NFT: Who do you believe was the Greatest US President?

[Jian]

 and just to stir things up some more for this new non political - political category........

Obama is not the first president to raise the question of whether or not he is a genuine US citizen...... back in the day there was many a frontier fistfight over Andrew Jackson birth papers ........ at least that was a time that you'd figure it would be hard to trace .....

[worf49]

Thomas Jefferson would be my choice.

As an aside our first International War was The Barbary Wars.  Guess who good people?  Yep, our old buddies the Arab Jihadist were killing our sailors and looting our ships and a spineless Congress was paying a bounty the Arabs, until Jefferson took over and created a powerful Navy.

He then loaded the ships with Marines and they sailed over to Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, and Libya and kicked total butt.

Jefferson also had read The koran and told everyone this was a violent murderous religion and America had better be on guard.

[Jian]

 All true, at least according to history Worf. Not to worry I'm basing my account off of the same victors lol

. I'm only an amatuer historian, but America can be such an interesting subject historywise. That doesn't even begin to cover American football .........

[Sem]

  Obama is not the first president to raise the question of whether or not he is a genuine US citizen.

Obama didn't raise the question, the idiot birthers did.  Its obvious to me that facts didn't matter, it was all simply a feeble attempt at political gain. Trump, on the other hand, has his own motives for continuing this nonsense.   

[tomeee]

So mod's are you going to report your grades of this experiment.

I give it a D minus.

[MightyGiants]

So mod's are you going to report your grades of this experiment.

I give it a D minus.

That's about what I would give it. 

[bamagiantfan]

In fairness, it is consistent with most topics we've had in recent months that fail to remain on topic once they get past the 3rd or 4th post. We've all played various parts in that.

I wouldn't grade it as low as a "D minus". I've learned a little from some of the posts and there is some good insight and fact amid the detours, but the topic belongs on a different board.

[BlueMoshik]

If anyone can be said to have been the author of the Constitution it would be James Madison, with its philosophical father being the English philosopher Edmund Burke.

That's right about Madison. But I believe you are thinking of John Locke, not Edmund Burke.

[BlueMoshik]

A couple of folks deserve a D maybe. The rest of us deserve much higher. Give credit where it's due.

[LennG]

 A ++++++++++++++

[JimboWHO]

  Obama is not the first president to raise the question of whether or not he is a genuine US citizen.

Obama didn't raise the question, the idiot birthers did.  Its obvious to me that facts didn't matter, it was all simply a feeble attempt at political gain. Trump, on the other hand, has his own motives for continuing this nonsense.

Actually, this is not true.

Obama signed with a publishing agency Acton & Dystel in 1991.  He was recruited to write his first book.  At this time the agency assembled a promotional booklet featuring Obama and 80 or 90 other writers in their "stable".  This 36 page booklet contained a bio on each author.  Here's Obama's, straight from the booklet:


"Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation. He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago

[dasher]

I think this topic met the mods hidden agenda- can a high road great president discussion ultimately take the low road of partisan politics. Well done.

[vette5573]

Here is my take on this thread so far. I think if you read the OP, it was explained clearly so I don't believe there was any hidden agenda here. In one day it's at 5 pages and over 400 reviews. That speaks for itself. Most members seem to agree that this type of NFT doesn't belong on the football forum. History however has shown that it would never have gotten the participation it has gotten if it was on a separate "Current Events" Board.

I purposely chose this topic and gave it specific parameters to see which way it would go and who would take it where. For you newer members who have joined in the last year, we used to have a board called "The Back Porch". On that board, you could discuss anything. It turned into a political board with a clear division in viewpoint. It got nasty many times. Some members left because of it. One or two persons only posted on that board. There were some personal attacks going on there too.

My theory is that just about any current event topic can turn into a heated discussion. It can go downhill very quickly. If you look at the posts on this thread, some members followed the guidelines very clearly. Some expounded and provided some interesting perspective and history. Some didn't and took it where it shouldn't have gone and I believe it's because they didn't experience what went on at the Back Porch.

So the question is, what exactly can be discussed that won't turn into offensive comments that someone is bound not to like?

The other point to bring up is how should this type of forum be moderated? Nobody likes when it's too heavy handed. Somebody though has to be the judge on such topics. If I had to moderate this thread based on the parameters, I either would have had to send out a dozen PM's requesting a tone down or a request to get back on topic or saved myself a ton of time and just deleted the posts. My experience with PM's is that this goes back and forth for days. Nobody, even a retired person has that kind of time.

The subject of debate is also something to be considered. I believe that for such a topic to exist or for such a board to exist, a rule has to be in place. You can state your opinion, you can question someone else's opinion or remark for clarification, but no debates allowed.

All that being said, 5 pages and 400 reviews make this the most participated thread in recent time. Many members enjoyed talking about this. So, if we can stay on topic, not debate, not sway the conversation toward a political agenda or perception, this could actually be an enjoyable discussion.


So, leaving party politics out of the conversation and keeping this void of debate because it's about subjective perspective, who do you believe was the greatest President Of The United States? Then, who was your favorite President? Why?

My personal perspective, I think my reflection of the president has to look at the challenges he faced and how he handled them, his contribution to the people of this country and how history looks back on him.

Were the biggest challenges faced by Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Truman and GW Bush? I want to say Lincoln although he was a white supremest, but it was the mentality of the times.

My favorite would be Adams, Jefferson and Clinton. I would actually like to have a beer with Bill Clinton.

[JimboWHO]

I think this topic met the mods hidden agenda- can a high road great president discussion ultimately take the low road of partisan politics. Well done.

Where's the low road?

All I've seen is lively but largely polite discussion.  Opinions are shared and facts are supplied. 

I agree with LENN... A+++++


JJM

PS  The Mighty One does a great job but how many times are we really gonna kick around Barden's prospects, Osi's fate and who the starting Mike will be??

[nb587]

I agree with Jimbo. This has been a pretty civil and interesting conversation. It did go off topic slightly but not crazy and personally I don't get offended by heated conversation and I suspect most don't either.  I'm dying to ask one of the posters if he has been off his meds but am resisting.