Thursdays with Theodore, Episode 7/20/06
Dear Readers,
Welcome to this week's edition of "Thursdays with Theodore." I have a complex question to get to, so without further hesitation ("adieu" is too Frenchy, in my book), I will answer it.
Jack X writes:
Dearest Ted,
1) Bill Clinton - west-coast, liberal elite.
2) FDR - west-coast, liberal elite.
3) JFK - west-coast, liberal elite.
4) Lincoln - west-coast, liberal elite.
5) John Quincy Adams - generally ineffective, and his election is seen as having been stolen from Andrew Jackson. Plus, he was a member of the west-coast, liberal elite.
5 best, in reverse order:
5) Teddy Roosevelt - would be higher, but his anti-free market, pro-regulation stances move him down a bit. His strong defense and anti-tree hugging stances made him great, though.
4) John Adams - the Alien and Sedition Acts were the forerunners of today's terrorist surveillance laws, which allows us to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here.
3) Richard Milhous Nixon - set up a lot of the modern surveillance programs used by W to keep us safe so we don't have to fight them here.
2) Ronald Wilson Reagan - single-handedly killed the Soviet Union.
1) W - divinely-inspired and good folk; he fights them there so we don't have to fight them here.
There you have it folks. Thank you for your thoughtful question, Jack X.
Jack X and other dear readers, thank you for loving America!
-Theodore Trumblebunks, I, Esq.
Welcome to this week's edition of "Thursdays with Theodore." I have a complex question to get to, so without further hesitation ("adieu" is too Frenchy, in my book), I will answer it.
Jack X writes:
Dearest Ted,
Going back to the topic of presidents, who do you think, in US History, were the five best Presidents, and who do you think were the five worst Presidents and why?
Sincerely,
Jack X
Well Jack X, I'm going to give you fairly short and sweet answers here.
5 worst:1) Bill Clinton - west-coast, liberal elite.
2) FDR - west-coast, liberal elite.
3) JFK - west-coast, liberal elite.
4) Lincoln - west-coast, liberal elite.
5) John Quincy Adams - generally ineffective, and his election is seen as having been stolen from Andrew Jackson. Plus, he was a member of the west-coast, liberal elite.
5 best, in reverse order:
5) Teddy Roosevelt - would be higher, but his anti-free market, pro-regulation stances move him down a bit. His strong defense and anti-tree hugging stances made him great, though.
4) John Adams - the Alien and Sedition Acts were the forerunners of today's terrorist surveillance laws, which allows us to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here.
3) Richard Milhous Nixon - set up a lot of the modern surveillance programs used by W to keep us safe so we don't have to fight them here.
2) Ronald Wilson Reagan - single-handedly killed the Soviet Union.
1) W - divinely-inspired and good folk; he fights them there so we don't have to fight them here.
There you have it folks. Thank you for your thoughtful question, Jack X.
Jack X and other dear readers, thank you for loving America!
-Theodore Trumblebunks, I, Esq.
posted by Theodore Trumblebunks, I, Esq. at 10:27 PM
8 Comments:
Very interesting. I thought George Washington would have made the list...
It's also interesting how three of your worst presidents have their faces on US currency. A good friend of mine once told me that he believes Presidents should not have their faces on currency. As for my five best:
1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. Ronald Reagan
4. James K. Polk
5. as the Bunkers once said on "All in the Family," "Mister, we can use a man like...Herbert Hoover again!"
Five worst or overrated:
1. Warren Harding
2. Woodrow Wilson
3. William Henry Harrison
4. Bill Clinton
5. to break the "W" streak: Jimmy Carter
I am leaving the current leader off the lists as he is still in power and I would wait until after his term ends to reach a verdict.
one other thing: I noticed you mentioned those 5 worst presidents as being part of the "west-coast, liberal elite," well, I didn't know that Clinton, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lincoln, and J.Q. Adams were from the west-coast. I thought it was, respectively, Arkansas, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Massachusetts. To me, I think there are a lot more liberals in New England than on the West Coast. How else did California give us the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan?
Try having some kind of criticism other than “west-coast, liberal elite” - you sound like a broken record. As for your 5 worst, consider:
1. Clinton – presided over one of the most impressive economic expansions in US history. Oh, and by the way, he was from ARKANSAS, not the west-coast!
2. FDR – elected four times, brought the country out of the depression, and fought the Nazis.
3. JFK – how could you have a problem with the President who stood up to Castro? I thought you didn’t like communists? Or are you possibly a “closet-communist”?
4. Lincoln – again, not exactly west-coast. And there’s the whole fighting for the freedom of an oppressed people.
5. J.Q. Adams – true about the election. Not west-coast, and also fought for the freedom of oppressed people – remember that whole Amistad thing?
Now for you 5 “best”:
1. Teddy Roosevelt – OK, I don’t agree with some of his war-hawking, but I do like his rugged individualism.
2. John Adams – defended the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, and Alien & Sedition Acts basically took away freedom of speech (very American).
3. Nixon – actually was “west-coast elite” and there’s the fact that he was STARK RAVING MAD!!!
4. Reagan – another west-coaster, sold arms to terrorists, and armed/funded Bin-laden. Plus, the Soviet Union collapsed because of the inherent flaws in Stalinist ideologies (note – it was Stalinism which failed, not necessarily communism).
5. Bush – has created the largest national deficit in history, destroying the largest national surplus (which we had before he rigged the election by disenfranchising thousands of African-Americans).
Yeah, some great role models you've got here . . .
Both of you fail to realize that some of these west-coast liberal elites truly did live on the wet coast in their day, considering the expansion of our country and where the border used to be. The others share the same failed ideology of the west-coast liberal elite.
More importantly, why do you hate W? And as an extension, why do you hate America by hating W?
-Theodore Trumblebunks, I, Esq.
Just because you may not care for the current commander in chief, who is, in your vision "divinly inspired," does not mean you hate America. Sure, the President is the leader; however, he is simply an American citizen who is elected to serve the people--not spy, not fight, not kill, but serve the people. If Bill Clinton were the president still and you said you hated him, then, by logic, I can ask you "why do you hate America?" I'm not necessarily a Clinton supporter and, yes, I voted for GWB two years ago, but I don't agree with the direction his Presidency has turned. Sure, some of what happened wasn't his fault (9/11, Katrina), but the aftermath of the latter is the fault of him and his administration, the fault of Louisiana's weak, "middle school principal" governor, the fault of the "Chocolate City" mayor (a comment that offended me greatly, as one whose family hailed from that city and had distant relatives who lost everything or almost everything from the storm). I am not saying one level of government deserves more blame than the other, but each level has to pull its own weight to protect the people from their rights, and not just simply "say" they are or are trying to "spread their rights" (*cough* Iraq *cough*).
Actually, Iraq is simply the thing GWB is weighing his presidency on (such that he doesn't care about some domesticated issue, such as the rebuilding of New Orleans), and sadly, it's a very weak card, like the...6 of clubs. Sure, maybe in a few years, a second democracy will arise in the Middle East, but, well, when there is a religion that seems to advocate, or at least, tolerates killing yourself and innocent people in the name of a god, that's just impossible. I didn't capitalize God in the previous sentence because I am not sure if the One I worship legitimately tolerates that. And he is putting things out to be perfect or moving in the right direction, or, in his terms "staying the course." Not true. I personally think the military has done as much as it can (at least the 127,000 soldiers who are there), regardless of numbers, and it's time for Iraq to stand up and defend its own country and assist in fighting the terrorists there. There comes a time where you have to take off the training wheels--the time has come for Iraq or has possibly passed--but the wheels are not gone.
Ok, there is my rant. I'll sign of.
JAX Int'l. Airport
Oh, and don't forget, John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts not only hurt his Presidency but it also killed the Federalist Party.
Anonymous, you fail to consider the fact that God sent us George W. Bush to be our President, and as W himself said, he feels that God wants him to be President. America is founded on Christian principles, and the Christian God intended for us to have W as President. Therefore, W = America, and hating W = hating America. It's really simple, if you think about it.
And the Alien and Sedition Acts were opposed by the west-coast, liberal elite who hated freedom. John Adams wanted to fight them there so we didn't have to fight them here. Though he lost the battle, Adams won the war in setting up an apparatus for W to use to protect us with!
-Theodore Trumblebunks, I, Esq.
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