't have any morals to speak of, though. Can you be a good president and a criminal?

[madokie]

1. Looking back I see the thing with President Carter was the crew of treasonous bastards

who many came into the white house with Nixon and who effectively neutered Carter and stole the election outright in '80 who are still trying to steal elections as this last one is a testament of. We have to have the stomach to arrest, charge and try in a court of law these criminals or we can't ever stop this bullshit.

[barbtries]

2. i agree that jimmy carter is grossly underrated

can't speak to warren harding's presidency. lyndon johnson, a mixed bag. i think the good richard nixon accomplished was more than wiped out by his criminality. and to think that he lines up next to gw looking like a boy scout. i never thought growing up, and now old, that my country would sink as it has from the weight of terrible republicans.

[galaxy21]

3. Was Watergate really that bad?

I think that was one of the times that the cover up was worse than the crime, wasn't it? Similar to Bill/Monica, if Nixon had just been honest from the start, he would be remebered a lot better, wouldn't he? I'm not comparing Watergate to Bill's affair, but just the fact that sometimes lying can get you into even more trouble.

[barbtries]

4. it wasn't just watergate

it was CREEP. it was undermining the democratic process. it was putting politics ahead of everything, it was enemy lists, ratfucking, who knows what all. the break in was just the tip of the iceberg. nixon resigned to keep the rest of it from coming to light. not even comparable to the crime of lying about having cheated on your wife, nixon (like bush, but with less deadly consequences), cheated on the entire nation.

[pnorman]

5. Warren Harding?

The book, "The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country", makes a very convincing case that he had been put in office by the same sort of Rove-types who did the same with Bush43. Personally affable, he pardoned Eugen V. Debs, but his administration's actions led directly to the Great Depression later in that decade.

Here's that book at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Teapot-Dome-Scandal-Harding-Country/dp/0812973372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231684154&sr=1-1

I have both the spoken word Audible.com version, as well as the Ereader e-text version. Both are on my cellphone, and I've listened to it twice so far. I'm convinced that my above assessment is totally correct.

pnorman