I'm not sure what people you're talking about. He arrested thousands of northerners and also arrested members of Maryland's legislature. Maryland never seceded.

Awful choice of words on my part. He chose to fight the war.

Not so. In 1941, the US had one of the largest navies in the world (roughly comparable to the British Navy), and had been anticipating the Pacific conflict since the early 20th century. Roosevelt actually deployed the fleet to Pearl Harbor from San Diego to show the Japanese that the US were serious about halting the Japanese advance, having cut off supplies to them after the invasion of Indochina. However, the aircraft carriers were not housed in the docks there during the December attack, in part because they would have been too vulnerable to attack. One of the only reasons that the US was able to turn the tide of the Pacific War so early (Midway) is that they had anticipated both the scope and nature of the conflict--now, this wasn't all FDR's doing, but he definitely accepted the reality that war was an inevitability in 1939-1940.

I think people dwell far too much on the European theater when they talk about US readiness for WWII. True, they didn't have a bunch of tanks just lying around (why would they?), but the US was well aware that there would be a struggle with Japan sooner or later, essentially since the Russian defeat in the 1905 war.

There is this dude named Thomas Jefferson, he was kind of the man.

Louisiana purchase, Lewis and Clark, cranking out our Declaration of Independence, etc etc.

Truman and Nixon come to mind as they were reportedly plus ev grinders.

Truman was a great President, but Nixon..really? Everything that he did good for the country has just been over shadowed by Watergate and that's fair enough. The man was a crook, a criminal, and shouldn't be regarded as one of the best Presidents.

Theodore Roosevelt, JFK, LBJ, Reagan anyone?

Washington, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Coolidge

We should also not forget Warren G. Harding, a man who hosted poker games in the White House.

obama.

Washington gave up the crown when It was offered to him. He was hero by every definition of the word; the only issue is that he did many great things before he was president.

Of early presidents, I'd have to go with Lincoln or Washington.

Sure I'm going to catch a lot of hate for this, but of the modern ones, I think Reagan did quite a bit.

srsly tho, best president is really Franklin...

Nixon opened relations with China, he's not great, but it's worth mentioning.

I really liked LBJ, but I think JFK is really, really over hyped for so many reasons.

That story is widely regarded as apocryphal, or at least largely exaggerated... but it is true that Washington's peaceful transition out of power did set a positive precedent in the early republic.

First half of our history:

Most over rated: Jefferson

Most under rated: Grant



Second half of our history:

Most over rated: Wilson

Most under rated: McKinley



The Missed potential category:

Most likely to be great had he lived longer: Garfield

Most likely to be a failure had he lived longer: Kennedy


Truly great presidents:
Washington
Lincoln
TR
Reagan

not great but very good:
Jackson

This

whoever the next great one is, that's the greatest of all time imo