Who do you think was the last good GOP President?

[WI_DEM]

My selection: Dwight D. Eisenhower

[derby378]

1. That would be my guess

He was too cozy with the witch-hunt crowd, yes, but that Interstate Highway system he implemented? Genius.

[freshwest]

9. And a punitive tax rate on the war profiteers of WW2.

[wryter2000]

2. Mine, too.

If we had Republicans like that now, we wouldn't need Democrats.

[leftstreet]

4. We don't even have Democrats like that n/t

[freshwest]

6. What GOP policies do you favor instead of Democratic ones? Just curious.

[Flashmann]

3. Dwight D. Eisenhower

I don't see how a coherent argument can be made that anyone since Ike can be called a good GOP President..

[Botany]

5. Nixon ..... total scum bucket but he kept Russia form nuking China in 1969 (??)

If that had happened millions would have died and the fallout would still be
killing people today.

[GoCubsGo]

32. You know what's really sad and scary?

Nixon looks like a decent, sane person compared to those in the current GOP, and I'm not just talking about the politicians.

[Botany]

33. Nixon was a nasty a-hole but even he was scared by the neo-cons

his few years of his life he tried to make the nation aware of how
really whacky the "let's invade the middle east" PNAC people were.
I think his last published piece was something about how we should
not even think about a land war in the middle east.

Nixon started the EPA and supported a women's right to chose too.

Don't get me wrong the man was slime but i would have dug his bones
back up and done a Dr. Frankstein act on him and have him be POTUS
rather then w Bush.

BTW when I was a little boy our next door neighbor's brother was Gov.
of PA, Ray Shafer and he was a really good guy and a republican too he
would have no home in the party of Gohmert, Huckabee, Buchmann, and
so on.

[unblock]

55. i shudder to think what nixon would have done with 9/11 and that congress

i agree that the result of the actual nixon administration included some good things like the epa.

but some of that was really due to the strongly democratic congress pushing for good things and a republican minority that would not blindly support him.

i can only imagine what nixon would have been like if he had a blindly supportive media and effective control of congress.

[Botany]

63. Nixon was a no good crook but he was a wonk and would have read that 8/6/01 PDB ....

.... if he was POTUS @ the time and 9/11 would not have happened.

Don't get me wrong Nixon was a creep because he had talks with N. Vietnam in 68
and promised them a better deal after he was elected POTUS but in the end he
wound up signing off on the same deal that the North had offered LBJ in 1968
which got us another 4 years of the Vietnam war and lots more dead people,
broken hearts and lives, and zillions of dollars wasted on an un-winnable war.

?

Jim Rudd was the older brother of a childhood friend .... after he died the neighborhood
was never the same.

[tabasco]

40. LOL.

Get a grip ..... on a book.

[Botany]

57. Try this e-book learning on for size.

The documents presented here highlight Washington's perceptions of the border tensions that escalated during March 1969 and the internal U.S. government discussions of the possibility of a wider Sino-Soviet war. The material also elucidates the Soviet Union's use of covert military threats to coerce Beijing into entering diplomatic negotiations over the disputed borders. A State Department memorandum of conversation, published here for the first time, recounts one of the more extraordinary moments in Cold War history--a KGB officer's query about the U.S. reaction to a hypothetical Soviet attack on Chinese nuclear weapons facilities. Also included is a recently declassified report warning of the danger of a Soviet attack on China, written for Henry Kissinger by the influential China watcher Allen S. Whiting.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB49/

All kinds of declassified NSA documents @ the link too. So not unless all those NSA papers are false and were planted
in the national archives in order to allow me to make a point on a web site 40 years later I might know a thing a two
about a thing or two.

[CountAllVotes]

82. umm Nixon was IMPEACHED

Many people were greatly relieved to be rid of this insane homicidal freak! ACK!

[Botany]

90. Nixon was IMPEACHED

no he wasn't .... he quit. Learn some history.

[CountAllVotes]

78. Tricky Dick?

[CountAllVotes]

85. actually I have changed my mind

You are right.

Nixon is a perfect example of the best Republican president ever known in America.

RICHARD NIXON was the best thing the Repukes ever had going. Gee, that really does say a lot doesn't it?!

[Botany]

89. I never said he was a good man or a good President all I said was he helped* ....

.... to stop a thermonuclear exchange between the USSR and China
and not having H bombs going of in our atmosphere was a good thing.

* what % of stopping that I don't know but a friend of my family
who worked on that problem for the Nixon admin. once told me about it.

BTW did you bother looking at the articles I linked for you?

BTW Lincoln, Teddy R, and Ike were all republicans and good Presidents too.
Ray Shafer, Chuck Percy, Margaret Chase Smith, Lincoln Chaffee, and Mark
Hatfield were good people too.

[upaloopa]

7. His speech about the military industrial

complex was along the original idea behind the second amendment. No standing army or no standing military industrial complex.

[AverageJoe90]

46. Yep. And yet, just half a decade later, that promise was broken by LBJ.....

When he introduced the draft for Vietnam.

[oldhippydude]

51. the draft was standing before LBJ

remember Elvis was drafted

[AverageJoe90]

72. Forgot about that, I guess.

OK, thanks for the correction, then.

[CountAllVotes]

80. Yes he was

Stationed in Wiesbadden, November of 1959 and I LIKE IKE was President.

[Puzzledtraveller]

8. Dwight

[riverbendviewgal]

10. i agree

Taxes were high on the rich. Infrastructure building was high with union jobs building these roads and bridges. The middle class flourished. He called the national guard to escort black students to school that was once segregated. He warned America about the industrial military danger.

[Downwinder]

11. Lincoln

[Sekhmets Daughter]

12. I would vote for

Theodore Roosevelt. Trust busting and the National Parks.

I was very young when Ike was president, but I do remember that there were many complaints that he played too much golf We give him a lot of credit for words, but he did nothing to rein in the new MIC and he opened the door to Vietnam...that allowed the MIC to bully first Kennedy and then Johnson into a disastrous war. His great domestic accomplishment, the interstate highway system, was born from his admiration of the German roadway system. He wanted to be able to move troops and material all over the country quickly. You could say he is responsible for the American love affair with the car and thus big oil. Not to mention the abysmal public transportation we endure today.

[Flashmann]

35. the interstate highway system, was born from his admiration of the German roadway system

Also to further the capablity of troop transport to virtually anywhere in the contiguous states to battle pesky invading Rooskies who might've parachuted in.....One mile out of every 10,was/is required to be straight,facilitating landing strips for troop and military cargo planes....The creation of jobs and the extreme enhancement of the ability to ship goods were incidental by-products.....

Still...Whatever the motivation,I voted for Ike as the last good goop Prez,for those jobs and the prosperity they brought to the working class.....In that light,there has not been one good one since......

[Sekhmets Daughter]

37. We shall have to agree to disagree...

I think Ike was the last rational GOP president, I don't believe he was 'good'.

[Flashmann]

41. We shall have to agree to disagree

No,not absolutely......I say good in the very narrow sense that Ike was that last goop Prez to do something good for the masses......Even if by accident......

Last rational one??......Hell,I won't argue that point either.....

[Sekhmets Daughter]

44. LOL n/t

[Bucky]

13. Ike was a good one. Not perfect, but progressive by today's standards

[Recursion]

14. Taft (nt)

[WI_DEM]

20. Well, he was actually tougher on the trusts than TR and created...

The Department of Labor.

[Recursion]

21. Yup. Tough on bathtubs, too

And, apparently, water buffaloes.

[eShirl]

88. DH saw this and exclaimed "My God!!"

"He's bottomed out the shocks on that poor animal"

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Agree. Of course, today's GOP wouldn't allow him in their party.

[truebluegreen]

18. They barely allowed him in the party THEN.

Said he was a closet socialist; and that era gave rise to the Birchers.

[abelenkpe]

16. Ike or Theodore Roosevelt

If there was someone like them in the party now they would be a contender. Until then republicans are just a collection of bat shit crazy, bigoted, corporate kiss ass, science denying loons.

[indepat]

17. Politicians have commenced a process for stealing from the elderly, frail, and poor to fund

an egregiously bloated and wasteful MIC and to pay for the recently enacted permanent tax cuts for those earning $250,000 to $450,000, the permanent cuts in taxes on dividends and capital gains to 20%, and the shameful grab-bag of giveaways to corporations: governance now is antithetical of what Ike stood for, i.e., almost all Republicans and a significant number of Democrats favor governing far to the right of Ike.

[Dpm12]

19. I'm gonna get hate for this

People will both hate me for this and ask: "WHAT THE FUCK?", but, I'm gonna have to go with Gerald Ford. If only Republicans were like him nowadays.
[image][/image]

[Aristus]

30. No hate from me. He was a good and decent man.

Maybe not the best President, but decency counts for a lot. Also his wife was wonderful.

[tabasco]

42. Gerald Ford was a decent person

He had an undeserved reputation as a klutz, but was a very good athlete in college.

One of the few pukes I can say anything good about.

[Dpm12]

68. PUKES LOL

What is a puke?

[hay rick]

71. Pukes = Repukes = Republicans.

[Waiting For Everyman]

47. Two dealbreakers re: Ford...

the Nixon pardon, and the Warren Commission. Ford clearly got "paid" (in promotions) to cover up the right wing's dirtiest criminal activities, including the unavenged coup in this country.

[customerserviceguy]

69. I have to say I agree

Other than the pardoning of Nixon (possibly a Lincolnesque move to allow the country to try to move past Watergate) what's the worst thing he did?

[TheKentuckian]

22. TDR-good, Ike-decent

[Frustratedlady]

23. Ike! eom

[99Forever]

24. Exactly n/t

[grahamhgreen]

25. Kick for no more war.

[thucythucy]

26. Abraham Lincoln

[srican69]

36. +1

[Flashmann]

48. Is it fair to consider Abraham Lincoln as a good goop

Given that in the current climate he'd be vilified,by the goops as a wild eyed,radical,hippie,liberal race traitor?.....

[thucythucy]

49. It just shows how times have changed.

The Republican Party began as a direct response to slavery, as the party that wanted to limit or even abolish "the peculiar institution."

Now it stands for--well, it is what it is. One part corporate shill for the one-percenters, five parts reactionary dead weight.

But I think if Lincoln would be proud to see our current president. I think he would feel vindicated in taking the stand he did.

[Gregorian]

27. He practically sounds as sane (Left) as Dennis Kucinich.

That is scary, how far to the right we have moved. And by "right" I mean stupid.

[jeff47]

28. Also vote for Ike (nt)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

29. The thing is, you'll be hard pressed to find a perfect President.

Even amongst the "greats."

FDR instituted internment.
Lincoln suspended habeus corpus.
Washington and Jefferson owned slaves.

The closest we've had to a truly moral man as President would have to be the gentleman in my profile pic, James Earl Carter. And some say he was too moral and honest for the office.

But in terms of Republican presidents, I'll concur with Eisenhower as being "good." Smart views on the military-industrial complex, gave us the interstates, and slowly got the ball rolling on civil rights.

Nixon was a crook, but he did have some good policies mixed in with the bad. (EPA). Ford was more or less decent as a human being, although some disturbing things did happen under him regarding foreign affairs.

But things didn't really get bad--really, really bad--until Reagan. There was a huge drop off when that man took office.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

39. You don't know your Nixon if you think he was better than Reagan. n/t

[stevenleser]

66. The thing about Lincoln is, doesnt the Constitution provide for the suspension of habeas during

insurrections and the like in article 1 section 9? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Section_9:_Limits_on_Congress

"The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
------------------------

I find it hard to criticize Lincoln for using a power that is explicitly given in the Constitution for explicitly the kind of situation envisioned, i.e. civil war/insurrection.

[GoCubsGo]

31. Teddy Roosevelt.

And, saw the writing on the wall even back then, and left the party.

[Canuckistanian]

75. +1

My choice, too

[surrealAmerican]

81. I agree.

I'm no fan of any of the Republicans after him.

[Hekate]

34. Eisenhower

[Waiting For Everyman]

38. I remember Ike and agree with you.

And like many of us in the public, he too, didn't seem to like his own VP "Tricky Dick" Nixon. After Nixon they only got worse, which was hard to imagine.

[NV Whino]

43. Eisenhower

[Uncle Joe]

45. Probably Ike if not him, it would be Teddy Roosevelt.

Thanks for the thread, WI_DEM.

[Buzz Clik]

50. Would this be a good time to thank Ike for committing us to Vietnam?

[robinlynne]

52. lincoln?

[SDjack]

53. There was only one good Repub president -- Nelson Rockerfeller.

[Hugabear]

58. I missed that day in history class

When did Rockefeller serve as president?

[SDjack]

60. Exactly my point. VP Rockerfeller was stomped into irrelevancy by Pres. Nixon.

[coalition_unwilling]

54. Abraham Lincoln (first and only good Republican Pres, imho). Eisenhower's

administration first involved us in Vietnam after 1954, overthrew the democratic government of Iran (Mossadegh), began planning for the Bay of Pigs and presided over one hell of a major recession from 1953-56. Plus Ike's hands drip with the blood of vets in the Bonus Army that he helped MacArthur suppress in 1932.

[MrSlayer]

56. Bill Clinton.

Oh yeah, I said it.

Richard Nixon was much more liberal than he. It's true.

[Kurovski]

73. Agreed. He triangulated hisself' into a liberal Repub!

Maybe a moderate repub.

[RVN VET]

59. Am I the only person here who agrees with Michael Moore?

Best Republican President of recent note was Bill Clinton.

And he's being over shadowed by Barack Obama.

I'm not completely joking here. Both of these guys really practice what the pre-PNAC Grand Old Party stood for, when it was still interested in governing and providing for the common welfare. Only a fetal brained Teapartier would call them Socialists -- but there are millions of 'em, and they get to frame the discussion in the mindless media.

Neither was or is sufficiently lefty for my taste, but I appreciate the good they do, and they good they'd like to do if only they didn't have opponents who would rather sink the ship of state and collect the insurance.

[liberal N proud]

61. I would go with Ike as well.

[doc03]

62. Eisenhower n/t

[Thirties Child]

64. Eisenhower

1956 and I was 21. He was my first vote for president.

[Progressive dog]

65. Dwight Eisenhower

There were some bad ones between TR and him, too. Then it's back to Lincoln to find another good Republican President.

[Zen Democrat]

67. TR

[whistler162]

70. Yup.. .the guy who okayed

the assassination of the elected Prime Minister of Iran to bring back the Shah. Who got us started on the road to full involvement in Vietnam. Not to mention that whole planning the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

[BlueCheese]

83. Not that it detracts from your main point...

The Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, was deposed and placed under house arrest until his death in 1967, but not assassinated.

[Angry Dragon]

74. +32,409

[samsingh]

76. Lincoln

[Speck Tater]

77. I like Ike. He's also the earliest president whose election I remember. nt

[on point]

79. Eisenhower by GOP label; Obama by right of center position under DEM label

[tledford]

84. +1 eom

[madokie]

86. Ike

[VOX]

87. Ike. N/t