My favorite politician is Abraham Lincoln. I must say that for years I had doubts about two of the supposedly five best Presidents--- Thomas Jefferson and FDR. The unquestioned two best are Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. The top five is often rounded out by Woodrow Wilson or Teddy Roosevelt.

While I have changed my mind on FDR, I remain steadfastly convinced that Thomas Jefferson has not only been highly overrated in the eyes of history but is a rather despicable person. I will leave it at that unless someone posts in support of him.

Mudcat, Dollar and Cyclist make some very interesting comments about FDR. He knew how to lead American but he also listened. He knew America did not want any part of “that war in Europe” after the blood bath of WWI. But he quietly prepared, lied in his October 1940 re-election radio speech about never entering the war, knowing where we would be and how we needed to be led. Yes, his social programs and court-packing plan were a betrayal of his Constitutional oath. These bothered me for years. But when you read about his struggles during the summer and fall of 1944, knowing he was dying, and summoning the strength to campaign one more time because America needed him, was true patriotic greatness. For example, when he campaigned in an open motorcar in the rain, in New York, at the end of the campaign to show America he had the strength to serve, his staff would drive his car every couple miles into a garage, change his wet clothes, dry his cold and pained body, give him a shot of brandy and repeat the process until he greeted a cheering crowd at Ebbetts Field. Some say that towards the end Eleanor was the president (the same could be said of Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith in 1920).

The greatest was Lincoln. He saved the union. He finally and singlehandedly gave the free roots of our country meaning by abolishing slavery, albeit in a practical, brokered and transitional manner. But Lincoln understood the legal and political weakness of the 13 colonies and the Articles of Confederation and why the Constitution was and is the only answer. Read about America in the early 1880’s and you will answer the question why, in 1865, the South had no legal right to form the Confederacy. Anyone wanting to understand the political enormity of the boiling over slave issue that Lincoln inherited need only read the Chapter entitled “The Silence” from the excellent book written by Joseph J. Ellis “Founding Brothers”. In order to form the union, the slave issue was deferred for a minimum of 50 years by constitutional amendment, or else the union would never have made it to 1800 and Britain would have spanked us in the War of 1812.

G35Dude--- very funny and very accurate. Zig Zag Zell Miller challenged the Baptists and got the lottery established. It was leadership. The result---- poor Georgians volunteer to subsidize the education of the middle class through their lottery tickets. Very amusing.

Thank you Kevin...I have enjoyed this post.

I've gotta go with Sam Nunn.

I yam what I yam...Popeye

Good ole Zig Zag Zell. Say what you want about Zell Miller but millions of Georgia kids have a college education because of him. (Mine included)No other politician has ever done anything so tangible for me.

An easy one for me; Franklin D. Roosevelt, a very wealthy, crippled man who saved the USA from being a third world country.
He literally worked himself to death for us initially, and later for the salvation of Europe and the far east.
To put it in a few words, he prevented the USA from becoming a class society (rich and poor) by allowing those less fortunate to have an even chance; and, he stopped dictators of horrible ideas from dominating all of Europe and the far east.
He also listened to perfectly selected advisors when necessary.