who was your favorite president and why?

If I were to base it on legislative achievements I would probably say Lyndon B Johnson. Some of the reasons are:

Johnson designed the "Great Society" legislation upholding civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, public services, and his "War on Poverty". Assisted in part by a growing economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during Johnson's presidency.[2] Civil rights bills signed by Johnson banned racial discrimination in public facilities, interstate commerce, the workplace, and housing; and the Voting Rights Act banned certain requirements in southern states used to disenfranchise African Americans.

Much of Johnson's agenda was originally Kennedy's, and Johnson was able to pass it because of the response to Kennedy's assassination, but more than that, Johnson was a conservative southern Democrat who knew where all the bodies were buried. He was a pro at arm twisting. His ability to get that agenda, and items of his own passed is a tribute to his political abilities. Americans often act as though political skill were a scurrilous trait, but without it, nothing gets done.

Kennedy's greatest contribution, given that he had not succeeded in getting his agenda passed by the time of his death, was the emphasis on the space program. He set a goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and NASA came in ahead of schedule. There was a proto-rap by a black man called "Whitey's on the moon" in the early 1970s. Middle class white kids in college liked to guilt-trip themselves by playing it, and nodding their heads at the "wisdom" therein. But, in fact, the space program, which cost a tenth of the money spent in Vietnam in the same period, was what really boosted the American economy in the 1960s. Advances in telemetry, pocket calculators, development in materials science, the accelerated pace of computer development--all of these sparked a high-tech industrial revolution in the United States, and in the process, attracted some of the most talented people around the world who were interested in those fields.

To that extent, Kennedy was the ideas man, and Johnson was the guy who could get it all done. No one lives and works in a vacuum.

Johnson's positives are counterbalanced by his foisting the Vietnam War on the world. I hated his guts. - I know Kennedy put it in motion, but Johnson made it all out war.

Franklin Roosevelt put into motion the liberal gains that guided our government for a long time. Much of his work was marked by experimenting to see what works, to recover from The Great Depression and the effects of WWII. After Truman and Eisenhower, the gains the working class made were gradually eroded, by a bloated government structure and a growing propensity to ditch liberal programs, instead of examining the parts that were wasteful or no longer effective, and fixing them. From my perspective, FDR was the great president of the 20th Century.

Who was it who did that satirical record where it is imagined that a voice coach is hired by anxious Democrats to try to teach LBJ to say "negro" (at the time an acceptable (to some people) alternative to the N word)? He tries and tries but it keeps coming out as "n****r". The best he can manage (eventually) is "niggero". LBJ was a racist. He said the N word a lot, and was famous for it. example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1rIDmDWSms

I'm gonna say James K. Polk. Nineteenth century representin', yo'!

That was a routine by Lenny Bruce.

I don't have a favorite 21st century president.

I heard LBJ pronounce it as 'nigra'

I have that routine by Lenny Bruce on a record. He said it various ways as he tried to get it right. Remember, he said it on stage dozens of times, so it could "drift" from time to time.

That's right, as most southerners did. I'm not trying to exculpate Johnson, but whatever his attitudes and private opinions, passing the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act was the greatest gift any president has made to Americans of African descent.

Johnson did not "start" the war in Vietnam, and he can't even really be blamed for the escalation in 1964. Before his own death, Robert McNamarra admitted that he had willfully lied to Johnson about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and the enabling act by Congress was called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The war broke Johnson morally--he did not run in 1968 because of his despair. I don't say that anyone is obliged to admire him, but don't lie about him.

Anyone remember the poster Lenny Bruce? Or maybe it was Lennie Bruce. She (if I remember, Lenny was a she) might not have been on a2k, but on Abuzz. I do remember enjoying her posts, buncha years ago.

Can't say I remember her.

It was easy enough for private civilians to learn that Vietnam was a bogus war. Johnson was not supposed to be stupid.

I always appreciated Franklin Roosevelt, but also had some big burrs, getting bigger as I got older. Was he in on the turnaround of the ship full of fleeing Jews, refused by us? I consider that a giant example of ineptitude, besides lack of humanity. Fear of voters.

I've been reading a series of books that make me quail at how long we were isolationist re entering the war. I take it the press might have been isolationist.
Setanta will know.

I say this as some part/pretty much an isolationist, war-wise, myself, in my own times, but not always.

Nothing has ever been perfect, under any president. FDR had his share of faults. I don't minimize them.

I always liked Johnson's saying that "he would fight the Civil Rights act with every breath in him all the way to the day he signs it into law"

My fav president is the other Roosevelt. Just for living the life that he did

I respect Johnson for his Civil Rights Act of 1964. That really changed the landscape in this country.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, He is my favourite president ever and forever. He was the epithet of every Indian ideal. He is a legend.