No actual changes to the list itself, just starting to add pros and cons to each president. At this point, it's all from my memory, next week (which will hopefully become version 2.0.2) should have some more research.
42. James Buchanan
Pro: Is there any?
Con: Bleeding Kansas, possibly the Dred Scott Case, didn't do anything to prevent the Civil War...
41. Andrew Johnson
Pro: Reconstruction Plan was similar to Lincoln's idea, had the balls to stand up to Congress when they imposed upon executive powers
Con: Refused to compromise with Congress, subverted Congressional Acts with nearly unconditional pardoning of Confederates
40. Franklin Pierce
Pro:
Con:
39. William Howard Taft
Pro: Trustbusting
Con:
38. Herbert Hoover
Pro:
Con: Great Depression
37. Jimmy Carter
Pro:
Con:
36. William Henry Harrison
Pro:
Con: Died pretty darn fast
35. Millard Fillmore
Pro:
Con:
34. Warren Harding
Pro:
Con:
33. Zachary Taylor
Pro:
Con: Apathetic about politics
32. Ulysses S. Grant
Pro:
Con: Cabinet partook in much scandal
31. Rutherford B. Hayes
Pro:
Con:
30. George W. Bush
Pro:
Con:
29. John Adams
Pro:
Con: Almost totally disliked by the people of his time
28. John Quincy Adams
Pro:
Con:
27. Richard Nixon
Pro: Good at getting his agenda across
Con: 'Nam, Watergate
26. Benjamin Harrison
Pro:
Con:
25. Gerald Ford
Pro:
Con:
24. John Tyler
Pro:
Con:
23. Grover Cleveland
Pro:
Con:
22. James Garfield
Pro:
Con:
21. Calvin Coolidge
Pro:
Con:
20. George H. W. Bush
Pro:
Con:
19. Chester Arthur
Pro: Pendleton Civil Service Act
Con: Chinese Exclusion Act
18. Martin Van Buren
Pro:
Con:
17. Bill Clinton
Pro: Good economic times, didn't screw it up
Con: Monica Lewinsky
16. James Madison
Pro: Well we did win the War of 1812
Con:
15. William McKinley
Pro:
Con:
14. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Pro: Highway system
Con:
13. James Polk
Pro:
Con:
12. James Monroe
Pro: Monroe Doctrine
Con:
11. Ronald Reagan
Pro: Major steps to end the Cold War
Con:
10. Woodrow Wilson
Pro: He kept us out of war
Con: ...for a while
9. John F Kennedy
Pro: Could be a leader without just acting out of his gut, Cuban Missile Crisis
Con:
8. Lyndon Johnson
Pro: Civil Rights Act of 1964
Con:
7. Harry Truman
Pro:
Con:
6. Thomas Jefferson
Pro:
Con:
5. Andrew Jackson
Pro: Really took charge and led the country like a man
Con: Occasionally subverted the Supreme Court
4. Franklin Roosevelt
Pro: Master of pushing his agenda, New Deal
Con: Attempt to add judges to the Supreme Court
3. Theodore Roosevelt
Pro: Environmentalism, Beginning of Trustbusting
Con: Only broke trusts he felt were bad
2. George Washington
Pro: Set the stage for every freaking president with so many precedents and interpretations of the Constitution
Con:
1. Abraham Lincoln
Pro: Managed to free the slaves and get through the Civil War
Con: *Possibly* may have had a Reconstruction mindset like Johnson
Preliminary pros/cons. It'll be more extensive and thorough soon enough. No rush to get this done, right?
Today also marks the anniversary of the assassination of JFK. I don't know how I could possibly write on that, but I just want to acknowledge the man and honor him for what he did for our country.
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Bill Clinton- Pro: Didn't we have like a billion dollar surplus under him. This could be an offshoot of "good economic times" though.
ReplyDeleteLBJ- Con: He didn't have the balls to stand up to his top military advisors who were constantly pushing him to escalate Vietnam. Ergo, he continued to send thousands of troops to Nam.
FDR- Con: Japanese Internment Camps
Lincoln- Con: Basically trampled all over the Constitution during the Civil War (suspension of habeas corpus, imprisonment of Maryland political leaders for no other reason then suspicion of being sympathetic to the Southern cause, etc.) While I beileve what he did was necessary, many others don't.
And my own personal con for Hayes. He should have gone back on the deal and continued Reconstruction. It was working. After the Federal troops left the South, it basically went back to it's antebellum ways. Not good, IMO.