If you could pick one President from the past to be President today, who would it be?

Gipper then JFK.

 

Just noticed, Thomas Jefferson's birthday was two days ago (Apr 13)

 

1st term Reagan
GHWB with his team

 

Teddy Roosevelt.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(malorn @ Apr 17 2006, 02:50 PM) [snapback]241096[/snapback]</div>

Teddy Roosevelt had it right, calling corporate corruption of govt. officials, treason to the people.

“We are standing for the great fundamental rights upon which all successful free government must be based. We are standing for elementary decency in politics. We are fighting for honesty against naked robbery. It is not a partisan issue; it is more than a political issue; it is a great moral issue. If we condone political theft, if we do not resent the kinds of wrong and injustice that injuriously affect the whole nation, not merely our democratic form of government, but our civilization itself cannot endure.â€

The words ring as true today as they did then.

BTW, Ryan, ex-gov of Ill. today charged with racketeering, graft and moral bankrupcy; guilty of all 18 felony charges. Another one heading to the slammer, 3-20 yrs on each count.

 

Benjamin Franklin. (I know he wasn't a president, but he should have been.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BellBoy @ Apr 7 2006, 04:32 PM) [snapback]236490[/snapback]</div>

Wouldn't that be Thomas Jefferson?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar @ Apr 8 2006, 03:38 PM) [snapback]236871[/snapback]</div>

Your 'worst' list should include R. M. Nixon, but, then, I'm a 'child of the 60's'.

 

Warren Gamaliel <strike>Hardon</strike> Harding, Republican President, 1920-23.

President Harding, promiscuous as a Senator, is known to have made whoopee with White House Cleaning staff in custodial closets, presumably among other places. It's doubtful his indiscretions could have taken place unnoticed by the media if they occurred today.

Unfortunately, assuming Harding would have denied such allegations if they had come out, we wouldn't have the fun of impeaching him, as he died before completing one term.

Of Harding, it was said at the time that no one was ever elected who looked more the part of a President.

 

Abraham Lincoln of course. He was the first Republican president . . . so that would continue to piss-off liberals.

Why not Lincoln . . . We already have a modern day version of the Copperhead Democrats . . . “ . . .they demanded immediate peace and resisted the draft laws. They wanted Lincoln and the Republicans ousted from power, seeing the president as a tyrant who was destroying American republican values with his despotic and arbitrary actions.â€
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperheads_%28politics%29
:lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeannie @ May 21 2006, 05:41 PM) [snapback]258945[/snapback]</div>

Ya, same here (60's that is), I wanted to keep it at no more than 4, so it was a tough choice, came down to a coin flip in the end. :lol:

 

Thomas Jefferson. He would shudder to see how the Constitution has been desecrated by the present administration.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar @ Apr 8 2006, 03:38 PM) [snapback]236871[/snapback]</div>

Agree with the lineup, with the inclusion of Nixon as someone else mentioned. Shrub Jr. is the worst by far.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ May 21 2006, 08:15 PM) [snapback]258976[/snapback]</div>

Abraham Lincoln has nothing in common with the present-day Republican party.

 

Teddy Roosevelt
Walk softly and carry a BIG stick

 

Past presidents to come back today ?

I like these, they had huevos and were leaders.

Abraham Lincoln ( R), Kept the democracy experiment going, Freed the slaves, bounced back from lowest approval rating ever, did what had to be done to win a war.

Harry Truman (D), a regular guy like us, ended WWII by dropping the A bomb, funded rebuilding of Europe, Japan, bounced back from second lowest approval rating (Lincoln worst)

Franklin Roosevelt (D), did what had to be done to exit depression, fight a war

Teddy Roosevelt ( R), Conservationist, thought "outside the box"

Ronald Regan ( R), Cold War End, Recovery from Carter, Reparations to 110,000 American citizens put in concentration camps by FDR during WWII

Dwight D. Eisenhower ( R), did it all, [i "Freedom is not long entrusted to the timid or the weak "[/i],

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ May 21 2006, 05:15 PM) [snapback]258976[/snapback]</div>

Funny how most of the chicken-hawks running the country right now resisted, cajoled or bought their way out of the draft laws. Guess that doesn't count.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ May 21 2006, 08:15 PM) [snapback]258976[/snapback]</div>

The Copperheads were hardly an anti-war party. The were an anti-abolition party, and thus were opposed to the Civil War. The Copperheads were allies of the Confederacy, then a Democratic stronghold. The southern Democrats ("Dixiecrats") are the core of the Republican party of today. So you have to be careful when you refer to Republicans and Democrats in the 19th century, as those parties represent opposite groups in the present day.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 24 2006, 12:36 PM) [snapback]260417[/snapback]</div>

...not exactly ...

The Cooperheads were mostly from the Midwest (Ohio,etc.) not the south so not sure where they would line up today in terms of Democrat or Republican.

The Cooperheads were anti-war during the Civil War. In fact they were a faction of what was known as the Peace Democrats with the other faction called the War Democrats. The Cooperheads (part of the Peace Democrats) were against the Civil War due to their hatred of blacks. The Copperheads pulled some nasty stuff like switch sides between the Confederate South and the Union North depending upon which side was winning at the time. They encouraged desertion among the Union troops, held armed uprisings against the North, etc. They didn't really help Lincoln ( R) or the North win the war, free the salves or save the Union. In fact it was concluded that they prolonged the Civil War.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 21 2006, 09:45 PM) [snapback]259043[/snapback]</div>

You beat me to that!!!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 7 2006, 02:29 PM) [snapback]236420[/snapback]</div>

Yup. None other for me.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eyeguy13 @ May 25 2006, 03:25 PM) [snapback]261003[/snapback]</div>

I call my self a Republican of the Abe/Teddy variety.

I don't consider myself a Republican of the Bush type that is what is around today.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Karnac @ May 25 2006, 03:12 PM) [snapback]260996[/snapback]</div>

Well, you're not exactly disputing what I said. I didn't say that the Copperheads were from the South (as you note, they were not), but they were ideologically allied with the Confederacy. While they were referred to as the "Peace Democrats" (which distinguished them from the "War Democrats" who supported the Union and the war effort), I don't think you can find anything that would define them as pacifists or against war in general- they were opposed to this war specifically. And they were certainly pro-slavery (or at least opposed to fighting to end it) and racist.

 

Yep, that's true, just clarifying.

Your post seemed to imply the Cooperheads were Southerners that later became "Dixiecrats" that are now Republicans. In fact they were "wildmen" from the Midwest on the fringe of the "new territories".

Slavery was such an overwhelming issue back then it seemed to swamp out any realtionship to the parties as they are known today. Lincoln, as an early Republican, would be hard to classify today. However, his pet project and one differentiator was that he backed government subsidies for the railroads, clearly becoming the "big business" of the day.