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Is Ronald Reagan the best President all time?

Was Ronald Reagan the best President of the all times?

  • I'm a right leaning American, yes

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • I'm a right leaning American, yes and the United Statss needs a President like him now

    Votes: 9 9.9%

  • I'm a left leaning American, yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I'm a left leaning American, yes and the United States needs a President like him now

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • I'm a right leaning American, no

    Votes: 23 25.3%

  • I'm a left leaning American, no

    Votes: 41 45.1%

  • I'm not from America, yes

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • I'm not from America, no

    Votes: 14 15.4%
  • Total voters
    91
It appears that many conservatives hate Carter because he didn't start any wars. He was wise not to get into a war with Iran and Russia. The Russians were as doomed to fail in Afghanistan as we were. The hostages would have been released during Carters term if Reagan's people hadn't bribed Iran to hold them longer.
 
Hard Truth said:
Everyone has already forgotten that Reagan wasted billions of dollars, set air traffic safety back at least ten years and indirectly caused plane crashes by firing nearly all experienced air traffic controllers.
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Which plane crashes? Be specific.

He didn't fire them. He ordered them back to work while they were on their illegal strike. They defied him. It was their choice.
 
Goshin said:
Agreed. The problem was he didn't provide very good leadership through those problems and crises that came his way.

Don't get me wrong, I believe Jimmy Carter is a man of good intentions. It is just his ability to lead and make good decisions regarding national policy that appear to be non-existant.
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Jimmy Carter is a very smart man. He is also a very nice man, and I believe a very good man. He was a terrible leader.
 
ConsvLiberal said:
In 1984 Ronald Reagan got the best result in history of the United Staates Of America. The Reaganomics were popular all around the world. Do you think that he was the greatest President of the United States?
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1.) George Washington
2.) Richard Nixon
3.) FDR
4.) Harry Truman
5.) Dwight Eisenhower
6.) Ronald Reagan
7.) Teddy Roosevelt
8.) Andrew Jackson
9.) James Monroe
10.) Thomas Jefferson
 
tres borrachos said:
Which plane crashes? Be specific....
Click to expand...

"Was air safety compromised? In many ways, yes. The military air controllers were unaccustomed to working with civilian aircraft and the complicated zones of the civilian system. New hires may have been rushed through programs to get them into work, without having sufficient training. A great quote:
"By the strike’s third day, [Captain Tom] Sheppard [chair of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Traffic Control Committee] began to worry about the exhaustion of replacement controllers and told [ALPA President J. J.] O’Donnell that, 'if the system continues at present staffing levels, fatigue of the people working will have a safety impact.' On day four he warned of 'a higher potential of danger.'...One controller who stayed on the job at Houston Center reported that safety had been 'set back 10 years minimum.'"

However, pilots kept flying. This is partially because they were unaware of ALPA's reports on safety, and partially just out of not wanting to get involved. This was the "kiss of death" according to many of the controllers on strike. ALPA would have crippled the nation's air system entirely if they joined in, and Reagan might've lost this battle. However, they didn't join, and despite the increased safety risk, O'Donnell insisted that the country's air system was perfectly safe. Another quote: PATCO disputed O’Donnell’s characterization in its own press conference on August 19, claiming that there had been fifteen near midair collisions in fifteen days. That very afternoon two general aviation planes collided south of San Jose, California, killing the pilot of one of the aircraft, and seemingly underlining PATCO’s point. Strikers blamed the collision on controller fatigue, but FAA officials denied the charge. The fact that it involved two single-engine planes and produced only one fatality kept it from becoming a major story....So yes, air safety was definitely compromised despite the replacements by non-strikers, consolidation of zones and flow, cancellation of many, many flights, adding of new recruits, and use of military air traffic controllers. ....


Part of the reason incidents didn't occur in so big an amount was because of the lowered air traffic they allowed. The FAA had envisioned that air traffic would return to pre-strike levels in 1983, in the worst-case scenario. By the end of 1982, the FAA was far more understaffed still than pre-strike levels, and air traffic suffered as a result. There were still incidents, however, attributed to the new controllers. On January 13, 1982, a plane crashed (it was snowing) into the icy Potomac leaving D.C for Florida. Initially it was believed to be only a problem of the de-icing failing, allowing ice to accumulate. 78 were killed, and only 5 survived. PATCO insisted that air controller error was to blame, from the get-go, and this was initially met with skepticism. But the NTSB hearings that opened on March 1 exposed the fact that the air traffic controller who cleared the doomed jet for takeoff, a supervisor who had resumed controlling traffic on August 3, had also cleared an Eastern Airlines jet to land behind Flight 90 on the same runway before the flight was airborne. So there were definitely doubts, and incidents, that made everyone feel the new system was far more questionable. The FAA, as a result, stepped up hiring, but did so in such a rushed manner that the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) asked it (in 1983) to stop its plans for expanding air traffic until it could raise the number of fully certified controllers, because it was rushing to try to get traffic back up quickly....

Sources:
Reagan, Ronald. An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Print.
McCartin, Joseph Anthony. Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
Wilentz, Sean. The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. New York, NY: Harper, 2008. Print."

What exactly happened when President Reagan fired all the striking air traffic controllers? How were they replaced? Was air safety compromised? : AskHistorians
 
Hard Truth said:
"Was air safety compromised? In many ways, yes. The military air controllers were unaccustomed to working with civilian aircraft and the complicated zones of the civilian system. New hires may have been rushed through programs to get them into work, without having sufficient training. A great quote:
"By the strike’s third day, [Captain Tom] Sheppard [chair of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Traffic Control Committee] began to worry about the exhaustion of replacement controllers and told [ALPA President J. J.] O’Donnell that, 'if the system continues at present staffing levels, fatigue of the people working will have a safety impact.' On day four he warned of 'a higher potential of danger.'...One controller who stayed on the job at Houston Center reported that safety had been 'set back 10 years minimum.'"

However, pilots kept flying. This is partially because they were unaware of ALPA's reports on safety, and partially just out of not wanting to get involved. This was the "kiss of death" according to many of the controllers on strike. ALPA would have crippled the nation's air system entirely if they joined in, and Reagan might've lost this battle. However, they didn't join, and despite the increased safety risk, O'Donnell insisted that the country's air system was perfectly safe. Another quote: PATCO disputed O’Donnell’s characterization in its own press conference on August 19, claiming that there had been fifteen near midair collisions in fifteen days. That very afternoon two general aviation planes collided south of San Jose, California, killing the pilot of one of the aircraft, and seemingly underlining PATCO’s point. Strikers blamed the collision on controller fatigue, but FAA officials denied the charge. The fact that it involved two single-engine planes and produced only one fatality kept it from becoming a major story....So yes, air safety was definitely compromised despite the replacements by non-strikers, consolidation of zones and flow, cancellation of many, many flights, adding of new recruits, and use of military air traffic controllers. ....


Part of the reason incidents didn't occur in so big an amount was because of the lowered air traffic they allowed. The FAA had envisioned that air traffic would return to pre-strike levels in 1983, in the worst-case scenario. By the end of 1982, the FAA was far more understaffed still than pre-strike levels, and air traffic suffered as a result. There were still incidents, however, attributed to the new controllers. On January 13, 1982, a plane crashed (it was snowing) into the icy Potomac leaving D.C for Florida. Initially it was believed to be only a problem of the de-icing failing, allowing ice to accumulate. 78 were killed, and only 5 survived. PATCO insisted that air controller error was to blame, from the get-go, and this was initially met with skepticism. But the NTSB hearings that opened on March 1 exposed the fact that the air traffic controller who cleared the doomed jet for takeoff, a supervisor who had resumed controlling traffic on August 3, had also cleared an Eastern Airlines jet to land behind Flight 90 on the same runway before the flight was airborne. So there were definitely doubts, and incidents, that made everyone feel the new system was far more questionable. The FAA, as a result, stepped up hiring, but did so in such a rushed manner that the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) asked it (in 1983) to stop its plans for expanding air traffic until it could raise the number of fully certified controllers, because it was rushing to try to get traffic back up quickly....

Sources:
Reagan, Ronald. An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Print.
McCartin, Joseph Anthony. Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
Wilentz, Sean. The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. New York, NY: Harper, 2008. Print."

What exactly happened when President Reagan fired all the striking air traffic controllers? How were they replaced? Was air safety compromised? : AskHistorians
Click to expand...

You need to read the NTSB report on Flight 90 and why it crashed. It had nothing to do with the air traffic controllers.
 
Hard Truth said:
It appears that many conservatives hate Carter because he didn't start any wars. He was wise not to get into a war with Iran and Russia. The Russians were as doomed to fail in Afghanistan as we were. The hostages would have been released during Carters term if Reagan's people hadn't bribed Iran to hold them longer.
Click to expand...

Carter bears a heavy responsability for encouraging terrorism against the US by his lack of adequate response to the Iranian seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, an open act of war.
 
Peter Grimm said:
1.) George Washington
2.) Richard Nixon
3.) FDR
4.) Harry Truman
5.) Dwight Eisenhower
6.) Ronald Reagan
7.) Teddy Roosevelt
8.) Andrew Jackson
9.) James Monroe
10.) Thomas Jefferson
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Why would you list Andrew Jackson as 8th?
 
Jackson didn't even know what state he was born in (NC or SC?) - both claim him, but probably neither should.
 
Andalublue said:
'Cept it was the OP, a flaming rightie like yourself, who made it an anonymous poll. Perhaps he forgot to scam his own scam.
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Irrelevant.

Since we CANNOT see the names of who participated in the Poll, since its a BLIND POLL, the left has taken it upon itself to skew the poll results by doing what they do best.
 
Fenton said:
Irrelevant.

Since we CANNOT see the names of who participated in the Poll, since its a BLIND POLL, the left has taken it upon itself to skew the poll results by doing what they do best.
Click to expand...

Makes a change.
 
tres borrachos said:
You need to read the NTSB report on Flight 90 and why it crashed. It had nothing to do with the air traffic controllers.
Click to expand...

From my post:
"Initially it was believed to be only a problem of the de-icing failing, allowing ice to accumulate. 78 were killed, and only 5 survived. PATCO insisted that air controller error was to blame, from the get-go, and this was initially met with skepticism. But the NTSB hearings that opened on March 1 exposed the fact that the air traffic controller who cleared the doomed jet for takeoff, a supervisor who had resumed controlling traffic on August 3, had also cleared an Eastern Airlines jet to land behind Flight 90 on the same runway before the flight was airborne. So there were definitely doubts, and incidents, that made everyone feel the new system was far more questionable."
 
LeoVlaming said:
Carter bears a heavy responsability for encouraging terrorism against the US by his lack of adequate response to the Iranian seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, an open act of war.
Click to expand...

What should he have done? The Iranians were not looking for war, with their new regime they couldn't take that on. They were expressing anger about these events:

"...In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected prime minister. He became enormously popular in Iran after he nationalized Iran's petroleum industry and oil reserves. He was deposed in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, an Anglo-American covert operation that marked the first time the US had overthrown a foreign government during the Cold War.[92]After the coup, the Shah became increasingly autocratic and Sultanistic. Arbitrary arrests and torture by his secret police, SAVAK, were used to crush all forms of political opposition....

...On 4 November 1979, a group of Iranian students seized the U.S. embassay and took 52 US citizens and embassy personnel hostage[102] after the US refused to return the former Shah to Iran to face trial and execution...."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#Dynasties_.281501.E2.80.931979.29
 
LeoVlaming said:
This mantra of "the 1%" is pretty silly and meaningless. But I take it you are referring to the rich. They are not "afraid" but they have the means and opportunity to make full use of the tax code. Another example of how greater government attempts at manipulation (through an ever more complicated tax code) has absolutely zero effect.
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And they have the full resources to bribe the congress critters to put in the tax code that is favorable to them. That's the lie that rich have sold the 'Free Market economists' and 'Supply Side economists' , to change the tax structure to favor the rich, and strip the wealth from the middle class and poor. They key part is 1) the inheritance tax, and 2) changing the income on capital gains to be taxed much lower than money made from working.
 
If Reagan was President today and took the same positions on guns that he took in his lifetime - the right wing would despise him and he would be the target of their vitriol.
 
Hard Truth said:
From my post:
"Initially it was believed to be only a problem of the de-icing failing, allowing ice to accumulate. 78 were killed, and only 5 survived. PATCO insisted that air controller error was to blame, from the get-go, and this was initially met with skepticism. But the NTSB hearings that opened on March 1 exposed the fact that the air traffic controller who cleared the doomed jet for takeoff, a supervisor who had resumed controlling traffic on August 3, had also cleared an Eastern Airlines jet to land behind Flight 90 on the same runway before the flight was airborne. So there were definitely doubts, and incidents, that made everyone feel the new system was far more questionable."
Click to expand...

Which had nothing to do with the reason the aircraft crashed.

It's not even against procedure. Don't know where your news source claims to have gotten this.
 
Hard Truth said:
From my post:
"Initially it was believed to be only a problem of the de-icing failing, allowing ice to accumulate. 78 were killed, and only 5 survived. PATCO insisted that air controller error was to blame, from the get-go, and this was initially met with skepticism. But the NTSB hearings that opened on March 1 exposed the fact that the air traffic controller who cleared the doomed jet for takeoff, a supervisor who had resumed controlling traffic on August 3, had also cleared an Eastern Airlines jet to land behind Flight 90 on the same runway before the flight was airborne. So there were definitely doubts, and incidents, that made everyone feel the new system was far more questionable."
Click to expand...

The NTSB ruling was quite clear. It was a combination of failed de-icing and pilot communication problems. PATCO's insistence isn't relevant.
 
Reagan was a great leader by way of his strong personality. He was like a father figure to us all. Behind the scenes, however, he was not so kind to the most of us. In the name of "tax code simplification", now renamed "income redistribution", Reagan eliminated all progressive tax brackets above 35%, all the way up to the top bracket of 93%, then imposed only on the highest of annual incomes, which were also inflation adjusted. Had he not succeeded in this act, the nation would not be suffering now and over the past thirty years from the increasing problem of income disparity. This is a lasting legacy that tarnishes an otherwise outstanding leader.
 
ConsvLiberal said:
In 1984 Ronald Reagan got the best result in history of the United Staates Of America. The Reaganomics were popular all around the world. Do you think that he was the greatest President of the United States?
Click to expand...

Nope. Teddy tops my list. Followed by Lincoln, Washington, McKinley, and Wilson.

In my lifetime (Reagan forward), I'd rank him 2nd behind Clinton.
 
Kreton said:
Nope. Teddy tops my list. Followed by Lincoln, Washington, McKinley, and Wilson.

In my lifetime (Reagan forward), I'd rank him 2nd behind Clinton.
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I admire Teddy too. Just learned, though, from the book "the China mirage"by James Bradley, that Teddy was responsible for the takeover of Korea by Japan in 1905. He covertly assured the Japanese that he would support them in the takeover, and then ignored pleas from the Korean government to come to their aid despite a written treaty guaranteeing US military protection. None of he previous books on TR that I have read have covered this betrayal.
 
olebamadude said:
I admire Teddy too. Just learned, though, from the book "the China mirage"by James Bradley, that Teddy was responsible for the takeover of Korea by Japan in 1905. He covertly assured the Japanese that he would support them in the takeover, and then ignored pleas from the Korean government to come to their aid despite a written treaty guaranteeing US military protection. None of he previous books on TR that I have read have covered this betrayal.
Click to expand...

I have never heard that. I am going to spend some time looking into it today. Thanks!
 
Kreton said:
Nope. Teddy tops my list. Followed by Lincoln, Washington, McKinley, and Wilson.

In my lifetime (Reagan forward), I'd rank him 2nd behind Clinton.
Click to expand...

McKinley? Can you elaborate?
 
Nixon was better, more honest too.
 
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