Most Influential presidents of the past century ...

[primative1]

I wonder if anyone else agrees or if not where people stand ....
My view of the most influential presidents in the past century are:

From the positive side .... Franklin Roosevelt; Teddy Roosevelt; and Lyndon Johnson ...
For the negative side ... RayGun and Dubyah ....

Now for the overall it gets tough ....
TR did a fine job tearing down anti trust via monopolies and FDR recognized that government had a role in providing a safety net. LBJ's great society extended on FDRs work ...
RayGun succeeded in reversing LBJs work but Dubya has reversed not only FDRs but also TRs ...
We are back to square one, 1900 all over again ... anyone care to debate evolution?

So for overall influence #1 has to be Dubyah (killed two Roosevelt's with one stoned) .... Followed by FDR (what he created was greater than LBJs Great society) and third ... hmm
Teddy Roosevelt because he leveled the field which is the prerequisite to all the change that followed ....

[McCamy Taylor]

1. FDR and the New Deal are number one!!!!!

And the Federalists want to undo everything that he did. That is how influential he was.

LBJ gets my second vote. His Great Society was a mini New Deal. Voting Rights Act and Medicare alone have changed the face of America.

The next Democratic president will be the third in the series of great Democrats. Need to end this Iraq War now so that it does not drag him/her down the way Vietnam did LBJ.

[valerief]

2. The evil rulers of the world never die out. They lay dormant like

a virus that will ultimately cause a fatal disease. The BFEE is such a virus.

[AuntPatsy]

3. so true and as any virus, the true danger is how fast it can spread..

But take hope, one can find a way to ensure the virus becomes dormant at least for a time so that a healing can begin.

[valerief]

6. The trick is to live your life when the virus is dormant. Unfortunately

that requires a shortened lifespan.

[Lobster Martini]

4. Gotta add Kennedy to the positive side and Nixon to the negative side

I feel kind of bad about putting Nixon on the negative side, but that was one tragically flawed guy. Smart and flawed. Shakespeare would have loved him. Managed to teach a country to distrust its own government.

[hlthe2b]

8. Yes, definitely...

Nixon was a mixed bag, but his bastardization of the constitution and prolongation of the war has to send him to the dark side, despite his competency in some other areas.

JFK, by contrast was in office such a short time, yet he was able to leave a lasting impact that effects us today.

[cloudbase]

5. Hoover

on the negative side, too.

[Lobster Martini]

7. Could have put Harding on the negative side, but it seemed cruel

Had to buy size 14 shoes and died in office, presumably while wearing the shoes. Gave him a break for that.