Who is your favorite old President

[mrmitchell]

Presidents from 1796 to 1912 will be considered. Noone wants to hear anything about Washington, and from Wilson on the issues are recent enough to be politicable.

So?

Mine: Andrew Johnson
Fought tooth and nail with extremist Congress that wanted to rip the South apart. Rescued Lincoln's hiney in 1864 election. One of the few born without the "silver spoon in his mouth".

[b etor]

mr lincoln. but only because of inside hockey jokes.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wow... Johnson? That's my least favorite (and most hated) 'old President'.

Johnson was a horrible President. After the Civil War he pardoned scores of former Confederate officers because he wanted to be accepted into their high society (as you said, he wasn't, so he was jealous of it). He also stood right in the way of black rights by vetoing the Civil Rights Bill, which was pushed by moderates as well as the radicals. Johnson also tried to block the 14th Amendment from passing wanting the states to decide black suffrage (say wha?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson

Historian James Ford Rhodes has explained Johnson's inability to engage in serious negotiations:[9]

As Senator Charles Sumner shrewdly said, "the President himself is his own worst counselor, as he is his own worst defender." Johnson acted in accordance with his nature. He had intellectual force but it worked in a groove. Obstinate rather than firm it undoubtedly seemed to him that following counsel and making concessions were a display of weakness. At all events from his December message to the veto of the Civil Rights Bill he yielded not a jot to Congress. The moderate senators and representatives (who constituted a majority of the Union party) asked him for only a slight compromise; their action was really an entreaty that he would unite with them to preserve Congress and the country from the policy of the radicals. The two projects which Johnson had most at heart were the speedy admission of the Southern senators and representatives to Congress and the relegation of the question of Negro suffrage to the States themselves. Himself shrinking from the imposition on these communities of the franchise for the colored people, his unyielding disposition in regard to matters involving no vital principle did much to bring it about. His quarrel with Congress prevented the readmission into the Union on generous terms of the members of the late Confederacy; and for the quarrel and its unhappy results Johnson's lack of imagination and his inordinate sensitiveness to political gadflies were largely responsible: it was not a contest in which fundamentals were involved. He sacrificed two important objects to petty considerations. His pride of opinion, his desire to beat, blinded him to the real welfare of the South and of the whole country.

He was arguably the worst President the United States has ever had.

Perhaps the only good thing he did was to buy Alaska.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oh, and not to be entirely on the negative, my favorite "old Presidents" was Thomas Jefferson. A great mind who was instrumental in the creation of the Republic. A President who was flexible enough that he was able to make the biggest land purchase in American history, even though it may have conflicted with his beliefs on the Constitution (which says nothing about land acquisition).

[LordShiva]

President S. Radhakrishnan

[LordShiva]

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Telugu:సర్వేపల్లి రాధాకృష్ణ,Tamil:சர்வபள்ளி ராதாகிருஷ்ணன ) (September 5, 1888 – April 17, 1975), was a philosopher and statesman. One of the foremost scholars of comparative religion and philosophy in his day, he built a bridge between Eastern and Western thought showing each to be comprehensible within the terms of the other. He introduced Western idealism into Indian philosophy and was the first scholar of importance to provide a comprehensive exegesis of India's religious and philosophical literature to English speaking peoples. His academic appointments included the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta (1921-) and Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University (1936-1939). He became Vice President of India in 1952 and was elected President in 1962, an office he held until 1967. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Teacher's Day in his honour.

[Zkribbler]

Teddy Roosevelt

Trust buster.
Ecologist.
Builder of the Panama Canal

He was bully! Bully!!

[Wycoff]

I like Jefferson, despite the fact that his presidency was spotty. His Louisiana Purchase was a stroke of genius, but the Embargo Act was potentially disasterous.

James K. Polk is another of my favorites. He added 1/3 of our territory and incorporated some of the most resource rich territory on the continent, thereby crippling a potential continental rival in the process. He helped settle the boundaries of the Pacific Northwest, avoiding war with Britain at a time when many Americans were itching for it (54' 40 or fight)

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by LordShiva

Sorry, pre-1912 only. Otherwise I'd vote for Kekkonen.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Wycoff
James K. Polk is another of my favorites. He added 1/3 of our territory and incorporated some of the most resource rich territory on the continent, thereby crippling a potential continental rival in the process. He helped settle the boundaries of the Pacific Northwest, avoiding war with Britain at a time when many Americans were itching for it (54' 40 or fight)

Polk . And he did it in one term (stuck to his promise not to run again).

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Wycoff
James K. Polk is another of my favorites.

Polk is surely the most overlooked of the visionary Presidents. Now, he's merely known as the one who provided the name to Al Bundy's high school.

[lord of the mark]

Lincoln was greater, and TJ was great though overrated, but my personal fave is John Adams.

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Lincoln was greater, and TJ was great though overrated, but my personal fave is John Adams.

I like Adams as well. He's underated, though the Alien and Sedition Acts are a black mark.

At least he gets his due in the Turtledove Great War books. He's on the 5 dollar bill.

[One_more_turn]

There were lots of great presidents back then, whom shall I choose from: James Buchanan, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, John Adams, Andrew Johnson?

[One_more_turn]

Ted Roosevelt was the worst, followed by Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson.