President's Day!!!

Top Ten Greatest Presidents Ever (WSJ 2000)
1 George Washington
2 Abraham Lincoln
3 Franklin Roosevelt
4 Thomas Jefferson
5 Theodore Roosevelt
6 Andrew Jackson
7 Harry Truman
8 Ronald Reagan
9 Dwight Eisenhower
10 James Polk

Steve's List
1 Abraham Lincoln
2 George Washington
3 Thomas Jefferson
4 Franklin Roosevelt
5 Ronald Reagan
6 Theodore Roosevelt
7 Andrew Jackson
8 Harry Truman
9 Dwight Eisenhower
10 William McKinley

OK, so it's mostly the same. Notice who's NOT on the list? No Kennedy, no Johnson. First of all, you can't really serve 2.5 years of your term and be considered great. Secondly, JFK and LBJ started the Vietnam build-up/non-committment to victory whose legacy we're still left with. Also, building up a vast welfare state doesn't fly with me, so FDR got knocked a peg down. I like James Polk, and he had a great 4 year run, but as a native Floridian, I appreciate presidents like McKinley who wage wars that put Tampa (the base of operations in the Spanish-American War) on the map. I love Ronald Reagan, who contrary to popular belief didn't just watch the Evil Empire Fall but was an active part of the process as well as the catalyst for mass tax cuts and re-establishment of free market capitalism in the USA. I put Lincoln on top...most presidents didn't have to deal with bodies of fallen soldiers in their backyard. It's my list, it's not meant to be scientific. Go democracy go!