Most effective modern President?

[Adam&Allison 128]

So I figured whilst I wait for my interview (It's six weeks away yet, gonna be alot of waiting!) I'd start getting to know some of you on the off topic boards.

One of my big interests is American history and politics, which I got into big time when I spent the summer in the United States with my fiance, with all the election stuff that was going on! I've been doing alot of reading on alot of Presidents both past and present, and I was wondering who you guys view as the most effective modern President?

Let's say, anywhere from WWII onwards.

Curious to hear some opinions! Personally, I fall on most issues more Republican - however I do believe in equality, same sex marriage and other similar social beliefs.

It's a difficult one. I'd narrow it down to Ronald Reagan and perhaps John Kennedy, moreso with JFK because I think he was what America needed at the time. He only had three years in office so policy wise he didn't get a whole lot done, but I do believe he was a breath of fresh air that America needed, being a younger President who I would say was more 'in touch' with society.

Ronald Reagan, I know Reagan is a very sensitive subject based on whether you're Democrat or Republican, but I truly believe that Reaganomics was hugely beneficial to the U.S economy - based on my own research - and it seemingly created an economic boom that lasted decades.

Of course I'm relatively new to this subject so please feel free to correct me!

[Teddy B 17,252]

Welcome to the forum.

My pick for best modern day president based on your parameters would be the 34th president of the US, Dwight Eisenhower. He was a great military mind which was very important for international diplomacy in the years following WW2. He was also very productive on the domestic front launching the interstate highway system and expanding social security. The US economy mostly thrived in his eight years as well.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (/ˈaɪzənˌhaʊ.ər/ EYE-zən-HOW-ər; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American politician and general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front. In 1951 he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO.^[5]

Eisenhower was of Pennsylvania Dutch and (to a lesser extent) Irish ancestry,^[6] and was raised in a large family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background. He graduated from West Point in 1915 and later married Mamie Doud and had two sons. After World War II, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and then accepted the post of President at Columbia University.^[7]

Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, campaigning against "communism, Korea and corruption." He won in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and temporarily upending the New Deal Coalition. Eisenhower was the first U.S. president to be constitutionally term-limited under the 22nd Amendment.

Eisenhower's main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. In the first year of his presidency, he threatened the use of nuclear weapons in an effort to conclude the Korean War; his New Look policy of nuclear deterrence prioritized inexpensive nuclear weapons while reducing funding for conventional military forces. He ordered coups in Iran and Guatemala. Eisenhower gave major aid to help the French in the First Indochina War, and after the French were defeated he gave strong financial support to the new nation of South Vietnam. Congress agreed to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, which obliged the U.S. to militarily support the pro-Western Republic of China in Taiwan and continue the isolation of the People's Republic of China.

After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment of NASA, which led to the space race. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower condemned the Israeli, British and French invasion of Egypt, and forced them to withdraw. He also condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. In 1958, Eisenhower sent 15,000 U.S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a summit meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident.^[8] In his January 17, 1961 farewell address to the nation, Eisenhower expressed his concerns about the dangers of massive military spending, particularly deficit spending and government contracts to private military manufacturers, and coined the term "military–industrial complex".^[9]

On the domestic front, he covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking executive privilege. He otherwise left most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower was a moderate conservative who continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. He also launched the Interstate Highway System, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the establishment of strong science education via the National Defense Education Act, and encouraged peaceful use of nuclear power via amendments to the Atomic Energy Act.^[10]

Eisenhower's two terms saw considerable economic prosperity except for a sharp recession in 1958–59. Voted Gallup's most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office.^[11] Since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

[Adam&Allison 128]

Welcome to the forum.

My pick for best modern day president based on your parameters would be the 34th president of the US, Dwight Eisenhower. He was a great military mind which was very important for international diplomacy in the years following WW2. He was also very productive on the domestic front launching the interstate highway system and expanding social security. The US economy mostly thrived in his eight years as well.

I'm actually reading 'Eisenhower in War and Peace' right now - it's a great read, but yeah Eisenhower is up there too - like you said with the Interstate System (Which impresses me as he did not use debt to build it, he simply increases toll charges)

[TBoneTX 45,309]

At the bottom would be Jimmy Carter, probably the biggest disaster for the country since Woodrow Wilson. Reagan & Eisenhower would be at the top.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Reagan not even close

[Póg mo 1,749]

At the bottom would be Jimmy Carter, probably the biggest disaster for the country since Woodrow Wilson. Reagan & Eisenhower would be at the top.

George Dubya who nearly bankrupted the country, made his cronies at various defence contractors a bundle of money, through I'll thought out and executed wars, is somehow how, according to you, not worse than Carter? Not at all biased. And don't forget Reagan who helped destroy unions in America, and make future outsourcing of millions of American jobs even easier. The decision to sell Iran weapons, in order to finance a murderous war in South America was also a wonderful move. Edited December 6, 2016 by Póg mo

[bcking 3,157]

I agree Reagan would probably be at the top (Reagan and Eisenhower), and I think most "polls" tend to have them at the top.

I don't like everything Reagan stood for. I think he failed to address the AIDS problem sooner, and I think the "War on Drugs", the way he wanted to fight it, didn't really work and was never going to work.

I think he will always rank highly if only because the Cold War "ended" under his administration, and he was instrumental in that. Economically, I sort of fall in the middle. I'm not a firm believer in "Reaganomics", because I think it further widens the wealth gap and can leave a lot of people behind. I think his stance on limiting regulations and the size of government was good (and is something I can agree with Trump on).

[TBoneTX 45,309]

Carter ranks at the bottom with Wilson, Pierce, Fillmore, arguably Taft, and definitely Buchanan.

[bcking 3,157]

Carter ranks at the bottom with Wilson, Pierce, Fillmore, arguably Taft, and definitely Buchanan.

I think if you are talking about all Presidents, you have a few more to go before you get to Wilson. Not saying he is top 5 or anything, but I also wouldn't list him in the bottom 5 or bottom 10.

[OriZ 3,157]

I would agree about Carter, and also Obama being in the bottom. My top pick would be Truman and Reagan. I think whether you agree with Truman's approval of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or not, it had quite a bit of historical importance. He also helped form the UN(again, whether you like the UN or not he was quite influential), the Marshall Plan, as well as being responsible for the first comprehensive civil rights legislation issuing executive orders to start racial integration in the military and federal agencies. And while it is not the main reason for my pick, as an anecdote he also recognized the state of Israel 11 minutes after it declared itself a nation, and was the first world leader to do so. There are many other reasons to pick Truman but I'll leave it at that.

As far as Reagan it's pretty obvious and similar to what's already been said. While I do believe Reaganomics was beneficial for the economy, I don't think he was as influential as people believe. I do agree that the war on drugs was a failure, but Reagan brought alot of other things to the table.

[Dakine10 5,452]

What the people thought. Approval ratings from final month in office. Carters was 32%. I thought maybe it was so low they didn't poll but for some reason it wasn't on this chart. It looks like maybe these are all two term presidents though.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx

Presidential Approval Rating % Date

Barack Obama 54 Dec 2016

George W. Bush 31 Dec 2008

Bill Clinton 63 Dec 2000

Ronald Reagan 63 Dec 1988

Lyndon Johnson 44 Dec 1968

Dwight Eisenhower 59 Dec 1960

Harry Truman 32 Dec 1952

Edited December 7, 2016 by Dakine10

[yuna628 9,676]

Hard call between Eisenhower or Reagan for me.

[OriZ 3,157]

What the people thought. Approval ratings from final month in office. Carters was 32%. I thought maybe it was so low they didn't poll but for some reason it wasn't on this chart. It looks like maybe these are all two term presidents though.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx

Presidential Approval Rating % Date

Barack Obama 54 Dec 2016

George W. Bush 31 Dec 2008

Bill Clinton 63 Dec 2000

Ronald Reagan 63 Dec 1988

Lyndon Johnson 44 Dec 1968

Dwight Eisenhower 59 Dec 1960

Harry Truman 32 Dec 1952

I didn't take "most effective" as necessarily being most popular, hence my picking Truman...I'm looking at successful they were at implementing their agenda, and not whether or not they were good or bad and whether I agree with what they did or not. To what degree they set the tone for government policy and the extent to which they shaped their times. An effective president to me is one who gets the job done. I think Obama for example is just simply not an effective president, neither was Carter. That doesn't make the others necessarily better than them per se, just more effective.

[Dakine10 5,452]

I didn't take "most effective" as necessarily being most popular, hence my picking Truman...I'm looking at successful they were at implementing their agenda, and not whether or not they were good or bad and whether I agree with what they did or not. To what degree they set the tone for government policy and the extent to which they shaped their times. An effective president to me is one who gets the job done. I think Obama for example is just simply not an effective president, neither was Carter. That doesn't make the others necessarily better than them per se, just more effective.

I didn't either, just posting for interest sake. I think the opinions of presidents change over time, especially when enough time goes by that no one living remembers them. There's a lot less emotional reaction at that point and people tend to focus more on the actual failures and accomplishments.

Andrew Jackson is a good example of a president who was popular in his own time but much less so now as history shows him in a less than favorable light. It's obvious from this thread that there is a visceral component to peoples likes and dislikes when looking at the presidents we remember from our own life time.

I remember a topic about favorite/least favorite presidents a few years back. That correlates better with approval rating I think. I have Woodrow Wilson at the bottom of either list though. Eisenhower is moving up my list as time goes on.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Everyone forgot Trump not even in office yet and handling things