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Most likable recent U.S. President?

Started by Syt, September 18, 2009, 01:34:01 PM

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Politics aside, who do you think would have been most fun to have a drink with?

Barack Obama
George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George H.W. Bush
Ronald Reagan
Jimmy Carter
Gerald Ford
Richard Nixon
Lyndon B. Johnson
John F. Kennedy
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Syt

Leaving out the field of politics - which president was most likable in recent decades. Or put differently: who would you most enjoy sharing a few drinks at a bar with just chatting and talking bull? To limit the options, let's just look at the post-war presidents.

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Sheilbh

Clinton, by a mile.  I think Obama, Reagan, Ike and Ford would also be pretty good company.  My concern with Ike would be that you have to like golf. 

Tee-totallers unnerve me, so Bush II is out.  I think Bush I's a bit too old-school patrician.  Johnson would scare me.  Carter, I am sure, would be unbearable company.  I think Nixon was very awkward with people and couldn't really do small talk.

I've no read on JFK :mellow:
Let's bomb Russia!

DisturbedPervert

#2
Ronald Reagan, without a doubt. 

Kennedy and Clinton would also be interesting.  Bush II would be fun at a frat party back in his day.

Least enjoyable would be Obama or Carter.

Razgovory

Quote from: DisturbedPervert on September 18, 2009, 01:39:28 PM
Ronald Reagan, without a doubt.

Would be kinda awkward if he just kept falling asleep and forgetting who you are.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

MadImmortalMan

Nah, gotta be Clinton. He and Hil know how to party. You can tell.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Razgovory

I imagine GWB wouldn't be to bad to hang out with.  Clinton is so overbearing.  Carter strikes me as creepy.  George Bush sr. wouldn't be to bad.  Polite and formal.  I wonder what Nixon would be like in person.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Sheilbh

Let's bomb Russia!

MadImmortalMan

Quote from: Razgovory on September 18, 2009, 01:42:29 PM
I wonder what Nixon would be like in person.

He'd be foulmouthed and blunt. I imagine he'd be a hilarious drunk.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Syt

Quote from: Razgovory on September 18, 2009, 01:42:29 PM
I wonder what Nixon would be like in person.

Listening to some of his tapes where he makes kinda private calls to subordinates and recently having read Dallek's book about the collaboration between him and Kissinger I'd think that going out for drinks with him would have been awkward to say the least.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Grey Fox

Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

Admiral Yi

It's impossible to not like Ike.  Always smiling, standing there looking so bald and dignified.

JFK would be the best to party with, get some sloppy seconds or throw backs.

Clinton would be good one on one but my guess lousy in a small group: too much of a performer.

W would probably be the best for a short time in an akward situation, like stuck in an elevator together.  Seems the easiest going, most naturally friendly.

Only one on the list who is distinctly unlikeable is Milhouse.  Even Carter would probably be very kindly and gracious in person, not at all a sanctimonious bore.

The Minsky Moment

Ford or Bush I would be the most likable I think.

Ike and LBJ the most interesting - Ike b/c you could try to gossip about all the ww2 stuff; LBJ just because of his personality.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Ed Anger

I'd like to hear poppa Bush talk about firing torpedoes at the Hiyo.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Neil

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on September 18, 2009, 01:51:03 PM
Ike b/c you could try to gossip about all the ww2 stuff;
Like how he shirked his duty to bang his driver?

Nixon would be the best, by far.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

C.C.R.

Jerry.  The closest (IMO) to being a "regular guy" out of the group...