Most underrated President of all time?

[theboss]

I like all the "Great President" threads, but we should talk about those who don't make the history books.

My choice: James K. Polk.

[Blue Wally]

1. Not so sure the Mexicans would agree

He did the largest imperial land grab in US history.

[LTR]

2. Truman

Was despised during his tenure in office. But time has finally treated him well. He did so much good in office.

Runner-up is Bill Clinton. Time will also treat him well.

[phillybri]

4. I'm w/ you...Truman is being well-served as time passes...

Great prez...

[leyton]

29. Truman and Arthur.

Someone mentioned Arthur below... most people don't even know who he was, or when he was President. He didn't really do anything grand, but the Pendleton act stands out as something honest during an era of corruption.

Truman... let's see, Truman doctrine, containment of Communism, Fair Deal, integration of the military...

[sam sarrha]

3. I say George W Bush, many say he is stupid.. he is a Psychopath

He is going to start Armageddon in order to fulfill bible prophecy to get the Religious Rights VOTE in the next election .. if we are all still here to vote.

[JuniperLea]

5. considering his face as he spoke w/the Pope...

i think he is afraid he won't go to 'heaven'. maybe this is his paranoid way of buying some insurance.

do you ever wonder if he is just going to lose it some day and go round the bend? the heat is on, it could happen.

[NoPasaran]

6. Chester A. Arthur

He started the reforms that replaced the spoils system for governmental employment with the civil service we know today.

[LTR]

8. I'll give you that

Arthur came from a shady background, but was pretty honest in an era of scandal-ridden presidents. He turned his back on the dishonest types in order to run an ethical administration.

He left after one term due to health reasons, but it's been said that his Republican benefactors were a bit miffed at being brushed aside for (egad!) 'honest politics'.

On the negative side, he had the work ethic of George W. Bush.

[WI_DEM]

7. underrated? well, Jimmy Carter

The Camp David Accords
The Middle East Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel
The Panama Canal Treaties
Officially opening diplomatic relations with China
SALT II
Successfully negotiating the release of our hostages from Iran--yes they were captive for over a year but they all lived.
Strong stand against Apartied in South Africa
Strong Human Rights Policy


Over 10 million jobs created during his four year term
Cutting the budget deficit during his term
A National Energy Program which was working!!--we had reduced the number of oil we were importing from OPEC and increasing conservation.
Dept of Education
Dept of Energy
Dramatic expansion of School Lunch Program
Expansion of Pell Grant Program
The Super Fund to Clean up Toxic Waste Dumps
The Alaskan Lands Bill--a landmark piece of environmental legislation
Civil Service Reform
A huge windfall profits tax on the oil companies--repealed by Reagan.
Appointed more women and minorities to judiciary than any other president before him.

[Blue Wally]

12. Many of those in Civil Service

thought it was a screwing not a reform. Essentially, it removed inflation protection from the civil service pension from the time the annuitant retired until he reached age 65 in a time of double digit inflation. Fortuantely many were grandfathered into the old system.

[tjwash]

28. Don't worry, history will Judge James Earl as one of the good ones...

...no matter how much the pubs try to erect monuments to Lenin (oops, I mean Reagan) and shove how great they were down our throats.

[bluedog]

9. Carter

hes taken some pretty low ball hits this past week! I really feel for him........

[spanone]

11. Yea, that asshole at the Eulogy talked as if Raygun really had a tough

mop-up job after Carter. Lies, I tell you, Lies.

[theboss]

22. Then why did Kennedy run against Carter?

n/t

[WI_DEM]

25. good question

why didn't EMK run against some republican president? instead of a democrat who was trying his best. His primary fight helped split the party and helped Reagan win. EMK could have had the nomination for the asking in 1972, 1976, or even 1984--but he decided to run against a democrat instead.

[Bandit]

10. I think Gerald Ford was very underrated

All I heard was "What has he done?" when he was president. Everything was running so smooth that he was criticized for not doing anything. There was no breaking stories except for the Maigai (sp) incident and he handled that immediately and convincingly. I don't normally sing the praise of any Republicans but I just feel Ford got a bum rap. America had no major problems during his tenure.

[Blue Wally]

14. Huh??

"America had no major problems during his tenure."


I seem to remember people climbing ladders to helicopters and boatload upon boatload of pitiable refugees in 1975.

The entire seventies were a monster train wreck and Jimmy Carter was left holding the bag at the end. It was the seventies that led to Ronald Reagan and the Republican Revolution. We still haven't turned it around. Bill Clinton was only able tofight a "rear guard action" against that revolution. We won't turn it around until we can inspire the American people with new and brilliant ideas in place of hate and ranting.

[Bandit]

30. Those people climbing ladders to helicopters was in Vietnam

He ended it period. He pulled our troops out. I think that was a good thing. I don't particularly like the way it was accomplished but I like the end result. No Democrat did that which I am sad to say. Ford was only in office a short time so maybe he just didn't have time to stir things up to much.

[Blue Wally]

35. Ford Didn't Pull Our Troops Out

The troops were gone in 73 under Nixon. That was only the defense attaches office and contractors. Congress denied fuel and ammo to the South Vietnamese Army, they lost the battles when the north went on the offensive in 1975, and our folks evacuated to save their skins. The Vietnamese people then went into fifteen years of terrible poverty and misery with forced relocations, ethnic cleansing of the Chinese and the Montagnard minorities, and labor/death camps for the ARVN military.

[JohnLocke]

13. Of course, James K. Polk.

He made five campaign promises and fulfilled them all.

[Blue Wally]

16. Like......

rip off Mexico to add a bunch of slave states to balance off the number of free states and keep slavery going longer?

[JohnLocke]

31. He kept the peace and expanded the union.

You have to look at these things in the context of the times.

[bemildred]

15. Carter. nt

[MallRat]

17. James K. Polk!

JAMES K. POLK
by They Might Be Giants
=======================================

In 1844, the Democrats were split.
The three nominees for the presidential candidate
Were Martin Van Buren, a former president and an abolitionist,
James Buchanan, a moderate,
Louis Cass, a general and expansionist.
From Nashville came a dark horse riding up
He was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump.

Austere, severe, he held few people dear.
His oratory filled his foes with fear.
The factions soon agreed,
"He's just the man we need
To bring about victory,
Fulfill our manifest destiny,
And annex the land the Mexicans command."
And when the votes were cast the winner was:
Mister James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump.

In four short years he met his every goal.
He seized the whole southwest from Mexico.
Made sure the tarriffs fell,
And made the English sell the Oregon territory.
He built an independent treasury.
Having done all this he sought no second term.
But precious few have mourned the passing of
Mister James K. Polk, our eleventh president,
Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump!

-MR

[MallRat]

18. Yeah, the whole "seize the whole SW from Mexico" isn't exactly pleasant.

But it's still a good song.

-MR

[Jackpine Radical]

19. ***George * W. * Bush***

The most misunderestimated pretzeldent of all time.

I think that even we at DU fail to grasp the incredible damage done to the nation, the species and the biosphere by the actions taken in his name in just 3.5 years.

[Hubert Flottz]

20. Jimmy Carter!

I like him!

[Zomby Woof]

21. James Monroe

[leyton]

27. Pourquoi? Just curious.

The only thing I can think of was the Monroe Doctrine, which he didn't even have a way of enforcing.

[leftofthedial]

23. Carter

blamed for Nixon-Ford's economic problems (carry-over from Viet Nam) and sabotaged by Repuke dirty tricks.

[troublemaker]

24. Clinton

His contributions were almost entirely negative--delaying the raise of fascism.

Nobody gets proper credit for delaying or preventing things because there's no positive accomplishment to cite. Just the observation that things could have been a lot worse.

But the primary job of any person in government is to prevent bad things. Doing good things is a bonus.

[dumpster_baby]

41. clinton promoted neoliberal globalism

corporate fascism is just a side effect of the neoliberal globalist regime. And Clinton was wallowing in it. Nixon was more of a liberal than Clinton in many ways.

[underpants]

26. Aside from Carter I will throw Ford into the mix

To his final day in office Reagan continued to blame the "previous administration" and say the problem X was "something we inherited", he (they) created a cottage industry of Carter bashing.

I will mention Ford also-I know I know he pardoned Nixon and it probably cost he the '76 election. Ford never wanted to be VP let alone POTUS he gave up much power as House minority leader to take the VP position BUT he did keep things going at one of the worse times in this nation's history.

[Yupster]

32. Herbert Hoover

most underrated by far.

[maggrwaggr]

33. care to elaborate?

[WI_DEM]

34. I'll say this about Hoover

He really inherited the depression from Coolidge. He also did more to alleviate the effects of the depression than any other president prior to him. All the others would say it wasn't governments business to get involved and took a hands off approach. Hoover changed this--but he didn't go as far as FDR did and Hoovers dour personality also conflicted with FDR's confidence.

[Yupster]

36. My defense of Hoover

First of all, the question was the most underrated president which I think is Hoover by a wide margin. That does not mean I think he was the best president ever or even in the top five. I place him above average which is waaaay above where conventional wisdom puts him.

Here's why I think he's underrated.

His RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corp) went further in the government involving itself in business than any president before him would have dreamed of.

It provided emergency government financing to businesses which were in danger of going under and throwing more people out of work.

It pumped money into failing banks.

It used government money to support banks in rural communities especially.

It bought preferred stock and bonds from companies to try to prop them up.

Hoover also started many large capital building plans like Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) to put federal money into jobs.

Hoover has this reputation as a do-nothing Nero who dithered while Rome burned. This is easy to see when compared to FDR who did so much more, but

compare Hoover to all the presidents who came before him, and he went way further than any of them would have dreamed to have gone.

As far as Hoover the man and Hoover the humanitarian, there was no other president in his league. Think Jimmy Carter times four. Jimmy Carter may be arguably the most admired American since he's left office? Hoover was the most admired American before he took office. He was truly known by his works.

I defend him because I think he is our most underrated president, and he is maligned by people who are not near the man he was. When there was a problem in the world, he didn't send a check, or write a poem, he got on a boat and went there himself, and brought his business knowledge and connections with him.

[maggrwaggr]

39. interesting. Thanks for the info

So someone like myself, whose knowledge of Hoover is pretty much limited to what they taught me in jr. high and high school, Hoover is "known" as a guy who was a complete failure, a guy who did nothing about the depression but put "A Chicken in Every Pot" billboards up all around the country.

[Chomskyite]

37. Grant

He kept the pressure on the KKK as they terrorized black Southerners. He began the process that would lead to an end to the campaign of genocide against native Americans. He tamped down many international crises that could have led us into war.

So rather than being ranked nearly last among presidents as he usually is, he should at least be ranked in the middle.

[LTR]

40. He was an inefective leader

Like Harding, he was probably a decent guy, but had a problem with people around him bringing him down.

Both were surrounded by corrupt people who made their bosses look very bad. But they were too milquetoast to do anything.

[StephanKetz]

38. I'm sure

it's Bill Clinton