Kay we haven’t done this in a while- who’s your favorite president?
Only one caveat here- it has to be before FDR.
With reason why please!
I’ll go first and give three:
Polk. 1844-48.
The dude singlehandedly created what we know as the geographical outline of the United States (minus Canada and Hawaii).
Through negotiations with the Brits he set the northern latitude border at 49 degrees. In the South he prosecuted the Mexican American war to win us Texas (above the Rio Grande), the Southwest and California- expanding the nation by about 1/3 geographically.
At the end of his paltry 4 years in office he radically changed America. And yes he was an imperialist manifest destiny dude who crapped on Mexico. But in terms of sheer accomplishment- wow! Underrated by far.
Next: Lincoln and then Washington for me…for obvious reasons.
I have two entries: my GOAT and during my lifetime.
GOAT: Lincoln, hands down. A deeply thoughtful, moral man who led the country through one of it’s darkest hours.
My lifetime: Obama. Hands down. Although, to be fair, I don’t have a great pool to pick from.
Yeah hard to beat. Some might say he waffled about slavery before emancipation. Some might say that suspending habeus corpus is an issue. Some say he took too long to pull Little Mac McClellan out as his main general. But really the main detractors are folks from the South still butthurt that he didn’t let the South do it’s thing.
But yeah in terms of character and the wrenching decision to prosecute a war against a rebellion and to stay with it through all the ups and downs, the emancipation proclamation, the 13th and 14th amendments? Who can beat that?
Thomas Jefferson
- Wrote the Declaration of Independence
- Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom
- Doubled the size of the U.S.
- Louisiana Purchase
- Lewis and Clark Expedition
- Abolished Slave Trade
- Helped Eliminate 1/3 of U.S. Debt
- Helped Create U.S. Military Academy
- Helped with the First Barbary War
- First Democratic-Republican President
Fierce defender of the constitution. I do question his love of France though.
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Coolidge made the 20’s roar
Hard to deny- he’s a biggie.
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I know he’s often mentioned by conservatives as one of their favorites. Silent Cal!
A definite contender.
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“Before this party is over I’ll make you say more than two words.”
“You lose.”
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Thomas Jefferson. For too many reasons to list.
Runner-up would be Lincoln. Once again for too many reasons to list.
Third place… Theodore Roosevelt. The man had a sweet mustache, had a tattoo, trekked the Amazon basin and the River of Doubt, hunted the rarest game across Africa, polymath and expert in multiple fields, hosted boxing matches in the White House, led the Rough Riders in Cuba, and was America’s greatest conservationist, establishing the modern federal park service that we enjoy today. And he is still the youngest man to SERVE in office (yes JFK is youngest elected at 43 but Teddy was 42 when he took the oath following McKinley’s assassination), and busted up numerous monopolies.
The man was an absolute legend.
Edit: He’s also the only independent candidate since the Civil War to defeat one of the major party candidates in a presidential election. 1912. He got more electoral votes than Taft.
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Grover Cleveland. A more honest and principled man has never set foot in the White House.
Bourbon Democrat, supporter of sound money, opponent of protectionism and subsidies, supporter of civil service reform, opponent of imperialism.
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Plus he had a Sam Elliot mustache.
That’s plus five on the rating scale.
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Whoa good one! Obscure to most folks.
By the way I’ll add an addendum- anyone want to add favorite sources, books, podcasts? I’m listening to History that doesn’t suck right now- enjoyable!
George Washington, the American Cincinnatus, is the greatest of all American presidents. Without him, and the standard he set, it is likely none of the others mentioned here would have had an opportunity to hold the office.
He is without question, my favorite.
Trump 
Thomas J
JFK
Ike
Cheering the colonizer? tsk tsk, going to lose your liberal in good standing card.
Presides over the bloodiest civil war the world had ever seen, totally transformed America undemocratically, oh yeah, hell of a guy. And no it’s not a defense of slavery, if he wanted to be the goat he should have resolved that question with far less bloodshed and damage to the constitution.
Interesting perspective. How could that have been achieved?
