Who was the most "well intentioned" president in history?

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Carter. Instead of getting rich off speeches and whatnot, or resting on his laurels...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/politics/jimmy-carter-cancer-retirement-post-presidency/

Carter's first task back home in Georgia was writing an autobiography that charted the achievements and disappointments of an unfulfilled political career while he searched for a more permanent role.

Then, late one night, lying in bed after a few hours sleep, he had a revelation -- he would not just build a presidential library, but would set himself up as a freelance global mediator, statesman and global health advocate who would work across political and humanitarian divides.

"This was the birth of the Carter Center," the former president wrote.

The Carter Center's work would eventually recast the roles and expectations of ex-presidents, and his move into global relief and humanitarian work after the White House has been emulated by successors like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Over the next three-and-a-half decades, Carter would venture into global hotspots, negotiate with rogue leaders like North Korea's dictators Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and launch a broad, global humanitarian mission.

He fought to eradicate diseases afflicting hundreds of millions of people in tropical Africa, including river blindness, malaria, and trachoma. He plunged into civil wars and conflicts from Nepal to Ethiopia, the Balkans and Sudan and across the Middle East.

He is credited with helping to peacefully restore order in Haiti in 1994 after the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, averting the need for American military action at a moment when U.S. bombers were already in the air.

The Carter Center has monitored elections in 100 nations, and Carter and his beloved wife,Rosalynn, have also devoted a week of work every year to the charity Habitat for Humanity, which builds and renovates homes for poor families.


With its ability to only get 10% of donations in the hands of charities I'll go out on a limb and say the Clinton Foundation doesn't really live up to Jimmy's example. Not sure what the Bush's have done in terms of humanitarian work.
 
Carter, no doubt.

LOL at the mentions of FDR, JFK, and Lincoln. They were brutal pragmatists who wouldn't shy away from even the most heinous and under-handed acts if it they thought it benefited the nation. It wouldn't even trouble their conscience. That doesn't mean they were bad presidents, of course, any more than Carter's good intentions made him a good president.

You could say Washington, but I think he barely had any intentions. He didn't even want to be president. He had the intention of 'not being a megalomaniacal asshole,' which counts for a lot, but he came into the office more with a 'let's not fuck it up' attitude than with great plans and schemes for spreading goodness across the land.
Carter seems like the obvious one. What do you think about LBJ? He wanted to change society forever and for the better but was also a brutal and effective politician.
 
When Obama was campaigning in 2008, did you also have a negative impression of him, or were you neutral/positive?

I'll be honest, I "drank the kool-aid" and genuinely thought Obama was going to be a watershed in American politics for the better. How wrong we all were.

I was negative on Obama, but sort of hoped that with how thoroughly he fooled the public, that he actually could do some good. I mean I knew he hated the constitution and would preach against it, pass legislation like the NDAA quietly, but if we actually got a healthcare system like Canada, I wouldn't be mad about it, it would help people. Instead we fine people and still make them pay individual insurance agencies and it's a total mess. Unfortunately he just didn't do anything good and separated the nation. The main thing I was wrong on was thinking the American people would recognize this and fix the mistake, instead Hillary might actually win.
 
Carter seems like the obvious one. What do you think about LBJ? He wanted to change society forever and for the better but was also a brutal and effective politician.

Like JVS says, I think all presidents believe they will make America better, and have good intentions in that regard. LBJ no exception. The distinction is mostly that many presidents are more focused on their own aggrandizement and servicing special interests, and are also willing to do things that are obviously disgusting and corrupt.

For example, George W. Bush genuinely hoped and wanted to make Iraq into a centerpiece of democratizing the Middle East and finally bringing peace to the region. Regardless, I'd argue that you can't really call it 'good intentions' if the intentions encompass being a murderous, lying, ferocious motherfucker. That category would include people like LBJ, JFK, FDR, Nixon, Lincoln.

Even Hitler and Stalin had good intentions in the trivial sense of envisioning a glorious world of flourishing righteousness and purity being achieved by their actions. The difference is in what they were willing to do to achieve their goals.
 
I always thought Bush invaded Iraq because say word, the :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: tried to kill his father.

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For example, George W. Bush genuinely hoped and wanted to make Iraq into a centerpiece of democratizing the Middle East and finally bringing peace to the region. Regardless, I'd argue that you can't really call it 'good intentions' if the intentions encompass being a murderous, lying, ferocious motherfucker. That category would include people like LBJ, JFK, FDR, Nixon, Lincoln.

This is the exact example and thinking I had in mind when I made my comment. Bush was one of the top-10 all-time worst presidents, and Iraq was probably his biggest mistake, but he genuinely thought his actions would make the world and country a better place.
 
carter has always had a good rep as a person. however, i read his book a couple years ago and he came across as very arrogant in the book. and everything he did, he was quick to pat himself on the back for. it was like he did things to get the praise more than actually doing something good.
 
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