What exactly makes a great president?

[TheWizardOfMudd]

I say it is a president who is faced with a great threat, great attack, or great monumental task, and rises to the occassion as a great leader to defeat the great obstacle or challenge, unite the country, and make the country greater.

I'm talking George Washington, who drew upon great personal strength and patience to hold up our newly-birthed country upon its young, shakey, unsure legs.

I'm talking Franklin Delanor Roosevelt who weathered the attack on our soil, defeated our offensive and aggressive enemies, and practically single-handedly brought about our country's recovery.

I'm talking Abraham Lincoln, who risked it all so that cruelty would not expand into the West and so the Union would survive.

Perhaps I'm missing one or two, but I will tell you one goddamn thing for sure, NEITHER RONALD REAGAN NOR GEORGE W. BUSH FIT THAT BILL AND THEY NEVER WILL.

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Transparency and an IQ at least 2 standard deviations higher than mine

Which isn't hard.

[troublemaker]

2. I agree with your conclusion, but one petty point:

the last president to deal with a foreign power attacking on our soil was James Madison.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

4. Thank you for the correction

Hawaii was not a state, yet.

[leftofthedial]

3. nowadays, for starters . . .

a "D" beside their name on the ballot

[theboss]

5. Goals, accomplishments, flexibility, integrity

Presidents must have clear, profound goals; they must accomplish them, and they must show flexibility and creativity in times of Congress. And they must do it with Integrity.

By this notion, I think only Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR qualify as truly great.

Reagan probably had the clearest vision (goals) of any President since FDR. But I am not sure if what he is credited for is truly his accomplishment (defeating Communism, fixing the economy).

I don't think W meets any of these criteia. His agenda has changed so many times I've lost track. I don't know what he has accomplished either.

As an aside, Clinton to me always failed on the vision part of this. He abandoned the one truly revolutionary goal from his campaign - health care. His State of the Union addresses towards the end started to annoy me because they were just lists of small, interesting programs that never seemed to add up to a whole.

[lapfog_1]

6. and both he and Gore missed

a great opportunity to launch the US toward renewable energy
Independence. That would have been a "vision thing" much like
Kennedy's "moon race", and could have been yielding results right
now... instead, we are 11 years closer to "peak oil" (or, perhaps,
11 years closer to "end oil" having already passed peak), and
involved in wars in the middle east mostly to secure those resources
for ourselves. (Forget all about "democracy and freedom" crap).

It would have been tough, it would not have been popular, but
we MUST do it, and not at the last minute when oil hits $300/barrel
and gas is $50/gallon and people are starving everywhere because
of the cost of growing food (there is a huge amount of cheap oil
in growing food).

Oil company owned repugs will never embark on it, and seem to be
headed toward a policy of "consume as much as we can, as quickly
as we can, and if we run out, we will simply invade other countries
to get whatever we need".

Oh well.

[SuffragetteSal]

7. Effective at listening and communicating...bingo!

google also says:

A creative visionary

Master of change

Motivated

Driven

Confident

Effective at listening and communicating

Open-minded

Unstoppable

Has a team & uses them