What Makes A Good President?

(CBS)  The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

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Being president of The United States may be the worst job there is. It's certainly the hardest. You have the whole world on your back and no matter what you do, a lot of people hate you for it. Our 38th president, Gerald Ford, was an exception. Almost no one hated Gerald Ford.

When I was very young, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. He's considered one of our greatest, but he was also one of the most disliked by a lot of people. My father was a businessman and all his business friends hated FDR.

Harry Truman was never considered a great president but, like Gerald Ford, not many people disliked him.

Dwight Eisenhower was a war hero and a popular president, too. It wasn't so much what Ike did that made him popular. It was what he didn't do. He played a lot of golf as president.

John F. Kennedy was one of the most likeable presidents we ever had although not everyone liked him. The day he was assassinated was one of the worst days in this country's history.

Lyndon Johnson inherited the job when Kennedy was murdered. He was one of the most professional politicians we ever had in the White House, although not the most popular, probably because of the war in Vietnam.

I forget how Richard Nixon got elected. It makes you wonder about our democratic system of government. I mean, how could we have done that?

Gerald Ford fell into the White House and became our 38th president when Nixon was pushed out of it. We were lucky to have such a good, normal American to step in to the job.

Jimmy Carter was the political opposite of Nixon. He was smart and it was hard to dislike Jimmy Carter, even if you were a Republican.

Ronald Reagan was the only movie star ever elected president. A lot of people thought he was better in the movies than in the White House.

George Bush was an acceptable but undistinguished president who's better known now as George W. Bush's father.

Bill Clinton might have gone down in history as one of the best presidents we ever had if it hadn't been for that one unfortunate incident that I don't want to talk about in case there are children watching.

George W. Bush is the second son of a president to be elected president himself. John Adams was our second president and his son, John Quincy Adams, was our sixth. You wonder what the fathers thought about the jobs their kids were doing as president.

My son is a good television reporter but I wouldn't want him as my president.
Written By Andy Rooney

[memerider]

Interesting. My dad despised FDR while my SO's dad reports he was saved from homelessless by the man.

Clinton was pragmatic, but he did weaken the military--even while Islamic attacks on the U.S. and it's "interests" were escalating. He had the potential to be one of the greatest presidents if he had just kept his pants zipped. He championed Ghandi, whose country is now overrun by Islamists--the evolved British consciousness made them responsive to Ghandi.

Johnson was a foul-mouthed pig and hard-driving politician who flew in the face of 1960s sensibilities.

Ford had the potential to be a great president, but he was guilty by assocation.

Bush I wanted more jails and prisons and laws so we could confine a lot more people. He acted honorably in war rather than pragmatically. Bush II shares dad's "solutions" to social problems. I think Saddam could have been useful to routing out Al-Qaeda and keeping Iran at bay--but he put out a hit on daddy Bush--who really knows the details?

Kennedy certainly had the vision-thing we like in our leaders, and he owned up to mistakes. He didn't keep his pants zipped, either, but Linda Tripp and Montgomery Co. MD politicians weren't a factor.

Nixon was paranoid.

Commentary is an abstraction based on one's bias I think!

[terkoy]

Yes, Andy actually lived as an adult through so many presidencies: therefore his opinions are attributable to senility! Just like Larry King telling Jimmy he was the best president ever! The Shah went, the Ayatollah came in, Jimmy caved and the Iranians trumpeted, "Death to America". Read the Ayatollah's son's book. America's weakness became apparent,leading to today's troubles... Andy...Jimmy.

[actornaught]

Why the personal attacks on someone expressing an opinion in an opinion column?

I just don't understand this 'fashionable' not-really-conservatism (aka neocon) that has the anti-rights stink of Joe McCarthy. I can only hope our country can outgrow it soon.

Freedom of Speech, folks.

By the way, if you get you're definition of Liberal from the neocon press, consider the source, and how you're being manipulated, as in McCarthyism.

[hypnotoad72]

Wow. Quite a political battle.

All I will say is that 'the truth is in the middle', though Andy - unlike many of us - has lived through the times when many of those presidents were elected or put into office. Therefore his say probably has more meaning than most. History is best told by those who lived it. And how many Iraq war supporters here have enlisted yet?

[proportion]

Corrected copy

Rooney....may I call you Mr. Rooney?

It's a tough business. The feedback is so inadequate. The worst spout distracting fallacies and the best are busy elsewhere.
The true answers may be beyond the stars. Surely those answers must be more comprehensive and systematic than the format of political commentary and our knowledge of the target audience will prompt us to elucidate.

[proportion]

Rooney....may I call you Rooney?

It's a tough business. The feedback is so inadequate. The worst spout distracting fallacies and the best are busy elsewhere.
The true answers may be beyond the stars. Surely those answers must be more comprehensive and systematic than the format of political format and our knowledge of the target audience will prompt us to elucidate.

[cwebstuff]

Andy needs to just come out of the liberal closet once and for all and join Rosie O'Donnell on the, "I am a liberal and love it" sofa. Clinton %u2013 the best president ever? I have been in the military for 25 years and there has not been a more hated president in the military in my lifetime %u2013 or the lifetime of veterans I know. Clinton destroyed the military and paved the way for 9-11. We know now that he was too busy with some 100-plus hours of *** talk with Monica on private White House lines to really know what was going on reference defense and national security (Star Report, 1998). He spent 2 years trying to save his own a$$ %u2013 not protect us. He also did more for racial and gender separation than any president in half a century. Did you forget about how many times a week we'd see both the National Organization for Women and the Rainbow Collation on TV telling us how bad we all were? Thank God both organizations have been minimalized over the last 6 years. Clinton's nonsense went on for 8 long tired years and he did more to hurt the country's morale and psyche than anyone in our history %u2013 including Nixon. Clinton was a horrible, indecent, self centered man. Andy, you are much more entertaining as the 60-Minute's old *** that talk's about broken watches and coffee can size. Please leave politics to Fox News.

[terkoy]

Let's circulate a petition to have Andy and Jimmy committed to the Old Liberals Home where they can wax nostalgic to each other on the best ways to wreck the good old USA.

[actornaught]

beta! this is the OPINION section. that's all Rooney does! this section gives alot of space to right-wing ideas, too. are you trying to squelch free speech and the exchange of ideas?

as far as Clinton not going after Osama, the neocons stopped him! he was criticized for trying to take Osama out with a cruise missile, and roundly harassed because the republicans wanted to distract us with an all-Monica agenda!!

Monica had more president in her than George Bush ever will...

[betabaker]

Rooney has proven, once again, how biased and left-leaning is the national press. Ultimately, in spite of Rooney's looney tunes, history will record who won the cold war, who fiddled for 8 years while Osama plotted America's burning, and who betrayed Cuban and Vietnamese freedom fighters.
Senility is Andy's lone defense. I say, change the program to "55 Minutes" and let's watch honest commercials for the last 5.