General Discussion
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(15,882 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)"I know you are but what am I?". Mussolini was more respected by his own people than Cheney.
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)billhicks76
Even then Mussolini ended up in a lamp post....
Diclotican
BlueMTexpat
(15,366 posts)"some." Please!
Alex P Notkeaton
(309 posts)It's established fact, unless you're in the FOX bubble. K&R!
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,110 posts)Many a talking head has in retrospect pointed out the reason for our mess there from the "get-go" in 2003.
Uncle Joe
(58,349 posts)Thanks for the thread, kpete.
AngryDem001
(684 posts)MissDeeds
(7,499 posts)and I'm right there. "Asshat" would be more appropriate for Cheney.
bearssoapbox
(1,408 posts)No truer words written or spoken. He deserves less respect than dogshit on the bottom of a shoe. At least dogshit can be put to good use as a fertilizer.
Wounded Bear
(58,645 posts)rocktivity
(44,575 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)General findings
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are consistently ranked at the top of the lists. Often ranked just below those Presidents are Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. The remaining places in the top ten are often rounded out by Harry S. Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James K. Polk, and Andrew Jackson. Presidents such as John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton tend to be rated among the greatest in public opinion polls, but do not always rank as highly among presidential scholars and historians. The bottom ten often includes James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, Millard Fillmore, George W. Bush, Herbert Hoover, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and John Tyler. Because William Henry Harrison (32 days) and James A. Garfield (200 days, incapacitated after 119 days) both died shortly after taking office, they are sometimes omitted from presidential rankings. Zachary Taylor also died after serving as president for only 16 months, but is usually included. In the case of these three, it is not clear if they received low rankings due to their actions as president, or because each was president for such a limited time that it is not possible to rate them more highly.
Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles" of presidents, which can make some hard to classify. Historian Alan Brinkley said, "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Nixon)". James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?"[4]
David H. Donald, noted biographer of Lincoln, relates that when he met John F. Kennedy in 1961, Kennedy voiced his deep dissatisfaction and resentment with historians who had rated some of his predecessors. Kennedy said, "No one has a right to grade a Presidenteven poor James Buchananwho has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions."[5]
Historian and political scientist Julian E. Zelizer argues that traditional presidential rankings do not explain much concerning actual presidential history, and that they are "weak mechanisms for evaluating what has taken place in the White House."[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States
With the country as divided as it is, though, I wonder if we can trust the objectivity of the rankings in the future as much as people apparently used to.
randome
(34,845 posts)...I want someone to ask him, "Were you right about Sadaam having weapons of mass destruction?"
And don't let him off the hook. Demand an answer or terminate the interview!
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