In the midst of the furor over how bad is Bush, how good was Clinton and so on, I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion about what Presidents of the past we admire and why. I see a lot about how history will judge the current administration, about how things that seem wrong now will seem noble in retrospect. So tell me. Who do you love?

I love Abraham Lincoln. He was a brilliant, evocative speaker (and he wrote his own speeches), he was a compassionate human being, he stood up for his beliefs. To those of you who say he supported abolition only as a political strategy, I suggest you read his pre-politics letters. He had hard choices to make during the Civil War, and while I think he overstepped his bounds quite a bit (yes, I would have been calling for his impeachment, had I been alive then) he worked hard for what he felt was best for the nation as a whole. He showed mercy to the Confederates, and worked hard to rebuild what he had helped to destroy. He believed in the Constitution, and in the noble ideals upon which this country was founded. In the end, he tried to help people put aside their differences for something greater.

This is all very funny to me as I read it, as many of the same things have been said about President Bush. To me, the difference is that while Lincoln deplored every moment of the Civil War, and tried to discourage unnecessary violence and mend the rifts between brothers even as they were created, I feel that our current President glories in them and uses them to further his own aims. I suppose only time will tell what his actual aims may be.

But now it’s your turn. What previous President do you believe has done an exemplary job, and why? What should we be looking for in our next Chief Executive?