The greatest president(s) of all time?

[Jed K]

Who, in your opinion, is/are the greatest president(s) of all time? In your knowledge of history and of those who've led the country both during and before our time, whose term or terms impress you the most? What did he/she/they do to win you over?

[templars26]

well i am from india...
and i think the greatest president we have had till now is president APJ. Abdul Kalam.

Dreams are important for the scientist whose name is as long as his achievements: Avul Pakir Jainulabddin Abdul Kalam. He says simply,"Dream dreams because dreams lead to thought and thought leads to action."
July 18, 1980: On an island teeming with magnificent migratory birds off the Andhra coast, a tiny pencil-shaped rocket lifts off and heads to the heavens. India becomes only the sixth country in the world capable of launching satellites. A hippie-haired scientist who headed the project team is felicitated.
February 25, 1988: A phallus-shaped missile takes off from the coast of Orissa and blazes across the firmament. India joins the select club of nations capable of making ballistic missiles. The scientist, the long hair now a trade-mark, is triumphantly carried on the shoulders of his colleagues.
May 11, 1998: A Gorkha hat hides his long hair in his disguise as an army officer in the Rajasthan desert. Then the earth shakes and with it, the world as India conducts a series of underground tests. The scientist is lauded as the guiding force behind the nuclear- weapons programme
Kalam is an inspirational figure not just because he demonstrates that merit can succeed and thrive amidst so much cynicism and nepotism. Or that among a people riven with religious strife, a Muslim could head India's most sensitive defence projects. More important Kalam's achievement is of an integrator of science who from an apparently mediocre team churned out awesome excellence. In short, he delivered.

His life and mission is a vindication of what a determined person can achieve against extraordinary odds. Born to a poor boat-owner's family in Ramnathapuram, Kalam sold newspapers to pay his fees and pawned his sister's jewellery to complete a diploma in engineering. Early in life he demonstrated a capacity for hard work and a will to succeed.

It is exhausting to track Kalam's progress. In the '60s and '70s he was a trail blazer in the space department. In the '80s he transformed the moribund Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad into a highly motivated team. By the '90s Kalam emerged as the czar of Indian science and technology and was awarded the Bharat Ratna.

Now 68, his lifestlye remains frugal. He is indefatigable and dreams of making India a technological superpower. More important, he is still capable of acting on it.

He was the president of india for five glorious years...
and we are proud to have him...

[PoliticsGuru]

The best president in the history of the United States of America is by far Franklin D. Roosevelt. He became president in the middle of the Great Depression and brought back America to where it needed to be. Herbert Hoover was the president before him and was letting the country die and starve to death.

Roosevelt was very smart about the whole thing. He first went after banks to get them back the way they should be and then worked the country back to where it should be.

Great President. He gets my vote. FDR = #1

[hidden]

I hope you are kidding me. FDR was a terrible president. Yes he was liked back then but history has not done very much for him. He was a socialistic President that put in place terrible ideas such as social security. Then he was buddy buddy with the likes of Stalin.