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AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#174801: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:22:48 PM

The comments on that article are certainly made by people with an IQ lower than the room temperature of a Siberian Gulag.

Inter arma enim silent leges
Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#174802: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:25:39 PM

I find it telling that Dubya is above, and flanked, largely by Antebellum, Reconstruction, and Depression era presidents (plus Arthur, who apparently was just a non-entity).

edited 17th Feb '17 1:31:14 PM by Eschaton

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#174803: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:29:34 PM

Can I have a link to the actual rankings? I can't seem to find it.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:29:44 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#174804: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:31:12 PM

I'm not really surprised a lot of people don't like that Obama is so highly rated; I've seen a lot of Republican idiots say "OBAMA WAS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER" while apparently ignoring how he left the country with a thriving economy, with no massive military presence in the Middle-East and with good international relations with nearly major military power (except Russia for obvious reasons)...then Trump came along and yet they say he's the "best president ever!"

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#174806: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:33:00 PM

[up][up] Last I checked Obama was above average, not spectacular, but a reasonably good President.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:34:48 PM by CaptainCapsase

theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#174807: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:33:41 PM

He's still higher than 23 other presidents...and I bet Trump will be substantially lower than him in four years.

If he even makes it that far.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#174808: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:34:14 PM

[up][up][up] Thanks.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:34:29 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#174809: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:34:47 PM

Republicans have not just chosen evil over country, they've chosen the LAW Faction specific type of evil over country.

They want a theocracy where thinking for yourself is forbidden, where progress is a banned, evil word, where the highest accomplishment you can have for yourself any given day is praying to YHVH. Where wisdom and knowledge are deemed tools of Demons, for High Priest Klingenschmitt to "dispose of" by lethal exorcism.

They want a world where everything revolves around Republicanism and their interpretation of religion. Where poor people are happy to just exist in service to their betters. Everything is static. The world is silent.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#174810: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:37:14 PM

Why is Kennedy so high? I never got the impression he was all that great. I also don't like the fact that Reagan is so high. He's to blame for a lot of the bullshit we're dealing with.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#174811: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:37:35 PM

They'll quickly find that the world will leave them behind, even Putin and the Chinese government aren't stagnating their own people like that.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#174812: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:39:16 PM

Obama, as a person, is one of the best president's the US has ever had. And he's up there with Kennedy in terms of cult of personality. Among all 45 presidents, he's above average, though if we only count the modern ones, I'd say he's middling (partly due to his inability to gladhand, partly his cautiousness, and partly Congress).

smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#174813: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:40:34 PM

I take personal offense to Reagan's place on that list. The bastard committed genocide against people like me through his inaction.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#174814: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:41:57 PM

[up] And Obama committed his own share of atrocities. Literally every POTUS would be tried and a fair number of them hanged if we actually held ourselves to the same standards we held German and Japanese war criminals to at the end of World War 2.

To take and hold power on a global scale, you must be on some level a monster. That's not pleasant but it's a seemingly inescapable part of human civilization.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:43:08 PM by CaptainCapsase

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#174815: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:44:59 PM

Did Reagan need to completely disregard LGBT+ people (and I presume that's who Smokey is referring to) to hold power, though? It seems more likely that he just couldn't be bothered to give a damn about them.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:45:46 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#174816: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:45:02 PM

There's a hell of a difference between leading a country in a war and refusing to help people in your own country who were dying in the streets just because of who we love.

CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#174817: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:46:48 PM

The Chief has his priorities straight: Trump: Melania has been ‘unfairly maligned’ by media

Trump said his wife’s main focus as first lady would be “women’s issues, women’s difficulties” and noted that she had recently reopened the White House Visitor Center.
He then launched into a lengthy, impassioned defense of her career and character.
“I think she’s a great representative for this country, and a funny thing happens, because she gets so unfairly maligned — the things they say,” Trump said.

“I’ve known her for a long time. She was a very successful person — she was a very successful model; she did really well. She would go home at night and didn’t even want to go out with people; she was a very private person. She was always the highest quality that you’ll ever find, and the things they say — and I’ve known her for a long time — the things they say are so unfair, and actually, she’s been apologized to, as you know, by various media, because they said things that were lies.”
Same news source as the last, but I point it out because the comments are much better.
And I must believe (part of) that last paragraph. I know she's focused on success  because the very first page that went up on the Trump White House site was an advert for one of Ms. Trump's product lines (jewelry I think).

edited 17th Feb '17 1:47:24 PM by CenturyEye

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#174818: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:47:26 PM

I'd say putting Obama in the ballpark of LBJ/Wilson/Monroe/Polk/Clinton seems fair to me. There's a pretty decent respect for those figures despite a mixed-bag of accomplishments. Though the article on the previous page talking about the survey noted that Wilson's place has fallen due to the focus on his civil rights record since 2000.

Going over some of the other notable movements:

  • Eisenhower has risen to 5th from 8/9th, maybe due to his comparison to current Republican extremism?
  • Clinton rose from 21st to 15th in 2009 and stayed there, probably due to putting more distance from his presidency + Bush.
  • Andrew Jackson has fallen from 13th to 18th, probably due to a similar shifting of focus like Wilson.
  • Bush rose from 36 to 33, but with the exception of William Henry Harrison who rose one rank (!?), every president below Bush fell in rank or stayed the same.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:53:44 PM by Eschaton

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#174819: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:49:28 PM

@Karkat: His voters certainly wouldn't have liked it if he'd made a big show of it; elected officials largely concern themselves with people who "matter", and those who the in-group care about.

@Smokey: Moving goalposts on the definition of civilian casualties to make yourself look better than the Bush administration in terms of the Wanton slaughter being inflicted on people in our traditional stomping grounds who hold a negative opinion of the United States certainly doesn't reflect well on him. His administration wasn't extraordinarily bloodly like that of Nixon or the first phase of the Bush administration, but neither was it particularly dovish.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:51:27 PM by CaptainCapsase

vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#174820: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:50:31 PM

The difference is in how you judge the amount of lives lost and how much value you put in them. To be honest.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#174821: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:53:00 PM

[up][up] True enough. But I'll be honest, sometimes I feel that if staying in power requires that, then that power should not be held.

Also, I think you're being rather callous, considering what Smokey is talking about.

Oh God! Natural light!
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#174822: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:53:10 PM

Honestly, poor Harrison shouldn't even be on that list. He spent his entire tenure giving one speech and then dying in bed.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#174823: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:54:08 PM

Eh, he held the office, and he's on the records - he still counts.

I mean, it's not like any of the others would be regarded as any better or worse if he wasn't on it - the exact numbers are relative.

edited 17th Feb '17 1:55:29 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#174824: Feb 17th 2017 at 1:54:34 PM

I'm not talking about Obama, I'm talking about Reagan. Reagan committed genocide, and I'm sick and tired of people sweeping that under the rug.

vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009

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