Whom do you see as the most underrated and overrated presidents?

Nixon is underrated. FDR overrated.

Overrated: by far, FDR.

Underrated: not sure.

Overrated – JFK

Underrated – Wilson

overrated: Ronald Reagan. He probably didn’t mean for it to happen, but his handlers did.

Underrated: John Adams. BY FAR!!. This man should have been on Mount Rushmore. He showed us what the Constitution was really about when he defended the British soldiers successfully for the Boston massacre and he kept the fledgling USA out of war with France during one of our most fragile times as a country. He was rarely afraid to stand up for his beliefs and they were often very unpopular. By contrast, his good friends were Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson–both very well liked and more popular with the public at the time whose ideas were often accepted at face value. Finally, he was a tried and true family man who loved his wife and sought her counsel throughout his life. Not all presidents (including Thomas Jefferson) can admit to this.

Despite all his failings, Nixon did alot for the environment and this is often overlooked.

I too will say Regan is way overrrated.

Nixon to me is often underrated. He madehuge advancements in environmental policy.

I see Clinton overrated. A lot of his issues were put off until bush era.

Overrated? I’d definitely say Reagan or Nixon.

Underrated? Definitely Clinton. Yes he made some mistakes in his personal life, but I think we let that overshadow all of the great things he did do.

Overrated: Reagan. Those who revere him as a tax cutter ignore what he did to offset the cuts. His obsession with outspending the Soviet Union on Defense made deficit spending a routine.

Underrated: Clinton. He left office with a balanced budget. His successes are overshadowed by impeachment carried out by Gingrich, a guy who was having an affair.

Underrated: Barack Obama. The man inherited a FDR-esque series of catastrophes and held together the nation in spite of visceral recalcitrance in congress.

Overrated: Andrew Jackson. Although the man is justifiably appreciable for democratizing the US government from it’s previous hold of US elites, he committed atrocities against native american poopulaces that are unforgivable. His visage should thus be removed from the $20 and replaced by a more universally respectable American like MLK, James Madison or Dwight Eisenhower.

in the current 24-hour, ideological blatherfest … Ronald Reagan is the single most miunderstood president of recent memory. The man was a living contradiction that neither republicans nor democrats acknowledge. He understood – sometims, no matter how hard you want it … you throw away your “pet” ideology and do what is needed .. no what you want.

Politicians today excessively pride themselves on never wavering on a position. These, ladies and gentlement, are the idiots who will drive a car off a cliff to avoid admiting that they should stop and maybe turn around. Ignorance isn’t bravery. Change isn’t cowardice.

During my lifetime, and considering only former presidents, Gerald Ford and Bush 41 are about tied for most underrated. Ford threw his own career under the bus to put Watergate behind us, and Bush 41’s policies laid the groundwork for the prosperity we had under Clinton. Most overrated is Reagan, hands down, for all the reasons others have given. I predict that 20 years from now, Obama will be either one or the other. He’s not nearly as great as his ardent supporters think, nor as bad (by a looooong shot) as his rabid detractors would have us believe.

George Washington is the most overrated. The only reason we hold him in such high regard is because he was the first. In reality, he was a chosen: a) from a very small, elitist pool, and b) because he was a general in the Revolutionary War, which does not necessarily qualify someone for office or have any bearing on knowledge of state matters (i.e. Ulysses S. Grant).

The most underrated is Richard Nixon. Watergate overshadowed a presidency ripe with strides forward in environmental law and an enlightened foreign policy.

Undoubtedly the most overrated president of the United States was Porfirio Rubirosa, primarily because my friend Howie stubbornly insisted one day that Rubirosa was our best president ever. We all know that Howie got it wrong: Rubirosa was a good president but not the best president.

The most underrated president was surely Chester A. Arthur who, if he had been assassinated would have been regarded more highly by posterity. Instead he had 4 more yearsto futz around and get nothing done. Did he die in office, or does it just seem that way?

Correction:

Republican Theodore Roosevelt broke up corporate monopolies, bolstered unions, and presided over the beginning of large migrations of Americans, black and white, to the north.

most overrated: Obama

most underrated: Nixon

In my opinion Reagan is by far the most over rated, he did not win the cold war he happened to be around when the Soviet Union collapsed from its own policies. When I was studying management in the late ’60s I met a number of people who had escaped the USSR & E Germany and also read a lot on the Soviet state and it was obvious that they had so destroyed their management and experimental parts of their population and so frightened much of the rest that they would not be able to progress as quickly as free societies and would eventually fail. I came to oppose the Vietnam War as we didn’t need to throw the lives and $ into it that we were as those supporting the Viet Cong were weak and only needed to have costs they couldn’t afford, besides the S Vietnam govts we kept installing were incredibly corrupt and incompetent thereby making our side a loser.

Also I seriously object to Reagan saying that govt is the problem. In a govt “By and for the people” any problem is that the people are not trained and knowledgeable enough to manage their representatives. The lack of education & training on how to run a govt is why our citizens have ended up choosing such poor govt officials.