The Michael Knowles Show - Michael Knowles TOP 10 Presidents Compared To ＂Expert's＂ TOP 10

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00:00:44.120 One of the worst presidents we have ever had.

00:00:47.060 Worse than, like, Buchanan.

00:00:49.280 I was more sympathetic to their list

00:00:50.860 before I read everything that happened after 10.

00:00:53.200 These presidential historians are jokes.

00:00:55.260 We're in for it.

00:00:56.060 To celebrate America's 250th anniversary,

00:00:58.660 America's actually older than 250.

00:01:01.400 America goes all the way back over 400 years

00:01:03.240 to the Mayflower,

00:01:04.400 which is an excellent cigar brand, by the way.

00:01:06.880 But to celebrate the official 250th anniversary,

00:01:10.280 the producers have asked me

00:01:11.700 to list my top 10 presidents.

00:01:14.780 And this is not some idle exercise.

00:01:18.420 This is based on the C-SPAN list,

00:01:20.840 which C-SPAN does every single year,

00:01:23.120 consulting all the genius presidential historians

00:01:25.780 to come up with the definitive list of the top 10 presidents.

00:01:28.780 What are the qualities that they consider?

00:01:31.400 Because I want to make sure I'm using the same criteria as C-SPAN.

00:01:33.860 I will begin with the honorable mention.

00:01:54.140 A guy who doesn't make the list,

00:01:55.480 but it's the honorable mention.

00:01:56.640 And that, of course, you could probably guess it.

00:01:58.860 If you're a frequent viewer or listener to the show,

00:02:03.600 Mr. Muttonchops himself, Chester Alan Arthur,

00:02:05.960 one of the great men.

00:02:07.160 He doesn't make the list.

00:02:08.260 There were some problems.

00:02:09.900 He became president accidentally. 0.89

00:02:11.860 He was a crooked New York politician.

00:02:13.740 He ran the customs house.

00:02:15.320 He just doled out patronage to his buddies.

00:02:17.680 And when his president was killed, Garfield,

00:02:22.120 he actually sobbed because he didn't want to be president.

00:02:24.400 He just wanted to be VP and dole out more patronage.

00:02:26.460 He sobbed, but he took the job.

00:02:28.640 His wife had died.

00:02:30.040 He kept fresh flowers constantly at the White House for her.

00:02:32.900 And he was reformed.

00:02:34.160 He was a crooked politician, but he became reformed,

00:02:36.460 in part because he received correspondence 0.85

00:02:39.680 from this odd invalid woman in New York. 0.99

00:02:42.420 And this was probably the classic example

00:02:45.460 of the office making the man.

00:02:47.400 And he actually didn't dole out patronage

00:02:49.100 to all of his cronies.

00:02:49.960 And he reformed the civil service.

00:02:51.840 And he became a much better man.

00:02:53.320 And he was a really clean politician.

00:02:54.520 And he did very well.

00:02:55.380 But he doesn't make the list

00:02:56.220 because he kind of flunked on some other qualities.

00:02:59.160 So coming in after the honorable mention

00:03:01.480 at number 10, Calvin Coolidge.

00:03:05.440 Coolidge was great.

00:03:07.440 The conservative movement types,

00:03:09.580 especially the more libertarian among them,

00:03:11.000 they always rank Coolidge as number one,

00:03:14.000 or at least within the top three.

00:03:15.640 They love Coolidge because he was small government.

00:03:18.540 He says the business of America is business.

00:03:20.760 And he was good for business.

00:03:21.980 You know, we had the roaring 20s under his leadership.

00:03:24.460 That was great.

00:03:25.180 But he's got some marks against him.

00:03:27.420 One mark against him is that he supported

00:03:30.940 the direct election of senators, 17th Amendment.

00:03:33.360 It's one of the worst amendments ever

00:03:35.980 in the history of the United States.

00:03:37.860 He also supported the 19th Amendment.

00:03:41.000 We don't have to get into that too much.

00:03:43.580 But anyway, there were some issues with Coolidge.

00:03:46.560 And he was great.

00:03:48.420 But he also didn't really have long enough.

00:03:50.860 He became president after his predecessor,

00:03:53.940 when he was vice president, died.

00:03:55.540 And he didn't, this is actually very noble,

00:03:58.160 he didn't want to serve longer than George Washington.

00:04:01.000 He didn't want to serve longer

00:04:02.260 than any president before him had ever served.

00:04:05.060 And that was two terms, precedent set by Washington.

00:04:07.080 So because he got that little bit extra

00:04:09.760 at the end of the Harding administration,

00:04:11.600 he decided he wasn't going to run for another term.

00:04:15.180 He didn't have a ton of time.

00:04:16.380 And then FDR promptly smashed through that precedent.

00:04:20.780 Democrat, would-be king of America,

00:04:23.560 ran for and was elected to four terms.

00:04:26.180 So he was good.

00:04:27.840 And if I were a libertarian,

00:04:29.220 he'd be in the top three.

00:04:31.380 But he gets 10.

00:04:32.120 Number nine, William Howard Taft.

00:04:37.660 William Howard Taft, a very large man,

00:04:40.400 who I have a personal affinity for

00:04:43.340 because he's the only man who served

00:04:46.280 as a quasi-ambassador to the Vatican,

00:04:49.060 who then went on to become president.

00:04:50.760 He's a Yale man.

00:04:52.060 I think they actually had to combine two seats for him

00:04:55.420 in one of the halls at Yale

00:04:56.640 because he was corpulent.

00:04:58.240 He also served, technically,

00:05:00.500 you could, stretching the definition,

00:05:02.120 you could say he served

00:05:02.720 in all three branches of government.

00:05:04.120 Really, he served as president

00:05:06.140 and chief justice of the United States.

00:05:08.160 So he was a larger-than-life figure in many senses.

00:05:11.600 And he was quite conservative.

00:05:13.680 He was seriously conservative.

00:05:15.620 He was economically very effective.

00:05:18.440 He was just, I don't know,

00:05:19.480 a standard Republican conservative president.

00:05:23.760 He helped grow the strength of the United States,

00:05:27.300 a bit of a protectionist,

00:05:28.720 which used to fall out of favor

00:05:29.860 with the conservative movement.

00:05:30.740 Now it's kind of back in fashion

00:05:32.380 because of President Trump.

00:05:33.500 So I'll give it to him.

00:05:34.080 Number nine.

00:05:35.780 Number eight.

00:05:39.260 Teddy Roosevelt.

00:05:40.900 T.R.

00:05:41.680 And T.R.

00:05:42.400 was a progressive Republican in many ways.

00:05:45.260 You know, he wasn't like a blue hair

00:05:46.320 with a septum piercing or anything,

00:05:47.600 but he was progressive in some ways.

00:05:49.440 But he, like Taft, was a conservationist,

00:05:51.900 really a more ardent federal conservationist

00:05:53.960 even than Taft was.

00:05:55.500 And he was a real man's man.

00:05:57.340 So he's important,

00:05:58.840 not even so much for his policies,

00:06:01.640 though his policies were very important.

00:06:02.800 He grew the military stature of the United States,

00:06:04.960 helped to really fuel America's global ambitions

00:06:07.380 in the 20th century.

00:06:08.580 But he was an important figure

00:06:10.580 for the thumos of America, 0.91

00:06:12.840 for the spiritedness of America.

00:06:15.440 Trump especially has taken clearly

00:06:17.380 a lot of lessons from T.R.

00:06:19.920 Speak Softly, Carry a Big Stick.

00:06:22.080 This is a guy who gets shot giving a speech,

00:06:24.240 but his thick speech stopped the bullet,

00:06:27.120 and he just kept on giving his speech

00:06:28.920 before he even saw medical treatment.

00:06:30.540 He was a real scrappy kind of guy.

00:06:32.760 So for those reasons and many others,

00:06:34.920 he makes the list.

00:06:36.320 Above him,

00:06:37.760 this might be a little controversial,

00:06:40.000 McKinley.

00:06:40.860 Now, McKinley was assassinated,

00:06:42.880 but McKinley,

00:06:44.200 I think he deserves a place here.

00:06:46.380 Because, again, this really ties in.

00:06:49.720 McKinley was fueling America's global ambitions.

00:06:53.120 He got us Hawaii.

00:06:54.040 He got us some other territories.

00:06:57.020 He wrapped up the Spanish-American War.

00:06:59.620 He was a protectionist,

00:07:00.860 but as we see today,

00:07:02.920 people said that his economic policies

00:07:04.780 would damage the economy.

00:07:05.540 They didn't.

00:07:06.020 He was a very, very strong economic president.

00:07:10.080 Probably doesn't have as much stature

00:07:11.560 in the historical memory as some others do,

00:07:13.920 but he was great.

00:07:14.640 We love him.

00:07:15.020 We like Mount McKinley, too.

00:07:16.220 The Libs are trying to rename his mountain.

00:07:17.660 No surprise there.

00:07:18.500 You know, we stand for him.

00:07:20.520 Above him,

00:07:22.140 John Adams,

00:07:25.380 who's probably the most conservative founding father.

00:07:29.380 He becomes president after George Washington.

00:07:32.140 Keeps Washington's cabinet

00:07:33.360 basically entirely in place,

00:07:35.280 even though Washington's cabinet

00:07:36.560 was more loyal to Hamilton.

00:07:38.560 He was far preferred

00:07:40.540 to the alternative, Thomas Jefferson,

00:07:43.120 who ended up beating him.

00:07:44.280 But even there,

00:07:45.100 Adams sets this precedent

00:07:46.160 of peacefully transferring power.

00:07:48.800 So that's good,

00:07:49.720 even the historians like that.

00:07:51.340 He passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, 0.91

00:07:53.300 which a lot of people count as a mark against him,

00:07:55.120 I think was very based and awesome

00:07:56.980 and are still on the books today.

00:07:58.920 And they're very important

00:07:59.580 because they set guardrails

00:08:00.560 and they give us

00:08:01.640 a much more conservative understanding of freedom

00:08:03.340 than the libertine left-wing version.

00:08:04.880 So for all those reasons,

00:08:06.040 he makes the list.

00:08:06.960 Above Adams,

00:08:10.740 Dwight Eisenhower.

00:08:12.080 I like Ike, baby.

00:08:13.440 I like him.

00:08:15.080 Eisenhower, very underrated

00:08:16.480 because he was moderate.

00:08:19.640 And so the Republicans and the Democrats

00:08:21.540 both liked Eisenhower.

00:08:23.420 It was unclear if he would run for president

00:08:25.140 as a Republican or a Democrat.

00:08:26.680 He helped win World War II

00:08:27.880 and he set the stage for America

00:08:30.240 to win the Cold War.

00:08:31.700 He was much better than his successors,

00:08:33.800 JFK and certainly LBJ.

00:08:35.700 Anyway, the ways in which he was moderate,

00:08:37.900 by the way,

00:08:38.220 don't really matter all that much

00:08:39.480 because today when we talk about moderate,

00:08:41.240 you know, squishy Republicans,

00:08:42.480 liberal Republicans even,

00:08:43.900 we tend to think of these culture war issues,

00:08:46.160 abortion, marriage,

00:08:48.080 transgenderism, immigration.

00:08:51.060 Those were not an issue in the 50s.

00:08:54.960 They were just not an issue.

00:08:56.380 There was no such thing

00:08:57.220 as a debate over abortion. 0.71

00:08:58.260 Everyone knew it was wrong to kill babies.

00:08:59.620 There was certainly no such thing

00:09:00.520 as a debate over marriage.

00:09:01.640 That wouldn't come about

00:09:02.560 until the 21st century.

00:09:04.360 Transgenderism, give me a break. 1.00

00:09:05.340 Everyone agreed. 0.98

00:09:06.160 Those people, we got to lock them up. 0.94

00:09:07.360 It's a made-up thing.

00:09:08.720 And then even on immigration,

00:09:09.820 I think it was Eisenhower

00:09:10.860 who presided over Operation Wetback

00:09:13.040 when we deported a million illegals from America.

00:09:16.300 It was pretty good.

00:09:17.240 A million?

00:09:17.820 That's right.

00:09:18.140 I could use those numbers.

00:09:19.120 It was great.

00:09:19.720 So he makes it.

00:09:20.900 Above him,

00:09:22.660 Ronald Reagan.

00:09:26.320 Saint Gipper himself makes the list,

00:09:28.580 coming in at number four.

00:09:30.640 Gipper makes the list

00:09:31.520 because he won the Cold War

00:09:32.520 and he revitalized America.

00:09:34.300 He made America feel good about herself again

00:09:36.180 after the malaise of the Kennedy assassination

00:09:39.760 and then the hideous presidency of LBJ

00:09:42.620 and then the Nixon presidency,

00:09:46.140 which could have been great,

00:09:46.900 except the libs took him out 0.95

00:09:47.920 in a bunch of nonsense.

00:09:49.180 And then the malaise of Carter.

00:09:53.480 Ford really never stood a chance

00:09:54.940 because he did the patriotic thing

00:09:56.120 and pardoned Nixon.

00:09:56.800 And Carter, obviously,

00:09:58.060 stagflation and foreign collapse

00:10:00.060 and it was just a disaster.

00:10:01.460 Reagan comes and revitalizes the country,

00:10:03.560 juices the economy again,

00:10:05.120 wins us the Cold War.

00:10:06.240 He's great.

00:10:06.760 He really deserves

00:10:07.580 a lot of the plaudits he receives.

00:10:09.300 Above Reagan,

00:10:10.980 Trump.

00:10:14.200 Trump.

00:10:14.780 Trump is kind of the apotheosis

00:10:17.140 of the Reagan revolution.

00:10:19.100 And he's more historic

00:10:20.820 because he won

00:10:22.500 the non-consecutive second term.

00:10:24.060 It's the greatest political comeback

00:10:25.300 in American history,

00:10:26.980 better even than Richard Nixon's.

00:10:28.740 They counted Nixon out.

00:10:29.640 I kind of want to put Nixon on the list,

00:10:31.580 but given these qualities

00:10:33.240 that they're making us judge it by,

00:10:35.640 it's a little tricky.

00:10:37.000 Look, maybe could Nixon

00:10:38.060 take it above Taft?

00:10:40.100 Yes.

00:10:40.620 Maybe I should have rethought

00:10:41.940 that too late now.

00:10:43.240 Could he take it over even McKinley?

00:10:45.040 Maybe not because he was

00:10:46.240 cut down in his prime.

00:10:47.920 But certainly without Watergate,

00:10:49.400 without not even the scandal

00:10:50.580 of Watergate,

00:10:51.000 just without him having

00:10:52.300 to resign the presidency,

00:10:53.480 you'd put him in one of those spots.

00:10:55.040 But because of that,

00:10:55.780 Reagan takes it.

00:10:56.520 Reagan takes the cake there

00:10:57.400 and then Trump above him.

00:10:59.440 Trump restores America's

00:11:00.800 moral authority

00:11:01.460 after the hideousness

00:11:02.460 of Barack Obama.

00:11:04.140 You know,

00:11:04.740 stands against

00:11:05.560 pretty basic things

00:11:06.960 like he's against infanticide,

00:11:09.160 his first president

00:11:09.800 to ever show up

00:11:10.220 to the March for Life.

00:11:11.360 He appoints the justice

00:11:12.620 that overrules Roe v. Wade.

00:11:14.000 He's probably the best

00:11:14.980 foreign policy

00:11:15.780 international relations president

00:11:17.180 of any of our lifetimes.

00:11:19.080 His administrative skills

00:11:20.100 are quite good, actually,

00:11:21.160 especially in the second term.

00:11:22.740 Relations with Congress

00:11:23.560 are a little bit weaker,

00:11:24.480 but okay,

00:11:24.980 he loses some points there

00:11:26.060 because Congress

00:11:26.700 is like herding cats.

00:11:28.020 His vision,

00:11:28.740 of course,

00:11:29.020 he has the Make America

00:11:29.660 Great Again vision,

00:11:30.380 which he takes,

00:11:31.340 he borrows from Ronald Reagan.

00:11:33.080 Equal justice role,

00:11:33.900 crisis leadership,

00:11:34.640 of course.

00:11:35.340 Economic management

00:11:35.980 keeps beating

00:11:36.920 every expectation.

00:11:38.580 And his public persuasion.

00:11:39.800 He's blunter,

00:11:40.700 he's crasser

00:11:41.340 than Ronald Reagan,

00:11:42.380 but he's effective.

00:11:43.320 He's communicating

00:11:43.820 to people who had been

00:11:44.860 disillusioned with politics,

00:11:45.980 who hadn't been really engaged.

00:11:46.940 So he gets it.

00:11:48.320 Now, that's still number three,

00:11:49.740 who comes in at number two

00:11:50.540 and number one.

00:11:51.300 I think you do have to give

00:11:52.300 number two to Lincoln.

00:11:54.340 Lincoln,

00:11:54.800 no matter what you think,

00:11:55.580 even if you're a Southerner

00:11:56.360 and you don't like

00:11:57.360 the War of Northern Aggression,

00:11:59.060 on these marks,

00:12:00.980 public relations,

00:12:01.760 he's the greatest writer

00:12:02.920 and orator probably

00:12:04.280 in American political history.

00:12:06.020 Crisis leadership,

00:12:06.760 we've never had a greater crisis

00:12:07.780 than the Civil War.

00:12:09.240 Economic management,

00:12:10.460 pretty good,

00:12:11.360 all things considered.

00:12:12.340 Moral authority,

00:12:12.920 of course,

00:12:13.440 he's considered

00:12:14.020 one of the great moral visionaries

00:12:16.560 of American history.

00:12:18.420 International relations,

00:12:19.880 depends if we count

00:12:21.000 the Confederacy as international,

00:12:22.600 but he did manage that crisis.

00:12:25.260 Administrative skills,

00:12:26.480 relation with Congress,

00:12:27.560 visions,

00:12:28.080 equal justice for all.

00:12:28.920 I think he gets it.

00:12:29.980 And then number one,

00:12:30.740 no doubt about it,

00:12:31.480 the indispensable man,

00:12:32.500 father of our country,

00:12:34.540 George Washington,

00:12:35.480 who set the precedent,

00:12:36.740 who has never been surpassed.

00:12:39.700 And it was an American painter

00:12:41.040 who related the story

00:12:42.260 that when he relinquished

00:12:43.900 his military commission,

00:12:45.740 no less an adversary

00:12:47.280 than King George III

00:12:48.320 said that if he really

00:12:49.340 relinquishes his commission,

00:12:51.160 George Washington

00:12:51.820 will be the greatest man

00:12:52.980 in the world.

00:12:53.940 That's the list.

00:12:55.460 Washington, Lincoln,

00:12:56.660 Reagan, Eisenhower,

00:12:57.960 Adams, McKinley,

00:12:59.440 Roosevelt, Taft,

00:13:00.380 and Coolidge.

00:13:01.640 What did C-SPAN say?

00:13:03.440 Go to catholicmatch.com.

00:13:05.040 This episode is sponsored

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00:13:13.980 and roses,

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00:14:25.220 C-SPAN's honorable mention,

00:14:26.660 LBJ.

00:14:27.640 Oh my goodness.

00:14:28.800 We're in for it.

00:14:29.600 Well, look,

00:14:30.240 I'm glad to say

00:14:30.840 that LBJ,

00:14:31.920 one of the worst presidents

00:14:33.340 we have ever had,

00:14:35.040 a man who did

00:14:36.880 almost as much as he could

00:14:38.320 to destroy this country,

00:14:39.980 the mess that we are in

00:14:41.580 is largely thanks to him

00:14:43.140 that he would not make

00:14:45.160 the full list.

00:14:45.720 He just gets the honorable mention.

00:14:46.940 In fairness to LBJ,

00:14:48.340 LBJ does have

00:14:50.880 great administrative skills,

00:14:52.020 there's no doubt about that.

00:14:53.360 Good relationship with Congress.

00:14:54.820 The guy really knew

00:14:55.360 how to work around Congress.

00:14:57.380 He tried to pursue

00:14:58.100 equal justice for all.

00:14:58.980 It's not what happened.

00:14:59.560 The opposite happened

00:15:00.360 as a result.

00:15:01.060 He wasn't exactly

00:15:01.680 a moral authority.

00:15:02.620 You read some of the stories

00:15:03.500 about him whipping out

00:15:04.620 LBJ Jr.

00:15:05.980 in cabinet meetings. 0.75

00:15:07.440 That's pretty gross.

00:15:08.760 Economic management,

00:15:09.800 crisis leadership,

00:15:10.900 public persuasion.

00:15:11.760 He wasn't the greatest

00:15:12.860 public persuader,

00:15:13.840 but he was good

00:15:14.240 in smoke-filled rooms.

00:15:18.040 Number 10,

00:15:19.100 Barack Obama. 0.76

00:15:23.980 Arguably the worst 0.96

00:15:25.040 president we've ever had. 0.59

00:15:26.700 Arguably worse

00:15:27.560 than like Buchanan.

00:15:29.520 Arguably worse

00:15:30.440 than Millard Fillmore.

00:15:31.840 Wow. 0.99

00:15:32.520 Obama just so awful. 0.99

00:15:34.100 Okay. 0.98

00:15:34.340 Okay.

00:15:37.860 Nine,

00:15:38.500 Ronald Reagan.

00:15:39.260 Okay,

00:15:39.520 this is good.

00:15:40.060 I'm glad they placed

00:15:42.600 Reagan above Obama. 0.98

00:15:43.940 It's kind of ridiculous 0.95

00:15:45.140 that these two men 0.93

00:15:45.980 would be anywhere

00:15:46.680 near each other

00:15:47.340 on the list.

00:15:48.940 Ronald Reagan,

00:15:49.560 one of the greatest

00:15:50.100 presidents we've ever had.

00:15:51.080 Barack Obama, 0.98

00:15:51.600 one of the worst. 0.97

00:15:52.320 But I'm glad at least

00:15:53.140 the libs at C-SPAN.

00:15:54.540 Even they could not

00:15:56.300 stretch reality so far

00:15:58.100 as to pretend

00:15:58.780 that Obama

00:15:59.460 was ahead

00:16:00.560 of Ronald Reagan.

00:16:05.720 Number eight,

00:16:06.400 JFK. 0.97

00:16:07.100 Totally ridiculous. 0.97

00:16:07.780 I know in recent years 0.96

00:16:09.820 some conservatives

00:16:10.580 have taken a shine

00:16:11.480 to JFK

00:16:12.120 because they

00:16:13.340 like to make this point

00:16:14.820 which is that,

00:16:15.620 you know,

00:16:15.860 by today's standards,

00:16:16.880 John F. Kennedy

00:16:17.420 would be a conservative

00:16:18.200 Republican.

00:16:18.860 And it's true 0.94

00:16:19.340 because the libs won

00:16:20.360 because they totally

00:16:21.360 won the culture 0.60

00:16:22.120 and shifted the Overton window

00:16:23.540 immensely to the left.

00:16:25.120 But the reality is

00:16:26.120 if JFK had lived

00:16:27.440 to be, you know,

00:16:28.180 150 or whatever

00:16:29.000 he'd be now,

00:16:29.980 had he lived,

00:16:30.640 he would just be

00:16:31.380 a liberal Democrat.

00:16:32.180 That's just what happened

00:16:32.820 to basically all the Kennedys

00:16:34.400 with the slight exception

00:16:35.440 of Bobby Kennedy Jr.

00:16:36.380 So, no,

00:16:37.780 JFK is one of the 0.96

00:16:38.400 most overrated presidents,

00:16:39.320 probably the single

00:16:39.940 most overrated president

00:16:40.860 we have.

00:16:41.920 Basically everything

00:16:42.660 he touched turned to pot.

00:16:43.940 He stole the election

00:16:44.620 from Richard Nixon

00:16:45.660 who should have won

00:16:46.320 in 1960.

00:16:47.880 He bungled,

00:16:48.540 he almost sent us

00:16:49.060 into nuclear war

00:16:49.920 because of his handling

00:16:51.180 of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

00:16:52.720 Luckily they managed

00:16:53.420 to get out of it

00:16:53.920 when he pulled his weapons

00:16:54.740 out of Turkey.

00:16:55.660 But he was just a disaster.

00:16:57.240 The only reason people

00:16:58.000 care about him at all

00:16:59.160 is because of the mythology

00:17:00.060 built up around him

00:17:01.100 before he won

00:17:01.840 because he looked

00:17:02.800 relatively youthful

00:17:03.980 and handsome

00:17:05.140 compared to some

00:17:05.840 of his predecessors

00:17:06.560 and because he was assassinated.

00:17:08.520 So there's this mythology

00:17:09.260 but he didn't really

00:17:10.320 do anything of consequence

00:17:11.400 that was positive.

00:17:15.220 Next up,

00:17:15.860 Thomas Jefferson.

00:17:17.140 Yeah, well, of course,

00:17:17.800 because Jefferson

00:17:18.300 is the most liberal

00:17:19.360 of the prominent

00:17:20.180 founding fathers.

00:17:21.420 So, of course,

00:17:21.940 C-SPAN and the

00:17:22.620 presidential historians

00:17:23.480 like him.

00:17:24.440 You know, he's

00:17:25.220 the man who said

00:17:26.340 that the tree of liberty

00:17:27.760 must be quenched

00:17:28.480 from time to time

00:17:29.160 in the blood

00:17:29.640 of patriots and tyrants.

00:17:30.760 It was pretty radically liberal.

00:17:33.740 So I'm not a Jefferson hater.

00:17:35.560 I mean, you know,

00:17:36.340 I admire the man

00:17:37.240 in as much as is reasonable,

00:17:39.220 but he doesn't make my list.

00:17:42.060 Number six,

00:17:45.100 Harry Truman.

00:17:46.300 Truman did the best he could

00:17:49.240 with a tough situation

00:17:50.220 and he concluded

00:17:51.020 World War II,

00:17:52.540 but that said,

00:17:53.700 he, you know,

00:17:55.500 spilled the beans

00:17:56.340 to Stalin

00:17:57.780 about our military capabilities.

00:18:00.760 And in some ways

00:18:01.500 made the Cold War worse.

00:18:03.180 There is the moral question

00:18:04.500 of dropping the atomic bomb

00:18:06.400 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

00:18:08.560 I like that he was

00:18:09.160 a haberdasher

00:18:09.860 who left the White House

00:18:10.740 just driving his own car.

00:18:12.120 He's going back home,

00:18:12.980 didn't really have a lot of money

00:18:13.720 or anything.

00:18:14.720 But he's not,

00:18:16.580 he's a man who met

00:18:18.100 the crisis of his age

00:18:19.280 reasonably well,

00:18:20.820 but he's not a great president

00:18:22.600 by any stretch.

00:18:27.060 Dwight Eisenhower.

00:18:28.020 Oh, that's funny.

00:18:29.340 Wow, that's kind of cool.

00:18:30.920 C-SPAN and I put Ike

00:18:32.440 in exactly the same spot.

00:18:34.000 So there is a little bit

00:18:34.940 of bipartisan agreement here.

00:18:36.840 Ike gets the spot,

00:18:37.680 probably for different reasons,

00:18:39.560 but that's great.

00:18:40.280 Okay, so we're not totally

00:18:41.420 speaking different languages.

00:18:43.280 Number four,

00:18:45.120 Teddy Roosevelt.

00:18:47.800 I like Roosevelt.

00:18:49.040 He's on my list,

00:18:50.660 but I wouldn't put him

00:18:52.220 up that high.

00:18:52.680 They probably like Roosevelt

00:18:53.560 because he was

00:18:54.040 a progressive Republican,

00:18:55.680 whereas I like him

00:18:56.940 because he was

00:18:57.620 an unrepentant materialist

00:18:59.360 who slayed,

00:19:00.900 you know,

00:19:01.620 500 animals in Africa

00:19:03.520 or something like that

00:19:04.560 and carried a very big stick.

00:19:06.880 Number three,

00:19:10.180 Franklin Roosevelt.

00:19:11.880 Give me a break. 0.86

00:19:14.060 A truly awful president 0.80

00:19:15.440 who is great 0.97

00:19:17.180 in his tyranny.

00:19:20.780 You know,

00:19:20.960 he's great in his ability

00:19:22.320 to transform

00:19:23.040 the U.S. government.

00:19:24.300 He really took

00:19:24.960 the blueprint

00:19:25.700 written by Woodrow Wilson,

00:19:27.980 also one of the worst

00:19:28.880 presidents in American history.

00:19:30.020 He took that blueprint

00:19:31.020 and actually put it into action.

00:19:32.360 So to be fair to him,

00:19:34.000 kind of like LBJ,

00:19:35.160 but much more so,

00:19:36.440 FDR,

00:19:36.920 who was a mentor of LBJ,

00:19:38.340 did have great

00:19:39.040 administrative skills.

00:19:40.120 Obviously,

00:19:40.400 his international relations

00:19:41.240 were pretty impressive

00:19:41.920 because he did preside

00:19:43.860 almost over the winning

00:19:45.360 of World War II.

00:19:47.020 His moral authority

00:19:48.100 was weak

00:19:49.660 because he was a huge lib

00:19:51.080 who completely rewrote

00:19:52.420 our system of government,

00:19:53.860 but he claimed moral authority

00:19:55.420 like liberals do today.

00:19:56.780 His economic management

00:19:57.540 was horrible

00:19:58.000 and he prolonged

00:19:58.500 the Great Depression

00:19:59.180 and, you know,

00:20:00.400 the fact that he got us

00:20:01.280 into World War II

00:20:02.120 or, you know,

00:20:04.040 acceded to getting

00:20:04.700 into World War II

00:20:05.440 after the Japanese 0.99

00:20:06.100 actually got us

00:20:06.660 into World War II,

00:20:07.280 that's really all

00:20:07.780 that took us out

00:20:08.280 of the Depression.

00:20:09.180 His economic leadership

00:20:09.820 was horrible though.

00:20:10.820 Crisis leadership

00:20:11.500 was reasonably good.

00:20:13.880 Public persuasion

00:20:14.520 was impressive,

00:20:15.200 of course,

00:20:15.600 but he had a

00:20:16.100 complicit press

00:20:17.040 that would work with him

00:20:18.540 as the press works

00:20:19.620 with Democrat presidents today.

00:20:21.580 Relations with Congress

00:20:22.680 were fine

00:20:23.620 and then he bullied

00:20:24.340 the Supreme Court

00:20:25.120 and also upended

00:20:26.080 our system of government

00:20:26.960 by threatening

00:20:28.060 to destroy the court 0.62

00:20:28.980 and blow up 0.88

00:20:29.400 the constitutional order

00:20:30.280 if they didn't give him

00:20:30.900 his unconstitutional

00:20:31.680 New Deal.

00:20:32.740 He obviously set an agenda.

00:20:33.880 He had a vision.

00:20:34.400 It was a bad one,

00:20:35.100 but he set the agenda.

00:20:36.140 Okay, number two.

00:20:40.520 Number two is Washington,

00:20:41.940 of course,

00:20:42.300 because number one

00:20:42.740 is going to be Lincoln, right?

00:20:43.740 Just spill it.

00:20:44.700 Yeah, number one is Lincoln

00:20:45.640 for them, of course,

00:20:46.820 because Lincoln,

00:20:49.680 and look,

00:20:50.040 I put Lincoln 0.79

00:20:50.440 as number two,

00:20:51.760 but I put Lincoln

00:20:52.520 as number two

00:20:52.960 because of the times

00:20:54.300 in which he found himself,

00:20:55.460 because the Civil War

00:20:56.900 had finally come

00:20:57.940 and he managed

00:20:58.640 as best as he could.

00:21:00.800 You know,

00:21:01.080 the Civil War

00:21:01.760 was to be avoided,

00:21:03.360 but Lincoln,

00:21:04.280 my defense of Lincoln

00:21:05.420 is he met the moment

00:21:06.960 and played the best

00:21:08.920 he could

00:21:09.240 with a bad hand.

00:21:10.880 I suspect

00:21:11.460 the reason

00:21:12.280 that C-SPAN

00:21:13.120 would flip

00:21:13.680 Washington and Lincoln

00:21:14.820 is they would want

00:21:16.360 the Civil War to come.

00:21:17.180 They kind of wish

00:21:18.380 Lincoln had hastened

00:21:19.100 the Civil War

00:21:19.740 and upended

00:21:21.700 or refounded the country,

00:21:23.060 you know,

00:21:23.360 upended our constitutional order,

00:21:25.100 probably don't have

00:21:25.600 much of a problem

00:21:26.120 with suspending

00:21:26.700 habeas corpus

00:21:27.660 and the radicalism

00:21:29.440 that followed

00:21:29.840 that Lincoln himself

00:21:30.560 probably would not

00:21:31.380 have encouraged.

00:21:32.800 I'm not surprised at all.

00:21:34.240 It's a very liberal reading

00:21:35.420 of Lincoln

00:21:36.100 and of American history,

00:21:37.680 but Washington's

00:21:38.500 the indispensable man

00:21:39.440 who dealt with

00:21:41.740 greater crises

00:21:43.320 in some ways

00:21:44.440 in the pre-founding

00:21:46.260 of our constitutional order

00:21:47.780 and even a little bit afterward.

00:21:49.560 He dealt with those crises.

00:21:51.280 I'm talking about

00:21:51.780 the Newburgh conspiracy,

00:21:53.220 obviously,

00:21:53.660 the Whiskey Rebellion,

00:21:54.400 Shades Rebellion.

00:21:55.460 He dealt with them

00:21:56.260 in a much more graceful way

00:21:57.460 than his successors

00:21:59.320 dealt with crises.

00:22:00.340 So he doesn't maybe

00:22:01.500 get enough credit for that.

00:22:03.080 It could have been worse

00:22:03.840 from C-SPAN.

00:22:05.400 It's just,

00:22:05.740 what's amazing is

00:22:06.580 even when we came

00:22:07.680 to the same

00:22:08.200 or similar conclusions,

00:22:09.060 you can tell

00:22:09.780 it was for totally,

00:22:11.260 totally different reasons.

00:22:12.720 It's like the Anakin meme.

00:22:14.440 You're going to put

00:22:15.920 LBJ on your list, right?

00:22:18.380 Right?

00:22:19.220 And just have Anakin like...

00:22:21.660 They're going to put Trump

00:22:23.240 beneath William Henry Harrison

00:22:25.000 who was president

00:22:26.160 for like 15 minutes

00:22:27.220 because he got it cold.

00:22:28.560 Are you kidding me?

00:22:30.080 I probably wish

00:22:30.900 that Trump had spoken

00:22:31.720 outside of that

00:22:32.260 really cold inauguration

00:22:33.100 last time.

00:22:35.000 If he had

00:22:36.200 lived about as long

00:22:37.840 as Harrison,

00:22:38.380 maybe they'd put him

00:22:38.860 higher on the list.

00:22:40.320 Below Harding,

00:22:41.240 Fillmore,

00:22:41.700 it's such a joke.

00:22:43.660 They couldn't put him

00:22:44.600 below Buchanan

00:22:45.400 because Buchanan

00:22:46.060 basically caused

00:22:46.740 the Civil War.

00:22:48.420 Oh boy.

00:22:49.920 Okay.

00:22:50.500 I was more...

00:22:51.680 I was more sympathetic

00:22:53.020 to their list

00:22:53.620 before I read

00:22:54.420 everything that happened

00:22:55.240 after 10.

00:22:56.900 It's a joke.

00:22:58.220 It's a joke.

00:22:58.940 These presidential historians

00:23:00.060 are jokes.

00:23:00.740 No surprise there.

00:23:02.080 You see what they do

00:23:02.700 to the news.

00:23:03.240 Imagine what they do

00:23:03.860 to history.

00:23:04.580 Okay.

00:23:05.300 Happy birthday,

00:23:06.040 America.

00:23:09.920 Yeah, well,

00:23:10.460 Buchanan's kind of

00:23:11.440 undisputed the worst.

00:23:13.800 Yeah, yeah.

00:23:14.520 No one really.

00:23:15.520 I mean,

00:23:15.680 he like caused

00:23:16.160 the Civil War,

00:23:16.800 you know.

The Michael Knowles Show - February 15, 2026

Michael Knowles TOP 10 Presidents Compared To ＂Expert's＂ TOP 10

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