Who's your favorite Ex-President?

[WI_DEM]

Well you can tell who mine is.

[SheilaT]

1. Jimmy Carter.

He's a man of enormous integrity who has done genuinely good work since leaving office. He's unfairly blamed for the high inflation of the late 1970s. No one seems to remember Dick Nixon's ill-conceived wage and price controls earlier that decade that, exactly as economists warned, would result in extremely high inflation. He's also not given credit for genuine progress, short-lived though it was -- towards peace in the Middle East.

[samsingh]

12. President Clinton

President Carter is good, but not effective. the Iran hostages happened under his watch.

[Demeter]

14. That Was Ronnie's Black Ops (Bush Sr. Puppetry)

They held the hostages because the oilmen wanted Carter out and made it worth their while.

[samsingh]

25. i didn't know that.

thanks - so even that was due to republicans

[Jack Rabbit]

23. The question concerns ex-Presidents

It is not a question about what Carter or Clinton did as President. I agree that Clinton was the better President and I think most people would.

In that department, Carter wins hands down. Carter has been building houses for Habitat for Humanity and promoting free and fair elections world wide; Clinton has been running around the world playing golf with Bush the Preppy.

Carter's only serious competition for greatest ex-President ever is John Quincy Adams. Adams, by the way, wasn't very effective as President, either.

[samsingh]

26. i misinterpreted the question - Carter hands down

Clinton is actually a disappointment - huge disappointment

[Donald Ian Rankin]

27. Remember that Carter has been an ex-President a lot longer.

If it's about post-presidential activity, it's unfair to ask until they're both dead.

[NYCGirl]

2. This one:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. Mine too

I never felt as inspired by any politician as I did when Kennedy was the President. If you weren't young during that period, you just can't understand.

[NYCGirl]

16. True. It was a remarkable time — he was an inspiring leader. NT

[WI_DEM]

13. I guess I should have included "Living ex-president" Oh, well.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Al Gore...

Bush is a pretend pResident and Karl knows it!

[BOSSHOG]

4. Andy Jackson

Cause he kicked some ass at the battle of New Orleans and was a heroic character before being elected. Ya'll come on down to Nawlins and get your picture taken at Jackson Square with a big old statue of Andy Jackson right in the middle of the square and a very stately St Louis Cathedral in the background.

More recent favorites

Big Dog
Carter
Ford (I think he done the country good)
Truman
Ike - a rare breed, a republican with integrity

[pagandem4justice]

20. Andrew Jackson was also unfortunately responsible for the Native removals

in the Southeastern U.S. He had the choice between doing what is right or doing what was popular. He chose popularity.

"The Indian Removal Act of 1830." Civics Online. 8 June 2000. 10 December 2001. http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/indian_act.html

Decent, well-referenced paper on Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal Policies: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~landc/2002/projects/projects2001/diplomacy/judiciary.html

There's also a movement afoot to have Jackson replaced on the $20 bill with MLK:

http://putkingonthe20.com/case.php

[SaveElmer]

24. Well I don't think it was popularity really...

He was already popular...

He always had a disdain for Indians, wanted the land for white settlement, and actually did not think it was constitutionally possible to have a sovereign nation within a state...

There is no doubt that Indian Removal is the great stain on his Presidency

Curiously, he adopted an Indian infant orphaned during the Red Stick War (I think) and raised him as his son.

[ThomWV]

5. Al Gore

[ginnyinWI]

6. FDR

Because of his wonderful wife, Eleanor.

[sweetheart]

8. patrick swayze

His bodhisattva was so presidential.

[RebelOne]

9. JFK

[Demeter]

10. I'm Beginning to Think that The Only Good President

is a dead one. Sigh. I can even tolerate Ronnie, since he's dead. It must be the heat.

[station agent]

15. Lewis Black has a great bit about bringing Ronnie back

as a dead president. It's his time.

[Nutmegger]

11. Carter

Nobel Peace Prize.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Thomas Jefferson.

In terms of recent Democratic Presidents, Clinton is my favorite. Far and away the best President since JFK. Carter has displayed the best performance as an ex-President, IMHO.

[Aviation Pro]

18. Neither...

...Asshole will be my favorite ex-President because he'll be out of office and look like this:

[dipsydoodle]

19. Well in the future

it sure won't be Shrub

[deaniac21]

21. .

[SaveElmer]

22. I feel like if I pick one I am dissing the other...

I admire both greatly...and Jimmy Carter has had alot more time as an ex-President than Clinton...

[Totally Committed]

28. Favorite Ex-POTUSes:

FDR and JFK. If I had to choose between Carter and Clinton, I'd be stuck -- each had good points and not-so-good points.

TC

[Lucy - Claire]

29. Bartlett

;-)Or FDR

[Strawman]

30. Jimmy Carter was really everything Americans say they want

Honest. Decent. Smart. Courageous. Not ideologically rigid or extreme. And a true "man of the people."

Yet he failed politically and it can't all be attributed to bad circumstances. His rejection is evidence of Americans' failure as democratic citizens. They weren't informed enough to critically evaluate issues. They couldn't distinguish between the credibility of Carter versus a superficial boob like Reagan who was a puppet for a bunch of cynical rich and powerful interests counter to their own.

They choose the people with star power, the cowboy with the televangelist/pro-wrestler rhetoric over amazing public servants like Jimmy Carter. I really wonder if this government is just too damn big to really function as a democracy anymore. National politics have become dominated by spectacle and completely detached from real issues.