President's Day Picks

Happy President's Day! It's the one day every year when I can ask people, "So who's your favorite president?" and not get strange looks in response. Well, I still get a couple of those, but a lot less than usual.

Of course, we've all been stuck in that awkward situation where someone asks, "Who's your favorite president," and all you can do is stammer, "Uh...Washington, or Lincoln, maybe." Or maybe that's just me. Regardless, it's always good to have a few names on the tip of your tongue.

Washington and Lincoln are the safe bets. No one--other than the occasional nut job--is going to snarl and say, "What? Are you crazy?" It's hard to go wrong with FDR either, especially nowadays. If you want to go a little further out on a limb, try Theodore Roosevelt or Thomas Jefferson. You'll look adventurous without looking stupid. Is anyone going to argue Teddy WASN'T a great president?

Of course, maybe you don't want to play it safe. Maybe you want to be the person who gets weird looks, the kind of guy who says things like "Washington was our most overrated president" or "Benjamin Harrison--now there was a great president?"

If you're that guy, may I recommend Grover Cleveland? Poor Grover was regarded as an utter failure in his own time. His party repudiated him at the 1896 presidential convention, voting down a motion that affirmed his presidency. Now, though, people see him as the proto-Harry Truman, the man who stuck to his guns even as his allies turned on him. Plus, there's that mustache.

You want more? Then I suggest you check out National Review's symposium on the greatest presidents. I would like to note two things:

1. Libertarians don't have a lot of jokes. One of their standbys, though, is to say that William Henry Harrison was our greatest president. It never fails to get a laugh--among libertarians, at least. No less than two people make that joke in this article.

2. One person seriously argues that Warren Harding was our greatest president. This validates what I would like to call Schultz's Law of History, which is that no opinion is so stupid that it is utterly without backers.

So browse, and enjoy.

Full disclosure: I think Abraham Lincoln was our greatest president, followed by Washington, TR, FDR, and Eisenhower. I also admit to having a soft spot for William McKinley and James K. Polk.