"Wilson was the first Socialist president."
Is it just me or can anyone left of Generalissimo Franco be branded a socialist in the USA these days?

Franco was a socialist.

He was a socialist. End of story. Next up: Warren Harding

I do believe it was Thomas Jefferson who actually the first to break the Constitution with Louisiana Purchase. There were several presidents before Wilson that abused the Constitution, (*cough* Lincoln Habeas corpus *cough*) There was much debating about loose and strict interpetations of the Constitution beofre Wilson even got to office.

I'm not quite sure how Wilson had any fundmental impact of the going off gold. Even before WWI the US had a plurality on the gold reserves of the entire world which only got bigger with the Allies borrowing from America during WWI. Then we actually left the gold standard, it was the Bretton Woods system which was convertibility of the US$ to gold, in 1944. It was then Nixon in 1971 that abandoned Bretton Woods for the US$ to become a fiat currency.

During a time of war, hardly any nation is above irrational fear during times of war even my homeland put thousands of Boers in camps in the Boer War

I always thought it was Henry Cabot Lodge itching for war wanting to brin gthe USA into WWI in 1914 and it was Wilson that kept America out of 3 years (admittedly, not the best idea)

“I am an advocate of peace,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falange_Española_Tradicionalista_y_de_las_Juntas_de_Ofensiva_Nacional-Sindicalista

Warren Harding, (1921-1923), was one of the most corrupt presidents in American history (except Obama and Roosevelt). He paid off his friends with top government positions (Ohio Gang). These people eventually took advantage of him, leading to the Tea Pot Dome scandal. However, Harding's economy policies were quite good, as he was a strict capitalist, and didn't intervene in buisness. The result was an economic boom. His foreign policy was isolationist, like most presidents of the time.

I'm going to say he was a below average president.

Just as a disclaimer my previous post was sarcastic

I can already tell the rest of Sbyvl36's assessments are going to be full of shit.

airborne: You're right about Jefferson and Lincoln. Regarding the federal reserve, Wilson started us on the road to end the gold standard, which Roosevelt completed. Wilson sent arms to England in violation of our neutrality.

Franklin D Roosevelt - best president or best president?

Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
The most conservative and pro-capitalist president of the 20th century. He cut spending and drastically lowered taxes. Unemployement dropped to 3%, and the economic boom continued. He also maintained an isolationist foreign policy, allowing us to focus on enjoying life. He also ended the corruption of the Harding administration. He never violated the constitution, and didn't expand the federal government at all.

I have to say Coolidge was a great president.

SYnapse: Wait until I evaluate Roosevelt. You will see why he was terrible.

Now we will review Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). Everything was fine until October 29, 1929. That was the day the stock market collapsed. Now the capitalist way to solve the problem (The tried and true method, see Panic of 1893) would be to lower taxes and cut spending. However, Hoover did the opposite. He had a drastic increase in taxes (Revenue Act), to 63 percent on the top bracket. Not to mention deficit spending. Hoover thought that raising taxes and increased spending would pull us out of the recession. However, it didn't, and we slid into the Great Depression. So its no wonder that FDR, who campaigned to THE RIGHT OF HOOVER beat him on 42 out of 48 states.

Redhouse, redhouse, why you do this to us. These "threads" are supposed to be a one-man show.

This will be my last post until 11:45. You guys will have some time to debate my evaluations. However, I will take on the task of explaining why Roosevelt (1933-1945) was a terrible president. Beginning with the Depression.

The Great Depression actually was over by 1934, but as soon as the New Deal kicked in, we went into what was called the Roosevelt Recession. (These are known facts, just find the GDP growth, or lack therof, during this time.). The New Deal was such a failure that Roosevelt's only secretary of the Treasury rejected it. ( www.humanevents.com/2011/08/23/does-obama-have-any-idea-why-new-deal-failed). This article deals with the depression aspect of his administration.

Going into WWII. Roosevelt knew about the threat to Pearl Harbor ahead of time, but chose to do nothing about it. However, after the attack, Roosevelt put ethnic Japanese in concentration camps, just because of their ancestry (This is the same standard that Hitler used, so it is fair to say that Roosevelt was either Communist or Fascist, though I'm not too sure which).

Also, it seemed he wanted to be a dictator, as he ran four times, removed Supreme Court justices who questioned the consititionality of his programs, and that he was essentially a Hitler prototype.

"so it is fair to say that Roosevelt was either Communist or Fascisct"

I lold

Best President ever, according to these arbitrary criteria: William Henry Harrison. He gave a speech, died, and never expanded the federal government or violated the Constitution.

@2wl: I like the argument that since WHH didn't have time to fuck anything up, then he's the best (i.e. least bad).

But my favorite has always been Polk. Manifest Destiny bitches! He said from the beginning that he would only serve one term. He had one goal and that was to expand the US from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and BAM!! muthafuka did it!

And if any of you west coast bitches start whining about the natives who were displaced, just remember where you'd be whining from if not for Polk ... that's right St Louis - that was our "West" before Polk.

And if any of you ferners start whining about the Natives I say this to you: "yeah, you have a point there, early Americans were quite the bastards to the native tribes. but uhhh .. you know, different times and stuff, and well, we like our Pacific view now, and ummm we let them build casinos ... so ...?"

The progessives were a tiny bit more than 100 years ago. But they were the greatest presidents of all time.

Woodrow WIlson is my favorite president.

Come at me bro

Polk was definitely one of the greatest.
And Coolidge is a personal favorite.

Wilson was horrible.

James K. Polk is our most overrated president, being the first American president to wage a war of conquest against another nation and to conquer territory to which the United States had no legitimate or reasonable right.

Woodrow Wilson is also a much-overrated president, perhaps the most overrated. Terribly racist, even for the time, he created a cabinet which expanded segregationist policies and established segregation in a variety of federal departments, including some which had been free from such policies since the Civil War. He also obviously blundered us into WWI and screwed up the peace. His WWI behavior was atrocious and he seems to have been not terribly fond of democracy.

I don't mean to make personal attacks, Sbyvl, but this thread is dumb and you're generally wrong. I mean, FDR as a Hitler "prototype" is barely even wrong, as if you don't quite know what most of the words really mean. There are a million legitimate criticisms of FDR (like his interment of the Japanese, which you do note), but instead you go directly into silly.

The fact that he did the same thing as Hitler, though on a lesser scale, makes him a mini Hitler. Nothing silly here. Next is Harry Truman.

@ sbyvl - are you familiar with Godwin's Law?
"For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress." - from Wikipedia

philcore, not only did Polk take the Oregon Territory from the British, he said "Fuck you Mexico, I want that land" and proceeded to take even more land! Now there's a President that modern day conservative morons like Sbyvl can get behind! 54-40 or fight!

Harry Truman (1945-53). He signed Executive Order 9981, ending millitary segregation. Though that was kinda good, he essentially made a law by himself, which is Congress' job. Not to mention he didn't understand Capitalism at all. There was a post war recession, and if he did understand the free market he would have cut taxes and lowered spending. But instead he came out with his "Fair Deal", another huge government package, which slowed economic growth.

Overall, Truman was a below average president.

Godwins Law doesn't apply to everything. I was making a legitimate claim, which you obviously can't counter.

"The fact that he did the same thing as Hitler, though on a lesser scale, makes him a mini Hitler. Nothing silly here."

Assuming you're referring to the Holocaust, I'm just curious how many Japanese that FDR gassed in the internment camps. Does "a lesser scale" than Hitler imply he only gassed, say, 100,000 Japanese?

I'm saying that he interred people using the same standard the Germans used. We don't even know how many died, because the numbers have never been released