Jim Colyer

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45 Mitt Romney - 2013-2021
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44 Barack Obama - 2009-2013
David Duke dubbed this one "Obonga," and the name fits. He would have made a great president of Uganda or the Congo. But the United States was founded by men of white European descent. Every man who signed the Declaration of Independence was white as was every man who signed the Constitution. Even with the massive illegal immigration under Clinton and Bush, America is still 70% white. The United States deserves a white president. Obonga received financial backing from the Jews of Hollywood and Wall Street. That is how he won.

43 George Walker Bush - 2001-09
The way it was supposed to be and the way it turned out were two different things. The idea was to take the war to the desert, to use the American military as a magnet to attract terrorists and would-be terrorists and to defeat them there. Such was the case. Saddam Hussein was captured and hanged although it cost over 4,000 American lives and thousands more injured or permanently maimed. If Bush had viewed the Iraq War as retaliation for 9/11, things would have made sense. Instead, he stressed the Iraqi people and their freedom. In another sense, we were left wondering how much of "regime change" was revenge for Saddam's threats on Bush's father. Ultimately, it became clear that Bush overextended. If he had stayed with Afghanistan and implemented his "surge" there, Osama Bin Laden might have been captured. After all, it was Bin Laden who was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, not Saddam. Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" turned out to be a myth as neighboring Iran became the real nuclear threat. Bush alienated American voters to the point that they elected a black radical to succeed him. It is unthinkable that America would elect a black with Muslim tendencies and whose first name rhymes with Osama and whose middle name is Hussein, but it happened. Insert an "n La" in Joe Biden's last name, and it spells "Bin Laden." This demonstrates the extent to which mostly young and ignorant American voters turned against George W. Bush. Indeed, Bush was the president of the rich and implemented tax cuts to help his oil buddies. The price of gasoline tripled under Bush only to come back down near the end of his second term. Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. Of course, privatizing Social Security would turn it into something else. Social Security is a government program stemming from the FDR era, a response to the Great Depression. It is not a pension fund. It was designed as a safety net for the aged and disabled who are unable to fend for themselves. Bush appointed judges to the Supreme Court who had the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade if they would only do it. 46 million babies have been aborted since 1973 in an American Holocaust. We could move us away from national and racial suicide, but it is the same old thing with the Republicans. They promise action until they take office. Bush left behind a horrible mess. 12 million illegal Hispanics invaded America from the south. American troops languish in Muslim territories with no clear purpose. The financial industry is reeling. The auto industry is bankrupt. The federal government has been taken over by an African and his gang of radicals. What good is it to achieve victory in Iraq and lose the United States? The time has come for change although not the kind of change the Democrats are calling for.

42 Bill Clinton - 1993-2001
Republicans blamed Bill Clinton for 9/11, saying he cut the military and weakened the intelligence community. It is just as valid to say the Republicans weakened the country by impeaching Clinton and trying to destroy his presidency. We have reached a point where each party puts itself ahead of the country. Reflecting on the Clinton presidency, it is hard to think of anything he did. He kept the peace. He said his goal was to have no major wars. His goal of universal health coverage failed. In retrospect, his 8 years were a series of scandals from Gennifer Flowers to Whitewater to Monica Lewinsky. Clinton learned from Nixon's mistake. He knew that if he hung on, the impeachment process would run its course. The country did not need another Watergate nor a second president resigning. Republicans ignored this, seeking revenge for Watergate. One thing about Clinton, he had charisma. His womanizing ruined Al Gore. And his bridge to the 21st century became a bridge back to the Bushes of Texas!

41 George Herbert Walker Bush - 1989-93
"Read my lips!" the elder Bush said when he promised no raise in taxes. When taxes were raised, David Duke said he meant, "Kiss my hips!" The door opened for a stampede on the Oval Office from Pat Buchanan to Ross Perot. Perot was an eccentric billionaire. "You want jobs? Here's the deal!" He got scared he was going to win and dropped out. He re-entered and got 19% of the vote as his Reform Party's candidate. The legacy of Bush 41 was his confrontation with Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Saddam invaded oil-rich Kuwait in 1990. Bush put together a coalition and drove him out. Bush said it was not about oil. If it was not about oil, then it was not about anything. Americans do not care about Kuwaitis or Iraqis. They care about driving to and from sporting events, getting home to their wives and kids and putting food on the table. Bush made enemies across the Muslim world. Americans who wanted regime change in 1991 would get their chance. Bush kept looking at his watch when he debated Clinton. He underestimated Baby Boomers.

40 Ronald Reagan - 1981-89
Ronald Reagan was the first successful president since Eisenhower. He got credit for winning the Cold War. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Indeed, the Berlin Wall came down shortly after Reagan left office. East and West Germany united, and the Soviet Union dissolved. Reagan was as popular when he left office as he was when he came in. He was a Democrat in his younger days, so his vision of America appealed to all. He saw America as a shining city on a hill. He was a movie star. His humor was infectious. When he took a bullet in an assassination attempt, he joked that he forgot to duck. The attempt on Reagan's life slowed him. He criticized Roe v. Wade during his campaign but failed to speak of it later. Reagan created the cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs to replace the Veterans Administration. All presidents are human, and Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's in his final years. First lady Nancy called it "a very long goodbye."

39 Jimmy Carter - 1977-81
"I'll never lie to you," Jimmy Carter promised in the wake of Watergate. The peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, was the antithesis of Richard Nixon. He was honest, naive. In an interview with Playboy Magazine, he admitted that he had "lusted in his heart." After his "malaise speech," people perceived him as a weak president. The Iranian hostage crisis sealed it. The Ayatollah Khomeini rendered him helpless and opened the door for Reagan. I saw Carter speak in Nashville in the fall of 1978. Karen and I were in a wax museum in Gatlinburg the following spring. The wax statue of Carter looked like Howdy Doody. We still laugh about it. Carter was a young man when he left office. He spent the rest of his life trying to prove himself.

38 Gerald Ford - 1974-77
Ford was our longest living president at 93, outliving Reagan by 46 days. He became president without a single vote. Nixon put him in office as someone who would grant him a pardon. Ford became known for his clumsiness, tripping and bumping his head at every opportunity. He put his foot in his mouth in a debate with Jimmy Carter when he declared that Poland was not dominated by the Soviet Union.

37 Richard Nixon - 1969-1974
Nixon had a dark side. His Checkers speech in 1952, in which he used a dog as a prop, should have alerted Americans to his character. His loss to Kennedy in 1960 left him with an inferiority complex. Nixon hated the Kennedys and would never have been president if JFK had not been assassinated. He was not all bad. He stood up to Khrushchev. He opened up China and ended the Vietnam War even if it took four years. He was loyal to a fault. He denied any knowledge of the burglary at Democratic Headquarters inside the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. It brought him down. Nixon and Watergate became synonymous. Nixon became the only president to resign as impeachment proceedings were underway. It is ironic that his signature is on the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts. Nixon and Johnson were the worst presidents of the 20th century.

36 Lyndon Johnson - 1963-69
Lyndon Johnson was destroyed by his obsession with Vietnam. He was an anomaly from the day he succeeded Kennedy. In light of the assassination, he felt compelled to act. He used the Domino Theory and Gulf of Tonkin incident to send combat troops to Vietnam in March, 1965, under the pretext of containing Communism. Communism was the long-term effect of the 19th century political and economic ideas of Karl Marx. Marx's Utopia was a place where the State controlled everything. His ideas failed in Germany but took hold in Russia under Lenin and in China under Mao Tse-tung. The United States stopped South Korea from going Communist, and Johnson vowed to do so in South Vietnam. The U.S. sent 2 1/2 million men to Vietnam. 59,000 died. In 1968, public opinion turned against the war. Hippies and peace advocates demanded an end. Johnson broke. He came on TV and announced he would not seek re-election. His great society had become a sick society. LBJ would be our worst president if not for Lincoln. Communism was never the threat it was perceived to be. China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba are the only remaining Communist countries. Communism is as much a result of poverty as anything. Its systems view themselves as Socialists, not as pieces of an evil empire. Socialism's failure was its devotion to ideology and militarism. Work is the solution, developing agriculture, technology and commerce. Therein lies prosperity. World peace is the responsibility of all mankind.

35 John Kennedy - 1961-63
The 1960 election was one of the closest. John Kennedy was Catholic, and many voters were against him for that reason. Kennedy's critics still question whether the Vietnam War would have been fought had Nixon won. It may not have been. On the other hand, there may have been a nuclear war. We will never know. It is part of the controversy of those years. Kennedy is remembered for his moon speech to Congress in 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." In 1962, Kennedy confronted Khrushchev over Cuba. The U.S. could not allow Soviet missiles 100 miles off the Florida coast. John Kennedy and First Lady Jackie brought an elegance to the White House emulated by successors Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in 1963 is something America is still dealing with, like Pearl Harbor before it and 9/11 after it. Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he assassinated Kennedy. Conspiracy theories are false. The grassy knoll is a figment of the imagination. Oswald was a loner and a misfit. He was a marksman. He shot Kennedy from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the motorcade passed below. He fled and hid in a theater but was quickly apprehended. Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald. He said he did it out of sympathy for Jackie. There was no reason not to believe him.

34 Dwight Eisenhower - 1953-61
Being the big General in Europe in World War II was enough to get Eisenhower two terms. He played golf while the nation dug bomb shelters. Grade-schoolers ducked under their desks in drills as if they would shield them from hydrogen bombs. Elvis Presley fathered modern music and the Sexual Revolution. Eisenhower's chief contribution was the Interstate Highway System. Interstates changed everything. Odd numbers like I-65 run north and south. Even numbers like I-40 run east and west.

33 Harry Truman - 1945-53
Truman dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II. He did what he had to do and what had to be done to end the worst war in the history of the planet. He was essentially carrying out the policies of Roosevelt, who died in office. Truman passed the buck when he sent troops to Korea to contain Communism. He fired General Douglas MacArthur, who wanted to nuke the Chinese. Limited war as policy set a precedent for Vietnam. Korea is still a problem. Peaceful reunification is the only solution.

32 Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 1933-45
The New Deal, Social Security, World War II. FDR was the most influential president of the 20th century. He was a polio victim with braces on his legs. Perhaps America needed such a leader to get it through the Depression and the war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. We have seen the video of FDR addressing Congress following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: "December 7, 1941, a day which will live in infamy!" Americans volunteered for military service in droves. They fought the Japs island by island. Army engineers built the Alaska Highway, stretching 1500 miles from Dawson Creek, Canada, to Fairbanks. After Pearl Harbor, the fear was that Japan might take Alaska. Japan bombed the two western-most Aleutian Islands. Roosevelt was president the same years Adolph Hitler was in power in Germany, 1933-45. Roosevelt and his staunch ally, Winston Churchill, proved tougher than Hitler. Roosevelt was elected four times as there was no two-term limit. Roosevelt's archrival, Hitler, was born in the Austrian town of Braunau in 1889. In his youth, Hitler wanted to be an artist. He lived and struggled in Vienna. It was there that he came to distrust Jews and Communists. He believed in an Aryan master race. He fought against Britain in World War I. He joined the Nazi Party and went to prison after a failed coup. Hitler dictated Mein Kampf (My Struggles) to Rudolf Hess in prison. After his release, he reorganized the Nazi Party and surrounded himself with men like Himmler, Goebbels and Goering. Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. World War II began when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Germany occupied France, bombed London and attacked Russia. The United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Americans landed at Normandy Beach on the coast of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and drove the Germans back. They met their Russian allies, who poured in from the east to crush the Nazis. Hitler and his companion, Eva Braun, committed suicide. It came to light that six million Jews had been exterminated in what is now called the "Holocaust." America helped to rebuild Europe with the Marshall plan. Donald Rumsfeld's "Old Europe" became a suburb of the U.S. in light of the Soviet threat. The time came for the United States to put itself first. If the U.S is going to police the world, the world should pay for that protection. Police cannot work for free. Government is about war and money. Too often, it is a gang of thugs terrorizing its own people. Government should exist to serve. Its least oppressive form is democratic, not totalitarian; neither fascist nor Communist. Government needs to encourage agriculture and facilitate transportation and communication. It needs to foster education, promote arts and sciences and care for the aged and disabled.

31 Herbert Hoover - 1929-33
Hoover was blamed for the Great Depression. He had trouble with the Federal Reserve and the New York Stock Exchange. Seven months into his term, the stock market crashed. By 1932, 12 million were out of work. The good thing to come from his term was Hoover Dam, located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. This hydroelectric dam harnesses the Colorado River and produces electricity for Arizona, Nevada and California. There was controversy about the dam's name. Democrats wanted it called Boulder Dam because of Hoover's failed presidency and because it was originally to be built upriver across Boulder Canyon.

30 Calvin Coolidge - 1923-29
Coolidge took over when Harding died. He said, "The chief business of the American people is business." America prospered in the Roaring 20s.

29 Warren G. Harding - 1921-23
Harding was a Republican and a member of the Ku Klux Klan at a time when the Klan boasted many members. He died in office.

28 Woodrow Wilson - 1913-21
Woodrow Wilson is the only President to have a Ph.D. He is a modern president in that he argued America must enter World War I to make the world safe for democracy. German militarism had grown since the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismark. America and its allies temporarily held it in check by the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson proposed 14 Points which included a League of Nations to prevent future wars. The Senate rejected the idea. The United Nations was established after World War II.

27 William Howard Taft - 1909-13
Taft weighed 300 pounds. He hated being president and later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Presidents are normally buried in their home states. Two presidents are buried in Arlington National Cemetery: Kennedy and Taft.

26 Theodore Roosevelt - 1901-09
The man who said "Speak softly and carry a big stick" was a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War. Teddy Roosevelt broadened executive power and pursued an aggressive foreign policy. He began the Panama Canal. Sickly as a child, ranching in South Dakota restored his health and taught him respect for natural resources. He designated 5 National Parks, 18 National Monuments and 150 National Forests. His likeness is carved into Mount Rushmore.

25 William McKinley 1897-1901
America emerged as a world power. After the Civil War, the idea spread that it is better to fight abroad. America fought the Spanish-American War of 1898 under McKinley. Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines were freed from Spain. Hawaii was annexed. Alaska's highest mountain and the highest in North America was named after McKinley although the state of Alaska calls it by its Indian name, Denali. McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist named Leon Franz Czolgosz.

24 Grover Cleveland - 1893-97
The only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and the only one whose wedding took place in the White House. Cleveland and his young wife stayed together until his death. The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after their daughter, not Babe Ruth.

23 Benjamin Harrison - 1889-93
The grandson of Tippecanoe and the man who split Cleveland's two terms.

22 Grover Cleveland - 1885-89
Cleveland was known for his honesty and admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock. At 49, he married 21-year-old Frances.

21 Chester Arthur - 1881-85
Arthur took charge when Garfield was killed. He signed a bill making Washington's birthday a federal holiday.

20 James A. Garfield - 1881
Assassinated in his first year in office, Garfield brought integrity to the presidency. Johnny Cash had a song, "Mr. Garfield's been shot down."

19 Rutherford B. Hayes - 1877-81
With Grant out of office and the withdrawal of Union troops from the South, modern America began to take shape.

18 Ulysses S. Grant - 1869-77
Grant accepted Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, to end the Civil War. There were no treason trials. Grant was known for his drinking.

17 Andrew Johnson - 1865-69
For a southern Democrat and a believer in states rights, the presidency was a tough job after the Lincoln assassination. When Johnson opposed Reconstruction plans, the House impeached him. He was acquitted by one vote. His Secretary of State, William H. Seward, negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. An American flag was raised in Sitka, the former Russian capital. Andrew Johnson and I have the same birthday, December 29.

16 Abraham Lincoln - 1861-65
I had a teacher in college who spent almost a whole semester on the Civil War. We were supposed to come from the Civil War to the present. She taught what she enjoyed. I always felt that if Lincoln were a great president he would have held the country together. He would have found a way to prevent north and south from fighting. Slavery had to go. We know that. It should not have existed in the first place. I was born in Louisville, Kentucky. My son was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Kentucky remained in the Union while Tennessee was part of the Confederacy. I have driven between Louisville and Nashville over 30 years. It is my "tale of two cities." I am conscious of an invisible line between the two. Louisville looks north to Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Chicago. Nashville looks south to Atlanta and New Orleans. George W. Bush identified with Lincoln as a fellow president who was tested. Presidents stick together. Theirs is an exclusive club. They rarely criticize one another. I rank Lincoln last because even a terrible president might have prevented the Civil War.

15 James Buchanan - 1857-61
The president leading up to the Civil War could not cope with secession. He was glad to leave the White House and go home.

14 Franklin Pierce - 1853-57
Among the forgotten presidents, Pierce was a general in the Mexican War. He had pro-Confederate sympathies.

13 Millard Fillmore - 1850-53
Fillmore became president when Taylor died. He was a member of the Whig Party.

12 Zachary Taylor - 1849-50
"Old Rough and Ready" grew up in Kentucky. He died in office and is buried in Louisville.

11 James K. Polk - 1845-49
Polk is our most underrated president. He championed the idea of manifest destiny. He believed the United States was destined to own all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Texas was annexed, and the Mexican War was fought. The treaty added California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The U.S. stretched from sea to shining sea. Polk was from Tennessee. He accomplished what he wanted and decided not to seek a second term.

10 John Tyler - 1841-45
Tyler was Harrison's vice-president and took over when he died. Tippecanoe and Tyler too!

9 William Henry Harrison - 1841
Harrison was called Tippecanoe because he fought Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe. He died of pneumonia after a month in office.

8 Martin Van Buren - 1837-41
Presidents in the years before the Civil War are not well-known. It was not a good thing to be associated with slavery.

7 Andrew Jackson - 1829-37
Jackson was so popular that Jacksonian Democracy is still spoken of. He was an Indian fighter and a hero. He defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, putting to rest any ideas Britain had of regaining power in America. Jackson's Nashville home is called The Hermitage. It has been a museum since 1889. I worked in the Andrew Jackson Building in Nashville while working for the State of Tennessee. Those three equestrian statues of Jackson are in Nashville, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. I put him #2 despite a modern tendency to misjudge him by the Trail of Tears story.

6 John Quincy Adams - 1825-29
The only president's son to hold the office until George W. Bush.

5 James Monroe - 1817-25
The Monroe Doctrine warned European countries to stay out of the Western Hemisphere.

4 James Madison - 1809-17
The War of 1812 was fought with Great Britain. The British captured Washington, D.C. and burned the White House. Madison fled. He is known as the father of the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is the first 10 Amendments. The first Amendment guarantees free speech.

3 Thomas Jefferson - 1801-09
Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. As president, he made the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon and sent Lewis and Clark to open the west. They left St. Louis and headed up the Missouri River. They took on an interpreter named Charbonneau and his Indian wife, Sacagawea. They reached the Columbia River and sailed to the Pacific Ocean in a three year journey. Jefferson was a scientist and a product of the Enlightenment.

2 John Adams - 1797-1801
Washington's vice-president built the White House.

1 George Washington - 1789-97
Who's your daddy? Washington's birthday, February 22, should be a federal holiday. President's Day is meaningless. After 9/11, it is clear that there are people in the world who hate the United States and would destroy it. It is time to go to our roots. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was a step. The reinstatement of Washington's birthday as a holiday would be a step. It took guts to break with Great Britain in the late 18th century. Britain owned the 13 colonies. Americans were British subjects. The American Revolution lasted six years, ending when Cornwallis surrendered. The United States became a nation in 1776. The Electoral College elected George Washington as its president. Washington was from a family of Virgina planters. He believed in westward expansion and cared about foreign policy. He distanced the United States from England and France. He warned against extremism in political parties.

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