[Burkeman1]

We measure "greatness" of our Presidents on the number of body bags they fill and "programs" they pass when we should measure them on how many they don't fill and how many laws they don't sign. I nominate George Washington, Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, Old Ike, and Ronald Reagan as Great Presidents based on that criteria!

[u-89]

I hear you and I follow your thinking but I call a quits on your list with Coolidge. The last chance the Republic had to roll back the New Deal died with Eisenhower's term. For that reason alone I can't think highly of the man. If I remember correctly we think differently about the wisdom of the cold war so I won't dwell on it too much but it was the cold war that got conservatives to embrace the internationalist meddling that Krauthammer here is pushing so successfully. Notice we're the only dissenters on a hundred plus post thread? Reagan played a big role in what I'm talking about. I know that a cult of personality has sprung up around the man for conservatives the way the liberals have FDR and JFK so if I type out what I'm thinking I'll be stoned to death for heresy and blasphemy.