Who is your favorite politician of all time and why?

[ringmastery]

[OldEurope]

1. Mahatma Gandhi. Because he showed the whole world that

you need no war to gain freedom.

O8)

[eileen from OH]

2. RFK

Because, while he had many flaws, he always seemed to recognize them and work hard toward being a better person. And because he had an epiphany when traveling this country and really saw the depths of poverty and it changed him profoundly. He cared.

For all the drama and true tragedy of JFK's assassination, for me it was RFK's murder that became the night the music died. (not to go all Don McClean on ya!)

eileen from OH

[Rowdyboy]

3. Morris "Mo"Udall

a Democratic congressman who ran for president in 1976. He finished second to Jimmy Carter everywhere but he would have made an exceptional president. He had a very dry wit and talked to people like they were adults. In other words, he was a rarity...

[eileen from OH]

5. Oh, I remember him. . .

He WAS wonderful. Very, very funny.

eileen from OH

[ldoolin]

6. Bingo

You beat me to it. Mo Udall.

[readmylips]

4. William Jefferson Clinton....

because he rocks! He's the real Rocky comeback kid and Big Dog. The world loves President Clinton.

[kodi]

7. robert kennedy

because he cared about people and gave hope to the hopeless

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

8. Zell Miller!

Joking, joking....

I actually don't have a favorite.

[5thGenDemocrat]

9. Hazen S. Pingree, former Detroit mayor and Michigan governor (R)

Mayor (c 1888-96), governor (1896-1900). He was a populist and a friend of the poor even before Tom Johnson and Fighting Bob LaFollette picked up the torch.
Pingree kept the Detroit Street Railway rates at 3 cents a ride (the DSR wanted to raise them to a nickle, and he put the streetcars under city control to keep them from doing it). Tom Johnson, later a fine mayor of Cleveland (above), was the DSR's lawyer.
Pingree also turned over vacant city parcels to the citizens so they could grow vegetables during the Panic of 1893 and stave off starvation during those pre-welfare days. This earned him the nickname "Potato Patch Pingree."
Today, there is a fine statue of Ping in downtown Detroit's Grand Circus Park, and I make it a point to place a potato at his feet each year before I attend my first Tiger game of the season (Comerica Park is just a block to the east).
John
The Michigan Supreme Court, at the end of Ping's second gubernatorial term, held him in contempt for some political disagreement or other. He told them to go to hell and headed off to Africa on safari. He took ill in Germany on the return trip, and died in London in 1901.

[David Zephyr]

10. Eugene Debs.

In American politics.

[RandomKoolzip]

11. Jello Biafra...

Came in fourth in the SF mayoral race in 80!