Huck's got the Evangelicals, Romney's got the Others

Interesting thing about this chart is how Mike Huckabee fares. Among Evangelicals and Catholics he seems to be the way to go, but with mainline Christians, his support drops, and when you get to "Other/None", he's way back. And it's more evidence that whoever likes Huckabee, Romney is not their #2 choice and vice versa.

InTrade Watch on GOP 2012 Nominee

InTrade's changed their look.

1. (1) Mitt Romney - 24.6%
2. (4) Tim Pawlenty - 18.1%
3. (2) Mitch Daniels - 10.2%
4. (3) Sarah Palin - 6.2%
5. (5) Mike Huckabee - 6%
6. (7) Newt Gingrich - 5.7%
7. (10) Michelle Bachmann - 4.3%
8. (9) Haley Barbour - 4.2%
9. (6) Jon Huntsman - 4%
10. (-) Chris Christie - 2.8%

Rising: Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, Chris Christie
Falling: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Jon Huntsman, John Thune (8)

Thune officially declared he wouldn't run for president, so he's dropped off. Christie has said repeatedly he won't run, but he still lands in the top ten with many a conservative hoping the New Jersey governor will change his mind.

There seem to be three camps right now. Camp #1 is for Mitt. Safe, front-runner, he's been vetted, he's good on the economy. Camp #2 is for the anti-Mitt, looking for someone with more charisma but still decent credentials, and right now their hopes seem to be with Tim Pawlenty. Camp #3 is the Tea Party, and as Palin's stock falls, Bachmann's rises.

Mike Lee shuns a white supremicist

Senator Mike Lee (Utah). Of all the senators I lobbied, Senator Lee’s reaction was the most disappointing. He had just finished an interview with a reporter. He was standing with his wife and two children when I approached. As you may know, this man comes to the Senate with the most expectations from both the tea party activists and anti-immigration activists alike. Publicly he has proposed some positive things. I said to the newly sworn-in Senator: “I just want to say that I am pleased that Mormons like you have large, white families. The white race is dying out and the Mormons are helping to stop that.” Both he and his wife turned red-faced and looked at me like I was a freak. He said: “Nice to meet you. Good day.” That was it.

-- A quote from Bill Johnson of American3p.org, which "exists to represent the political interests of White Americans."

Conservatives not enthused about the GOP field?

George Will and Kathleen Parker have their issues, and I can't say I disagree much with either of them.

I'm still open to most of them, but I've made up my mind on three. No to Huckabee, no to Gingrich, no to Palin.

Ranking the Presidents #1

GEORGE WASHINGTON - 1789-1797

The Father of our country was one of the chief Founding Fathers, one of the chief revolutonaries, the chief military strategist and leader, and the only guy all the other Founders could agree on as a leader. He set the precedents and the example.

He disliked political parties and never joined one, but he tended to side with the Hamilton/Adams Federalists over the Jefferson/Madison Republicans. He declared the US neutral when Britain and France got into war, much to the chagrin of the French.

He knew he was setting the tone for a new nation and did his best to emulate the ideal. He at first refused to take a salary of $25,000, but only did so when Congress convinced him that otherwise he'd set a precedent that only wealthy Americans could aspire to the office. An Anglican and Freemason, he was an advocate for religious freedom and tolerance. He set up the positions of a Cabinet and was a good judge of character for which men to select for the offices.

Our 1st President was probably the most honorable man to ever hold the office, and any person who seeks to hold it in the future really needs to study him and follow the example.

Ranking the Presidents #2

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (R) - 1861-1865

The 16th President swooped in just in time. A series of bad presidents had left the US in a fractured state, and animosity had grown so extensively between the North and South that Lincoln's mere election sparked the South to secede. Elected but not yet in office, Lincoln tried to work with Buchanan for a bipartisan solution, but Buchanan had essentially given up.

Lincoln won the free states, but the other states were split between Deomcrat Stephen Douglas, Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell of the Constituion Union party. Lincoln had just under 40% of the popular vote. Seven states seceded before he took office, and three more joined just weeks afterwards.

Some presidents abuse their powers and it blows up in their face. Lincoln did so, and history acquits him every step of the way. He suspended habeus corpus for thousands of Confederate suspects. As he moved forward, he had to battle those within the Union that either wanted him to compromise on slavery or move more quickly to abolish it. He had to grieve on his own over the death of his 11-year-old son in 1862.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a turning point for the war and the country. Before then, he felt the Constitution limited his ability to end slavery, but in the end, he proclaimed it, and then fought the rest of his presidency to pass the 13th Amendment. He also had to go through a few generals before he found one he felt could win the war - U.S. Grant.

Lincoln's philosophies on Constitutional power and adhering to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence would shape the nation. He wound up being a martyr for his cause, assassinated less than a week after Gen. Lee surrendered and ended the Civil War.

Ranking the Presidents #3

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (D) - 1933-1945

First, some trivia. While Franklin was Theodore's fifth cousin, Eleanor was actually Theodore's niece.

If the 32nd President had followed the Washington tradition of only serving two terms, I believe he would have gone down as a mediocre president. Despite all the government policies he put in with the New Deal, America had been in a Depression for a decade at the end of his second term.

When he first entered office, America had 25% unemployment. Congress was willing to give him a chance and he rolled out his New Deal, which included institutions like the FDIC. He increased regulations under the Federal Trade Commission, created Social Security, and claimed all privately held gold as property of the US Treasury. He repealed Prohibition. He implemented wage and prices controls (which were later overturned). He increased taxes, as high as 91% for the top earners. He tried to put a 100% tax on all salaries over $25,000 (about $337,000 today) but Congress stopped him.

Roosevelt did his best publicly to keep the US out of war, but he made secret negotiations with France and Britain on how he could still help them. After France fell to Germany, public opionion on neutrality shifted. By this time, Roosevelt had announced he was breaking with tradition and running for a third term. Even as he campaigned to do what he could to keep American out of war, he greatly increased military funding.

In 1941, as Japan occupied Indo-China, FDR stopped all oil exports to Japan, which crippled Japan. He opened up negotiations shortly thereafter, and oil exports were allowed to continue even as both sides were secretly preparing for the war with the other. Then Pearl Harbor happened. Four days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

FDR worked with Churchill and Stalin constantly to hammer out victory strategies, and while it was obvious the Allies weren't going to lose, FDR died on April 12, 1945, just weeks before V-E Day.

He had his weaknesses. He had affairs and even had his daughter help arrange meetings with his mistress. His biggest stain was caving to anti-Japanese paranoia when he ordered over 100,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. But ultimately, in the most important World War of the century, his legacy is sealed that he was on the right side and came out on top.

Ranking the Presidents #4

THOMAS JEFFERSON (DR) - 1801-1809

Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the country's first Secretary of State. But becoming the 3rd President wasn't easy. The election of 1800 ended with an electoral tie between him and Aaron Burr. His ideological enemy Alexander Hamilton urged his colleagues to support Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. Burr became Jefferson's vice-president, but after Burr killed Hamilton in a duel, Jefferson kicked him off the ticket.

Jefferson doubled the size of the US with the Louisiana Purchase (illegal under the Consititution by his own principles) and was big on western exploration, but he was also a supporter of states' rights and limited government. He repealed the Alien & Sedition Acts passed under Adams and pardoned those in jail. He avoided public speaking and submitted his legislative requests to Congress in writing.

Jefferson was against slavery in theory but owned hundreds himself over his lifetime. Afer his wife died, Jefferson had a decades-long affair with Sally Hemings, a slave but 3/4 white, and under Virginia law, their children were white. It is only recently that the question of their affair was settled with DNA tests, as at the time the cover story was she'd had the children via Jefferson'a nephew Peter Carr. Jefferson did fight against the international slave trade and signed a bill making it illegal.

Increased tensions between Britain and France grew during Jefferson's final years in office, and he left it to the next president to deal with the fall-out that resulted in the War of 1812.

While Hamilton and Jefferson differed greatly, history shows that Hamilton's views were just as valid, as Jefferson had to make some solidly Hamiltonian decisions for the good of the country.

Ranking the Presidents #5

THEODORE S. ROOSEVELT (R) - 1901-1909

When Pres. McKinley was assassinated, the 26th President became the youngest president, at age 42, to ever hold the office. He vowed to keep McKinley's policies in place, but he did so in a more robust way. He was the first president since Lincoln to truly push and test the boundaries and limits of the bully pulpit.

Roosevelt was a capitalist who saw the growing monopolies and corporations as something that needed to reigned in. He felt he needed to save Big Business from itself. He cracked down on misleading labelling for meat and drugs, and tended to side with labor more than management in strikes and disputes. He viewed his progressivism as a way of preventing socialism from catching on.

He asserted him in foreign affairs as well. When Colombia rejected his proposal for the Panama Canal, no sooner had Panama (a Colombian province) revolted, TR recognized it immediately as an independent country. Panama then let the US build their canal. TR won a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations in ending Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

Roosevelt had pledged not to run for re-election in 1908, but Taft's following presidency made him regret that pledge. He ran again in 1912 on the third-party "Bull Moose" ticket and came in second, Taft third, Wilson first.

Incidentally, he never cared for the nickname "Teddy."

Ranking the Presidents #6

HARRY S TRUMAN (D) - 1945-1953

The 33rd President rivalled only Lincoln on how tough his first day on the job must've been. FDR, who'd been US president longer than any other, was dead. World War II was still happening. Germany was close to surrendering, but the Japanese still raged on in the Pacific. He didn't know about the existence of the atomic bomb until he took office, and he made the tough decision to drop two on Japan.

The world was reshaped on his watch. The United Nations was created, and the peace of the new world was carved out under the Marshall Plan. Truman wasn't the soft-spoken diplomat FDR could be, and he didn't care for Stalin. Between those two, the Cold War began, and Truman made it his mission to contain the spread of Communism. Influenced by Jewish lobbyists and the six million Jews Hitler killed, Truman helped carve out a place for and recognize the state of Israel.

The US's economy was in flux after World War II. There were labor strikes and food shortages. Communist paranoia ramped up. Truman dealt with a nationwide railway strike by threatening to draft the workers into the armed forces. He got his way but angered many laborers. He barely won re-election for a second term.

When North Korea invaded South Korea, Truman petitioned the UN to intervene, and he put Gen. Douglas MacArthur in charge of US troops. After a disagreement with him over China, Truman fired MacArthur. Between that and the lack of progress in Korea, Truman's shaky popularity plummeted. When it looked like Truman would not be able to capture the Democratic nomination, he cancelled his plans for running for a third term.

Truman left office one of the least popular presidents in history. Hindsight has shown he was right in most of his decisions, and his reputation's been quickly restored.

Ranking the Presidents #7

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (R) - 1953-1961

The military hero of World War II wasn't the first general to become president, and being a general hasn't ever been a good indication of how effective a president one can be (see Washington, George or Grant, Ulysses for varied results).

It was his foreign policy where he left his mark. The Cold War 1950's could have easily escalated into World War III, and Ike was determined to make it not so. He ended "Truman's War" in Korea and found Russia easier to deal with once Stalin died in 1953. He suffered a little embarrassment over the U2 incident but refused to apologize for it. He also, as a general, was suited to warn the nation about the military-industrial complex.

Domestically, the 34th President's biggest accomplishment was the interstate highway system. He also had escalating racial issues to deal with. Brown v. the Board of Education happened on his watch, and his own civil rights legislation was the first successful reform since Grant.

He was also the first President affected by the term limits of the 22nd Amendment, though he likely wouldn't have run for a third term. He had a heart attack during his second term and later died of another heart attack in 1969.

Ranking the Presidents #8

JAMES MONROE (DR) - 1817-1825

So good at his job was Monroe that no one ran against him in his re-election campaign. He presided over the Era of Good Feelings, where bipartisanship was the norm. He also implemented the Monroe Doctrine, which was a "hands-off" announcement to Europe that there would be no more colonizations in the Americas, foreign policy which would shape a hemisphere for the next 150 years.

The 5th President is the last Founding Father president. He was a Revolutionary war veteran and sided with the Jeffersonians in the Jefferson/Hamilton debates. He was Jefferson's diplomat who worked out the Louisiana Purchase with France, and he was Secretary of State and War during the War of 1812.

When he became President his biggest domestic challenge wound up being Missouri. The North was more anti-slavery and the South was more pro-slavery. He worked out the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which wouldn't allow slavery above the 36/30' N. He also purchased Florida from Spain. Otherwise he stuck to a "limited government" philopsophy on foreign affairs.

The Era of Good Feelings was short-lived, as the election of 1824 between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson wound up being the most rancorous, and if the feud between Democratic-Republicans and Federalists disappeared, the Democrats/Whigs rivalry would soon be born.

Ranking the Presidents #9

RONALD REAGAN (R) - 1981-1989

It helps to be in the right place at the right time, but it also helps to be that right person. For all his flaws and the revisionist history he's going through now from both extremes, the 40th President ushered in the end of the Cold War, halted the nuclear arms race and rebooted a desert-dry economy.

Reagan narrowly lost toppling Ford in 1976 but wound up supporting him, if half-heartedly (picture the same way McCain "supported" Bush in 2000). After four floundered years of Carter, the US was ready for renewed optimism, and Reagan brought it. An assassination attempt in his first year of office bought him a little more leeway with Congress in pushing his agenda through. His drastic tax cuts injected new life and new capital into the economy. What is usually lost in the legend of Reagan was his willingness to compromise, especially domestically. His attitude was always he'd rather have 80% of what he wants than 0%. He tried immigration reform, for which today he'd be in the Tea Party's crosshairs. He even raised a tax or two. He also holds the record in highest electoral college election victory in history, winning 49 of the 50 states in 1984.

On the foreign front, he held a hard line with Soviet leaders like Andropov and Chernenko, but when Gorbachev came to power, Reagan thought he finally found someone he could work with, and that wound up being the case. They didn't always agree, but they did manage to cooperate on some arms-race treaties. One of his best moments was at the Berlin Wall, where (to Communists everywhere) he defiantly announced, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Reagan had his problems. The deficit grew on his watch, and some say he was too slow to react to the AIDS epidemic. Also, many on the left blame Reaganomics for the current gulf between the rich and everyone else. He also had the Iran/Contra scandal, where regardless of how much he did or didn't know, it happened in his administration. But after the Nixon/Ford/Carter years, Reagan restored American pride, stared down the Soviet Union, and won.

Ranking the Presidents #10

JAMES K. POLK (D) - 1845-1849

The United States saw more land expansion under the 11th President than it had since Thomas Jefferson secured the Louisiana Purchase. He'd pledged to serve only one term, and within that term, he got just about everything he wanted.

As a slave-owning Southerner, he supported the annexation of Texas, but he wanted to add the Oregon Territory to balance it out. He worked a compromise with Great Britain to grant the US the land below the 49th parallel, which became Washington, Idaho and Oregon. Once he got that, he wanted to buy California from Mexico. The Mexican government rebuffed his diplomat, which he used as an excuse for war, but before he even made his official request to Congress, some Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande and killed eleven Americans. Polk now really had his excuse, since they had "shed American blood on American soil."

The Mexican-American War lasted two years and ended in Mexico's defeat. In the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded the land to the US that would become California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

Even if Polk hadn't committed to only serving one term, his health greatly decreased in his final months. Polk actually died three months after leaving office.

Ranking the Presidents #11

JOHN F. KENNEDY (D) - 1961-1963

JFK was a World War II vet, but he was following a general. He was young and not treated as seriously by world leaders, and the Cold War was a time when America had to be strong. The 35th President made his mistakes (Bay of Pigs) but he owned up to them, and two things really cement his legacy: the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his death.

I say his death because many of his desired domestic programs were going to face opposition. When he died, LBJ was able to push them through in Kennedy's honor, and so genuine civil rights legislation finally became a reality a century after slavery ended.

Kennedy was praised as a patriot for saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Say that today, and you're a communist.

Ranking the Presidents #12

WOODROW WILSON (D) - 1913-1921

As a young man, Wilson didn't really care for the Constitution or the American style of government. He desired something more like a Parliamentary system. This is partially due to the way the government was run under Johnson, Grant and Hayes. By the time Grover Cleveland was president, Wilson had his faith restored.

The 28th President benefitted from the feud between Roosevelt and Taft, and he won the election with less than 42% of the popular vote. He used his first term to focus on domestic issues and passed the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Trade Act, and thanks to the 16th Amendment, the first progressive income tax.

World War I is where he earned his high legacy. He won re-election on the theme that "he kept us out of war" but he knew he couldn't stay out for long. When Germany announced it would sink any aubmarine that came near the United Kingdom, and when a message was intercepted that said Germany was trying to instigate Mexico to attack the US from the South, Wilson entered the War, and it wasn't long thereafter that the Allies were able to defeat Germany.

I do have two big problems with Wilson. One of them is not his over-reaching with the League of Nations. He wanted to spread democracy worldwide, and did so in a fairly imperial manner. Looking at his times, I chalk it up as a noble goal.

No, my two big problems are 1) As far as I can tell, he was the last white supremacist to hold office. He allowed expansion of segregation and famously praised "Birth of a Nation," which glorified the Ku Klux Klan. 2) His decapacitating stroke left the country leadersless for the final year and a half of his second term. He should have resigned, or at least named his Vice-President as Acting President. (The 25th Amendment was the answer to this, should it happen again). He kept his health hidden from as many as possible, and his wife served as messenger for most of his requests. It weakened the office and left the door open for Harding to walk in.

Ranking the Presidents #13

ANDREW JACKSON (D) - 1829-1837

In many ways, by today's standards, the 13th President would be a racist jerk, but I'm trying to put them all in their time. He was a Revolutionary War veteran as a teenager, also a prisoner of war, and also orphaned by the war, granting him a lifelong hatred of the British.

In the War of 1812, after 400 settlers were killed by the Red Stick Creek Indians at the Fort Mihms Massacre, Jackson led his troops and gained decisive victories all over the West. Even though he had South Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw Indians under his command, it led him to generally despise Indians.

In 1824, Jackson ran for President. He won the popular and electoral vote, but since they weren't enough to give it to him outright, the election was decided by the House of Representatives, who gave it to John Quincy Adams. And so for the rest of his life, he hated Adams.

He railed against Adams for four years and ran again in 1828. Martin Van Buren revived the old Republican party and renamed it the Democratic party. Andrew Jackson joined him, and when his opponents called him a jackass, Jackson took pride in it and used the jackass as a symbol of his candidacy (and remains to this day as the Democratic animal.) Jackson won decisively.

Jackson fought hard and failed to get rid of the Electoral College. He fought to reduce the debt and he did so. He fought for Indian removal. He was a big believer in manifest destiny, and while many were for extermination, Jackson did most of this through negotiations and treaties, pushing the Indians further west. His main battle though was against the Second Bank of America. He felt it made the rich richer and the country more beholden to the select few who controlled the banks. He vetoed its creation in 1832. But the distribution of money-lending from national to local banks led to inflation and then a depression in Jackson's last year, which lasted several years.

Jackson shaped American history on the battlefield, and he did a pretty good overall as President. He saw himself as the common-man hero standing up against the fat-cats of business and the elitists of Congress, and the victor against both.

Ranking the Presidents #14

JOHN ADAMS (F) - 1797-1801

The 2nd President has received a renaissance of appreciation thanks to David McCullough's best-selling book and the HBO miniseries based on it. Adams was crucial in the formation of this new country, but as an actual president, well, he didn't inspire the loyalty of George Washington nor had the political savvy of Thomas Jefferson.

Adams won the Presidency after Washington refused to run for a third term, and he constantly had to battle the divided factions of the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton and the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson. Even though they were supposedly on the same side, Hamilton at times did as much to undermine Adams as Jefferson. The low point for Adams was when he signed into law the Alien & Sedition Acts, basically making it illegal to criticize the government.

Adams also had to deal with what is called the Quasi-War with France. France and England were at war with each other, and Adams didn't want to be involved while Hamilton sided with the British and Jefferson with France. He managed to keep the peace, but received little credit for it. When Washington died in 1799, the Federalist party became more fractured.

Adams was the perfect behind-the-scenes guy to get stuff done. Imagine a brilliant campaign manager trying to be president himself.

Ranking the Presidents #15

WILLIAM McKINLEY (R) - 1897-1901

The 25th President might have enjoyed a greater legacy had he lived. He came into office as a protectionist but was converted by world events into a growing sense of nationalism, and his presidency was the bridge to the 20th century.

The clincher for him was the Spanish-American War, which most Americans tend to forget ever happened. It lasted only a few months, and when Spain lost, they gave up Guam and Puerto Rico, granted Cuba independence, and sold the Phillippines to the US.

Domestically, McKinley was able to settle monetary issues by putting the dollar on the gold standard. When he began his second term, he planned on increasing international trade. Just a few months in, however, he was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

Ranking the Presidents #16

JAMES MADISON (DR) - 1809-1817

James Madison is one of the Founding Fathers and is also known as the Father of the Constitution. He was crucial in the creation of this country, but when it came time for him to become the 4th President, he made his share of mistakes.

The War of 1812 marked his presidency. While Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had kept relations with Great Britain friendly enough, the British grew belligerent with Madison. The Royal Navy kept intercepting US ships and forcing their sailors to serve. Madison's protests were ignored, so he escalated the conflict by declaring war and invading Canada for leverage.

Financially and militarily, the country wasn't ready for war, and the British hit back hard. They successfully invaded Washington DC, and Madison had to flee the White House, which British soldiers set on fire. Britain also armed the Native Americans to strike from the west and south. Generals and future presidents Andrew Jackson and William H. Harrison were able to quell those, and by 1815, both countries were exhausted and ended the war in a tie.

Maybe the war could have been avoided but at least he didn't lose it. That "tie" was essentially seen as victory for the US, and national pride and unity followed. The Federalist Party disappeared, and the U.S. entered the Era of Good Feelings.

Ranking the Presidents #17

LYNDON B. JOHNSON (D) - 1963-1969

The 36th President was one of the best arm-twisters to ever hold the office, ready to make deals with anyone and everyone to get his goals accomplished, and in the wake of JFK's assassination, he was able to get almost anything he wanted. To a point.

Johnson scored several domestic victories - the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights act, Medicaid, Medicare - all toward his goal of a Great Society, winning what he called the War on Poverty. But his political capital soon ran out thanks to his foreign policy, namely the Vietnam War.

LBJ was never really quite forthright with what he was doing with Vietnam. JFK had merely stuck the US toe in the water. By 1968, LBJ had 550,000 US troops there, dying at a rate of over 1000 a month. It led to college students chanting, "Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?" He believed he had to stop Communism there, lest it spread elsewhere. His popularity dropped so dramatically he decided against running for re-election in 1968.

I think a handful of Johnson's significant domestic accomplishments trump a lot of his failures, which keeps him in my top half.

Ranking the Presidents #18

GROVER CLEVELAND (D) - 1885-1889 / 1893-1897

Cleveland became the 22nd President in 1885 and the 24th President in 1893. He entered the office with a reputation of integrity, and he managed to keep it intact, even if his several principled vetoed infuriated the Congress.

One was the Texas Seed Bill, which would give $10,000 to purchase seeds for ailing Texas farmers. Cleveland vetoed it, saying "though the people should support the government, the government should not support the people." He was against welfare programs and expanding federal jurisdiction. He fought against high tariffs, as the government was running surpluses, but the Republicans believed if they reduced them, it'd ruin American businesses. It was an issue kept alive during Cleveland's election campaign, and it helped Benjamin Harrison squeak out a win.

After Harrison's squandered term, Cleveland came back into office in 1893 with renewed support, but the Panic of 1893 was the worst financial crisis in decades, and Cleveland didn't seem to know how to handle it. He successfully reduced tariffs and offset the revenue loss by raising taxes, but a railroad workers' strike prompted Cleveland to send federal troops, causing an increase in workers' distrust of DC.

His vetoes were numerous but mostly a good thing. He read each bill and got rid of any he saw as payoffs or returned favors.

Ranking the Presidents #19

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (DR) - 1825-1829

The 6th president became the first one to be the son fo a previous president, and like his father, he only served one term.

He'd lived abroad for years and could speak multiple languages by the time he became president. He was a great diplomat for these young United States.

He was the last Democratic-Republican candidate. In fact by that time the Federalists had been phased out and several regional candidates ran. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and had the most electoral votes, but he didn't have enough to be considered the outright winner. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the election then went to the House of Representatives. Henry Clay was Speaker of the House, and he'd run but came in fourth. He gave his support to Adams, and the House awarded him the presidency. Jackson and his supporters were outraged. To make it worse, Adams made Clay his Secretary of State. As three presidents had held that position before their elections, it was seen that Adams was anointing Clay his successor for giving him the presidency now. Jackson was a fierce critic of Adams his entire term and came back to defeat him in a landslide.

Adams had the same prickliness of his father and wasn't good at building coalitions for domestic support. He's one of the only presidents to not attend the inaugeration of his successor, so deep was the animosity between him and Jackson. Adams was more effective as Secretary of State under Monroe, and post-presidency, in the House of Representatives, where he grew increasingly anti-slavery, also lending his help to the Amistad case.

Ranking the Presidents #20

CALVIN COOLIDGE (R) - 1923-1929

The 30th President has been disparaged by many historians, but the more I read about him, the more I can't help but admire what this boring man was able to do.

When Pres. Harding died, all the news of his corrupt administration came out, but somehow Coolidge was able to stay above it and reassure the American public that normalcy would remain. The Roaring Twenties happened on his watch, and while he was introverted and uncomfortable, his laissez-faire approach allowed for a lot of innovation. (It also needs to be noted that the Federal government was a lot less involved back then.)

Coolidge was given some leeway when his son died in 1924. He handily won a quiet re-election with his motto "Keep Cool with Coolidge." He fought for civil rights and made sure no members of the Ku Klux Klan were in his administration. Southern Democrats in congress filibustered all of his attempts at anti-lynching legislation.

He actually didn't want Hoover to be the next Republican nominee when he chose not to run again, but he didn't fight it. Perhaps he should have.

Ranking the Presidents #21

GEORGE H.W. BUSH (R) - 1989-1993

The 41st President was one of the rare times the sitting VP is able to then be elected as President. Bush strived to maintain many of Reagan's policies while dreaming for a "kinder, gentler" nation. His swift in-and-out invasion of Iraq to kick them out of Kuwait was a diplomatic and military home-run. Perhaps it wound up being too swift, since he left Saddam Hussein in power.

With the Persian Gulf over in mere months, he had to address a recession, and he felt backed into a corner to break his 1988 pledge: "Read my lips; no new taxes." He compromised with the Democratic congress to raise some taxes, which created a backlash amongst his own supporters.

His foreign-policy efforts were huge. Reagan said, "Tear down this wall" but Bush was president when the Berlin Wall actually fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Bush built a coalition of supporters and clearly defined his mission with Kuwait.

Dan Quayle as Vice-President was a distraction. After a series of gaffes, he was a liability on the ticket, and even though historically replacing a VP was common in re-election campaigns, Bush remained loyal. (Personally I think Quayle should've volunteered to be off the ticket. Even though he won his debate with Al Gore, he was just too big a punchline.) A false New York Times story that alleged Bush didn't understand how grocery scanners work made him look out of touch, which was easily exploited by Bill Clinton in a debate, when the Democratic candidate said he could feel people's pain.

Between Clinton, reformer Ross Perot, and an unhappy Republican base, Bush didn't stand much of a chance. The day after he lost re-relection, the news came out the economy had improved. Had he won a second term he might have been able to enjoy the fruits of his labors, but in some ways, it's as though he didn't really want that second one.

Ranking the Presidents #22

BILL CLINTON (D) - 1993-2001

Fewer presidents have been more deft at being all things to all people. He inspired the youth of the country to "rock the vote", his affairs were addressed and then dismissed by a forgiving media, and thanks to a third-party candidacy by Ross Perot, he was able to become the 42nd President with only 43% of the popular vote.

The economy was on an upswing when he took office thanks to Bush 41's candidacy-killing compromise on deficit reduction, which included tax increases. Clinton raised taxes again, but only on the wealthy. In his first few months, he was damaged by overzealous federal agents botching stand-offs at Waco and Rudy Ridge domestically, and US troops getting killed in Somalia. The Don't Ask Don't Tell compromise on the military made neither side happy, and 1994 saw a dramatic swing toward the Republicans. From there, Clinton triangulated and became more moderate in his approaches.

A 1995 government shutdown swung the momentum back to Clinton, and with 49% of the vote, he was re-elected over Bob Dole and again, Ross Perot. He maintained positive foreign relations with US allies but was bogged down back home by personal scandals, women accusing him of sexual assault and harrassment, and being caught lying about his "sexual relations" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He became the second president to be impeached, but the Republicans could not garner the votes in the Senate to have him removed.

The longer Clinton's impeachment trial went on, the more his popularity rose, and the more petty the Congressional Republicans looked. A final blot on his resume were his last-day pardons of questionable people like Marc Rich, lending speculations Rich "bought" his pardon.

I've read complaints that Clinton's policies were as much to blame as Dubya's on the economic collapse in 2008. There may be something to that, but the country stayed relatively peaceful and prosperous on his watch. With his honesty problem and wandering eye, he may have been his own worst enemy, but anyone who took him on, lost.

Ranking the Presidents #23

WILLIAM H. TAFT (R) - 1909-1913

The 27th President never wanted the office. He was Secretary of War under Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and made it known he wanted to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But he had to be President first.

But as president, he was supposed to be the natural heir to Teddy. He then undercut his friend with his positions and alienated all sides with his lack of political deftness. His antitrust lawsuit against US Steel came across as a direct repudiation of Teddy, which spurred Teddy to run for a third term and oust his former friend. Taft managed to resecure the GOP nomination, so Roosevelt ran as a Bull Moose candidate. Taft came in third.

Taft was better on foreign policy, strengthening relationships with Britain and France. And later he got his dream job and spent the last eleven years of his life as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Ranking the Presidents #24

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES (R) - 1877-1881

The 19th president ran on a pledge to only serve one term, and it was his belief all presidents should only serve one term, albeit for six years. He wanted to clean up the corruption from Grant's administration, but he came into office after one of the most fraudulent elections in US history. Between that and the one-term pledge, the Democrats never accepted him and blocked his efforts on just about everything, biding their time for the next election.

He inherited a recession, and he wound up using federal troops to solve a labor dispute with the railroad strike in 1877. He tried passing civil rights bills, but all were shot down. He survived impeachment efforts after he vetoed an anti-Chinese immigration bill.

When I look at Hayes, I see on one hand a man who wasn't able to push his agenda, but on the other, a man who successfully stifled a Congress whose agenda would have been worse.

Ranking the Presidents #25

GERALD FORD (R) - 1974-1977

The 38th president wasn't much more than a place-holder in history, someone to oversee the transfer of power when Nixon resigned, but Ford is the only president to ever serve who never elected as president or vice-president. His pardoning of Nixon also wound up being a sticking point that cost him his re-election.

He wasn't an unknown; he'd served as House Minority Leader before Nixon called on him to replace Spiro Agnew. He wasn't trusted by the right-wing of his party and narrowly escaped losing the Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan.

Ford tried to fight inflation but never really passed any successful initiatives. In Vietnam, Nixon had promised South Vietnam that the US would support them if the North invaded again, but when they invaded on Ford's watch, Congress denied him military aid. South Vietnam fell and Ford declared the Vietnam War over "as far as America is concerned."

He barely lost to Jimmy Carter. I think history has shown the Nixon pardon was the right move, but it cut him off at the knees to be able to accomplish anything else