Presidents

"He wound up freeing the slaves three years into the Civil War, as a political expedient." Slaves were already free in the North which is where he was president. He couldn't very well free slaves in the south at the beginning of the civil war.

Well, Lincoln was not a big abolitionist. It was never his intention to end slavery. He wound up freeing the slaves three years into the Civil War, as a political expedient. It was the right thing to do, but it's not like Lincoln had made it a campaign promise or anything.

I think it's hard to put the latest presidents in the top three because none of them were confronted with issues like founding the nation, slavery, and the great depression. Reagan was a great president, and did have to manage the Cold War and the biggest recession since the Great Depression, but we haven't had enough time pass since then for him to be immortalized the way those listed have.

That sounds reasonable. I know the presidents I didn't like. They were Clinton and Carter. I was not impressed by their time in office.

It's strange that so many people criticize FDR concerning the Depression. We wouldn't have been in one if the Republicans in power at that time had cared a little more about the general populise and not big business. I lived throught the depression as a depression baby being born in March of 29. I saw what it was like, our whole family moved into one house in order to have a place to live, this included my aunts, uncles, grandmother and grandfather plus 3 other kids. FDR put people back to work in government projects and those workers were thankful to have some sort of income instead of begging on the street corners and trying to sell some of their belongings in order to put food on the table for their families. Evidently most people on mylot who criticizze FDR never went through the great depression and don't have an inkling what it was like. FDR turned things around and got people working again.

Iriscot, It sounds like you are very emotionally wrapped in FDR. I can respect that because you lived through the event and FDR was a great PR person for himself. But history often shows that the facts are quite different from the feelings of the time. People from the same time period in Germany thought that Hitler was the solution to all of their problems. I am not comparing FDR's problems being anywhere near the level of Hitler's but just to show that people living the events are not always the best judge in the end. The fact remains that the Depression started in 1929 and ended with WWII in 1941. So with FDR's inauguration in 1933, he presided over 8 years of depression. This is much longer than what these events usually last. This is with the destruction of the beginning of WWII leading to increased industrial production as a result of military orders from Europe. With that being the case, how can the argument be made that his policies hastened the end of the Depression. The other facts remain as well. Even though you have positive feelings about FDR, your family may have felt quite different if all of you had been thrown into an internment camp because of your race. The results of FDR's economic policies can be argued by people of good conscience but how can anyone ever defend his hideous actions of locking up thousands of innocent men, women and children. He treated the Constitution like toilet paper.