Who were/are the Greatest Political Leaders

[John T. Fishel]

George Washington should be at, or near, the top of any list. He presided over the conflictive Constitutional Convention, established the nature of the Presidency as an institution, the supremacy of the Union (in the Whishy Rebellion) and civilian control of the military - civ president commnads troops.

Charles De Gaulle succeeded in giving France a modern and stable government such as it never had before.

Ataturk brought Turkey into the modern world.

The Meiji Restoration leadership of Japan and Douglas MacArthur as Shogun after WWII.

William of Orange led the Glorious Revolution of 1689 that made modern Britain.

Alvaro Obregon brought stability to Mexico in the 1920s.

Jose Napoleon Duarte and his successor, Alfredo Cristiani, brought the El Sal civil war to a successful close and did a better job on reconciliation than Lincoln's successors did in the US.

Anyway, those are some of my candidates with reasons for those of you who care.

Cheers

JohnT

[Vic Bout]

Teddy Roosevelt, that gunboat-totin', big-game shootin', banana republic seizin', national park endowin' cowboy, with a mustache as big as all outdoors...

(whose trophy room in the white house, BTW, was immediately upon occupation dismantled by first lady Hillary)

[SteveMetz]

(whose trophy room in the white house, BTW, was immediately upon occupation dismantled by first lady Hillary)

So Bill just used a different one for his trophy room.

[SteveMetz]

Jose Napoleon Duarte and his successor, Alfredo Cristiani, brought the El Sal civil war to a successful close and did a better job on reconciliation than Lincoln's successors did in the US.

Anyway, those are some of my candidates with reasons for those of you who care.

Cheers

JohnT

I was thinking of him but, man, thinks were screwed up at the time he left office. Maybe Magsaysay.

[wm]

My nominees include :
Hammurabi
Hatshepsut (1st & only Female Pharoah)
Pericles
Hadrian
Cosimo De Medici
Thomas Becket
Thomas Cranmer
Cardinal Richelieu

While the last three are religious leaders, they were defacto political leaders IMHO. They were the powers behind the throne that created the successes that superficially history accords to their sovereigns.

I concur with Washington, Lincoln, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and Charles DeGaulle.

Other guys I might like to include are Garibaldi and Sun Yat-sen. My internal jury has not yet returned a verdict

Bismarck, Stalin, Churchill, FDR, and HST are all iffy--most wartime politicians have greatness thrust on them rather than earning it outright, especially when they happen to be on the winning side.

Constantine's policies are a major reason the Roman Empire ended a short 150 years after his death

[SteveMetz]

Pericles

Pericles? That's George Bush in a toga.

[wm]

Pericles? That's George Bush in a toga.

And with good diction and no speechwriters to create cogent arguments for him to pass off as his own.

Good politicians are able to achieve their ends. Whether those ends are the right ones to be pursuing is a whole different matter.

If you want, I'll replace Pericles with Epaminondas.

[MattC86]

And with good diction and no speechwriters to create cogent arguments for him to pass off as his own.

Good politicians are able to achieve their ends. Whether those ends are the right ones to be pursuing is a whole different matter.

If you want, I'll replace Pericles with Epaminondas.

Epaminondas? Political leader? Great general, for sure, but my (probably flawed) remembrance of history has him about as much of a political leader as Belisarius. Right? Somebody?

Matt