Presidents

Who's your favorite president? I'm a Jeffersonian, I hafta admit. For many reasons. Not just his presidency, but his whole life.

but I have three least favourites... :)

ok say all three then. i have more than one too. so i don't blame u.
plus, these forums are very flexible in the category of focus. the topic is just a general suggestion, really. at least that's what i've noticed.

Very true.

It's rare for the focus of forum discussion to be strictly based around the original subject matter. :)

like this, for instance? :)

tip 'o the iceberg, m'dear..... tip 'o the iceberg.

:)

Oh, so true. And don't I know it.

I think it's pretty well known around here who I don't like. Nixon, Reagan, and You-Know-Who.

Those shouldn't come as any surprise to most of you, right? :)

i'd agree with you on those. they, esp. you-know-who, were really bad. No, it doesn't suprise me, even tho I barely know you. I don't think many people can honestly say they thought Nixon was a great president, for one thing.

Actually, funny you should mention nixon... I forget what program it was on NPR... but it was interviewing people on their favorite president OF ALL TIME... and of course lincoln was on there.... washington... etc.... but NIXON was actually a calculatable response.

*shakes head*

Makes you realize how it's possible for people to have re-elected the greatest evil man to be elected in the modern world.

My grandfather thought Nixon was a great man.

Nixon's presidency turned my staunchly Republican paternal grandparents into outspoken Democrats.�

I'm a Kennedy person.

*runs*

hey, I kinda like roosevelt....

which one?

I have a love/hate thing with Teddy.�

yeah, teddy.

Me too.

He was pretty much the coolest president. Bellicose but he fought against big business and for the environment.

Which would precisely explain my love/hate thing. :D

Plus he made a very cool statement about presidential accountability that the current White House occupant would do well to reflect on. "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (1918)

Didn't I use that quote on my diary?

TR also appeals to my testosterone. He didn't play at being macho, in him it was the real thing. He was shot during a campaign speech when he was running as an independent in 1912 (He felt that Taft his successor was too conservative). He finished his speech before going to the hospital. Can you imagine any other president doing that?

tr rocks my world. i also grew up in a family that worships jfk, so i've got a bit of that going on, too. (neal and gordon will tell you about my mom's shrine in my parents' den.)

shrine? ro JFK?.. wow. I'm afraid now.

ok.. so it's about the equivalent of my non-catholic self collecting saint candles.

If that's scary, you should see my brother-in-law's shrine to Reagan. *shudder*

I slept in a room with a twice-life sized bust of JFK. There was a smaller one of FDR too.

I kind of like Taft, but that's because he made my state a state.

Wait, they named a president after that college?!?!

That's just weird.

Yeah, but his grandson is the worst governor ever.

Well, maybe not the worst ever, but one of the worst for Ohio. If only we could have had Captain Janeway's husband...

I know the truth. It doesn't have nearly as much to do with your dislike of Gov. Taft, but more with your morbid curiosity as to HOW exactly someone could lose a state. Repeatedly. Like, once a month, at least.

I wanted him to be Governor too. :-)

It's easy to lose Ohio. All tucked away down there ;-)

If only we could have had Captain Janeway's husband...


My nerd brain pinged and said, "His first name is Calvin. She used to play tennis with him as a kid, but she hated tennis and hated him. She met him again after her old fiance and her dad died in a test shuttle accident and..."

Even though I have a boy, there's a part of me that feels that because I know this, I'm going to die alone.

My three favorites are Lincoln, FDR, and Jefferson. Jefferson wasn't as great a president as they were but he wrote the declaration of independence and was a brilliant thinker, the closest thing we had to a scientist president.

say all you want about jefferson's personal life, the man was brilliant. visiting monticello makes my brain spin.

I'd have to say they're my top favorites as well. except i also liked washington and TR.
Jefferson...he's he greatest. Dude, he spoke 5 languages. Bush...got Cs. He was just a thinking guy, like insensitive scrod said. And considering his library turned in to the library of congress, he had to have read a lot...

it's very odd being referred to as "insensitive scrod." :P

yeah...sorry 'bout that. i don't know your real name. and "insensitive scrod" is just fun to type. What's your name?

heehee. my real name is carey. i also answer to goovie. either one. :)

'k carey....i'll all you that from now on. actually, maybe goovie. that sorta rolls off the tongue more. or, fingertips rather.

carfhea...careha....ca.re.y...carey..

gooooooooooooooovieeee!

yeah, that does roll off more easily.

nah. that will get even stranger when you change your username :D

true. but i haven't had a good name-changing brainstorm in a while.

I've been meaning to ask...why does everyone change their username so often? its really confusing. Especially right now, cause I feel like a piece of crap. if you really want to know why, frum me. I'm too crappified to say.

Sometimes it's for events, sometimes it's to recall something funny, sometimes it's just to be annoying or confusing.� I always rest a pointer on the 'name' so the username is visible (in the whatever-the-bar-at-the-bottom-of-IE is called).� Those names don't often make sense, but they never change.

k, thanks. i've just been wondering.

hee, but its even more confusing if you dont know what the username means, or it isnt their name. Michael, godess love 'im, still calls me Elise despite knowing my name is sheryl for probably something like 5 years. o.O

you're name's only been Sheryl for 5 years?

:)

...........yes.

i mean. wait.

i can usually guess who people are when their names change, but that is because i've been around here Way Too Long.

Can I vote for Josiah Bartlet?

I certainly want to. Early and often. :D

My favorite is George Washington, basically because he never *wanted* the power, and his inaugural and farewell addresses should be required reading.

I also like Jefferson.

I think my favorite to have least damaged the country is William Henry Harrison who caught pneumonia while delivering his inaugural address, lay in bed barely conscious for six weeks, and then died, thus doing hardly any damage to the country.

A very very distant fourth is Reagan, but only for the fact that he proved that tax cuts actually increase federal revenues. Of course, that's only beneficial when Congress isn't spending like drunken sailors in a whore house with a two day pass.

What does everyone think about Benjamin Franklin? He was amazing. I'm suprised he was never president. Although by the time we had a president, he was pretty old. Anyway, he did SO MUCH STUFF!! Especially in Philadelphia. Like creating the first post office and library in America, and printing the most widely read newspaper in PA.
And he invented things...like, bifocals, for instance.
And was a writer, writing things like "Poor Richard's Almanack."

And he wrote amzing stuff the current administration should read like

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Exactly. I was in the library the other day, and I was reading this book that was a collection of his writings, letters, and other things, and some of the things he wrote just blew my mind. He was so varied in his knowledge, from politics to science.

Rutherford B. Hayes, our only black president! ;)