I don't like Reagan's untra-socially-conservative politics, but he didn't do too terribly from what I've heard.

 

I'd say ait's between Nixon and GW Bush. Both are stubborn crooks. But Bush managed to get us into a position where most of the world looks down on the US, something which Nixon managed to not do somehow, so I'm going for our Supreme Fool of A President, George W. Bush.

 

His personal charisma saved him from chaos.

 

My opinion of course.

 

Iván

 

same here regarding JFK, but his wrongs have been dealt with, and no bad has come from it over time.

 

GWB on the other hand is doing more damage than can be repared within the next 10 years or so.

 

still love Americans though, just wish their Presidents were more like me, and just had a cookie when things go wrong instead of marching out to war

 

No, still one to solve....Fidel Castro.

 

Kennedy created a monster from an insignificant dicatator who would had probably lost the support even from USSR after his first crimes, imprisonment of his ex-partners but most surely after Castro would had stopped being front page.

 

From that moment USSR couldn't stop supporting Castro (Hey, it was a great propaganda for their system, a poor little Banana Republic surviving against the Imperialist Giant) while USA kept placing embargos against Cuba (USA couldn't accept the preassure of USSR and give another step back after the embarrassment of Bahia de Cochinos).

 

But as always the poor people of the country were made a triple sandwich between USSR, Castro and the Western countries.

 

Drew wrote: In all Honesty- I dont care- I get tired of people on this site bashing the USA.

 

Hey Drew, having a bad President is not always fault of the people in the country, much less in USA where you have to choose one out of two.

 

If USA had their Kennedy or Nixon:

 

UK had Maggy

Chile had Pinochet

Argentina had Videla

Perú had Fujimori, Velazco, Alan García (He's back again), etc etc etc

 

Iván

 

 

 

 

As we say in Perú: "Todo tiempo pasado fue mejor" (We all believe the past was better).

 

Older people have bad memory, probably they remember they had work when Nixon was President or were promoted when Clinton was in the White House),

 

On the other hand younger people only know the latest President, that's why living corpses when burn, wait a couple of years and come back again to politics, confident in the lack of historic perspective of the elder and the ignorance in a majority of the young ones.

 

Iván

 

 

 

And Vietnam was not only Kennedy's miscalculation, but Eisenhower's, too.

 

None remembers good president L.B.Johnson who made incredible reform towards integration and destruction of the segregationist system. He was pressured by society to do so, but he DID IT. Now the "moralists" Bush and Co. are so incredible "righteous", they have scandal after scandal every week. I live in the US, I think you have to live here to have a better perspective of what this idiot is doing.

 

I don't understand why people believe that criticizing their leaders for their mistakes is bashing their country, by the contrary, you criticize your leaders because you love your country and are tired of the mess they may be causing.

 

People who love their country should be the first ones to oppose to the stupid things politicians normally do in any part of the world and a free country must allow this as a cornerstone of freedom.

 

Look at Chavez in Venezuela, he's closing in May 2007 the only TV station that dares not to agree with him, I rather see people criticizing with honesty their leaders than people saying nothing for fear or greed even when their basic rights are being attacked .

 

You have to love your country to dare to criticize your leaders without fear to vengeance, I'm sure that the owners of the Venezuelan TV station being closed love their country more than those who applaud Chavez for fear to loose their investment.

 

Iván

 

I believe the best sign of respect is having him in the poll and notivcing he has no votes against.

 

The list includes all the Presidents of the last 40 years (Most of them dead) and I believe  that the only one who doesn't has a vote is Ford.

 

It speaks well about him.

 

Iván

 

EDIT: No, Johnson doesn't have a vote either.

Btw,the worst to me was Bill Clinton because of what he did to Serbian people ,but again,blaming one man...

 

I don't go so far, only ask the Chilean Government to give us Fujimori back so we can send him to jail for 20 years and after that send him to Judge Garzón for crimes against humanity (If he survives).

 

Iván

 

I don´t understand how people can think that judging a country´s presidents has anything to do with attacking the country itself. In fact, I think it´s because some people care for the US that we´re sick of an idiot running the land. I think people with "i don´t give a damn" attitude do a lot more damage to the country than people that exercize their right to criticism. It´s just plain ignorance.

 

And, as a footnote, Gildenlow actually has some of us in his payroll....

 

it is odd that ford got no votes-is it because many do not remember his presidency or are folks just being polite concerning his death? i'm not bashing the guy-he seemed pleasant enough-but it seems every other president has at least one vote, which is curious to me...

 

i don't think such a poll is anti-american. i think the comments you made about our current president is a very cheap shot though and is quite telling. plus, i noticed the last two questions are slanted. if you do not like the poll, you are therefore an "evil republican" bent on preventing freedom of expression.

 

THANK YOU!

 

 

 

then why is kennedy on this? he was killed in 1963...forty years would be 1966 or 67 on

 

i can see that. but if you want to get technical about such matters, why did clinton pardon rich before any charges were drawn up on the guy?

 

i forgot about that! man, that was even ragged on on a tv show...i forget which one. but the look was hilarious!!

 

in 2004, kerry was no prize either-the guy was such a waffle he belonged in a pancake house!

 

my question was more rhetorical really.

 

but yes, i'm very sick of the bashing of the usa.

 

1) Most likely (and most harsh): Took advantage of 9/11 paranoia to lead us into an unnecessary war which the true motives of will be revealed or at least apparent later down the timeline. Brought down barriers to open up drilling for oil in the US for mixed motives: tried to reduce foreign dependence on oil...by f**king up our national wildlife reserves, when stricter taxes on pollution and greener energy could have been developed, admittedly with a setback to the economy, but not everything is about the economy (if you ask me, we need to just take a breather for a bit. ) Overall: the hard-line neo-con, a visionary with the means to carry out his vision, and who will go down with it rather than give it up.

 

2) Less likely (basically if the whole Iraq debacle rectifies itself...somehow): He will be seen as an aggressor who took out a dictator. The leader who cared less about the means to an end rather than the ultimate end. If by some miracle iraq does turn into a beacon for democracy and the tackling of Islamic extremism in the region, I suppose he'll be seen as the guy who was stubborn in a good way, or at least good for the American Way of Life. Speaking of...a win in Iraq will likely embolden our country into thinking it has the continued right to do this sort of thing again. Shudder to think of that *brrrrr*

 

You've got to be one hell of an optimist to think that the US will come out of the Bush presidency even half as respected/admired as before.

 

of course we are alot less respected now in the eyes of the world. they don't get fox news international or another counterpoint to all the bashing cnn, the bbc and whatnot has inflicted. it's the usa haters getting all the press and tearing up the usa and all. if i lived in europe or asia or anyplace else and saw the sh*t being broadcast and "reported", i'd hate the usa too. it does not matter what the truth is now anyway, does it?

 

clinton turned the white house into an 8 year toga party, killed americans for owning guns, had one of the most corrupt administrations in all of the history of the usa (monica was the least of it all), gave north korea nuclear reactors and china our seaports and military secrets and contributed heavily to the "paper tiger" image of the usa, but "it was all about the sex". americans just feel a warm fuzzy about him and he is such a hero, having spirited away to the uk and russia during the vietnam war. apparently, though, what folks were doing during vietnam only applies to bush and his lot and not to clinton and his buddies. nevermind that clinton had raw data fbi files on his political opponents and critics and ordered irs audits on them as part of his political strategy for dealing with republicans, it's that evil george bush who seeks to hunt terrorists by checking phone records of people making calls to places such as israel, iran and syria. granted, bush is no prize in my book and i never voted for the guy, but the bush bashing is at a point that it has ceased to be annoying, but is destructive.

   .

 

Except for some people with an own agenda, most of us give our opinion because like it or not, USA rules the destiny of all our countries, if you have read my previous posts you will notice that I prefer USA than any Nationalist, Socialist or Communist Government but this doesn't make me blind.

 

I don't think Bush is the worst President ever, it's too soon to say that but his acts cause repercusions in all our countries, when he started the war, Bush came to visit Perú (We didn't had terrorism for almost a decade) but the night before he came, somebody placed a bomb at 50 mts of the USA Embassy, no USA citizen or functionary died because the Embassy is a bunker with no windows and 100 Mts away from the external walls,  but 9 innocent Peruvians who were near died.

 

If USA Presidents want to be the world Sheriff and decide the destiny of our countries directly or indirectly, well, they must accept the ctitics, and I'm one of the person who always makes comments in favour of USA system because I feel more comfortable with a nation in which democracy (Despite the problems) has an impeccable record, a country where you can write in a  newspaper that you disagree with the President without the fear of vanishing in the air, but this respect and this lead role has a price to pay and it's the critics, something very cheap in comparison with all the power a USA President has in and outside their country.

 

Iván

 

But this wouldn't be such a one-sided thing for no reason. The reason the US is being brought down is because these countries want it to be brought down. face up to it (not saying anyone was denying it) but the US is clearly in the spotlight globally and has been for many years. If I was in another country, I would get sick of seeing crap about the US all the time, regardless of whether it is good or bad. Perhaps they think that if enough bad crap happens to the US, it will just exit stage left and let somebody else take center stage. Do the people in these countries really hate the USA? You'd have to ask them, but I'd wager they don't.

 

 

Take this as a lesson. Why do people feel the need to bash US presidents? Maybe...CAUSE WE ELECT TERRIBLE ONES.

 

Meh, Clinton wasn't bad. Can't remember his opponents. Seems the only peopel who don't think so are ruffled up because he either got a blow job (probably not the best moral choice to make, but W ain't the most moral of us all anyway) or he didn't follow the coservative agenda, which is logical because the guy wasn't conservative. He was a likeable person (something Bush will never be able to regain) and if anything, he made the US more favorable in the world's eye, a lot more than we can say for....well you know by now.

 

right up there with clinton giving nulear reactors to north korea, kennedy getting the usa involved in vietnam and bush, jr. opening a bag of rold's golds

 

Then why each time I come from another country back to Perú I see USA tourists shouting "I'm an American citizen, nobody should search me....I want to talk with my embassy"?

 

We are also a country that had terrorism, why shouldn't we search every person.

 

BTW: Tapping telephones lines without a probable cause and a judge order is a crime and I believe also inconstitutional.

 

Iván