Page 1 of 2

Favorite Lesser-Known Presidents of the USA

Posted: 2002-07-14 12:34pm
by Pablo Sanchez
Remember, it's your favorite president, not the best.

My list
Ulysses S. Grant: A good general, an awful president. While he wasn't corrupt himself, he defended people who were. He also drank constantly and was marginally competent. But he was very honest and more grizzled than Robert Duvall.

Andrew Jackson: Two words come to mind... Complete Asshole. He liked to kill people, his claim to fame was the Battle of New Orleans, which occurred a week after the peace treaty was concluded, and he hated Indians. During the war of 1812, he would execute his soldiers for almost any offense. I like him for the same reason I like Josef Stalin and the USSR; he's a badass and wouldn't take shit from anybody.

Posted: 2002-07-14 02:53pm
by Wicked Pilot
Lincoln is of course my favorite.

A less popular president would be Harry S Truman. He ended WWII, then saved Europe with the Marshall Plan. He oversaw the country's successfull retooling from war to civil economy. He was the first president to campaign to blacks, he desegrated the military, and publicly spoke out against racial inequality. When McArthur lost the tide of war in Korea because of his own arrogance and recklessness, Truman had the balls to fire his ass. Just like LBJ, Truman took over for a popular president, and dove into the fire kicking ass all the way.

Don't ever forget the little guy from Mossouri.

Re: Favorite Lesser-Known Presidents of the USA

Posted: 2002-07-19 12:52am
by fgalkin2
Pablo Sanchez wrote:Remember, it's your favorite president, not the best.

My list
Ulysses S. Grant: A good general, an awful president. While he wasn't corrupt himself, he defended people who were. He also drank constantly and was marginally competent. But he was very honest and more grizzled than Robert Duvall.

Andrew Jackson: Two words come to mind... Complete Asshole. He liked to kill people, his claim to fame was the Battle of New Orleans, which occurred a week after the peace treaty was concluded, and he hated Indians. During the war of 1812, he would execute his soldiers for almost any offense. I like him for the same reason I like Josef Stalin and the USSR; he's a badass and wouldn't take shit from anybody.
Jackson is lesser-known? :?

Well, don't forget the spoils system, Worchester v. Georgia (i think), the trail of tears.

I love King Andrew!

Posted: 2002-07-19 12:59am
by Iceberg
They Might be Giants - from "Factory Showroom"

James K. Polk

In 1844, the Democrats were split
The three nominees for the presidential candidate
Were Martin Van Buren, a former president and an abolitionist
James Buchanan, a moderate
Louis Cass, a general and expansionist
From Nashville came a dark horse riding up
He was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump

Austere, severe, he held few people dear
His oratory filled his foes with fear
The factions soon agreed
He's just the man we need
To bring about victory
Fulfill our manifest destiny
And annex the land the Mexicans command
And when the votes were cast the winner was
Mister James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump

In four short years he met his every goal
He seized the whole southwest from Mexico
Made sure the tarriffs fell
And made the English sell the Oregon territory
He built an independent treasury
Having done all this he sought no second term
But precious few have mourned the passing of
Mister James K. Polk, our eleventh president
Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump

Posted: 2002-07-19 01:26am
by CmdrWilkens
My personal favorite?

Amongst the lesser knowns it would be Rutherford B Hayes just because he has the coolest name amongst the lesser known Presidents of the US.

Posted: 2002-07-19 01:28am
by fgalkin2
CmdrWilkens wrote:My personal favorite?

Amongst the lesser knowns it would be Rutherford B Hayes just because he has the coolest name amongst the lesser known Presidents of the US.
And got into office at the due to a political deal. Much like president Shrub today.

Posted: 2002-07-19 01:55am
by Singular Quartet
Taft.

He didn't want to be president, but his family made him run, and gave him a million dollars for campaigning.

He was the first president to throw the first pitch at a baseball game. He used a car instead of a horse drawn carrage. He installed bigger bathtubs in the white house (namely because he could barely fit in them) I think he was the first president to use a telephone? That, and he ate allot.

He was the president who didn't want to be president, but became one anyways. He was a lazy sonofabitch, and was good at it, too.

Posted: 2002-07-19 05:20am
by LordShaithis
Reminds me of this insane little story I wrote a couple years ago, about Darth Chester A. Arthur and the Dark Presidents of the Sith.

If you think it's bad, it's been worse

Posted: 2002-07-19 06:14am
by Carcharodon
"His speeches left the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea."
- William McAdoo, on Warren Harding

"A tin horn politician with the manner of a rural corn doctor and the mien of a ham actor."
- H. L. Mencken, on Warren G Harding.



He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered.
It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me
of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale
bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically
through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of
grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark
abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle
of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle.
It is balder and dash.

--H. L. Mencken, on the writings of
President Warren G. Harding


"The only man, woman, or child who ever wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead."
- e. e. cummings, on the death of Warren G. Harding


(Perhaps the last one no longer applies with the advent of the internet. Still . . .)


"Progression is not proclamation nor palaver. It is not pretense nor play on prejudice. It is not of personal pronouns, nor perennial pronouncement. It is not the perturbation of a people passion-wrought, nor a promise proposed."

- President Warren G. Harding
:shock:

Posted: 2002-07-19 07:18am
by His Divine Shadow
Nixon? :mrgreen: :twisted:

Posted: 2002-07-19 12:38pm
by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
If it wasn't for Watergate, Nixon would be one of the more popular modern presidents.

Calvin Coolidge had a tough job as president. He suceeded Harding, who was very corrupt. But Coolidge continued Harding's "Return to Normalcy" idea and won the 1924 Election in a landslide.

Posted: 2002-07-20 09:06am
by MKSheppard
Jefferson Davis.

Image

One of the great men of our Country......

Posted: 2002-07-20 12:41pm
by Pablo Sanchez
MKSheppard wrote:Jefferson Davis.
Did I say "favorite lesser known presidents of the CSA?" No. Come up with someone else, please :D

And take this:
jefferson davis
may he be locked in prison
the key lost and the record thrown away
may the prison be set adrift on a raft
the raft on a river
the river in the northwest corner of hell
with a southeast wind forever blowing ashes in his eyes


Not the exact words, but that's some graffiti inscribed on a wall by a 'citizen' of the CSA during the Civil War.

Posted: 2002-07-20 12:50pm
by MKSheppard
In a poll a few years back on people's favorite president, old Jeff Davis was on the list.

BWAHAHAHAH!

Posted: 2002-07-20 02:25pm
by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
With all the stupid kids, I wouldn't be suprised if they think Jefferson Davis was a founding father of the USA. Some don't even know what country the US got it's independence from!

three presidents to consider

Posted: 2002-07-20 06:30pm
by RayCav of ASVS
King Franklin I, King Lyndon I, and my personal favorite, King William I.

Jeff Davis

Posted: 2002-07-20 08:12pm
by John
While I admire his deterimation to fight for what he believed in, what he believed in was so horrible that no modern human (save a neo-nazi) could advocate it. And I remember the slogan popular in the North during the Civil War...Annihilation to Traitors.

Posted: 2002-07-20 10:23pm
by David
Washington! Because he had them cooool wooden teeth.

Posted: 2002-07-21 01:57am
by Singular Quartet
There was this one president who was only president for a day, because the president elect refused to be swarn in on a sunday. So this guy was president for a day, and he slept till noon.

Posted: 2002-07-21 02:18am
by Anarchist Bunny
*to the theme of Shaft* Taft. Your damn right... he's one lazy mother,
WATCH YOUR MOUTH!
But I'm talking Taft
I don't give a shit.

Posted: 2002-07-21 02:26am
by Singular Quartet
anarchistbunny wrote:*to the theme of Shaft* Taft. Your damn right... he's one lazy mother,
WATCH YOUR MOUTH!
But I'm talking Taft
I don't give a shit.
Actually, the Kids show Hysteria! did a theme song for taft. If only I could find it...

Posted: 2002-07-21 03:02am
by The Yosemite Bear
9th President William Henry Harrison.

The Shortest Term in office ever. (Also why one should never give very long speachses outdoors, in bad weather.

Posted: 2002-07-21 08:56am
by David
For those who don't know; it was frezy cold and he got pneumonia.

Posted: 2002-07-21 03:10pm
by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
The greatest US president is, IMO, Abe Lincoln, who freed the slaves (contrary to what some think, it wasn't Bill Clinton).

I think the best presidents of the late 20th century (1950-present) were JFK and Reagan. JFK was young, popular, and got us through many national crises, and Reagan got the economy on track in the 80's, and with a military buildup, ended the Cold War. He was made even more popular by the fact he suceeded Jimmy Carter.

Posted: 2002-07-21 10:39pm
by David
The greatest US president is, IMO, Abe Lincoln, who freed the slaves (contrary to what some think, it wasn't Bill Clinton).

Actually he didn't. Slaves that were still in the Union ( mostly in Tennessee) were still slaves after the Gettesburg Address. He only said the slaves were free to get blacks to enlist in the Union army.