My Thoughts on the Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson

LBJ took a role as President after JFK was assassinated in 1963.

Domestically (despite a questionable past in politics) LBJ was pretty liberal socially. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was the most major form of equal rights law in history. 

He also created Medicare for the eldery, and Medicaid for the poor. Both programs still help out many today. 

He also help created programs such as Head Start and Food Stamps. 

However the one thing that came to haunt LBJ was not riots in the streets, but rather war in the East. His arrogance with the Vietnam war costed us a lot of money, time, and lives, and ruined his political career. The prevention of the spread of Communism might have seemed like one of the most important objectives in history back in the 1960's however today, we can see Vietnam as a meaningless lost cause. 

Despite a big mistake in foreign matters, I think LBJ was a pretty good president. He made a lot of progress when it came to social and domestic issues. 

My Thoughts On The Presidency of John F. Kennedy

JFK beat Nixon in a close race to become our 3rd President to serve during the cold war. 

Most of what JFK was notable for dealt with foreign affairs. For example one of the first things that happen was the Bay of Pigs invasion. Where the CIA had trained Cuban rebels to overthrow the Castro-Communist government. Needless to say, that plan flopped pretty hard. 

The Cuban Missile Crisis had the world on the edge of it's toes over the thought of nuclear war. Thankfully it ended with both sides making compromising and removing nukes close to their rival's homelands. 

JFK also had a lot to do with the prevention of Communist countries such as Laos and Vietnam. At least he didn't mess things up as badly as LBJ did. 

I do have to thank him for the creation of the Peace Corps which still operates and helps many today. 

He also helped hurl us into the Space Race when we were lagging behind the Soviets. Might seem kinda silly today, but it really helped boost American morale back then. 

JFK was a friend to civil rights, and did a lot to help the cause. Granted he did wait cautiously for fear of the racist Southern Democrats (most of whom later switched to the Republican side) trying to block all his civil rights bills. 

Of course it all ended short when JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Texas. 

As for Oswald, I believe if he wasn't acting alone then he was working for some criminal mafia-type group. Maybe he worked as one of their thugs and perhaps they didn't want him to link them to the death of a U.S. president. Which pretty much meant that whole police force on all levels would hunt you down.  

I think JFK was a good president, however I think his legacy is a bit heightened because his reign was cut short too soon. 

My Thoughts On The Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower took over after Truman to become the first Republican president since Herbert Hoover.  

Despite being from a different party, Eisenhower didn't try to destroy New Deal issues like Social Security. In fact he actually expanded them to make them better. I swear today, he would have switched parties after seeing how far-right the GOP has become. 

He was also responsible for the creation of a lot of the public highways in America. Which I think was great for the economy in the long run for transportation of goods and travelling. 

He also saw the Cold War rise to new tensions during his term. I think he did a good job at keeping peace, but showing our enemies that we can be forceful if provoked. 

He also was a friend to civil rights. Even though his civil rights bills were weak compared to one in 1964, it was still milestone progress for it's time. 

I think Eisenhower wasn't the greatest president in history, but he was an awfully good one. One of the few presidents for which I have almost no criticism.  

My Thoughts On The Presidency of Harry S. Truman

Harry Truman became president after the death of FDR in 1945. Bringing him into power at the climax of World War II. 

Which meant he had to make the tough decisions of using nuclear weapons on a city of innocent people .

And he had to make the order twice. 

Despite the questionable use of nuclear weapons, he was also pretty alright with foreign affiars. He helped found the United Nations, the rebuilding of Europe, and the prevention of North Korea taking over the South with the Korean War. 

Domestically he was a questionable friend of labor rights. Except his solutions to end major strikes seemed too forceful. 

He also had to deal with extreme fears of communism at home which came to form as McCarthyism. 

Which didn't help matters when it came to introducing more social-progressive ideas. He was one of the first presidents to really try to get our country universal health care. The Republican Congress weren't fans of his Fair Deal. 

Some of things relating to civil rights seemed a bit sketchy under his term, but he did make some advancements. One of the most notable ones being the de-segregation of troops in the military. 

Overall I think Truman was a pretty good president. An easy top ten placer for sure. 

My Thoughts on the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is one of my favorite presidents, and while his presidency has a lot of things to cover, for sake of length I will only talk about the major things. 

It was under FDR that we got Social Security, many labor reforms, and the increase of the American standard of living. 

Despite economic and social-welfare success, the biggest point of his presidency was that of World War II. Unlike our involvement in World War I, we didn't waste any time after getting attacked. 

Thankfully under his leadership, along with our allies we were able to take down Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. 

He also worked very closely with the other leaders of the world. FDR, Churchill, and Stalin were the triple team against the Axis of Evil. Which is a bit ironic since Stalin was one evil dude. 

I'm generally favorable of most of his presidency except for the case of the interment camps which arrested and detained German, Italian, and more notably Japanese-Americans for no real reason. 

It's a bit of shame that FDR died right before the war ended. 

I'm a bit ashamed of my fellow Americans who believe the tainted legacy foretold by Conservative Republicans and Libertarians. Despite your political views, he did a lot, and I admire and respect him for it. 

My Thoughts on the Presidency of Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover took over after winning an election after Coolidge decided not to re-run for office.

He was a bit of a reformer, going after tax cheats and gangsters. It was under his term that Al Capone was targeted for his crimes. 

Hoover was rather mum on the issues of civil rights. Ironically he had the first Vice President (Charles Curtis) with a majority of Native American ancestry. 

The biggest thing about his presidency was easily the Great Depression. He had some good ideas, but I feel like they were rather half-assed attempts that were very flawed or just a little too late for it matter. People needed governmental assistance when the private business world crashed and burned, and obviously got ignored. 

Hoover might not have been one of the worst presidents ever, but he's a bit of a joke. I think he had some good intentions, but he wasn't very good at pushing an agenda or being remotely decisive. 

My Thoughts on the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge

Coolidge took over after Harding's death. 

He didn't do terribly much as president. I think the greatest thing I can say about him was that he was a friend to civil rights. He supported anti-lynching bills, and gave Native Americans citizenship. 

He was also a very conservative President when it came to taxes. Lowering it for many, even eliminating taxes for some people. He also tried to eliminate some of the national debt.  

He also took a stance trying to block corporate welfare concerning the farming industry. Most of the bills did seem to be rather awful to the small farmer, and more just a bunch of bullcrap to big business and corrupt officials. 

Was Coolidge good or bad? I'd say a bit lackluster, even though I don't agree with some of things I've read about, most of his reign was mostly a bunch of little things that either are not worth caring about or doesn't apply much to today's world. 

My Thoughts on the Presidency of Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding became our 29th President after a landslide victory. 

He was the first President to really reform budgeting and accounting. I believe since Harding, every year a President presented a budget to Congress. Which was a good move I think. 

Bad fate seem to hit Harding pretty early in his term. People were coming home from World War I and the wartime economy had some trouble transferring over to a peacetime one. Harding was credited to solving the depression that followed by cutting the high taxes to fund the war.

Despite being rather conservative, he did spend a bit more than you might think. He gave money to build highways, knowing full-well the advantages of the "motor car" to the American people. 

He was rather unhelpful towards labor though. When strikes came out they usually were met with Federal force and unlike previous times the government was behind business not the workers. 

Ironically he was responsible for the first major social-welfare act in American history. A program for pregnant women and sick children. Or as the Republicans would call it today as "Socialized Medicine". 

I give him respect for releasing many Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists who were imprisoned during the first Red Scare. Freedom of Speech comes first and that's what he did!

During his term, he had many scandals plague his office. One of them being the Teapot Scandal among many others. Most of these scandals were people under him using their role in government to get rich. Perhaps the first major case in modern American history of such a plague of corruption and money. 

Shortly before his first term was up, Harding died of unknown causes. His wife might have killed him by poison, or he might of died of stroke or heart attack. It was quite a strange case, maybe a bigger mystery than the "Who really killed JFK?" theories. His wife did tried to burn many of his Presidential papers to "protect his legacy" or something. What did Harding do behind the backs of Americans? The world may never know. 

I don't have too many hard feeling towards Harding. I admit he did a lot of good things, and did a lot of things in such a short time. He may not have been a great president due to scandals, but I wouldn't call him bad.