First off, you don't have to tell me that there have been 43 presidents (actually 42, Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms), I know that, but I found the fact that William H. Harrison (9th president) died after one month in office made him hard to rank on performance.
But the other 41 have no excuse, so here goes (I have inserted quotes from each president, if there is any political bias it is intentional-sorry):
1) Ronald Reagan. "Evil is powerless when the good are unafraid."
2) Abraham Lincoln. "I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be."
3) George Washington. "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectually means of preserving the peace."
4) Theodore Roosevelt. "The hardest lessons to learn are those that are the most obvious."
5) James Monroe. "If America wants concessions, she must fight for them. We must purchase our power with our blood."
6) George W. Bush. "Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss and in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war."
7) Andrew Jackson. "One man with courage makes a majority."
8) Thomas Jefferson. "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
9) Richard Nixon. "Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects."
10) James Madison. "It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."
11) Franklin Roosevelt. "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."
12) John Adams. "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."
13) Calvin Coolidge. "The nation that forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
14) George H. W. Bush. "I'll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most."
15) Dwight Eisenhower. "In war there is no substitute for victory."
16) James Polk. "No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure."
17) John Quincy Adams. "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
18) William McKinley. "Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law."
19) John F. Kennedy. "We are not against any man-or any nation-or any system, except as it is hostile to freedom.
20) Gerald Ford. "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
21) Andrew Johnson (The goal is to strive for is a poor government but a rich people.
22) Harry Truman. "Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."
23) Grover Cleveland. " Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people."
24) James Garfield. "A nation is not worthy to be saved if, in the hour of its fate, it will not gather up all its jewels of manhood and life, and go down to the conflict, however bloody and doubtful, resolved on measureless ruin or complete success."
25) Ulysses S. Grant. "My failures have been errors of judgement, not of intent."
26) Franklin Pierce. "You have summoned me in my weakness. You must sustain me by your strength."
27) Chester A. Arthur. "Since I came here I have learned that Chester A. Arthur is one man and President of the United States is another."
28) Martin Van Buren. "It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't."
29) Warren Harding. "It is my conviction that the fundamental trouble with the people of the United States is that they have gotten too far away from Almighty God."
30) Rutherford B. Hayes. "I would honor the man who would give to his country a good newspaper."
31) Woodrow Wilson. "There is a price which is too great to pay for peace, and that price can be put in on word. One cannot pay the price of self-respect."
32) Herbert Hoover. "Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die."
33) Benjamin Harrison. "It is quite as illogical to despise a man because he is rich as because he is poor. Not what a man has, but what he is, settles his class."
34) Millard Fillmore. "The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit for public trust."
35) John Tyler. "Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality."
36) William Clinton. "I don't suppose there's any public figure that's ever been subject to any more violent personal attacks that I have."
37) Lyndon Johnson. "Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but stand there and take it."
38) William Taft. "The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much."
39) Zachary Taylor. "It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe."
40) James Buchanan. "The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men."
41) James Carter. "Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread."
This list is not to be definitive it is simply the result of my own research into the matter, enjoy, feel free to disagree, but please concede # 41 at least.
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2 comments:
I suppose I can concede #41. Interesting list, but when you say "research" to what are you referring? Do you rank them by how conservative they were? How personally moral? If the latter, Harding should be near the bottom (he would know about getting far from Almighty God--he got around quite as much as JFK and Slick Willy). Nor are you very fair to Zachary Taylor, who alone of the entire pre-Civil War generation of presidents challenged the slave power of the South. And where you came up with the idea that Nixon and Andrew Johnson should be ranked so high I'll never know. If you like Nixon that much, you'll love Giuliani. I have to admit as well--I would not rank Reagan quite so high. I rank him the highest of the recent presidents, but come on--better than Lincoln or Washington?
Other than that I have very few complaints. For comparison purposes I thought I'd rerun your list with how I ranked each president. We're not far off for the most part (x means I disagree, followed by the number I assigned the president in question--if there is no x, it means we were either right on or it was so close it can hardly be called a disagreement).
1. Reagan x (8).
2. Lincoln (3).
3. Washington x (1).
4. Theodore Roosevelt (4).
5. Monroe (5).
6. George W. Bush x (15).
7. Jackson (6).
8. Jefferson (7).
9. Nixon x (23).
10. Madison x (2).
11. FDR x (16).
12. J. Adams (13).
13. Calvin Coolidge x (26).
14. George H.W. Bush x (24).
15. Eisenhower (12).
16. Polk (18).
17. JQ Adams x (27--not a great president).
18. McKinley x (11--I think he'll be rising next year).
19. JFK (17).
20. Ford x (25).
21. A. Johnson x (38).
22. Truman x (14).
23. Cleveland (20).
24. Garfield x (31).
25. Grant (21).
26. Pierce x (36).
27. Arthur (22).
28. Van Buren x (19).
29. Warren Harding x (40).
30. Hayes (32).
31. Wilson x (9).
32. Hoover (33).
33. Harrison (34).
34. Fillmore (37).
35. Tyler (35).
36. Clinton x (30).
37. LBJ x (29).
38. Taft x (28).
39. Taylor x (10).
40. Buchanan (41).
41. Carter (39).
I think it's a great list and the quotes add some personality(yours- for choosing the quotes and theirs- for saying them.) Poor William Clinton, he sounds like such a victim, what a leader!!!
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