My favorite 10 Presidents

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On President's Day, I was pondering which Presidents are my top 10. I could never, nor want to, ponder about all 44 Presidents. So, I'm limiting it to just the top 10. Going from the bottom of the list, I would say Gerald Ford, because of his political ideology as a Republican moderate like myself & his dignity & character in his 2 1/2 years as Pres. I think he flubbed when he pardoned Nixon from the Watergate issue & said in a Pres. debate that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe & there never will be in a Ford administration." What made it worse was that that he defended it but tried to clarify it. Next up would be Richard Nixon, for his political ideology which was like Ford's. He also accomplished a lot of good things like opening relations with China for the 1st time since it had become communist in '49, signed the 1st treaty with the Soviet Union that elimated some missle systems, created the Environmental Protection Agency, tried to pass a universal health care bill (unlike today's Republicans)& ended the Vietnam War by gradually reducing the troops & training the South Vietnamese to fight their own war, like Kennedy had done. Of course his character was worse than Ford's with his spying on anti-war activists & journalists, & trying to blackmail his Pres. opponent in '72 that led to the Watergate break-in & cover-up. But he accomplished more than Ford. Next would be John Kennedy for his tax cut which is now a Republican stand, the Peace Corps, his Vietnam policy, his space program, his response to the Cuban Missle crises that saved us from nuclear destruction & started good relations with Ruasia, & his plans for the Civil Rights bill & War on Poverty program, that were later passed by Johnson. Next up would be Dwight Eisenhower, because he was a moderate Repub. like myself, he ended the Korean War in less than a year, his economic program that led to the greatest U.S. economy since 1929, his highway program, his space program & his plans to get rid of Castro. He could have done if he had time but term was coming to a close so he told the upcoming Pres. Kennedy he should do it, which he did but he failed @ it. The next one up the list would be Lyndon Johnson because of his landmark Civil Rights Bill of '64, that passed, his War on Poverty bill in the same year, that passed. Finally, his Great Society bill that passed in '65. His Vietnam policy leaves in @ the bottom of the list for the thousands of U.S. troops that got killed there. Harry Truman would be 5th beacuse of his strong stand against our enemies in WW II (Germany & Japan) & the Cold War (Russia), & communism in general with the Truman Doctrine of containing communism around the world as in the case with Korea. He sent our forces there but it became a stalmate. He was a good foriegn policy Pres. but not good in domestic affairs (too liberal with things like universal health care & other things that called for too much government & taxation). 4th would be Franklin Roosevelt with his New Deal that gave jobs to millions during the Depression (even though they were government jobs & led to a lot of taxation). His greatest acomplishment was as a war leader in WW II. By the time he died, our forces were on our way to Berlin to defeat Germany & near the homeland of Japan. 3rd would be Bill Clinton, because of his moderate Democat ideas of reducing the deficit by taxing & cutting spending, signing NAFTA & GATT treaties, passing the Gun Control law, Welfare Reform & a balanced budget agreement with the Republicans that resulted in an economic surplus for the 1st time since the Eisenhower administration! His persnoal failings with Whitewater, womanizing ruined him. 2nd would be Ronald Reagon for his ideology on low taxes & small government & a strong defense. His great acomplishments were the '81 tax cut, the lowering of unemployment, inflation & interest rates, & signing the 1st treaty with Russia eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapson. The 1st would George H.W. Bush (not W. Bush) for his moderate Repub. ideas that raised the minium wage @ a reasonable rate, ousted Manual Noriega, saw the elimination of communism in Eastern Europe, ended the Cold War with Russia, signed more treaties with them, ousted Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, signed a bill to help the handicapped in work places, comprised on the budget with Democrats by agreeing to higher taxes for the wealthy for cutting domestic spending. He did break his vow on "no new taxes" but he had to. But that only helped the already sagging economy & that was his downfall. Finally, was the fact that the Soviet Union split apart during his term. That issue & the ending the Cold War & ousting Saddam from Kuwait were his greatest acomplishments.