By the Maui Curmudgeon (9th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 1841 ~ 9th U.S. President

Stop me if this sounds familiar:

A man who was Senator, who had a storied military career, but who was old by current standards, spends most of his campaign running around trying to convince everyone he isn’t too old to be President of the United States, that his health was good and modern medicine had come a long way.

Nope, not John McCain, the current Republican candidate, but William Henry Harrison. Mr. Harrison took the oath of office on March 4, 1841, caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia, and on April 4, just 31 days later, he died. He was 68 years old, four years younger than McCain is today.

Harrison barely filled most of his cabinet, and there is nothing in his administration on which to judge him.

One can hope that McCain picks a nice, young, healthy running mate.

Harrison’s term is so short and inconsequential that he holds no rank in any historical Presidential poll. You are best finding a biography of him in a used book store sometime. It will be a thin text. He was not photographed in office.

INTERESTING BITS

• He delivered the longest innaugural address.
• He served the shortest time in office.
• He was the first U.S. President to die in office.

By the Maui Curmudgeon (8th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

MARTIN  VAN BUREN: 1837-1841 ~ 8th U.S. President

A man of prodigious accomplishments, Van Buren was the country’s first self-made man to become president. Born of poor tenant farmers, Van Buren used his tenuous links with propertied rich friends (the New York Van Nesses) to gain entrance into law school where he eventually repudiated them. He was off, and before he was finished he would become known as “the little magician.”

Contemporaries of his, those with well-known names and fat wallets, people like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, coveted the presidency, but only Van Buren won it. He had worked his way up from law school, to a lucrative practice in New York, then as a New York Senator and Governor. Under Jackson, he was Minister to Great Britian, and Jackson’s vice-president during the second term. Jackson adored Van Buren, and respected his amazing ability to work bureaucracies to accomplish tasks, which is why Jackson held onto him, and even endorsed him as his successor, when Van Buren often didn’t like Jackson’s practices. Read the rest…

What is it about this guy that, not only don’t I like him, I don’t think he’s remotely impressive? In fact, I think he’s cringe-worthy. His talking grates on me. I don’t think he thinks he’s full of shit (like some politicians actually do), but I think he’s full of shit.

I could say he’s not made from presidential timber, but as my reading of presidential biographies has taught me, few people have been, and somehow this country has stumbled along. What I’ve decided to do is read some of his speeches, and see if I can get into the man behind the persona. Maybe I just don’t like his persona, which strikes me as being ultra lightweight.

I remember a story about Harry Truman. When Ike was coming into the White House (and here I paraphrase), Truman sat in the Oval Office and said, “Poor Ike. He’ll sit here and say ‘do this and do that’, and nothing will get done. It’s not the army.” I feel that way about Obama. He’s all energized with hope, and will tell the government to do this and do that, and nothing will get done.

Truman was truly a common man (so poor that when he left the White House, it was his dire straights which forced Congress to vote former presidents a pension - until that time, they received none). He spoke, acted and legislated for the common man, fought for civil rights when it didn’t even have a name, stood for the New Deal and liberal policies and helping everyday people. To the extent he succeeded (and today he is considered a “near great” president), it is because he railed against the republicans, he fought furiously for his programs, he worked hard at defeating his opponents.

Truman’s experience had taught him something very valuable: it is not enough to work day and night for your programs, you have to work hard at defeating your opponents, too. Obama has no experience, and is so damn touchy-feelly he has refused to address his opponents in this way. (We’re all just one big happy American family - I mean, where has this guy been?) This is why Truman succeeded where Obama will fail - if he is elected.

– Maui Curmudgeon

By the Maui Curmudgeon (7th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

ANDREW JACKSON: 1829-1837 ~ 7th U.S. President

With Andrew Jackson, we come to the first candidate for worst president of the United States. A virulent racist, a corrupt politician, anti-Semite, misogynist, and abusive soldier, he fought most of his public life against the National Bank, refused to take paper currency in any transaction, and tried during his presidency to have paper currency rejected as payment for taxes and other public debts. This from a man who over the the course of the past 150 years has been on the $5, $10, $50 and $10,000 bills before settling on the current $20 bill. During his life, Jackson gave the term “hypocrite” a bad name, if that’s possible.
Read the rest…

I draw your attention to two items which are available now, and which should be required reading for anyone caring about freedom. Both come from Naomi Klein (http://www.naomiklein.org/main). Ms. Klein is a brilliant Canadian who has written several astonishing books detailing the bad news which comes about when governments use technology to invade an individual’s freedom.

To listen to some of her ideas, please go to  HERE and click on the link “listen to the programme”. It’s a short BBC program, well produced and clearly recorded, and worth your time.

The second is Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is available in paperback. The shock doctrine may be the finest non-fiction I’ve read in ten years. You owe it to yourself to take a look.

– Maui Curmudgeon

By the Maui Curmudgeon (6th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: 1825-1829 ~ 6th U.S. President

The only elected president who was the son of a president (no, the current occupier of the White House was appointed and doesn’t count), John Quincy Adams was without a doubt one of the smartest men to hold the office. He amplified his father’s dedication to honesty, fought slavery, and was a great president - who had what most every historian considers to be a failed presidency. Read the rest…

By the Maui Curmudgeon (5th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

JAMES MONROE: 1817-1825 ~ 5th U.S. President

The last of the Republican Trio - Jefferson, Madison, being the first two - James Monroe oversaw what many historians call the “late phase of the early republic.” Of average height and build, Monroe was considered very handsome by the ladies. He was a war hero - fighting beside Washington and was badly wounded at Trenton. Before serving under Madison as sectretary of war and state, Monroe was a Virginia legislator, a U.S. Senator, a Minister to France, and a member of the Confederation Congress.

He was not charasmatic, nor did he particularly inspire loyalty, but he was to many in his time, the last of his generation to remind the country of the heady days of revolution, George Washington, and the hope of a new country, and it is on this basis many historians think he was elected so easily to the presidency.

THE BAD

• Sidestepped slavery, though he presided over the Missouri Compromise. In it, the slave holding south agreed no further states north of Missouri would hold slaves, and the north allowed Missouri statehood while holding slaves. Monroe said the compromise saved the union.
• Yet another person bad with personal financies, he begged the U.S. for $60,000 in back dues to help him pay for out of pocket expenses during his years of service to the country. The Congress said no.
• Oversaw the nation’s first recession, the panic of 1819, and minimized the depression in his annual state of the union address, calling merely for “time and patience” to solve the country’s ills.

THE GOOD

• No major wars, and it is because of this that people remember his presidency fondly.
• At Trenton, beside Washington, Monroe took a huge shot in the shoulder, which severed his artery. He would have died in minutes had not a surgeon been crawling by at the very instant Monroe fell.

Murray-Blessing Ranking: #15

My Score: 45%

Interesting reading: James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity by Harry Ammon