Well, I'm not trying to justify his position; I'm just acknowledging that the spirit of revanchism was very strong in France. After the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War they were in it for revenge; the First World War was really half a century's worth of tensions between the European powers coming to a head.
Aside from Jefferson (who I'd put around #10) and Reagan (who I'd put around #20) I agree with their top 8. Also, no way should Carter be any higher than at least #20 - I wouldn't rate him in the top 50% of presidents. Nixon I'd bump up to around #18 - he was a paranoid crook, but he actually wasn't that bad of a president.
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - SilaswProbably in that order, too. That was an easy list to rate.
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffI never got that joke. If they wanted somebody who we'd have no idea who he was, why did they pick one of the most famous PMs?
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffOh.
I guess that makes sense, then.
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffNow I'm just slightly ashamed. I don't know the first thing about any Belgian Prime Minister.
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffI do love how asymmetric people are about willingness to forgive crisis power use in politicians.
Rank Wilson/FDR/Lincoln High! they governed through rough times and did what they thought was needed to save the country!
Wilson/FDR/Lincoln/Bush2? He killed the constitution!
Obligatory self promotion: http://unemployedacademic.tumblr.com/I agree, but Devil's advocating, what about 9/11?
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffNew war on terrorism etc.
I'm not arguing about policy specifics but about people being willing to forgive cutting corners or acting unconstitutional during trials. You could argue that Bush over-estimated the threats faced by the US due to international terrorism immediately after 9/11, though I submit that in each case you could make similar arguments. Did FDR over-react or act in the wrong way in dealing with economic problems? what about the war time rationing? Wilson did similar and released a ton of propaganda, Lincoln revoked habeus corpus without authority and did some suppression of freedom of speech.
You can claim Bush caused the current economic crisis and if that and some other policy blunders are the sole reason for wanting him ranked so low that's fine. Personally I believe foreign policy is hard to judge on. One of the things I've learned in my brief study of IR and US National Security this semester is how often everyone gets things wrong, foreign policy seems to be a battle of screwing up the least.
I would also point out that the US as world police thing is far from a creation of Bush's though he did escalate it unfortunately.
Obligatory self promotion: http://unemployedacademic.tumblr.com/

Oh yeah, Cleveland would be in the bottom five of my list. He was horrible.