Who do you think was the best US president since the 1960s, and why?

1. 81

   Craanposted 11 years ago

   Who do you think was the best US president since the 1960s, and why?

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2. 60

   MickSposted 11 years ago

   Nixon, because he was so honest.............................

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   1. 81

      Craanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's really funny!

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      NotPCposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This was the first thing I saw in my feed and I literally laughed out loud!

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3. 0

   JThomp42posted 11 years ago

   Although people question his character, I would have to say Bill Clinton.

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4. 67

   LandmarkWealthposted 11 years ago

   Without question it was Reagan.  He was a true conservative focused on limiting the role of Gov't in our everyday lives.  He reformed the tax code towards greater simplification, which was some of the greatest work in terms of stirring capital formation. He was sworn in at a time when the country was totally demoralized, both economically and in terms of our international standing.  The late 70's were not unlike what we have experienced since 2008, with higher inflation.  He was an inspiring person in terms of his ability to communicate to the American people.  But he was also able to work with congress to accomplish many although not all of his goals.  More than any other President of the 20th/21st century, he understood the true role of Gov't was to create a hospitable environment for business to flourish, but not to determine outcomes.   He was also a stong international leader in the face of the Soviet Empire.   
   
   His greatest flaw was that he was too trusting of the word of his congressional friends.  While tax revenue doubled following his tax reform, he never ensured that he got the spending reductions he asked for.  As a result, congressional spending increased in accordance with revenue substantially.
   
   But overall he helped reverse the direction of the culture of the entitlement state, at lease for awhile.  Ironically, since his time...the President most like him from an economic policy perspective of smaller gov't was actually Bill Clinton.  Contrary to popular opinion, the size and scope of Gov't expanded much more under subsequent Republican administrations, as well as the current Obama administration.

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      MickSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry, can't agree.  I don't know much about US politics; however, he always seemed to have an 'advisor's' hand up his jacket when he talked.  Worst of all he was hand in glove with the cow Thatcher, that is the lowest of the low.

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   2. 67

      LandmarkWealthposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      She also did some of the greatest work on supply side tax reform.  He was hardly a puppet. Especially the way he handled Mikhail Gorbachev.  He became like a father figure to him.  If not for Reagan the Berlin wall would still be there.

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5. 81

   ZipperConstantineposted 11 years ago

   President Reagan!  He had many accomplishments and you can read about them on the internet but one of the most important is that he worked well with both democrats and republicans.  He listened to both parties, he brought this country together.  I see one man that might have a chance to follow in his footsteps.  I have looked at both republicans and democrats to find such a man.  I am an Independent and have voted for both parties at some time or another.  I think this person is Marco Rubio.  He is a younger man with great wisdom.  He loves America and wants to see our country thrive again.

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6. 60

   CHRIS57posted 11 years ago

   The best and first in the race: Richard Nixon, the decisions made during his presidency (Bretton Woods, end the Vietnam war) indicated true farsightedness. He was a bad Ping Pong player though, only Mao was worse and Nixon was too much in love with power. 
   Second and close behind was Bill Cinton.
   Last in the race George junior. He slashed the economic weight of the US in a changing world by 25% during his presidency. Even peanut Jimmy did better.
   
   The funny thing is that the only president i ever demonstrated against was Richard Nixon.

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7. 78

   wba108@yahoo.composted 11 years ago

   Ronald Reagan was by far the best! He inspired the nation that our best years were ahead and the American poeple responded. As did the founders, Reagan believed in a nation that was self governing, he believed that the progressive experiment that had largely been in place since FDR's welfare state, had shackled American ingenuity and innovation. He was right, so he got the government off the backs of the poeple by lowering taxes and getting rid of damaging regulations.
   
   He refused the gutless approach of the American left in regards to the communist threat. Rather than settle for detente and pandering to tyrants , he believed America could prevail and we did! By allowing American ingenuity and freedom to prevail, he set a pace that the communist thugs and tyrants could not keep up with! He build a missle defense system that nuetralized soviet first strike capability, he modernized our armed forces to the point where the Soviets knew they were overmatched. He threatened to carpet bomb Russia if they tried to move into Europe. The internal memo's of the KGB confirm that they believed would carry out his threats. America's standing in the free world put alot of political pressure on the Soviet and tyrants to enact reforms known as Glosnost. Other communist governments followed suit. I doubt any other leader of this era could have accomplished, what Reagan accomplished!

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8. 61

   Brandi Cooperposted 11 years ago

   Bill Clinton; hands down. The presidents during the 60s and 70s were, for the most part, embroiled in the quagmire that was the Vietnam War, which effectively rules them out from earning "best of" titles, as far as I'm concerned. Carter was a great diplomat, but just wasn't as effective as he hoped to be and he had one too many embarrassing blunders to really seal the deal with the American people.
   
   Reagan could be a close runner-up, but unfortunately Reaganomics ended up causing a deep recession and high inflation. Even though the economy managed to right itself, Reagan upped the military spending and ended up increasing the national deficit triplefold. So while, for a brief period of time, it seemed like Reagan was helping the nation - because there was indeed a period of growth in America during that time - it was at the expense of the generations who would follow afterward. Reagan was a good president within his term, but when you look at the big picture, he falls just short of deserving the title of "best".
   
   Clinton, on the other hand, managed to work miracles for our economy in ways that other presidents were just unable to do. Under him, we've had the longest period of economic growth this country has ever seen. He created the most jobs that any administration ever has, and provided the country with the lowest unemployment rate it had seen for decades. Not only that, but he also moved education forward by leaps and bounds with increasing education investment and upping standards for education - he also increased financial aid available to college students, which helped more Americans actually be able to receive higher education that was originally outside of their ability to afford. AND he had the lowest crime rate the country had seen in decades as well. He had the lowest poverty rate, the highest incomes (in all brackets), better (read: small role played by) welfare, paid off our national debt, and even ended his term with a surplus (he went from the highest deficit to the highest surplus). He had the lowest government spending and the lowest federal income tax (by providing tax credits). He also opened the doors for more minorities (both gender and ethnicity) to have higher positions in the government by boasting the most diverse cabinet in US history.

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      Conservative Ladyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      And he had time to fool around with a very young woman,  behind his wife's back, in the Oval Office......

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   2. 61

      Brandi Cooperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      True, but the sex life of a president is hardly important when you're looking at whether or not they were good for the country overall. His personal character might be flawed, but his policies were just what our country needed.

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9. 0

   Old Empresarioposted 11 years ago

   That's like picking which cockroach you would like to eat. You can honestly keep all of them. Nixon was probably the "best" and he was nearly impeached for things that every president does and gets away with. He and Clinton were probably the smartest, though it didn't make them great presidents. Reagan was a doddering fool who should have stuck to his old job of doing tv commercials for GE. I know the people of Central America don't give him high marks.

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10. 60

    Tom Koeckeposted 11 years ago

    The two most obvious choices for this answer would be Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Both were two term Presidents who had many accomplishments. However, many of Clinton's accomplishments were the result of his failures: the balanced budget was the result of him failing to reform health care, and Congress's Contract with America. Reagan certainly inspired the nation, but he left office with triple the debt he began with, and his deregulations had substantial unintended consequences, such as arbitraging and the S&L debacle.
    
    The best President since the 60s was sandwiched between these two: George H.W. Bush. He put his career by the wayside to fix several of the problems created by the Reagan years. He bit the bullet on the S&L bail out, and raised taxes sufficiently to eventually reduce the deficit, which benefitted Clinton.
    
    In addition to putting a second term in jeopardy, he created one of the most remarkable alliances in the history of this country when he got Arab nations to agree to allow us to use bases and air spaces to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. His agreement with them was that we would leave as soon as the job was done, and we would not send hit men in after Saddam Hussein (although they agreed he could be killed if it were done in the course of the barrage). He honored his agreement after about a week, and would be criticized by throngs of people who would put honor behind assassination.
    
    If the election would have been immediately after Desert Storm, no one could have beat him. However, a couple of years passed, and people pointed at what seemed to be a rather stagnant economy. Bill Clinton used it against him with his famous quote "It's the economy, stupid." GHWB contended that the economy was beginning to recover fully, which proved to be true as soon as the fourth quarter 1992 data were released.
    
    GHWB is often forgotten in these types of discussions, but his administration solidified the legacies of both his predecessor and successor, who are the two most obvious choices by those who only want to declare the two-term President from their party of choice was the best.

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