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Jim Dueholm's avatar

I agree with most of the ratings, by Paul and by the other conservatives, with one exception. I don't think FDR is overrated. It can be and has been argued that FDR's policies and alphabet soup agencies didn't shorten the Great Depression, and may have lengthened it. He did, however, rally the American people, and he enacted some needed reforms, like the securities laws and the FDIC. But he was a great wartime president, better perhaps than Lincoln, though it's not fair to compare the two as war leaders, for FDR had more and better help, and Lincoln's "office of the president" was John Hay and John Nicolay. In a three volume history of FDR as commander in chief, NIgel Hamilton makes a compelling case for FDR as war leader, with a better grasp of strategy than his generals, more faith in the ability of Great Britain and the Soviet Union to withstand the German onslaught than his advisors, civil and military, and an uncanny ability to reorganize and mobilize the American economy and sent it to war.

It's a little unfair to rank Kennedy, because his was a dramatically shortened tenure. From what I read, he probably wouldn't have led us into the Vietnam War, which is a huge feather in his cap. On the negative side are the Bay of Pigs, a weak posture against the Soviets, and by some accounts even the Cuban Missile Crisis. He handled it very well, but some have argued his policies led to the crisis.

The quest for greatness can go beyond the American presidency. When Jefferson told Hamilton Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton and John Locke were the greatest men of all time, Hamilton responded that "The greatest man who ever lived was Julius Caesar." My response to Hamilton: You didn't know Abraham Lincoln. Jim Dueholm

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Doug Israel's avatar

I rate presidents by how well they led. And how well the country was served by their presidency. Sometimes presidents that accomplished a lot have their presidencies ruined by one thing or another. JFK is definitionally overrated since he has always been thought of as near the top of all lists because of his murder. But in my view and reading many good books about him (not liberal hagiographies) I think he was a good effective president who likely would have been reelected. What would have happened who can say. Regarding presidents since FDR, I realize conservatives hate his expansion of the federal government but I regard him as an effective leader who led the country through two deep potentially existential crises. You know else felt this way? Reagan. I once read a book which rated the presidents from FDR to Bush II solely on their emotional intelligence. FDR Truman Ike and JFK were held to have high emotional intelligence. This enabled them to lead both the nation and their administrations through challenges and crises. The next bunch? Not so good. Johnson Nixon and Carter were rated to have low emotional intelligence. This lack of EI helped destroy their presidencies. Reagan Bush and Clinton were held to have high EI. Bush II was early in his first term but the author thought he exhibited high EI. Using his criteria it is clear Obama had very low EI. Trump even lower. Biden possibly the lowest. EI (as opposed to the more generalized "character" is the best judge of presidential success in the modern era.)

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