Every one of these men took the job with something already on fire. Some of the fires were bigger than others.
1Franklin D. RooseveltMet the Depression with the New Deal and then ran a global war from a wheelchair.1000pts
2James MadisonWatched the British burn the White House in 1814 and kept the government running anyway.770pts
3John F. KennedyTalked his way out of the Cuban Missile Crisis over thirteen days in October 1962.719pts
4Theodore RooseveltSettled the 1902 coal strike that would have left American cities without winter fuel.694pts
5Abraham LincolnInherited a country already breaking apart and spent every day of his presidency at war.642pts
6Andrew JacksonFaced down South Carolina's threat to nullify federal law in the 1832 crisis.582pts
7Barack ObamaTook office in the worst financial collapse since the 1930s.513pts
8Thomas JeffersonDoubled the country with the Louisiana Purchase while doubting he had the power to.434pts
9Ronald ReaganPresided over the end of the Cold War and the arms deals that wound it down.434pts
10Ulysses S. GrantEnforced Reconstruction and broke the first Klan in the states that had just lost the war.434pts
11James K. PolkSet four goals for a single term, got all four, and left the country a third larger.342pts
12George WashingtonTook office with no precedent, no treasury and a rebellion over whiskey inside six years.233pts
13Harry S. TrumanSworn in with no warning in 1945 and handed the end of a world war within weeks.233pts
14Woodrow WilsonTook the country into a world war and through the 1918 influenza pandemic.233pts
15Dwight D. EisenhowerManaged the coldest years of the Cold War and sent troops to integrate Little Rock.0pts
16John AdamsKept the young republic out of a war with France that most of his own party wanted.0pts
Comments 1
Fort Sumter was fired on six weeks after one inauguration; the other man rode out at the head of a militia against a whiskey tax in 1794: https://youpick.best/articles/washington-vs-lincoln-ranked
YP
ypb-teamAug 21
