Who was the last decent Republican President?

[WI_DEM]

Poll question: Who was the last decent Republican President?

[blm]

1. Eisenhower, but compared to Bush2, Nixon and Reagan look decent.

.

[rocktivity]

17. Ford blew it with me when his first act was pardoning Nixon. n/t

:headbang:
rocknation

[jmowreader]

2. You forgot Nixon!

Considering the last three Republican presidents, Richard Nixon is starting to emerge as a beacon of honesty, dignity and decency.

[Initech]

15. Nixon was a lying asshole. Started the trend.

Then came Reagan who was an even bigger lying asshole, then came George Bush Sr, who is a scary SOB, and now Du(m)bya. Sadly I think this is a trend that sees no end.

[Terran1212]

3. Eisenhower

Military-industrial complex warnings and leftist economy rank him good; Iran takeover and Vietnam involvement are bad.

[terrya]

4. Gerald Ford

One of the last of the decent Republicans. I had my problems with the Nixon pardon...still do.

But overall Ford is a good man and the last decent Republicans. He comes off as a moderate today...a virtually extinct species of Republicans.

[WI_DEM]

5. I tend to agree with you.

He also became close friends with Jimmy Carter later on.

[FloridaPat]

8. I was for the Nixon pardon then and still am. It would have tied up

the government for months if not years. But as for * - I sit and watch impeachment hearings for the next 10 years no problem. After everything the gov'ts done the last 5, I think shutting off their ability to do much is a good idea at this point.

And back to Nixon - I recently heard some of the neo-cons got their start then. Maybe we should have a law that those involved with a rogue president cannot be involved in politics anymore.

[Just Me]

34. But for the failure to fully pursue justice then, we may not be here, now.

IMHO had Nixon and his administration been forced to bear the burden of responsibility for their outrageous conduct, the neocons may not be in power today.

I believe it would have been worth the resources to establish limits on executive abuse back then. I really do.

[tridim]

9. LOL, thinking about the Poppy Bush/Ford Simpsons episode

Gerald Ford: "Tell me, Homer, do you like football?"
Homer Simpson: "Yes, Mr. President!"
Ford: "Do you like Nachos?"
Homer: "Yes sir!"
Ford: "How about you come over and watch the game, and we'll have some nachos. And then, some beer."

[EFerrari]

11. Didn't he hire Donald Rumsfeld? Or do I have that wrong? n/t

[WI_DEM]

21. Rummy was actually a GOP Congressman who came to the

Ford wh. Amazingly Rummy was at the time considered a moderate.

[terrya]

22. Well...I still think Ford is decent man, but I remember another fact...

As I recall, at one time, Ford's White House Chief of Staff was Dick Cheney....

[JohnKleeb]

23. Which made Bush's acting like an outsider back in 2001

utter nonsense, the onion had an article about how retro the Bush administration was. Thought it was a good point made. I voted Ford for a number of reasons, his supreme court pick John Paul Stevens has been one of the best justices Post Warren Court, he today is an adviser to republicans that are pro choice and pro gay rights. Reminds me of something I read Goldwater said to Bob Dole in the 90s about how they were the liberals in the party now, ironic since back in the 60s and 70s they had been the staunch conservatives in the party.

[terrya]

27. I'm sure Ford is dismayed at the change of his party.

He surely doesn't like the party being taken over by the neo-cons and religious right.

Ford's choice of John Paul Stevens (thanks for reminding me about that, John) was one of the best things of his Presidency. Stevens is one of the good ones on the Court.

And Ford is pro-choice and is pro-gay rights. Yes...sadly, an extinct brand of Republican.

[JohnKleeb]

32. I bet

Its funny because Stevens started out as a more conservative on the Burger Court but as people like Thurgood Marshall, William Brennan as with his own views on the constiution, he became more what he has now. Yeah those more socially liberal republicans are hard to find these days, its a shame really.

[EFerrari]

24. I don't know much about Ford. But, it's clear that whatever breed

he belonged to is extinct. He was a transitional figure, imho. In letting Nixon skate, we enabled THIS MESS.

[davidwparker]

6. Eisenhower: If for nothing else, the warning

about the military industrial complex that drains money from our society and causes war in others.

on edit: add my choice's name to the subject

[endarkenment]

7. Ike?

Ike was a no show. Nice guy, lousy president. Teddy had a fascination with imperialism that we have never recovered from. After Lincoln was murdered the corporate wing of the Republican party became dominant and has been dominant ever since. Its road back to power after Johnson killed FDR's unholy coalition of racist southern democrats and urban voters was based first on playing the race card and later on an alliance with lunatic religious fundamentalists. There have been no good Republican presidents since Lincoln.

[leveymg]

13. He managed to avoid WW3 despite those around him

Reigning in the martial urges of the Dulles Bros and Gen. LeMay while containing Stalin and then Krushchev was quite an achievement. He also quietly squeezed Senator McCarthy out the door and speedily ended the Korean War, as he promised.

[LiberalEsto]

10. That's an oxymoron

ain't no such thing as a decent Republican

[FrenchieCat]

12. Eisenhower.....even after becoming sick in his 2nd term, he was

head and shoulder any of them that came after him......

Here's interesting quotes from him...

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man's intelligence and his comprehension... would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not leadership."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

[PhilipShore]

14. Dwight Eisenhower

[0007]

16. I can't think of one!

Eisenhower did stop the war in Korea. He was a whore for big business and played a lot of golf. He was just a puppet.

[FrenchieCat]

19. You are right about the big business issue.....but to be fair, he also

endorsed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created the United States' Interstate Highways. It was the largest public works program in U.S. history, providing a 41,000-mile highway system and employed hundreds of thousands.....

and he did sent troups to little Rock to enforce the desegration order handed down by the Supreme Court which the Governor of Arkansas attempted to defy.

Remember that the question was the last Decent....not best President ever!

Eisenhower was decent, but not by any means perfect.

[0007]

25. Yeah, your right about the Little Rock desegregation order.

I did forget about that. In comparison Ike was mild compared to Reagan, Nixon and this idiot we have now.

[Nightjock]

18. Ford was okay as Prez but

I always had a problem with him being on the Warren commision that helped cover up JFK's assasination. I could never fully forgive him for that. Magic bullet my ass!

[sam sarrha]

20. 87% oj RepugNut presidents had a serious recession..

[Imagine My Surprise]

26. Interesting poll...but what was once a Republican OR a Democrat...

no longer exists. Just in name only.

[Hobarticus]

28. I'm going to get flamed like raw hamburger, but....Nixon.

Please, let me explain.

Take away Watergate and the Christmas bombing, and his legacy would have been:

- ended the Vietnam war
- abolished the draft
- dramatically improved relations with China
- limited the arms race with treaties with the Soviets by signing SALT 1, which led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty
- created the Consumer Product Safety Commission
- created the Environmental Protection Agency
- created OSHA
- created the DEA
- created the Office of Minority Business Enterprise
- championed school desegregation
- advocated gun control

.....AND, he quit office when he was caught red-handed and knew he had no way out of it besides getting impeached. Not that I admire that, but at least he had SOME semblance of honor that would be refreshing in this current POTUS.

He tarnished the office, no doubt, and he's no hero, but looking at the list above, he tried to do SOME good. He addressed a few issues above that we can appreciate.

If Nixon's off the table, then I'd say Eisenhower.

Fire away.

[EFerrari]

29. Well, the DEA is little better than the CIA for drug running and other

black ops. And, how many people got slaughtered on his watch?

Somebody did have an interesting point on another comparative thread. The DUer pointed out that Nixon may have been fired as much for his social programs as for his crimes. I hadn't thought of it that way. They are probably right.

[Hobarticus]

30. Hey, I never said the guy was a saint...

and I'm not defending him or Kissinger in anyway.

It is interesting to note how vastly different the GOP was then, and is now. Nixon would've been run out on a rail today.

[EFerrari]

33. No, you didn't say he was a saint. And those two parties

are not these two parties. It's wild to have witnessed the devolution. I hope that isn't putting it too harshly.

[blm]

36. I always felt it was Poppy Bush who arranged Deep Throat.

The establishment needed Nixon out cuz he was losing it and made it more dangerous for them all to get caught.

[harpo]

31. there was one?

[Richard Steele]

35. The one who specifically WARNED us that this shit was gonna happen!

[CatholicEdHead]

37. Would Clinton qualify for this list?

He governed like an old-style moderate Republican and really upset the GOP "base" in the 90's.

He was a good President overall.

[depakid]

38. Yep- that would be my choice

a good old Rockefeller Republican.

Actually, maybe a bit to the right of that....

[bridgit]

39. ike...

[maveric]

40. Bill Clinton

Look at the legislations he signed off on.