MOST IMPRESSIVE PRESIDENT - RIGHT OR WRONG

Here I will cover only the post WW-II period.  Of course, Lyndon Johnson was impressive because he had to get the votes from the opposing party, Republicans, to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  At that time the South was the Solid South of the Democratic Party and they voted against the Acts.  Perhaps Johnson got some help because it was in the aftermath of the shocking assassination of Present Kennedy, but it was still impressive.  He also initiated the Wilderness Preservation Act of 1964.  Surprisingly he had positive cash flow in the last year of his term.  Of course, Johnson ruined his presidency by massively escalating the war in Vietnam, but that should not detract from the huge importance of the two Acts.

Richard Nixon was impressive for his landmark trip to China that led to resuming diplomatic relations,  finally disengaging our troops in Vietnam in January of 1973, forming the EPA in 1970, and getting the Clean Air Act passed in 1970.  Also it took someone like Nixon to continue that Apollo Program after the near disaster of Apollo 13 on its trip to the moon.  Nixon does not get much credit for these things because it is felt that he only did them to distract the American public from the Vietnam War.  Liberal commentator Mark Shields has called Nixon that last liberal president.  Of course Nixon is the only president to resign the presidency as a result of the so-called Watergate coverup.

Jimmy Carter was impressive for finally settling the Panama Canal issue, forming the Department of Energy, starting the deregulation of the airline (1978) and trucking industries (1980), and the massive Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 that led to more than 107 million acres being being under the protection of wilderness laws.  He lowered the annual Federal deficit to near zero, but never has a positive cash flow.  The amazing thing is that all this was done in one term as President.  The conservative nature of Carter was unpopular among members of his own party (Democrats)  Unfortunately his presidency was ruined by the Iranian hostage crisis that wasn't settled until after the presidential election and assumption of Ronald Reagan to the presidency.

I conclude the most impressive president was George W. Bush - for better or worse.  Though he ignored warnings of an attack by a group known as Al Qaeda, when it occurred on September 11, 2001, he initiated the Afghanistan War in October of 2001, to eliminate Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and to dismantle the Taliban.  I felt we had to do something for better or worse although I didn't know that the war was going to last more than a dozen years.  Though Bush's economic policies drove the U.S. into a deep recession, to his credit when he realized what had happened, he did force passage of TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) to curb the fiscal crisis.  Perhpas Bush's greatest accomplishment was to get Medicare D, a prescription drug program against his own party's  wishes (Republicans).  Likewise he managed to get the Clear Skies Act of 2003 against considerable opposition.

The amazing thing was the repeated ability of Bush's team to bully the opposing party as well as members of his own party's congressional members into voting for things they didn't believe in.  In addition to what has been mentioned above, there are the huge tax cuts for the wealthy (The biggest part of the Federal deficit today.),* and to go to war with Iraq under false pretenses, a country that was no threat to the U.S. but has a lot of oil.  I stand in awe of these accomplishments, some good and some bad.

But Bush's influence had limits.  He unfortunately failed to get approval from congress on a trade pact with Vietnam, failed to get immigration reform done,  and fortunately he failed to begin converting Social Security into an investment program from an entitlement,

* Figure from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2011/06/07/9785/the-bush-tax-cuts-are-the-disaster-that-keeps-on-giving/
Also see article by conservative commentator Bruce Bartlett: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/are-the-bush-tax-cuts-the-root-of-our-fiscal-problem/