Best Republican president of all time?

[Original Jack]

I would have to say Lincoln.

Or maybe Ike.

[Book Lover]

1. Hmmmm...

Why do you want to know what we think of Republican presidents here on Democratic Underground, Jack?

[terrya]

2. Abraham Lincoln

And Eisenhower second. Gerald Ford third.

And...that's it.

[Avalux]

3. I don't consider either of those men Republicans.

At least not the incarnation that is today's Republican. They're probably both incredibly disgusted with their party.

[frogcycle]

20. agreed

Except I don't consider anyone SINCE Ike a Republican. The Grand Old Party of Lincoln was co-opted by the militaryindustrial (add big oil now) complex Ike warned us of. The party that today calls itself republican is a facade - like the people in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. Richard Nixon

crucify me if you like, but watergate aside I really don't think Nixon was a bad president.

[jhrobbins]

7. How can you set aside Watergate - it defined his presidency

and his character.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. EPA, Social Security, OSHA, EEOC, and more

Today, ignoring Watergate (hell, the NSA & CIA are doing far, far more, without warrants) he would be considered a liberal democrat, not a hard-nosed anti soviet republican.
Today's GOP would exorcise him from the party.

And don't forget his major foreign successes - SALT arms reduction treaty; China, and beefing up NATO.

[ReadTomPaine]

19. Sorry, but you are wrong on Nixon.

I've written about this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. It was under Nixon's watch that the rot we see today in today's GOP began in earnest. Donald Segretti found his legs in Nixon's administration and such colorful characters as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney & Paul Wolfowitz got their first executive branch jobs with him. Moreover, it was Nixon's close ties to Prescott Bush that lead to Herbert's first associations with the White House and eventually to his job as head of the RNC around '72. I won't even touch his selections of Kissinger or Agnew.

Bush used that position to continue the war his father started against Nelson Rockefeller and thanks largely to Nixon's assistance, he became a rising star in the GOP and remained there until his win in 1988. Needless to say, much of what's happening now is directly traceable to Herbert's presidency and thus to Nixon's tenure previous to that.

Of all his many character flaws (paranoia, anti-semitism, vindictiveness etc) who would have thought Nixon's most dangerous fault was his utter inability to judge the character of his appointments? Sort of like GWB. That legacy has outlasted Vietnam, Watergate and the many other policy flaws which also occurred during that period.

If you didn't live through that period it may be hard to understand just how bad he was given the scrubbing his record underwent toward the end of his life. If you did, you should know better.

[ceile]

5. Ike, I think.

It's hard for me to think of Lincoln as a republican as we define it today. So, I won't. Ike's warnings about war and military industrial complex showed a man more concerned with human kind than most republicans.

[datadiva]

6. Lincoln and Eisenhower

Only two that I can think of.

[Lex]

8. Lincoln was a Republican because back then it was the liberal party.

It was the party of social justice.

Too bad it later became the party of racists, skinheads, and KKK members like David Duke.

[Warpy]

9. Lincoln? not a chance

Check out how long the war had been on before he thought about emancipating the slaves. He tried to suspend habeas corpus over the Padilla of his day. It wasn't just the south that saw him as a tyrant.

Eisenhower? He let the military industrial complex become powerful until he warned us about them on his way OUT of office . He also sent the first military advisers to Vietnam.

I'd have to pick Teddy Roosevelt because he realized the trusts were beginning to challenge the power of the government and broke them up. He originally started the national park system, first as a museum for rich men to visit and later as trusts for all of us.

[Mend]

13. true...he arrested the "Peace Democrats" who wanted to

solve the differences between the north and south by peaceful means. Also his originial solution to slavery was to ship all the slaves back to Africa but he decided that would cost too much. Good Republican President is a triple oxymoron....about as pleasant as triple by-pass surgery.

[WI_DEM]

21. unfortunately, I doubt that civil war could be avoided

the problem is that the so-called "peace democrats" were willing to compromise to avoid war and probably would have left slavery in tact.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. more than a million citizens died in that war.

that is a few

[EOTE]

17. Agreed...

TR all the way. The Trust Buster and probably the most environmental president ever for his time.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Clinton.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Superman Returns]

11. you guys forget Teddy

1)Lincoln
2)Teddy Roosevelt
3)Nixon
4)Eisnehower
5)Ford

[XNASA]

12. Garfield

He was ambidextrous, you know. So he had that going for him.

[WI_DEM]

15. Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt (in some areas), Eisenhower

and the last remotely moderate republican is Ford.

[Captain Hilts]

18. Theodore Roosevelt. The labels are barely relevant going back this far...

let alone to Lincoln's day.

[Hubert Flottz]

22. All Republicans...

Are on my ignore list.

[AzDar]

23. Lincoln, T.R. and Ike. Hell, even Reagan looks good when compared to Chimpolini.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

24. I'm going to lock this since

the OP is no longer with us.

best,
wakemeupwhenitsover
DU Moderator