who is your favorite president/leader and why

[hooper1961]

my favorite president is abraham lincoln who kept the union together. it is too bad he was killed because i believe if he had not been shot civil rights would have been achieved much sooner.

winston churchill and president roosevelt are also very high on the list. it is scary of what could have occurred if roosevelt had not set up the lend lease and started the military build up prior to pearl harbor. winston gave the brits the courage and hope they needed.

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[JoB]

hooper 1961

you really need to read some history…

Does it occur to you that all three of the leaders you respect are people who nearly destroyed their countries with war?

Abraham Lincoln was not in favor of civil rights as we understand them today… and slavery wasn’t his primary reason for waging that war.

Both Roosevelt and Lincoln got lucky and won their wars. But it could as easily have turned out very differently.

That isn’t the sound of the angels you hear when you contemplate victory but the sound of the dice rolling on the international crap table… as Bush Jr learned to his chagrin.

he believed the only way to pull the economy out of a collapse was with war… so he waged his “righteous” war with Iraq.

After all.. Daddy got it wrong when he left the “mission” uncompleted.

Is he your hero too?

He sure isn’t mine.

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[hooper1961]

ok and you would have loved to see hitler rule the world!

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[HunterG]

Geez JoB… take it easy!

Sure, he/she may not be all caught up with their history lessons, but is that a reason to rake them over the coals?

Why not educate them instead of berating them? Maybe hooper is a kid doing some lesson for school or something and only happens to have a summarized textbook version.

Anyhoo…kinda harsh.

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[redblack]

it’s gotta be FDR – mainly for his speech about “economic royalists.”

the guy had cojones and was not afraid of corporate power.

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[charlabob]

Remember — world does not just equal western europe and the US. :-)

If I could be encouraged by the three current “nominees” I’d have a lot more hope for the current administration. In my mind they’re known for what finally happened as a result of the choices they made — and for how long it took them (how much equivocation/negotiating with the other parties/etc.)

History is an unforgiving teacher — the more you know, the more you wish you didn’t know (in my case).

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[DP]

Ever notice how some of the leaders we respect the most are the ones who die young? Fate gives them a free pass by snuffing them out in their prime, before they have a chance to ruin their own reputations.

Gandhi and MLK would be my two favorite non-presidential leaders. I admire them for their principled stands on non-violence.

Lincoln was a great leader because he was able to rise to the occasion that History presented him with. However, many people who lived during Lincoln’s time thought him to be too slow on the draw when it came to the issue of emancipating the slaves. Still, he was a visionary and a man among men.

George Washington was not a gifted speaker, like Lincoln, but he was a master strategist who knew how to lead others and could see victory where those around him imagined only defeat. He would almost have certainly lost his wealth or his life had the British won, so you have to admire the guy for taking the risks he did, if nothing else.

Finally, Washington was instrumental in saving the young nation at several moments of crisis. He was the one man who had sufficient stature to rise above party politics and convince others to think of the country before themselves.

We could use another Washington right about now . . .

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[hooper1961]

Gandhi and MLK are excellent choices.

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[JoB]

hooper 1961

Hitler never attacked the United States.

Japan did.

We “won” our war with Japan by dropping 2 atomic bombs on a country already decimated by war.

Chaevez pulled his country back from the brink of poverty and has been legally elected 6 times.

In fact, there are several current South American leaders who have made incredible progress within the past few years… one (whose name escapes me.. this isn’t a good thinking day ) managed to actually pay off his country’s entire IMF debt.

but i am guessing he isn’t the kind of leader you had in mind.

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[JoB]

Hunter G…

no.. i don’t think i was harsh.

The truth is that as a nation we have mythologized the benefits of war…

and that’s not a good thing.

btw.. if hooper 1961 is a kid he has done an amazing job of fabricating the life of a mid life widowed male

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[HunterG]

JoB, I guess that is one of the evils of writing as opposed to speaking, tone is up for interpretation.

And, I guess you’re right…I guess I was being hopeful that he was doing a school project. LOL.

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[DP]

hooper, if you expanded this question a little it might be easier for people to come forward with ideas. Maybe the person doesn’t need to be a president or other leader in the classic sense of the word.

For example, Anne Frank is a person I’ll always look up to, but she died as a teenager and never got the chance to lead anyone, except by example.

Albert Einstein is another person I admire, but he was an eccentric “lone wolf” type of person and could never have given anyone an order. (Ironically, one of the things I like Einstein most for was his refusal to lead; when he was offered the presidency of Israel, he turned it down!)

President Jimmy Carter is another person I respect. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a very good president, and I admire him for most what he did once he was tossed out of office.

I could go on, and probably will, but in the meantime, I hope everyone else on this forum can come up with somebody they admire. And although I’m not the King of the Blog (or the Queen either), I would suggest that this particular thread might be a better place for us to just let others speak, without comment — unless we have a question or want to say something positive.

If someone says: “I think so-and-so was a great leader,” I don’t think it’s really necessary to challenge them, regardless of who they put forward. It’s not that I’m against challenging people’s opinions in principle (God knows!) but this one thread seems like a better place to just let people hold forth, and I hope they will.

And my friend Jimmy hopes so too. Dontcha, Jimmy?

 

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[Carson]

Never a President (maybe his High School class?) but a very good leader. Jason Veritek. The Red Sox would not have won in 2004 with their Leader. As a member of The Red Sox Nation we owe a great bit of thanks to the Mariners for basically giving him away.

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[DP]

OK, so what made Veritek a good leader, do you think?

(I know nothing about baseball.)

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[Carson]

Actually DP, not only a leader but one of the few Captains in the Red Sox team history. He set the tone for what was nicknamed “the dirt dogs”, players that would get dirty and do what it took to win. He also stood up for his team against their arch rival Yankees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlDB8WYzp-c

That video still brings a smile to my face…

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[elikapeka]

I think of Washington as a great leader because by all accounts, he truly did put the country first. There was an effort to make him a king, which he turned down.

Can’t forget Thomas Jefferson.

I don’t know how fair it is to compare Lincoln’s attitudes in the light of today’s standards. He was certainly not an abolitionist. You can see a change in his attitudes over time though, from only opposing the expansion of slavery to then advocating emancipation but relocation to Liberia, and then finally embracing some limited voting rights. His main interest was in preserving the union, not necessarily abolishing slavery.

I think of Roosevelt as a great president more because of the New Deal programs than the prosecution of the war. But that war is one case where I don’t see that the U.S. had any alternative. I don’t think any of us would be happy with the results had the Nazis continued on their way. Roosevelt instituted some programs that would be helpful now, such as the WPA and CCC, regulation of the financial industry, and support for unions. Some big public works projects could really help our economy about now. Veterans of WWII were able to come home and become middle class thanks to the housing and education benefits provided by the V.A. He stood up to monied interests, unlike our current crop of politicians, who are apparently all bought and paid for.

And JFK is one who might belong with that group, but as mentioned earlier, since he died young, we’ll never know how much or how little he would have ultimately accomplished.

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[Gina]

I’m confused. Is this supposed to be a debate? I thought the original poster was asking for opinions about favorite world leaders, not for critiques of choices.

I think Calvin Coolidge was vastly underated.

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[Genesee Hill]

FDR is definitely a favorite. LBJ showed leadership in getting the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act enacted , though I hasten to add Vietnam was a debacle.

Rosa Parks and MLK,Jr were strong leaders as well. They faced some formidable challenges!

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[waterworld]

Noticing, not criticizing, the choices so far, I feel there’s a bit of a western focus and certainly a male orientation. How about adding some of these to the list: Indira Gandhi (longest-serving PM ever, and as strong as any woman I can think of); Margaret Sanger (who stood up for a woman’s right to reproductive freedom); Mother Teresa (who served the poorest of the poor and in the process inspired millions; Aung San Suu Kyi (long-suffering leader of the democracy movement in Burma).

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[DP]

Haw, Carson! I’m glad I asked you about that. This Veritek guy sounds like the second coming of Ty Cobb.

I only know something about Ty Cobb because of Ken Burns, BTW, not because I know anything about Ty Cobb.

I also know something about the Red Sox from Ken Burns. Ahem. Don’t they have a penchant for boo’ing their own players?

(—Not criticizing either.)

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[metrognome]

GenesseeHill — you beat me to nominating LBJ for the same reason; he signed the Civil Rights Act because it was the right thing to do even tho he knew the Democrats would lose the Southern states to the GOP. And you are right about Viet Nam, altho, like Iraq, that was an enormously complicated situation.

And I would nominate Jimmy Carter in the non-president category because of the work he has done since he left office. I don’t remember much about his presidency, so I can’t rate his time in office, but he has done an amazing amount since then, esp. compared with other retired presidents who hit the speaking circuit or the golf course.

Waterworld — nice catch. I’ll have to put my thinking cap on and see if I can add to your list.

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[elikapeka]

Since we’ve expanded from the United States, I’ll add Nelson Mandela. Very few individuals can go from a role of an opposition leader to the leader of a government successfully. He is one of the few that has managed to do it, and still remain humble and grounded.

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[Carson]

DP,

Funny story. I wanted to name my son Tyrus, Ty Cobb’s real name. My ex wife said no. I then asked for Denton, Cy Young’s real first name. She said no. We finally settled on Tyler and all was good. That is until Ken Burns TV show and her best friend watched it and called her and asked her if she knew who Ty Cobb was. My ex said of course, he was the Georgia Peach! Then she found out who he really was…alas, my son is better tempered than the the real Ty Cobb. Veritek was not quite the dirty player Cobb was, tough, but not dirty.

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[hooper1961]

Would the US be in the costly wars now if we had adopted Jimmy Carter’s energy policy. Just a thought.

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[charlabob]

Yup, Veritek it is — he even has effective followers. :-) Thank you, Carson — for conjuring up very pleasant memories.

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