Plan B Forum

Discuss.

Jimmy Carter had an enormously positive effect....

He fucked up so thoroughly and so completely that he made the election of Ronald Reagan possible....

For that, a grateful nation shall be eternally in his debt....

Bush I. He got the Boot for doing what was best for the country instead of what was best for him politically.

The experience in foreign affairs that Bush 41 brought with him to the Presidency definitely served him well in the Presidency. It served him in good stead to provide the leadership needed during the dissolution of the Soviet Empire from 1989-1991.

41 Also built a huge coalition to throw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, waged the war successfully with very few casualties, and brought our ground forces out all within a matter of months.

Gerald Ford, even though he only served two and a half years, also definitely had a positive effect. He came to Office at a time of deep political and economic crisis, and a short while later left office with the integrity of the Presidency restored, and a steadily improving economy.

Even though it almost certainly cost him election in his own right, his pardon of Richard Nixon put behind us an episode that otherwise would have pre-occupied the country for years, and enabled the nation and its leaders to focus on the real problems we faced. While reviled for it at the time, years later the pardon came to be recognized by folks across the political spectrum as an act of genuine political courage, for which Mr. Ford was lauded.

Obama

Lord Jim wrote:Jimmy Carter had an enormously positive effect....

He fucked up so thoroughly and so completely that he made the election of Ronald Reagan possible....

For that, a grateful nation shall be eternally in his debt....

Indeed

I've already discussed Carter's positive legacy, and I agree Bush I had some too. Add to that list LBJ, who left an enviable civil rights record, even if he also left behind the mess of Vietnam (among other things) (note--he did serve a bit more than one term, but since he was able to run again, he was hardly a two term president).

Carter's record:

Camp David. Which has been the basis for peace between Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia for > 30 years.


Broke the back of OPEC by deregulating oil and thus reduced our negative balance of trade. Ushered in > 20 years of cheap oil (a mixed blessing. Lower fuel costs drove the demand for SUVs).


Broke the back of the spiking high inflation left over from the Nixon era by appointing Paul Volcker to the Fed (Who Allen Greenspan credits with being more couragous than he would have been). Wiping out the spiking high inflation was the most important driver for the 80s expansion.


Held spending down and had lower deficits than the two Republicans before him and the two after. Only Clinton was better at keeping the lid on spending.

yrs,
rubato

Probably the most successful one term President of all time was James K. Polk.

He set four goals for his Administration, accomplished all four, and then went home after one term without running for re-election. (The first President to do so.)

When he took office on March 4, 1845, Polk, at 49, became the youngest man at the time to assume the presidency. According to a story told decades later by George Bancroft, Polk set four clearly defined goals for his administration:

Reestablish the Independent Treasury System.
Reduce tariffs.
Acquire some or all of Oregon Country.
Acquire California and New Mexico from Mexico.

Pledged to serve only one term, he accomplished all these objectives in just four years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Polk

Big RR wrote:I've already discussed Carter's positive legacy, and I agree Bush I had some too. Add to that list LBJ, who left an enviable civil rights record, even if he also left behind the mess of Vietnam (among other things) (note--he did serve a bit more than one term, but since he was able to run again, he was hardly a two term president).

LBJs record is a lot better than I gave him credit for back in the 1970s when I started voting. I think his mistake on Vietnam tended to overshadow really extraordinary achievements in civil rights, the war on poverty, and the expansion of SS and medicare/medicaid. It was due to him that poverty among the elderly and disabled went down so much in the decades after him.





yrs,
rubato

I thought about Polk for the reasons Jim stated, but the fallout of what he achieved was the reopening of the slavery question in the territories and thus a key driver in propelling the country into the Civil War.

Having served only six weeks into his second term, Abraham Lincoln was for all intents and purposes a one term president. The outcome of the Civil War, and therefore his primary legacy, was assured by the end of his first term. Had he not died he would probably have had to wear much of the failure of Reconstruction, as his successor did, and that would have tainted his legacy somewhat.

Don't forget JFK: started the program which put Americans on the moon, an achievement which still has not been equaled by any other nation (or any other POTUS, sadly).

Oh yeah...and I think he had some sort of positive effect on the US tax system.

Funny, I usually don't think of Lincoln as a one-term President....but Scooter is right (and it would be unfair to play "what if" and tar him with the failure of his successor), so Lincoln definitely gets my vote as the best one-term President.

Wow, Lincoln. What can you say about a president who saved us from ourselves by costing us more in blood than any other event in our history, giving your own children to death, and then being so hated that you are murdered for it. 150 years later Republican politicians were honoring his sacrifice by sucking ass to Southern revisionist groups who said that fighting for slavery was a 'noble cause' and being excused for it.

How undignified can you be?





yrs,
rubato