Posted on 02/15/2010 2:11:56 PM PST by Recovering_Democrat
Tough call, but I think my short list would be (in no particular order):
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Andrew Jackson
- George H.W. Bush: He might have been as exciting as soggy toast as a politician, but he’s also the guy who flew 58 combat missions in WW II, ran the CIA, and prosecuted one of the most successful military campaigns in history. He also has the guts to jump out of perfectly good airplanes at 80+, something I’m too chicken to do at less than half his age.
-Ronald Reagan
-Harry Truman: I disliked a number of his policies, but Harry was a stand up guy and plenty tough.
How about Ulysses S. Grant? Fought in the Mexican War, led troops in the Civil War. Great horseman. Drank to excess. Smoked 20 stogies per day.
Yet it was Jackson who started the PEOPLE voting for their president, not a caucus like the previous 6 presidents had done. Then again, it was also Jackson which came the term “to victor go the spoils” when he replaced all the federal workers of his time with his own supporters.
JAMES K. POLK. He won the west.
I was sure there was someone we missed. Good call.
Washington, Jackson, Roosevelt T., Reagan, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Truman, Grant, FDR and Coolidge. Kudos to JFK and G.H.W. Bush also for their military service and bravery!
U.S. Grant
"Two centuries ago, King George III was told that President George Washington, who had eight years earlier turned down the opportunity to be the king of the United States, was planning to give up the presidency at the conclusion of his second term and return to his farm in Mount Vernon. The astonished monarch, who had lost a war to General Washington, said, 'If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.' Washington did, and he was. Does anything more clearly illustrate how far we have fallen in 210 years?" --columnist Burt Prelutsky
As to Washington, I have been utterly amazed at how cool and intelligent and in control and fearless he was no matter how desperate the situation around him.
When others panicked at Braddock’s defeat and slaughter was on all sides, Washington coolly kept his head.
And he never lowered himself to barbarities or compromised an inch in his standards. At the battle of Jumonville’s Glen, When his own ally the indian Half-King Tanaghrisson split open the skull of the captured French commander and washed his hands in his brains, Washington, though only a very young man, had nothing but disgust for the savage behavior.
“We fired our cannon ‘til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.”
Great visual!
-PJ
“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.” ...President George Washington
Too funny and too right.
From September 19, 2003: Command Military Background of the Presidents.
From August 29, 2008: Reference: Brief Summary of Prior Experience of U.S. Presidents
Be sure to read the posts in the threads for corrections and clarifications.
-PJ
Hey Rebel....That’s when they used to write great tunes. No disrespect to The Outlaws
“lol .... Gotta love Andrew Jackson! He also lead wars against Seminoles and other Indians. He had a long military record going back to the Revolutionary War
He was an Indian fighter -— That’s what he was called in the un-PC textbooks and history classes of my youth”
Actually, the Cherokee Indians fought on his side in the 1812 war. A Cherokee saved his life. And then he screwed them all.
Obama also said his grandfather liberated Auschwitz. Which as history well knows, the Russians did.
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