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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmericans rank Barack Obama as best president of their lifetimes: Poll
Americans rank Barack Obama as best president of their lifetimes: Poll
By Adia Robinson at ABC News
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/americans-rank-barack-obama-best-president-lifetimes-poll/story%3fid=56545031
"SNIP......
A new Pew Research Center poll says more Americans rank former President Barack Obama higher than any other when asked which president has done the best job in their lifetimes.
Obama was named the best or second best president by 44 percent of Americans in the survey that came out Wednesday. Thirty-one percent ranked him as the best president in their lifetimes.
President Donald Trump comes in fourth after President Bill Clinton and President Ronald Reagan, with 19 percent of Americans ranking him as the best or second best in their lifetimes.
While 19 percent might seem low, 20 percent of Americans ranked Obama as the best or second best president in 2011, at a similar point in his first term and the last time Pew conducted this poll.
....SNIP"
LakeArenal
(28,819 posts)All the Obamas are the best first family.
crazytown
(7,277 posts)Last edited Fri Jul 12, 2019, 09:16 PM - Edit history (1)
JFK - I don't remember him, but that would be John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
The other's have dark marks against them that can't be overlooked
LBJ - Vietnam
Carter - Anti Inflation economics, culminating in appointing Volcker to the Fed and 19% interest rates,
WJC - Numerous small and not so small injurious compromises, most notably DOMA and the repeal of Glass Steagall.
Obama - Failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the most ruinous financial fraud since the 1920's - and that made the bailouts radioactive. W's Justice department prosecuted Worldcom, & Enron. Too Big to Jail ushered in the 2010 midterm disaster.
shanny
(6,709 posts)the bar seems pretty low
crazytown
(7,277 posts)W - Iraq, Trump. Administrations deserve credit for what they didn't do ... the what if disasters. JFK resisted a unamimous recommendation by the Joint Chiefs to invade Cuba during the missile crisis. they thought there might me eight nukes on the island - there were sixty.
Woodycall
(259 posts)Enron failed in the early 2000s.
crazytown
(7,277 posts)No, you are correct - that was W's justice department. They prosecuted "Kenny Boy", a big donor and personal friend of W. I've fixed my reply. Thank you.
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)Truman was born when I was born.
crazytown
(7,277 posts)because if Nixon had won, we probably would not be around to talk about it.
NNadir
(33,523 posts)I do.
When I was a child, I went to school one morning thinking, with all the other people at my bus stop that I was going to be vaporized in the afternoon.
He was the worst Democratic President of my lifetime.
By the way, just curious, are you a Republican? You seem to hold Democratic Presidents responsible for events put in place by Republicans.
I agree with most of the American people as described in the OP. Barack Obama was, by far, the best President of my cognizant lifetime.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)Thekaspervote
(32,771 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,130 posts)Andy823
(11,495 posts)LisaM
(27,813 posts)I have to say in my personal experience (and improvement in quality of life), Clinton was the best in my lifetime. I liked the 90s. My life improved immeasurably and has pretty much plateaued ever since.
That president Obama was the best president of my lifetime. I liked most of the 90's, and I liked Clinton, but I like Obama better.
I know Obama had a lot of stuff to fix. But the Clinton years were better to me. It's funny, because in the 1992 primaries, he was pretty low on my list at the start. I even volunteered on someone else's campaign! (Harkin).
TheBlackAdder
(28,205 posts).
.
Buckeyeblue
(5,499 posts)Next would be Carter. And then Nixon through the second Bush are all equally bad...
yaesu
(8,020 posts)JFK probably would have been if the CIA plant Oswald didn't shoot him. There was the Vietnam war which cost him points but we still had several wars going under Obama so I didn't figure that in.
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)What the fuck?
applegrove
(118,677 posts)BlueStater
(7,596 posts)For people born between 1993 and 2001, there's literally been only four presidents in their lifetimes so Trump couldn't do worse than fourth.
Other than that though, there's no excuse for that motherfucker ranking so high.
applegrove
(118,677 posts)Polybius
(15,423 posts)I can't stand him. He's certain responsible for many more deaths (so far).
AdamGG
(1,292 posts)I can see if you don't want a President to gain too much power through incumbency, where they should be required to take a term off, so no 3 terms in a row. But, if you've taken a term off and after seeing you and your replacement, the voters decide that they want you back, that shouldn't be prohibited.
Why eliminate someone who has proven experience in the job, who the voters have been able to assess and decide that after a forced absence, they want them back? People think there was a precedent set by George Washington that two terms should be the limit. But, Washington might not have done that on principle. He died two years after he left office; he probably didn't feel physically up to a third term.
applegrove
(118,677 posts)AdamGG
(1,292 posts)FDR had barely begun his 4th term when he died. He was very ill when campaigning for the 4th term, but was trying to see WWII through to the end.
But, my point is that that has no bearing on whether Barack Obama would be an appropriate candidate for President now.
applegrove
(118,677 posts)to not just 43% of the populatiin but 55%? Or if a Hitler came along. Remember 1/3 of germans watched another third of germans kill another third. There was nothing special about being german that made them more prone to genocide. They are finding the mass graves of jews all over eastern europe. Seems nazis got the locals to help them kill the jews in their village and the locals felt complicite enough, though no doubt they were afraid of the nazis, that they never told authorities after the war of the mass graves. After these war time adults died off, their children, who knew where the mass graves were, started to tell authorities in the last decade. And this happened again and again in village after village in eastern europe. Point is humans are quite capable of horrible things and they can also coordinate. Genocide is a very human thing. So if some genocidal psychopath gets elected are you not happy that you don't have to wait for them to die to end their cult? All you have to say is "your time is up. Two terms that is it". Likely to make them behave better too.
AdamGG
(1,292 posts)So, if Dump managed to get elected in 2020, he would be prohibited from running in 2024 and couldn't run again until 2028. He'd be full on senile or Big Mac heart attack by then.
Lonestarblue
(10,003 posts)Kennedy was the president who sent US advisors and, later, troops into South Vietnam. Johnson inherited the problem, and he made some bad decisions about it, but he also accomplished a lot during his administration, including civil rights laws and the Voting Rights Act. He is responsible for the Head Start program and numerous other education programs.
Heres an interesting list of acts passed during his administration (from the LBJ Library). Prior to going to the LBJ LIbrary, I had not realized how much good legislation he got passed.
http://www.lbjlibrary.org/lyndon-baines-johnson/perspectives-and-essays/seeing-is-believing-the-enduring-legacy-of-lyndon-johnson
AdamGG
(1,292 posts)Yeah, he did lots of good Great Society/Civil Rights stuff, but you're minimizing his role in massively escalating Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed while LBJ was President, on what could have been a completely phony incident.
The President had huge discretion in the scope of our involvement. There's no knowing what JFK would have done if he had lived. But, he refused to invade Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis even though the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all of the military were leaning on him to do it. That's one of the best things a President has ever done. He sought out other advice, reached a back door settlement with the Soviets where we agreed to remove our missiles from Turkey, and avoided World War III.
JI7
(89,250 posts)since many who lived through earlier presidents are no longer living.
Polybius
(15,423 posts)They probably wouldn't even count Clinton, since they were 1 when he left office.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)But Johnsons accomplishment live longer.
I well know and understand why many DU members from that era will never have fond feelings for Johnson. But I dont have those emotional memories only a mother that gets her healthcare covered. And I grew up when civil rights were no longer questioned, unlike by some now!
Had Johnson walked away from Vietnam he would be held in FDR territory. And he knew it before he died. But he didnt. Cant erase that.
Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)Polybius
(15,423 posts)Good.
Takket
(21,573 posts)best to worst (obviously)
Obama
Clinton
Carter
Bush Sr.
Bush Jr.
Reagan
drumpf
I think putting Jr. above Reagan might raise some eyebrows and i think the sum total of Jr's accomplishments were WORSE, BUT, I see reagan as the person that "set in motion" the right wing's efforts to destroy the middle class, convert the USA to an oligarchy, and eliminate any sort of bipartisanship in DC
everything that has followed........... was a result of Reagan's true vision, behind the folksy smiles and speeches
Celerity
(43,399 posts)The Good
1 Obama (was only living in the US full-time for a part of his final term, wish I had a time machine)
2 Clinton (barely remember him at the time, I was 4 in 2000, and not in the US after I was 2)
The Bad
3 Bush the Lesser (Not in the US at all other than holidays)
The Ugly Nightmare
4 Rump the Raper (I cannot imagine a worse one in my lifetime going forward, if there is, the country is FUCKED)