I would rank Washington first, and Lincoln second. And I agree with those who say Wilson and JFK are both vastly overrated (I don’t think an honest appraisal of JFK will come until the baby boomers are 6 ft. under. They are incapable of letting go of the Camelot that never was.)
FDR’s policies prolonged the Depression but it’s un-PC to point that out since we are now embarking on the “New New Deal” – one that will really bankrupt us. His statute as a war president is what puts him in the top 10.
And as for Dubya, despite what Steve P. says, it is far too early to know how he will ultimately be ranked. If Iraq manages to develop a halfway decent representative government and the peace lasts, then Bush will be seen as great and his detractors will be lumped in with the Copperheads who did everything they could to undermine Lincoln during the Civil War.
Margaret Thatcher once said that reality has a way of asserting itself, no matter what one wants to believe. Hitler deluded himself into thinking the war was still winnable in 1945, but bombed out Berlin told another story. If a stable and democratic Iraq emerges in the ME, Bush will be seen as a success – and nothing Steve P. does or says or writes can change that. All he can do is pray – that Iraqis once again fall prey to a murderous dictator.
