If they had to run TODAY, NONE of our "best presidents" could get elected

[SoCalDem]

Family issues would sink many of them, religious attitudes, or lack or religiosity would sink some of them, looks would sink a LOT of them, and they would not even be top-tier candidates..

Think of the ones whom YOU figure to be the best of the ones so far.. How would your favorite stack up?

Eisenhower would be swiftboated mercilessly and his "affair" with Kay would be an issue.. He "waffled" between running as a democrat or republican for a while, and that would be brought up against him.. He had health issues..he was too "grandfatherly"...he was BALD (recoil in horror and run away :)..)

FDR... he was handicapped, so health issues would be front & center..his wife was homely & uppity, and had a "smart-mouth on her".. He had a mistress and she's rumored to have had girlfriends.. He's too rich.. He SMOKES !!!!

Truman... he swears & he has no manners..His wife looks old..his daughter's a no-talent wannabee.. He's a war-monger.. He's old-looking..he's too bossy..

Kennedy..He's too good looking..too rich.. too smooth..and he's a ladies' man..his wife is FRENCH..and she spends too much money on clothes.. those little kids are props.. and of course the swiftboaters would challenge his war experiences..

Jefferson...obvious

Lincoln..He hates the south..he's ugly..he's a bad dresser..his wife is fat..

We know too much about these people than is healthy for us all and we ask to know too much more ...things we don't even have a right to know..and I only wish we could go back to learning what their philosophy of governance was, and less about who they pray to or who they sleep with..or don't.. or who cuts their hair and how much they charge..or where they get their clothing, or what kind of underwear they buy..

Familiarity breeds contempt.. and we are a very contemptuous bunch

[Gman]

1. Excellent post -- K&R

[SharkSquid]

2. Hahaha

Some of our "Worst" presidents would have still been elected though.

Franklin Pierce - good looking, snazzy wife, young, fiery orator.

Arthur - Snappy dresser, glamourous, cool facial hair

Harding - Very charismatic, "Clinton-esque", midwestern charm, bad ass eyebrows.

[SoCalDem]

3. yup.. including Reagan

He's a mooooovie star and so's his wife.. she sure looks good in red..

[baldguy]

21. I thought this was about our best presidents?

[SoCalDem]

22. That was a reply to a comment about the worst ones who WOULD still get elected

:)

[SharkSquid]

4. Dont forget the other Roosevelt

Swift boated in a hearbeat (were his war exploits really real?)

Did he lead us into an uneccessary war to prop up commercial interests

What really happened to his first wife, Alice

Why did he run off and leave his daughter with his sister after he became a widower

His dad paid another man to serve for him in the Civil War! The shame!

[SoCalDem]

23. and he was a damned TREEHUGGER.. who wouldn't shoot a bear cub

a WIMP, I tell ya..

[SharkSquid]

27. Oh he shot plenty of other things though

Including several Spaniards and everything in Africa larger than his hat.

But at least everything he shot and his sons got went to the NY MONH and the Smithsonian including the first Panda pelt in the west.

[sampsonblk]

5. Yep. Some of the best human beings wouldn't stand a chance.

And how would they fare at DU? Bad. Real bad.

[Didereaux]

6. As Lily Tomlin would say "And that's the truth! ppbbbfffft" n/t

[SharkSquid]

7. OOOOOOO Almost forgot

Clevland - "Ma Ma wheres my pa?"

"Gone to the white house, ha ha ha"


the only man to admit to his affair before his election and still be elected


but that was because the republicans were idiots and ran Blaine, the tome delay of his day.

[SoCalDem]

8. I thought that was Harding..

:shrug:

[SharkSquid]

11. Nope Clevland

The best comeback to a smear campaign ever.

[Cooley Hurd]

13. "Blaine - the Tom DeLay of his day..."

:rofl:

Don't forget that Grover also married a 22 year-old IN the White House. Can you imagine how THAT would go over today?;)

[SharkSquid]

14. Hahahah yeah

Dirty Dirty ol man

Specially the way people are getting all over Dennis and Thompson about their ridiculously hot wives.

[SharkSquid]

15. Actually Blane is kind of the McCain of his day

He reeeeeeaaaaly wanted to be a reformer, but those damn Maine special interests, sooo powerful...

[MiniMe]

20. *cough cough* Fred Thompson

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. Nor should they be - they were pretty much all racist, sexist and homophobic.

Oh, *by the standards of their times* many of them were undoubtedly good men, but that doesn't mean we couldn't do a lot better today.

America is more liberal today than it has ever been in the past. Nearly all past presidents would probably line up with the Republicans on most votes on todays issues.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. And besides, they'd be REAL OLD by now.

What you say is true. Looks far outweigh thoughts. Thinking has somehow become illegitimate. Faith is far more important. That is one of the worst things that Bush has gifted us with - the idea that morons in position of power is somehow a good thing.

[Wetzelbill]

12. yet even in today's scrutinized world we still get....

"Bush looks Presidential" and "People want to have a beer with him."

Since when did looking like a monkey make somebody presidential? Or being a drunken asshole fratboy make somebody a good drinking partner?

[H2O Man]

16. Respectfully disagree.

I think the "best" ones would be as likely to be elected today, as in their time.

[SharkSquid]

17. Respectfully

You think to highly of the American People

[raccoon]

18. Yes, in this day and time looks are what matters most.

Look at Princess Diana. Sure, she did lots of good charity work. But if she hadn't been pretty, she wouldn't have been idolized nearly as much.

[SoCalDem]

19. Yep..if she had looked like Princess Anne , she would have gotten no accolades

her charitable work would have been expected for the cushy life she led.

[dmosh42]

24. Probably true, in that Americans have become a different person...

Having been around for Truman and Ike, the candidates reflected their times, and people voted for who was 'really' on their side out of survival instincts. Since television made everything visual, the media has made us celebrity worshippers, and most Americans have no idea about voting records or accomplishments. Just a short blurb from the organization with the most money gets it. People are ready to send 'some' Americans to war, but don't want to sacrifice anything themselves. Just keep the video games rolling!

[MadBadger]

25. JFK would still be elected IMO

[SharkSquid]

26. Infidelity

He also would have been swiftboated

Also very frail and his illness would have gotten out

and no one likes people from Mass remember :)

[DFW]

28. Hell, if it were up for a vote today

The Bill of Rights wouldn't stand a chance of getting ratified, either.

There's a reason they call it the American REVOLUTION.

Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, they would all be calling for Jefferson and Madison to
be jailed and executed for treason.

[JHB]

29. Oh, I don't know about Lincoln...

See this campaign cartoon from 1860. Remember back then the Republicans were the "radical leftists"

Take a good look at with whom he's being lumped together:



Ms. "Passionat Attraction", easily impressed by celebrities;
Mr. "Free Love Element", the "gay" of the day;
Mr. "Abolish Religion", one of those "Christian -haters" (back when Mormons didn't count as such);
A froggy thing asking for special rights ('cause God forbid you portray black people as human beings);
A feminazi;
A mooching layabout;
An assortment of low-class, foreign-born hoodlums


They could run that cartoon today today, just sit Abe on a donkey.. And you thought we were exaggerating when we called the Republicans the party of the 19th Cebntury!

[Perry Logan]

30. So, when folks say Hillary is "unelectable," they're really complimenting her. Far out.