Being the President is a dirty job. How many presidents left with clean hands?

[AZ Progressive]

Certainly not Obama. Obama has the terror of drone strikes that have killed thousands of civilians, as well as the increase of soldier deaths in Afghanistan during his administration. Also the overthrow of the democratically elected leader of Honduras, and the result has been disastrous to Honduras.

Not George W. Bush of course. 3000 people killed in 9/11 and the whole damn Iraq War that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and 4000 soldier deaths.

Not Bill Clinton. The continuation of the Iraq sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of children. The Kosovo War was unnecessary and not about saving lives (Albanians were not as nice as portrayed.)

Not George HW Bush. The first Gulf War and the Iraq sanctions.

Not Reagan of course. Don't get me started. The funding of the Mujahideen for one led to Al Qaeda.

Not Nixon of course. Aside from the obvious political dirtiness (which includes the Southern Strategy), the continuation of the Vietnam War and tens of thousands more soldier deaths. The War on Drugs (which is basically a covert war against blacks and hispanics.)

Not LBJ of course. Turned the Vietnam war into a major war and tens of thousands of soldier deaths during his administration.

Not Eisenhower. Operation Wetback.

Not Truman. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Not FDR. The Japanese internment.

Not Teddy Roosevelt. The Philippine war. The start of America's brutal dominance of Latin America and the start of the American empire.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. So maybe we need to quit giving them a pass, and start sending them to jail when they commit crimes

so that maybe they'll stop committing crimes?

No one should be above the law, and our war criminals should go to trial like anyone else's.

[840high]

15. Yep

[Vincardog]

2. Jimmy Carter

[99th_Monkey]

3. +10 nt

[HuckleB]

6. Probably not.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/18/jimmy-carters-blood-drenched-legacy/

"“Carter was the least violent of American presidents but he did things which I think would certainly fall under Nuremberg provisions,” said Noam Chomsky. Much like Nobel Peace-prize winner Barack Obama 30 years later, Carter was an advocate of human rights in the abstract, but of repression and imposition of power through violence in practice."

The piece lists his less than admirable acts.

[FLPanhandle]

7. Only President since FDR not to get us in a war

And left the office in debt.

That is an honest man.

[NYC Liberal]

16. Sorry but even Carter is not exempt.

He continued Ford's funding/backing of Indonesia's invasion and occupation of East Timor that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

[riderinthestorm]

4. Jimmy Carter stands out as the anomaly in your list

It can be done. It has been done. We need to demand better

[HuckleB]

10. Alas, he was no anomaly.

http://fair.org/media-beat-column/jimmy-carter-and-human-rights-behind-the-media-myth/

[PatrickforO]

5. Jimmy Carter. The great Jimmy Carter is the ONLY one who left office

with clean hands.

But one can make a compelling case for war crimes for everyone listed in your post. But, please let's NOT forget Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney and the rest.

And don't forget Nixon's greatest crime - having his friends in State stall the peace talks with Hanoi so he could roundly defeat the Hube in 1968. If only Bobby hadn't been gunned down...

[HuckleB]

8. I admire Jimmy Carter, but he was not clean.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/18/jimmy-carters-blood-drenched-legacy/

and...

http://fair.org/media-beat-column/jimmy-carter-and-human-rights-behind-the-media-myth/

[Quixote1818]

9. Thomas Jefferson quote

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Thomas Jefferson

[HuckleB]

11. +1,000,000 ... 000

Such a brilliant man, regardless of his faults.

[MrScorpio]

12. I've been saying this for a long time…

People don't want to listen to it.

It's doesn't matter who gets elected. No matter what, that president will do something that will piss off the very people who've elected that person to office.

It's the nature of the beast and it's the nature of America.

If you don't think that it could happen, I have no idea what country you think America actually is.

[HuckleB]

14. We are all great "Monday morning Presidents after a Sunday afternoon debacle."

Or something like that.

It's not a job I would ever want, and not just because I like my "alone time."

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

17. There's a difference between 'pissing people off' and 'committing crimes'.

And a lot of our Presidents have gotten away with committing crimes. They no more should get a free pass for their crimes than our police should.

[HuckleB]

13. William Henry Harrison?

32 days. Did he get out clean?

[deutsey]

18. We should stop trying to elect demigods

or father/mother figures or whatever psychological claptrap we project onto our political leaders. They're human beings and the oh-so exalted Oval Office and White House have no mystical, holy aura about them.