Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Greatest President in American History. Won wars on two fronts, saved Europe from fascism, pulled America out of the Great Depression through progressive policies, formed a Social Security system that's kept generations of senior citizens from poverty, and created a GI Bill that single-handedly brought about the Middle Class and spurred America's Golden Age of innovation and production. The fact that FDR's success is so hated by Republicans (many on this board) is proof of his enduring legacy and importance in American history. They try to build themselves up by tearing a great man down. Face it, folks, If Hoover were in the White House his Republican isolationist leanings would've most likely allowed Hitler to take over Europe unimpeded.

FDR was one of the best leaders in the White Office we have had. He led us through WWII, and the theories that he caused Pearl Harbor to happen are conspiracy theories without fact. However, he had no idea what to do during the Great Depression and didn't improve unemployment at all. He made many mistakes by implementing unconstitutional programs (NRA) and then implementing other ones that were extremely temporary (WPA, PWA) and made matters worse when they were finished. He started the era of big government, which is why people now expect the government things they should be earning themselves. He instituted the progressive income tax, the AAA and countless other programs that are exactly socialist. Why the heck should I have to give more money to poor people who are too lazy to work if I want to work harder? Roosevelt took the opportunity to manipulate the people, the Democrat party, and tried to change the supreme court when it got in his way. FDR is the reason we have a hug... Read more

FDR was elected 4 times because the people loved him for what he did. He made programs which some were pointless but if he didn't make any of them, where would America be today? Think about it. If you were the president of the United States and you country have been bombed by people who you have no relations with.. And yet their people are living in your country. How would they know how to bomb your country? how would they know anything? Obviously there were spies. He didn't know who were spies and who weren't. Hence the interment camps. And he did end the great depression... since WWII "ended" it, WHO THE HELL ENDED WWII? who the hell initiated the Atomic bomb? yes, killing a mass amount of people in Japan just to stop a war seems cruel, but its WAR. it was the only way to get the Japanese to stop fighting and attacking. FDR died before the war ended. Truman took over. he was the one who declared to bomb Hiroshima. SO ALL YOU FUCKERS WHO BELIEVE THAT FDR WAS A BAD PRESIDENT, THEN ... Read more

franklin roosevelt is an awful president there are countless cases of him overstepping his bounds as president. he is responsible for the large federal government we have today, countless federal programs that are useless. for example, if social security was such a great plan would it really be running dry after only lasting around 75 years? it hasn't even been a century and the inherent flaws in the program are threatening it's existence! and enough nonsense that he ended the great depression. world war II ended the great depression. he tried to increase the number of supreme court justices just so he could have more power in the judicial branch! luckilly, the congress recognized this power grab and denied him. for pete's sake, he signed the executive order to place the japanese, germans, and italians in interment camps! and people have the gall to place him among the likes of abraham lincoln? that's unbelievable he also sought to bypass the constitution's set of checks and ba... Read more

Regardless of whether or not he is a "good" president, he was one of our most influential presidents which, if you notice, is what we are rating, as opposed to what kind of president he was. Actually, in mentioning that he created the welfare state that America is becoming, you are proving my point; it is a direct area of his undeniable influence.

The modern historians are tearing the hide off this guy and exposing him for the bad president he was. The old lefto ass-kissing historians are dying out.All you FDR lovers, consider this. Had he abided by the two term tradition, his first eight years were a failure. It was the war that he maneuvered us into that makes him "great" in the eyes of the hagiographers who pass themselves off as historians.

far from overrated...anybody calling FDR overrated needs to step back, take a deep breath, read a history book or two do some research and try again...some dimwit comments on this board for sure. FDR was the last truly great president, there were two in the 20th century, both Roosevelts...Wilson was solid, Truman in hindsight also very good...if somebody wants to talk about overrated presidents, the 20th century has a few.. Reagan, LBJ is rated higher than he should be, Eisenhower is another overrated president. But FDR? Please. One simple look at WW2 shows the difference between real leadership(FDR) and total buffoon (Hitler). Doesn't even scratch the surface of what FDR did within the borders of the U.S...Truly sickens me to think ANYONE would consider FDR overrated, some of you folks need to be shipped out to another country, even if this article and most of the comments are old.

When I hear shouts of kill the bum at the same time people are suggesting canonization, it usually makes me think that the person in question was neither saint or demon.  As someone who did not experience the time and is leary of revisionist history of any sort, I'm putting my money somewhere in the middle of this one.

FDR was not a great president. His (long) time in office consisted of him throwing money at problems and giving people goverment jobs and building up a welfare state that would've failed if WWII had never happened. WWII got us out of the depression. FDR put Japanese citizens in internment camps by executive order. Great president? Second only to Lincoln? I don't think so.

Yeah, he was really terrible. All he did was see this country through the Great Depression and most of WWII. During that time, the USA went from being an on-its-ass second runner to the most powerful nation on the planet. His initiatives either directly gave this country, or set the stage for such awful things as regulation of the financial markets, SSI, the TVA, countless public works across the country that the citizens are still using, irrigation projects for farmland that was unserviced up to that time, the GI Bill and veterans' mortgages. His administration demonstrated, unlike that of those two sh*theads Reagan and Bush II, that when properly managed, the government can indeed spur aggregate demand and lift the nation out of financial disaster. He was the last great American President, which is pretty pathetic, when you consider that he died 64 years ago. The dimwits on this board who insist on trashing this great man are either clueless revisionist nimrods, or mere droolin... Read more

the greatest president second to only lincoln do you idiots realy belive Herbert Hoover was worthy of a second tearm or that Alf Landon, Wendell Willkie. or Thomas Dewey would have done a better job. Morons who compare Roosevelt to Reagan do not know their ass from their elbows. Granted both were great speakers but Reagan all but turned a blind eye from issues ranging from poverty to the aids epidemic. His ripping off of Calvin Coolidge's economic policy contributed to huge budget defecits that costs his succesor a second tearm, yet no one blames Reagan for the shity economy of the early 90s. His conservative message has provin to be bullshit as well. Ask yourselves this were we as a society more conservative in Roosevelts time or now in the post Reagan years. Face it the only truly great Republican President post Teddy Roosevelt was Dwight Eisenhower all the ranged from mediocre to good including the third rate actor who made it big Ronald Reagan.

We need  a zero star rating because this is what FDR deserves.He responsible for the welfare state that has Americans holding out their hands for government handouts.This has also turned American National (what you were prior to enrolling into Social Security) into Federal Citizens that has enslaved all citizens to the machinery that is the Federal Government.

FDR Cheated The Nation! He took advantage of people when they where at there most vulnerable this is just like a “Abusive” man he should have been hung as a traitor for taking a 3rd term, or lying to all voting  Americans when he Showed us all he did not have a disability and then we found out he needed a chair and then told us that all people are equal and then threw people in camps (just like Hitler) Remember this is the president who confused the Bill of Rights with the Bill of But Wipes and made it easy for every president follow in his footsteps.  One Might say he was one of the biggest Master Manipulators in history, Next to Hitler and Napoleon. Let me know what you think of the worst Pres. FDR

Frank seems to be a tad bit high on this list. I would of had him at around oh...5000 or so, give or take 1 or 2.

I think he was one of the most deceitful and crooked presidents in history. He takes credit for creating the New Deal when in fact it was his predecessor Herbert Hoover who began the small-business programs to help unemployment. Sometimes Hoover is blamed for the Depression. It was Roosevelt that put all the programs together and called it the New Deal. He also was responsible for organizing the unjust internment of the Japanese-Americans. He knew that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked and sat by and did nothing so the United States would be forced to enter the war. Even when the United States was neutral, he was secretly sending supplies to Great Britain, which at the time, was a clear violation of neutrality laws. In my mind, he lied to the country and should not be revered as a great president. Even though it is required, I would not even give him one star.

FDR takes quite a bashing from people here who would have us believe that their little political zealots would have done a much better job. . .

This guy has to be the worst I've ever seen. He is the reason why government is so big and why people are so dependent of the government to live and breathe.

Good. Kept the country together during the last REAL war.

His policies, which essentially created the American middle class, account for our prosperity to this very moment.

Franklin Rossevelt was not a great president. Everyone blames Hoover's policies for getting America into the Depression but FDR had the same policies for the first six years of his presidency! Those policies only extended and deepened the Depression. And the New Deal was a disaster. It created a culture of dependency and helped socialize America. We still suffer from FDR's New Deal policies to this day. However, FDR had singular vision and fortitude when it came to WWII. FDR defeated Nazism and he should be lauded for his wartime policies. The combination of bad domestic policies and superb wartime policies makes FDR only an average president. If I ranked all forty-two presidents from best to worst, FDR would likely fall somewhere between fourteen and twenty. FDR, along with his distant cousin Teddy Roosevelt, is the most over-rated president in U.S. history.

He is responsible for the welfare state, he is worst president ever!!! Damn you, FDR, what made you think you can tell others what to do with their money!?

As a President, he saved the United States from falling into the realm of Communism, established the United States as one of the most dominant forces in the World, and helped bring a halt to not one, not two, but three Fascist governments. Roosevelt provided the foundation for many economic and social programs, including welfare programs, Social Security, and protected our nation in two great turmoils that threatened to destroy the United States: The Great Depression and World War II. Despite his physical limitations, Roosevelt proved with near-heroic strength that he was capable of great leadership. FDR also laid out groundwork for expanding civil rights for handicapped Americans and also for African-Americans and for women, through due to a crippling stroke in 1944 and fatal one in 1945, his plans for promoting a pro-civil rights agenda following the end of World War II were largely forgotten. Roosevelt is often regarded by American historians as among the greatest American presid... Read more

FDR is currently misunderstood and underrated, if not outright slandered by conservatives who only have Ronald Reagan to hold up for comparison (no wonder FDR's legacy causes them so much grief!) If you want to understand why FDR has been lauded so frequently, consider his three Republican predecessors: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, & Herbert Hoover. Those three men were turkey presidents who had much in common with the current supreme court selectee--uninspired, gullible, and out-of-touch. FDR was courageous enough to abandon many of the failed policies of his predecessors: the support of prohibition and laissez-faire economics. And while abandoning the latter has had results that people continue to argue about, who on this message board can honestly say that we would be better off living under prohibition?

Probably the most overated president in history. Anybody with a background in economics knows his policies made things worse, not better. His socialist policies like the New Deal, Social Security, and the beginning of a large welfare system goes against the grain of capitalism. The economy was in shambles pretty much all his years in office. The depression could have ended a lot sooner, but it didn't. Japan tried to implement FDR's policies and it didn't work.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is clearly an overrated president; however, he also doesn't get credit for some things that often go unnoticed in today's revisionist history. First, FDR often gets credited for ending the depression when World War II actually accomplished this. Even one of RateItAll's most qualified presidential critics (at least from my readings of his comments) holds the opinion that FDR's policies did not end the depression or exacerbate it; however, this was Roosevelt's presidential challenge (as he should have never been in office during WWII). Perhaps, FDR couldn't do anything to end the depression or accelerate its end, but one doesn't get credit either way under those circumstances. FDR also ran for unprecedented third and fourth terms for no compelling reason (ie no one man is irreplaceable), and the U.S. was not at war when he ran for the third term. This action would have set a dangerous precedent that worked against the timely and peaceful transfer of power that ... Read more

Lead against public opinion and decided to enter WWII in both Asia and Eurpoe.

Along with Reagan, the greatest President of the 20th century. Like Reagan, his impact as President was substantial. He had a domestic and international impact. He faced more challenges than any other president in the history of this country beginning with the Great Depression and ending with WWII. His legacy and impact are underestimated.

He did not bring us out of the great depression, but the New Deal was commendable.

As you probably know by now, I hate FDR. The man was a racist, prejudice, murderer, and a tyrant/communist. First of all he did not get anyone out of any Depression. His New Deal failed. He tried saving Capitalism with a Socialist thoery. Secondly, I believe he allowed Pearl Harbor to happen. I cannot prove it, but there are some books and many many internet sites that suggest it. Thirdly, he was a tyrant. I mean, 4 terms? He never knew when enough was enough. He had to die before he could lose office. Finally, he illegaly imprisoned Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Just threw thier rights away just for being Asian. Now, with Social Security, I am one day going to have to support an aging community that I don't even know. Thanks Frank, you miserable piece of crap.

He did some good for our nation, but he is extremely overrated. So many of his fanatical supporters claim that he and his policies brought us out of the Great Depression. As I have said 1,000 times, this is absolutely false. What FDR did do was LEAD us through the Great Depression. He provided hope at a time of great national crisis. However, he did not bring us out of the Depression; the military and defense mobilization following U.S. entry into World War II revived the economy.

I always find myself having to explain this again: FDR betrayed our own country. Ever hear of Manazar? Hmmmmm? Look it up!