Consider the 12 presidents since FDR.
Regardless of whether you agree with their policies, how many would you say had/have reasonably normal personalities?
My own count is six. [It is bi-partisan and I'm keeping it secret.]
Harry Truman:
Dwight Eisenhower:
John F. Kennedy:
Lyndon B. Johnson:
Richard Nixon:
Gerald Ford:
Jimmy Carter:
Ronald Reagan:
George H. W. Bush:
Bill Clinton:
George W. Bush:
Barack Obama:
4 comments:
I say five:
Truman
Eisenhower
Ford
Reagan
GW Bush
I'm a Democrat, so clearly I don't think "normal" is the most important criterion in a president, but I feel confident about the list.
The non-normals, with a brief reason for each:
John F. Kennedy - Normal people don't live in Camelot
Lyndon Johnson - A political boss is by definition not normal
Richard Nixon - maybe our most deeply strange president. Paranoids aren't normal.
Jimmy Carter - You can view his altruism through many lenses, but I don't think it qualifies as normal in any of them.
George HW Bush - Maybe the hardest call, but he was too much of a lifetime insider and patrician to be described as normal.
Bill Clinton - extraordinary charisma, extraordinary appetites
Barack Obama - I don't mean this pejoratively, but he's also the first nerd president
James,
Very interesting. I bet Truman and Ford would make most lists.
Michael
Truman, Eisenhower and Ford. I agree with James on his reasoning for the others. Reagan was too extraordinary to be normal. GWB has the trappings of normal, but had a big ego and a personal aloofness that was at ods with his persona.
Bob,
You're a short-lister!
I lean more toward the James list but it is revealing how many all of us would exclude.
Michael
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