George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy were smoe of this country's best Presidents IMO.

Great choices!!!! I'd probably put Truman up there as well.

If RR was so great why didn't he left a finger to do anything about Aids?

If RR was so great why didn't he left a finger to do anything about Aids?

Because he was a religious man born in rural Illinois in 1911 whose best friends were Billy Graham and Pat Boone.

Oh, and he had a lot of self-hate because his son is a ridiculously flaming 'mo.

That about cover it?

Regarding Quotes of Reagan's, I find it very hard to swallow that he never pubically said the words AIDS or HIV until 1986. Now HIV was being discovered in 1980. Why did it take our President 6 years to say the words that is the biggest health crisis in the twentieth century?

All of this is documented in the wonderful book, "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilts and the movie by the same name.

Regarding Quotes of Reagan's, I find it very hard to swallow that he never pubically said the words AIDS or HIV until 1986. Now HIV was being discovered in 1980. Why did it take our President 6 years to say the words that is the biggest health crisis in the twentieth century?

All of this is documented in the wonderful book, "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilts and the movie by the same name.

Love the book and love the movie. I have it on DVD. I cry everytime I watch it, especially the scene with Swoozie Kurtz and at the end when Elton John's "Last Song" comes on.

Reagan was one of the greatest Presidents, and history has shown as such.

The only ones who disagree are the die-hard liberals who want something for nothing.

What Reagan did after Carter virtually destroyed the country was give everyone hope and excitment about the future. Reagan actaully cared about the country and not his legacy. Kind of like Bush now. He is not building his legacy, he is doing what HE thinks is right for the country. Agree or disagree, but a President who goes against many is not trying to be popular, like Clinton, who only cared for his legacy.

CLinton did some good, don't get me wrong, all Presidents do.

I do not understand why people are so hard on RR, when he did so much.

"W" I understand why there are those who just hate all he does, good or bad, because they can not get past certain things and look at every situation rationally like an adult.

But the quote even if he said it, was obviously tongue-in-cheek.

Which again, it was funny for a DEM to say something like this, but it turns into a vile misquote if a REP says something as a joke.

The bitterness never ends! Pretty sad to be those people.

Reagan was one of the worst presidents we ever had. He bashed and insulted Democrats left to right, he sold weapons to Saddam Hussein and to Iran and used the money he made from Iran to aid the Contras who were a terrorist organization so if anything he put our country at higher risk of an attack than Jimmy Carter. Current historians would disagree with you that he was one of our greatest presidents (great presidents would be George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton). I will admit Carter was not a good president but he very rarely, if ever, put us at risk the way Reagan did and then Reagan's initial tax cuts to the rich and the business owners were him hoping they would stimulate the economy and used the money saved to open up jobs. Sorry it does not work that way....they ended up building factories overseas and shipping jobs there and hence not enough tax revenue came in for the country so he had to sign a huge tax increase on everybody. Things picked up in 1984 but again it did not work since he still kept putting us into debt and Clinton came in and paid off Reagan's debt and now President Butthead has run up a tab just like the beloved Reagan did. I do not see any of Reagan's actions as giving people hope...if anything, he gave people a reason to be scared and I forgot to add he was ignorant when saying that we were winning the Vietnam War-we lost before we even entered. Bush is too stupid to know what is right for the country if he did know, he would resign and quit damaging everything he touches and then Cheney decides to resign and we get competence in the next president and the next one in line after Cheney is Nancy Pelosi who would be a great president. Reagan was only doing things for the rich and he only cared about them.....he was also pretty sick and disgusting by closing down mental hospitals while he was governor of California (thankfully the other actor turned governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is actually doing a good job) and then had Angela Davis removed as a lecturer from UCLA due to her affiliation with the Communist Party. I have no idea where you are getting your facts about Clinton but he cared about the people and under him we saw very little poverty and jobs were built here and he viciously hunted down OBL and we were also admired and respected around the world....that does not sound like a president who only cares about himself and his legacy. Not all presidents do good...just look at the current one right now. Name me one success under Dubya other than him being so stupid he gives the late night talk show hosts an easier show to put on every night. James Buchanan and Warren Harding along with Herbert Hoover did not have any good things come out of their presidency but I will say that Buchanan was a very good historian and scholar...just not president material. People who look at George W. Bush's actions are going at it with knowledge on what he is doing and are rational about it since they go in reading reports and analysis from credible journalists and hence see the writing on the wall. Reagan did much? He did absolutely nothing except run up a huge tab, gave breaks to the rich, and put Americans in danger when he sold weapons to Saddam Hussein, Iran, and then used the money he made off of his sale to Iran to aid the Contras....he was a bad governor, a worse POTUS, and a really crappy actor.

Hillary/2008

Edited June 2, 200718 yr by DevotedToAMC

You always come off like you are the only one who can look at politics rationally. You tell people that if they don't agree with you, they either 1. Not and adult or 2. Are so blinded by their hatred of Republicans, RR and GWB that they can't see straight.

Yet, you make biased arguments AGAINST Liberals and Dems, and think that it makes you a middle of the road person, who is so much more rational than they rest of us.

These people here have the right to love, like, dislike or hate any publically elected official they want. If they feel that GWB is a great president, fine. If they think he's the worse since Buchanan, that is fine as well. Who are you to keep telling people that they are wrong for how they feel?

You want to be entitled to have your opinion respected, which is perfectly fine. But at the very same token....

Start respecting other's opinions as well. They have just as much right to dislike RR as you do to like him.

Agreed

Love the book and love the movie. I have it on DVD. I cry everytime I watch it, especially the scene with Swoozie Kurtz and at the end when Elton John's "Last Song" comes on.

I need to correct myself. 1978 AIDS and HIV was initially being discovered. Regardless, here is a HUGE health crisis that no one knew much about and Reagan never uttered the words publically until well into his second term? Not right. Shawn, oh I wish I had that movie right now because I would watch it right now. It is also a book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime. It is such an eyeopener on so many different levels.

Regarding the Iran/Iraq war, and please someone correct me if I am wrong. Reagan didn't want Iran to win so he funded Iraq which at the time, unbeknownist to the rest of the world,was the better of two evils. I really have to wonder if he kept usout of the war, where would we be now?

Reagan put us into a huge recession. It takes years for it to happen but because of it unemployment soared and taxes were raised. I am not making this up, it is fact.

Clinton did a lot of great things as president. He signed into law the Family Medical Leave Act which if that wasn't in place, well, I wouldn't have a job right now. He was the closest to getting Osama before most of us knew who Osama was. He was two days behind him. The sad thing is that he will probably be remembered as being the man that didn't know exactly what sex "is"

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan, well, thanks Dubya for another Vietnam. At least you got Saddam so you corrected Daddy's mistake. However you killed a lot of American soldiers to do so. Now we have no idea when we will get out. The only good thing, IMHO is that we will probably have a democratic President next term and he or she will pick the Supreme Court.

Truman I think was the best President, at least in the 20th century. He had a such a huge decision on his hands with the A bomb and knew little about it. As vice President, he really wasn't privy to that information. He made the decision and after that WW2 was pretty much over. Then he rebuilt the country.

Juniorz, thanks for the laugh with the Bentsen/Quayle remark. I always love it.

Reagan does seem like he was a nice man, a great grandfatherly type of President. He sold hope for America, and people ate it up. His hope for America was wrapped in shiny, greedy, gold paper, but it caught on with the majority.

I was not a fan of his work as President. What I remember is being a kid, and being very nervous that the talk of nuclear holocaust was growing by the day for a couple of years during his Presidency. My mother said at the time it reminded her of how kids in the 1950's had to get under their desks for Atomic Bomb drills.

He did not talk about AIDS, and when he did, it was not enough. He used to work in Hollywood. His response to the crisis should have been better timed and executed.

As far as great President go, I would have to agree with many of those named. Kennedy is a popular President today, but his time in office was very difficult. Most of his more forward thinking policies were pushed through by Johnson after he was killed. Johnson was kind of a nasty, down in the gutter politician, but he did get the Kennedy stuff through Congress.

Reagan does seem like he was a nice man, a great grandfatherly type of President. He sold hope for America, and people ate it up. His hope for America was wrapped in shiny, greedy, gold paper, but it caught on with the majority.

I was not a fan of his work as President. What I remember is being a kid, and being very nervous that the talk of nuclear holocaust was growing by the day for a couple of years during his Presidency. My mother said at the time it reminded her of how kids in the 1950's had to get under their desks for Atomic Bomb drills.

He did not talk about AIDS, and when he did, it was not enough. He used to work in Hollywood. His response to the crisis should have been better timed and executed.

As far as great President go, I would have to agree with many of those named. Kennedy is a popular President today, but his time in office was very difficult. Most of his more forward thinking policies were pushed through by Johnson after he was killed. Johnson was kind of a nasty, down in the gutter politician, but he did get the Kennedy stuff through Congress.

It was disgusting that he never mentioned AIDS in public. It had to take his Hollywood friend, Rock Hudson, dying to get him to open his mouth.

That's a shame.

Love the book and love the movie. I have it on DVD. I cry everytime I watch it, especially the scene with Swoozie Kurtz and at the end when Elton John's "Last Song" comes on.

Agreed. Glad someone brought that up. I don't cry when I watch it; I get very, very angry.

Oddly enough, it's backfired on them because in the US, gays really aren't the ones contracting HIV at the highest rates anymore (they're actually one of the lowest)- it's straight females who are getting it in high numbers. What's worse is most of them don't get tested and therefore aren't even aware that they have it.

Because he was a religious man born in rural Illinois in 1911 whose best friends were Billy Graham and Pat Boone.

Oh, and he had a lot of self-hate because his son is a ridiculously flaming 'mo.

That about cover it?

Muwahahahah

Agreed. Glad someone brought that up. I don't cry when I watch it; I get very, very angry.

Oddly enough, it's backfired on them because in the US, gays really aren't the ones contracting HIV at the highest rates anymore (they're actually one of the lowest)- it's straight females who are getting it in high numbers. What's worse is most of them don't get tested and therefore aren't even aware that they have it.

Interesting fact. And here some people still think it's the disease sent from God to wipe away gays.

Captain Kirk: We need you to make a decision bones:

RR: Damnit Jim, I'm an actor not a president.