Post Civil War World

[eleanorigby]

Originally Posted by What Exit?

Seriously, where is Theodore Roosevelt. He was the best President we've had. I liked Reagan, I voted for Reagan, but he does not belong on this list. Johnson is far worse. I would barely rate him a good President.

Why re Johnson?


I thought about Teddy R, I did, but this is my first ever poll and had no idea how it all worked.

[What Exit?]

Johnson is the one that poorly escalated Vietnam. That is a huge strike. I give him plenty of credit for getting some good social programs passed and plenty of real civil rights legislation but he also saddled us with a terrible welfare system. Overall I would not rate him great.

Why do you rate him great?

Oh and then as a side matter, he was kind of an ass IRL. Not uncommon for Presidents and not the nasty piece of work that Nixon was but he was a shady dealer overall from what I have read.

[eleanorigby]

Mostly due to his Great Society legislation-he presided over massive social changes. I've always had the sneaking feeling that Johnson was not a fan of it all, but saw that it was necessary and right to end segregation. Yes, he was an ass personally. But he was also able to manipulate, cajole, and bully Congress into some semblance of working order. We could do with a bit more of that these days (it'd help if the GOP stopped threatening to take their toys and go home over every thing).


Of course, by the end, LBJ was increasingly paranoid and losing his grip. Reagan, IMO, did absolutely nothing splendid at all. I was just trying to be fair and balanced.

[What Exit?]

Well as I acknowledge Reagan is not worthy of this list I won't bother defending him. But he did a lot of good and sadly a lot of bad.

I will defend why Teddy should be on the list. But in a later post, I've done this before and I am too tired to be original. I will search for an old post of mine instead.

[eleanorigby]

Oh, no need to defend. It's an incomplete list by any measure. Thing is, it's hard to judge the Presidents using only measure--as I said in my OP, different times call for different talents etc.

[What Exit?]

Why Theodore? Well he completely kicked ass and was moral to the point of near priggishness. Only Old Hickory was probably as tough and he was pretty much evil. Teddy (as he hated to be called) was a trustbuster, smart military mind, progressive, fiscally conservative as far as paying for what you spend, in favor of government healthcare, the first green President and he more than anyone else thrust the US onto the world stage with both the Great White Fleet and negotiating the peaceful ending to the Russo-Japanese War.

As a man, he was too awesome to be real. If you wrote a story with him as your main character everyone would complain he was the author’s Mary-Sue. He overcame severe asthma and kicked it into submission. He pushed himself like few others. He was a good boxer and wrestler and mastered judo. Would swim the icy Potomac regularly, hunting down the men that stole his boat in a bitter Dakota winter and caught them and brought them to legal justice when almost anyone else in the territory would have just shot them. He was a cattleman, explorer, writer, hunter, boatman, designed his own awesome house, went a long way towards cleaning up the NY police department as Police Commissioner, was shot by an assassin, saved by his Manuscript of Speech and as he wasn’t coughing up blood gave this long speech before seeking medical attention to remove the bullet. He explored the River of Doubt that was later named after him. He of course is the last man to run outside of the two parties and beat one of them. He came in second to Wilson and soundly defeated Taft.

He invited the first Black Man to dine in the White House and took a huge backlash for it. That man was Booker T. Washington.He handled a potentially crippling winter coal strike really well as it was ended quickly and both sides were unhappy with him. Did I mention the Panama Canal? He made that happen and established our first overseas Naval Bases. He prepared the US to become a world power.

Many consider Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. as our best Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States. Yes, Theodore appointed him.

Roosevelt also arbitrated successfully the Moroccan dispute between Germany and France. Clean Food acts.

Roosevelt set aside more land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined. He added enormously to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.
He promoted Physical Fitness. He crusaded endlessly on matters big and small, exciting audiences with his high-pitched voice, jutting jaw, and pounding fist. "The life of strenuous endeavor" was a must for those around him, as he romped with his five younger children and led ambassadors on hikes through Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. He was a founder of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Small but major social equality achievements:
Oscar S. Straus was the first Jew appointed as a Cabinet Secretary.
In 1901 Booker T. Washington became the first black man to dine at the White House.

Intellectualy he established himself as a historian (he was President of the American Historical Association) and as a naturalist (he was considered the world's authority on large American mammals and he led two major scientific expeditions for prominent American Museums, one in South America and one in Africa, each lasting many months). Had he not become President, he would be remembered for his contributions in both of these fields.
He had a lot to do with the NY Museum of Natural History being the truly great Museum it is.

Supporting Information gathered from the Wiki Article and http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tr26.html
http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/
For more on his conservation achievements please Follow the links in http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/conservation.htm

I'm going to stop with these, culled from about 5 or 6 of my old posts on two different boards.