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About Me
- Robert Botsch, USCA Political Science
- I am the one on the right! I have been a professor of political science at USCA since 1978. We will use this blog for class discussion and for posting written assignments that I may make. When you post you may do so using the anonymous profile, but please sign your name to all your posts! Posts are shown REVERSE chronological order. The most recent post is at the top. So READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP in the topics shown in the BLOG ARCHIVE above.
I’m no historian, but if I had to rank someone at No. 4 on the list it would have to be Thomas Jefferson. The text calls him a “genius in his generation”. I believe that to be true. When learning about the presidents in high school government classes students come to know Jefferson as a Renaissance Man… or a Jack of all Trades. He had many qualities that made him stand out among all the presidents. However, I think his greatest achievement (the reason I selected him) would have to be his expansion of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. Surely we would not be the nation we are today had it not been for Thomas Jefferson.
ReplyDelete-Heath Wheat
After a little research, I would have to rank Jefferson as the fourth greatest President. He was a major author of the declaration of Independence and he had the foresight to expand the US through the Louisiana purchase. Also, he had lewis and Clarke go through with their expedition in hopes of expanding the US even further. With that being said, it's tough to argue against him!--Adam Wise
ReplyDeleteI hope that we get another choice for #4! Bob B
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I would like to say that I also agree that President Thomas Jefferson was the next best president. However, I will go against the grain here and make a fresh addition to this blog by saying that President Harry Truman is next in line as far as best presidents are concerned.
ReplyDeleteComing into office, he exceeded all expectations. It is worth noting that he followed one of the greatest American presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, which is why he was marked with tons of criticism going in perhaps.
During his tenure, Truman faced many challenges as it relates to domestic affairs, yet time and time again he handled them rather effectively, even desegregating the U.S. armed forces. He was also very active in foreign affairs, with the ending of World War II, the founding of the United Nations, the Truman Doctrine and much more.
Although the public had a negative view of him at the time, his popularity has since risen and many people, including historians, rank Truman as one of the top presidents in American history.
-Michael Baltzegar
After looking around I believe that Andrew Jackson would be the fourth greatest president. He was one of the first presidents to represent the average person. He also kept money out of the hands of wealthy people by vetoing a charter in 1832 which allowed money to be put into state banks instead of being basically given to the wealthy and briefly made the US debt free for a short time. Although he signed a treaty that made the indians of Georgia to move out west, he was nevertheless one of the top presidents because he kept the people in mind and pushed for a strong united government. ( with the nullification of SC he threatened to us the military if they did. It ended with a compromise)
ReplyDeleteKemberly Merritt
ReplyDeleteJune 10, 2009
APLS 463
I would rank President Obama as #4 because he made history by becoming the first African American President of the United States. President Obama told the United States what he would do while he was in office and he is doing what he said he would do. He is working on many major issues to help the United States to be a better place to live. He is trying to build an economy that is failing everyday. President Obama is people of all race, ethnicity and walks of life together as a whole, not doing things separate but together. I am not saying that is perfect but he has made a big change for the United States of America a nation as a whole.
Contrary to what many may believe, Clinton could be ranked as 4th. He was always popular with the public. I feel like the only wrong policy he tried to do was the unfair health care system in his beginning years. Although he was impeached, during his presidency, he worked hard to get better things for the American people, even if that meant taking risky chances. People frequently unanimously agreed with his policies. Many may think Clinton's actions were dumb but unlike our last President, he left us in a good financial standing after his 2nd term. Like all good presidents, yes, he has had some failures. The text says he should be in the middle but I feel like the text is biased because I see more about the negative and not good decisions he has made more than the good he has done. Surprisingly, his approval ratings went up during the Lewinsky scandal. Two things I will never understand though is how his ratings went up during that time and how people disapproved of his actions but at the same time, approved of how he handled the economy at the time.
ReplyDeleteKaLa Roberts
Again, I will have to do this in two separate comments. Part I.
ReplyDeleteOk – here are you choices for #4, and your comments were most interesting and thoughtful! Still waiting on a late entry from Corey. Did I influence you by my comment to try to go beyond the relatively easy and conventional choice of Jefferson? Perhaps!
Jefferson—2 ½ votes
Jackson—1
Clinton—1
Obama—1
Truman—1/2
When I taught this class several years ago, the rankings were a little different – here they were. What follows are the comments I made on them, including comments on Thomas Jefferson and several other presidents. Before we get to that, I just want to note that Obama is a most interesting choice, but way premature in my view. And Andrew Jackson is not a choice I have seen before. His dealings with the Cherokees would eliminate him in my view—he seemed to have little regard at all for the law.
Clinton -- 6
Ronald Reagan -- 3
Woodrow Wilson -- 3
Thomas Jefferson -- 2
Harry S. Truman -- 2
James Madison -- 1
Teddy Roosevelt -- 1
You will note that there is a heavy bias toward recent familiar presidents,namely CLinton and Reagan. The text points out that the American public is more likely to rate high recent Presidents they either personally remember or that they hear parents talk about -- several of you noted this in your comments. Moreover, dying generally helps a rating -- Reagan's recent death in 2005 and all the fanfare in commentary on the tv surrounding the funeral made younger people more familiar with him -- and of course most all of that was positive as people say mainly positive things at funerals.
There seems a distinct breaking point between the big three and whomever is #4. Every one of the nominees have some serious flaw or they did not have the historical opportunity to do "great things," which usually means using emergency powers to take the nation through some great crisis. Even Roosevelt had some blemishes in his historical record – the biggest was the forced internment of Japanese-Ameican citizens, followed perhaps by the court packing plan, though that did help bring results. Some conspiracy theories argue that he knew about Pearl Harbor before it as to happen, but I put no stock in those things. Lincoln took the nation through its greatest crisis, and perhaps might have seemed more flawed had he lived to oversee Reconstruction, which did not turn out so well for anyone. But that is another course.
Ok -- I am beating around the bush and avoiding making a nomination myself. So here goes, by process of elimination. Clinton had the potential to be great but his lack of self-discipline did him in -- the second term was a near wash-out because of his indiscretions -- while he did great things for the economy and did get some very significant legislation passed, he blew his chances for major progress in race relations and Social Security reform and for Gore's candidacy which could have extended his legacy -- historically unforgiveable.
Ronald Reagan had a great first term in focusing on a limited agenda and accomplishing it. He seemed to know his weaknesses and got people around him to do the details, like Chief of Staff James Baker. Had that continued and had his policies had uniformly better results, he would indeed be one of the great ones. But despite the downfall of the USSR (which he accelerated by bankrupting them in efforts to keep up with our increased military expenditures), there were a notable list of real policy blunders -- the tax cuts contributed to great deficits, Iran-Contra, and the Lebanon military disaster.
Part II of comments on #4 greatest president:
ReplyDeleteWoodrow Wilson was indeed a great visionary -- but he failed to get the League of Nations ratified, and he was supposed to be an expert on Congress -- he even wrote a text on congress! And his attitudes on race allowed the rash of lynchings to continue across the South.
Now it is getting tougher -- James Madison's greatest accomplishments were while he was not President -- his lack of a forceful personality hampered his leadership abilities. I could eliminate some others on these grounds as well.
Carter was and continues to be the greatest ex-president we have ever had -- too bad he could not have skipped being president and just become the nation's ex-president. I highly recommend visiting the Carter museum outside Atlanta, by the way. And not all of this was his fault -- the Arabs with their oil embargo and the embassy hostage taking in Iran really did him in -- were it not for that he should have had a second term and we would be giving him more serious consideration -- there would have been no Reagan at all.
Some of you mentioned Kennedy -- while attractive and smart, he simply did not live long enough to see things through -- up till his death his accomplishments were slim -- the Peace Corps and most notably, getting us through the missile crisis in one piece.
Ok --we are down to TJ, TR, and HST. Now things are really tough. All had great accomplishments and none had really great flaws -- all had courage -- I think of HST's executive order to integrate the military, TJ's going beyond his obvious powers to the LA purchase and the great Lewis and Clark expedition, and TR's personal exploits and giving a campaign speech with a bullet lodged in his chest.
But Truman did get us bogged down in Korea and made fateful decisions on backing France in Vietnam rather than backing Vietnamese independence, which would have made them very pro-American. But that is also another course. He was too weak politically to run for his own full second term. So he is out.
Thomas Jefferson did nothing politically to resolve the question of slavery, only freeing his own slaves after his death -- he missed a great opportunity there.
So I am left with TR, who had more energy and foresight than almost any president. He was a real conservative in the sense of conserving. Ironically, he was an accidental president, being placed in the vice presidency only to get him out of NY, where business oriented Republicans hated his progressive reforms as governor -- they thought he could not do much harm in the Vice Presidency. The joke was on them!
The president who was mentioned once who came closest to being great was Lyndon Johnson -- he had the greatest domestic record of any except F. Roosevelt. But Vietnam did him in, something we may talk about in the future.
Bob B
Although some and the text may not agree., I would choose Clinton as my fourth ranked president. Lets remove the Lewinsky scandal as a presidential act and view it as a human act. I find it funny how people seem to highlight this as a major point in Clinton’s terms when he and his administration did a lot to better this nation. Mainly their stances with tax issues like when he expanded the Earned income Tax Credit, this helped out workers with low income, as well as the Omnibus Reconciliation Act. I will agree with Kala when I say that the only problem I had was the administrations failed attempt at Health Care Reform. But he did end his second term with the nation in a surplus and the highest approval rating since WWII. He also was the first Democrat to get re-elected since FDR.
ReplyDeleteA little illicit sex is a lot better than a poorly planned and executed war. A budget surplus and a health economy would look pretty good not. Were Clinton a bit more disciplined, we would have just finished the second Gore term. But he was not and that is sad for us all. Bob B
ReplyDelete