What Makes a President Great? Scholars finally begin giving Reagan his due.

Opinion Journal ^ | 10 June 2004 | James Taranto

[txradioguy]

Ronald Reagan has had a hard time getting his due from scholars. In 1996 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. conducted a poll of historians asking them to rank the presidents, and Mr. Reagan came in 25th out of 39, putting him in the "low average" category. The Gipper had done only slightly better in a Siena College survey two years earlier, finishing 20th out of 41--below Bill Clinton (16th), who had been in office less than two years, and well below Lyndon B. Johnson (13th). It's hard to agree that the president who won the Cold War was less successful than the one who escalated the Vietnam War. The flaw in these studies is obvious.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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..RONNIE gave all = We have it all..

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52519


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[WinOne4TheGipper]

Those who believe that history runs in cycles will be interested to note that the three great presidents took office at 72-year intervals--Washington in 1789, Lincoln in 1861 and FDR in 1933--and that this November it will have been exactly 72 years since the election of our last great president.

That trend won't continue if JFinK is elected.

[randog]

Those who believe that history runs in cycles will be interested to note that the three great presidents took office at 72-year intervals--Washington in 1789, Lincoln in 1861 and FDR in 1933--and that this November it will have been exactly 72 years since the election of our last great president.

Probably meaningless, but interesting.

[LS]

Just wait for my new book, "A Patriot's History of the United States," due out from Penguin in November. Reagan gets all that's due him and more.

[Cicero]

I have to agree that FDR was, in a sense, a great president, in the sense that he did a great deal to change our country and the world. Unfortunately most of it was for the worse.

Domestically he gave us the massive socialist state we have in Washington today. Internationally, he managed to twist the endgame in the Second World War so that in deposing Hitler we put Stalin and Mao in his place. And I don't think that was mere weakness. FDR always dreamed of a Communist world and surrounded himself with Communists in the Whitehouse, some in spirit and some literal card-carrying members.

[dangus]

Scary thought: FDR was "great" but to an ill effect. JFinK could be remembered as being great, too... shudder.