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Some on these boards will enjoy the selection that was picked for the 10th best

Top Rated President

Cappster wrote:Some on these boards will enjoy the selection that was picked for the 10th best

Top Rated President

W the 10th best?

Hmmm....who ranked the presidents? And how were the "selectors" selected?

If this is the voice of a cross-section of Americans, isn't that a bit like asking "Which presidents do you respect out of the dozen (at most) that you remember or have heard about?"? [Note to FIOS: how about that punctuation? It seems logical, but weird ]

Imagining that I never faced the formidable Mrs Smith at Mount Rainer Junior High, or the merciless Miss Rowe at Northwestern, here's my guess at how Bush the Younger made Number 10:

Respondant thinking

Well, there's George Washington, he founded the country, and Thomas Jefferson did something important because he's on a coin, and the Lincoln Memorial is famous, so that's one, two and three. There's a President Roosevelt on Mt Rushmore...I saw that in the Nicholas Cage movie...but there are two Roosevelts...OK, flip a coin...

Everyone knows John F Kennedy was great, and Jackie O was glamorous, so that's five. Like they say on CNN, a president has to bring glamor to the White House.

I remember Reagan, and he stood up to the Russians, so he's six, although why he bothered with the Russians and ignored the Iraqis is a puzzle...but, anyway, he said "Mr Putin tear down your wall" and Putin did, so that shows Reagan was tough. Clinton was cool, so he's seven. Truman said "Let the buck stop here", which is courageous for a president, so he's eight...unlesss he meant "let all the bucks stop here because I want to get rich". Lyndon Johnson brought the Beatles to America, so he's nine.

That leaves Nixon and Bush, but Nixon did something wrong, so Bush has to be in 10th, and last, place. The rest are too old. It's like picking somebody for the NFL Hall of Fame unless they did something that they show on NFL Films in slow motion, when the announcer with the powerful voice talks...slowly...and poetically

Does that seem like the logic?

On the other hand, a survey of about 100 American History professors ranked GW Bush tied for last with Buchanan. How they picked the 100 selectors I don't know, but I remember that the historians charged Buchanan with having done nothing to head off the Civil War, aside from appointing Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War. From that office, Davis stored US Army weapons in minimally guarded armories in the South. (A charge that was often made, especially by Union Army officers with Democratic Party sympathies who felt betrayed...I don't know if it was true...just know that John F Reynolds thought so...he's the general who led the Union Army advance into Gettysburg, quickly spotted the high ground, seized it, attacked, and forced the battle.)

If historians rate Bush down in the hole with Buchanan, that's way, way down!

Maybe they only got 10 to choose from - then W came in last - appropriate don't you think!

Maybe they only got 10 to choose from - then W came in last - appropriate don't you think!

Convinces me!

NC43Hog wrote:Maybe they only got 10 to choose from - then W came in last - appropriate don't you think!

In a way they probably did. How many Americans can name more then 10 former Presidents? Of the 10 the typical American could name, they would be dominated by recent Presidents and the biggest names in history, like Lincoln, Washington and FDR. In other words, pretty much exactly the top 10 list they named.

Just as big a farce is Clinton making the list. What they probably did was only measure "positive" responses of current Americans. From that standpoint and people's horrible knowledge of history enough liberals will pick Slick and Conservatives will pick W to be near the top of any list.

You can see that they didn't even let people choose any president (aside from the 'big name' ones) before 1900!

Yeah, I think this lits says more about the 'average American' than it does who the great presidents were. I like welch's analysis!

Were there any popular ones that you guys didn't shoot?

And why isn't Tony Blair on the list?

Irn-Bru wrote:You can see that they didn't even let people choose any president (aside from the 'big name' ones) before 1900!

Yeah, I think this lits says more about the 'average American' than it does who the great presidents were. I like welch's analysis!

I don't know, even in his mocking analysis he far exceeded the historical knowledge of the typical American. I'd bet money less then half the country could name 10 Presidents, much less even know enough to say the things he thought "wrong."

welch wrote:Hmmm....who ranked the presidents? And how were the "selectors" selected?

If this is the voice of a cross-section of Americans, isn't that a bit like asking "Which presidents do you respect out of the dozen (at most) that you remember or have heard about?"? [Note to FIOS: how about that punctuation? It seems logical, but weird ]

Aye, 'tis correct

I'm sure that would be repeated over here too - I doubt that 10% of the UK population could name 10 Prime Ministers without looking them up. And a vote on the greatest of them all would probably return Blair, Brown(!), Thatcher, Major(!), Callaghan(!!), Heath, Wilson, MacMillan and obviously Churchill. A few would come up with Lloyd George, Chamberlain, Attlee, Walpole, Pitt, and Pitt, fewer still would come up with Disraeli, and quite a few would probably come up with Abraham Lincoln.

quite a few would probably come up with Abraham Lincoln.

I had forgotten that y'all were part of the Confederacy! Those were the days, what?

Countertrey wrote:

quite a few would probably come up with Abraham Lincoln.

I had forgotten that y'all were part of the Confederacy! Those were the days, what?

Oh happy days. A quick trip to the former colonies before popping back home to sink a French battleship or two.

For the record, Lincoln is alive:

http://www.bobanddavid.com/2008/02/look ... .html#more

P.S. Bob Odenkirk is a comedic genius

UK Skins Fan wrote:and quite a few would probably come up with Abraham Lincoln.

To be fair, your government is confusing the hell out of them. I've seen Lincoln's statue in Parliament Square.

Irn-Bru wrote:

UK Skins Fan wrote:and quite a few would probably come up with Abraham Lincoln.

To be fair, your government is confusing the hell out of them. I've seen Lincoln's statue in Parliament Square.

And now they want a statue of Nelson Mandela. I don't get it.

Thomas Jefferson is my favorite LOL

Were there any popular ones that you guys didn't shoot?

Nobody shot William Henry Harrison. He was smash-o popular until the inauguration. Took sick and died a month later, but I doubt many people had enough time to think up a real grumble about him.

By the way, Pitt I, Walpole, and maybe a dozen others were our prime ministers, too. So why can't you borrow Abe Lincoln?

UK Skins Fan wrote:Were there any popular ones that you guys didn't shoot?

Do you guys still celebrate July 3rd - Dependence Day?

DarthMonk