Author Topic: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president  (Read 2698 times)

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RevDisk

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2017, 02:26:35 PM »

I did laugh when on "Between Two Ferns", the presenter asked President Obama why he was awarded the Peace Prize and he admitted he had no idea. I assume this is the same thing. "Not Bush" award.

President Obama wasn't as bad as most of the hard righters think and say. He wasn't a particularly great president either. He was alright, overall. Part of that is because the President has a lot less power than people believe and it takes a long time to get anything done. Of course, this was my perspective on President Bush (the second one) as well. Not great, not terrible, just helped create more debt and ratchet the government to being slightly more authoritarian.
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T.O.M.

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2017, 02:31:28 PM »
Part of that is because the President has a lot less power than people believe and it takes a long time to get anything done. Of course, this was my perspective on President Bush (the second one) as well. Not great, not terrible, just helped create more debt and ratchet the government to being slightly more authoritarian.

I've been trying to say this to my more Democratic friends and anti-Trump Republican friends.  The power of the presidency is not limitless.  And it takes the feds a long time to do anything.  So relax.
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MechAg94

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2017, 04:01:17 PM »
I did laugh when on "Between Two Ferns", the presenter asked President Obama why he was awarded the Peace Prize and he admitted he had no idea. I assume this is the same thing. "Not Bush" award.

President Obama wasn't as bad as most of the hard righters think and say. He wasn't a particularly great president either. He was alright, overall. Part of that is because the President has a lot less power than people believe and it takes a long time to get anything done. Of course, this was my perspective on President Bush (the second one) as well. Not great, not terrible, just helped create more debt and ratchet the government to being slightly more authoritarian.
Wasn't bad compared to what?  See this thread and lets talk about that.  
http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=39981.0

I agree the President's power is limited.  However, that is one of my issues with Congressional Republicans over the last several years is they seemed to do little to obstruct what he was doing.
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TommyGunn

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2017, 05:54:41 PM »
I did laugh when on "Between Two Ferns", the presenter asked President Obama why he was awarded the Peace Prize and he admitted he had no idea. I assume this is the same thing. "Not Bush" award.

President Obama wasn't as bad as most of the hard righters think and say. He wasn't a particularly great president either. He was alright, overall. Part of that is because the President has a lot less power than people believe and it takes a long time to get anything done. Of course, this was my perspective on President Bush (the second one) as well. Not great, not terrible, just helped create more debt and ratchet the government to being slightly more authoritarian.

 ???   He was an incompetent ideologue in  way over his head............ [barf] [barf]
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Hawkmoon

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2017, 10:05:05 PM »
???   He was an incompetent ideologue in  way over his head............ [barf] [barf]

He was also an unrepentant race baiter, and that puts him WAY below fifth in the rankings of presidents.
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Triphammer

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2017, 10:08:40 PM »
Not on THIS scale.

RevDisk

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2017, 08:43:24 AM »
???   He was an incompetent ideologue in  way over his head............ [barf] [barf]

I've never seen a President in my lifetime that wasn't. And I don't expect to either.
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makattak

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2017, 08:46:44 AM »
That's cute, but I can see an arguement that he's the fifth best president. It's a hard judgement, as it's between him and Carter. Personally, I'd put Carter as 5th and him as 6th, but people could flip that and I wouldn't think it a huge change.


Oh, I forgot the asterisk. 5th best president* in my lifetime, which encompasses 6 presidents (for 2 more days, at least).
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TommyGunn

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2017, 12:22:40 PM »
I've never seen a President in my lifetime that wasn't. And I don't expect to either.

I have. ;)
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RevDisk

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2017, 12:40:50 PM »
I have. ;)

Sigh. Some of us aren't old enough to have known Andrew Jackson.


I'm kidding, last truly competent President was Eisenhower.
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wmenorr67

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2017, 01:33:46 PM »
Sigh. Some of us aren't old enough to have known Andrew Jackson.


I'm kidding, last truly competent President was Eisenhower.

I would have to mostly agree with this.
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HankB

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2017, 01:40:12 PM »
In my lifetime, I put Obama at 2nd worst . . .

LBJ was the worst, thanks to >58,000 dead Americans in Vietnam, a war in which his decisions actively aided the enemy. And his "Great Society" is the #1 source of today's national debt, and all the problems that go along with it.

BHO . . . what can I say? He was the 1st POTUS in which I could never recognize any shards of patriotism - his entire philosophy seems to revolve around diminishing the USA. 2nd worst POTUS overall, since he doesn't have as much American blood on his hands as LBJ.

During his term, I viewed Carter as well meaning, but naive and inept. For a time after leaving office he did some good (Habitat for Humanity) but later became anti-semitic and, well, wacky. So he still gets a solid 3rd worst.
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RevDisk

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2017, 01:50:07 PM »

Carter was a good man, but not a good President. Probably the best person in that office in a long time.
Jackson was an epic and terrible human being. That committed genocide and murder on a regular basis. Good President however.

Go figure. It's a rough job. It has way more power than it ever should have been allowed, but it's still a lot of responsibility without the power to directly do anything on a wide range of subjects. That's what it was meant to be.
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Hawkmoon

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #14 on: January 18, 2017, 03:01:52 PM »
During his term, I viewed Carter as well meaning, but naive and inept.


Agreed.

Quote from: RevDisk
Carter was a good man, but not a good President.

Also agreed.
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TommyGunn

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2017, 11:16:17 PM »
Sigh. Some of us aren't old enough to have known Andrew Jackson.


I'm kidding, last truly competent President was Eisenhower.

Eisenhower was competent,  and I was alive (but politically unaware) when he was in office, but I was thinking of another who came later  (note: he was like all men, imperfect, but some republicans want to deify him still).
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RevDisk

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2017, 08:24:49 AM »
Eisenhower was competent,  and I was alive (but politically unaware) when he was in office, but I was thinking of another who came later  (note: he was like all men, imperfect, but some republicans want to deify him still).

Meh, Reagan mouthed the right platitudes but his actual track record wasn't nearly as good as the deity that Republicans tried to retcon. He wasn't a terrible President, but he wasn't as great as many people associate him with being. Mostly when folks talk about Reagan, they mean the persona or icon of Reagan rather than the person or actual stuff he did as President. He was a better icon of a President than he was of being a President. That's not common. See FDR, Washington (during his term as President) or Lincoln. Their icon or persona far outweighed who they were as actual Presidents.
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TommyGunn

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Re: Texas A&M ranks Obama the 5th best U.S. president
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2017, 11:10:58 AM »
Meh, Reagan mouthed the right platitudes but his actual track record wasn't nearly as good as the deity that Republicans tried to retcon. He wasn't a terrible President, but he wasn't as great as many people associate him with being. Mostly when folks talk about Reagan, they mean the persona or icon of Reagan rather than the person or actual stuff he did as President. He was a better icon of a President than he was of being a President. That's not common. See FDR, Washington (during his term as President) or Lincoln. Their icon or persona far outweighed who they were as actual Presidents.

Without going through a list of what I consider his mistakes,  I still think you're shortchanging him. 
But atleast you didn't demonize him.    Meh....okay.
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