jamescfm wrote:Zanz wrote:Carter was me
he's about the only one I don't dislike.
Well, I guess I can't really argue with that...
Kennedy - Womanizer and Bay of Pigs, also a sort of throw back in my mind to FDR who I wasn't a big fan of - "Hi, I'm exorbitantly wealthy and my family has held power for generations, let's lift you up so I can be your hero."
Johnson - Vietnam, and also just a general jerk - "the Johnson treatment" just sounds gross.
Nixon - War on Drugs, and overall sleaze.
Ford - who cares about Ford? And he pardoned Nixon. In his defense he's actually probably #2 on my choices of the group.
Carter - <3. Won a Nobel Prize and very interestingly
didn't also bomb the shit out of Yemen. SALT II, Camp David Accords, he beat Ted Kennedy out in the primary which was nice because I dislike the Kennedys, etc., etc., etc. Also, solar panels on the White House - what a damn hippy. Loved it.
Reagan - Reagan, Andrew Jackson, and GWB are always a struggle for me to rank 1-2-3 worst Presidents. Reagan often wins for me just because of how unrealistically he's painted by today's conservatives (see SelCru's post above). Also just generally he and his wife just feel like America's really judge-y grandparents. "Just say no," Nancy? How about you convince your husband to abandon his shitty economic policies so America's poor might have a chance to get a job and maybe they
won't blow their minds away on coke.
GHWB (first President I was alive for) - Absolutely out of touch with Americans, he was a spook, and he neglected domestic issues way too much. I think he's interesting on foreign affairs, though. In all honesty he'd probably be #3 on this list if he'd just chosen not to have those damn children...
Clinton - I've been enjoying the documentary series on him that you linked elsewhere. He probably
was the best politician in US history, which by itself is a mark against him. I dislike schmoozers, and at the risk of sounding a little conspiracy theory-y, check out
All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, a three part BBC documentary from a while ago that makes a convincing case for the fact that Rubin's Treasury department was really running the show during Clinton's administration. Seems like that link actually has crappy sound quality, Daily Motion has better ones but I can't get a good link. I recommend you check it out!
GWB - Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are arguably the most embarrassing things the US has done in its full history (and that's saying something). Rumsfeld and Cheney are the most evil men I can name since Hitler/Stalin/Mao, and GWB somehow still comes off as this sort of innocent stupid character... I hate that.
Obama (
first Presidential elections I could vote in... I went 3rd party) - ACA was a disaster that set real single payer back by a decade or more and helped the insurance companies. Syria, Libya, Yemen are all going to bite us in the ass for ages, Iraq and Afghanistan have gotten progressively worse, and this guy's hailed as a hero. Yuck.
Just a bunch of shit.