Chapter 12

Blog for Chapter 12

What makes a great President (not which President has been great)…….what qualities are essential to greatness? Why?

I think what makes a great president is one that takes care of the little people. With the way times are we need someone that is looking out for the best for us not if we have or don’t have money. I will be the first to say I work hard, but I am not blessed with making a lot of money, nor do I have any. That does not make me any less important than the ones that does. If our president would make sure we did have jobs that we would not be laid off from or insurance that we could afford. Someone that is not afraid to stand up to the ones that are trying to pass bills that will put the world in more trouble cause when it comes down to it most of them in the house or senate has money and would throw someone like me that really has nothing under the bus rather than take the chance on helping trying to improve things for us. I do have something to put out there after the election was over not even a week I know several people that was laid off work and now is on unemployment. How much longer will it be before they put a stop to unemployment? We work hard and it makes me mad to see that no matter how hard we work we can never get ahead and the ones that has money that is well off taking vacations, going out to eat, buying several houses, or in other words burning their money why can’t they try to help the ones around them. O that’s right because if you don’t have money they don’t know you and more than likely never known of anyone like that. I am not saying that all of them are like that because there is some that did work hard to get where they are, but most of them now days are ones that was born in to it and doesn’t know any different. I know I got off the subject a little bit I am just upset with what is going on right after the election.

Other than Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, which two Presidents have been the greatest and why?

George W. Bush, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack he had to face trying to keep our country under control and protect us from any other attacks. He created new cabinet level departments of homeland security, sent some of our armed forces overseas, and done his best to keep everyone safe. He had a tough challenge after that and even his father our 41^st president, George Bush, said, “His son faced the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln.”

I think that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also a great president. I had a couple of more I could have put, but I like Roosevelt’s saying. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He worked hard and endlessly to end the Great Depression and on the creation and establishment of the New Deal. Roosevelt summarized the New Deal as a "use of the authority of government as an organized form of self-help for all classes and groups and sections of our country." I think that the government and our new president should take some notes from Roosevelt and put it to some good use for us. We are getting worst and if something isn’t done fast we will be so bad that no one will be able to get us out of it.

Just my opinion why make people that is having a hard time pay for something that they do need and would pay for if they have the money , but rather pass a bill making everyone be made to pay for insurance. I just don’t get why keep kicking us why we are down and stomping on us so we can’t get up. Isn’t there some way of helping us get back on track then causing more problems so more people lose their jobs and homes and everything?

Research a President that you’re previously unfamiliar with- list at least three things you learned. Was this President effective? Why or why not?

The president I researched that I didn’t know much about was Martin Van Buren. He served as president from 1837-1841. He was Jackson’s vice president before he became our 8^th president. When he took office he already had struggles starting off with the Panic of 1837 followed by the worst depression yet faced by the young nation. When he took office his main concern became economic troubles. He blamed the depression on powerful moneyed interests at home and abroad, and proposed that the federal government deposit its funds in an independent treasury, rather than in state banks, While Van Buren and Congress argued about the merits of the independent treasury, which Congress finally authorized in the summer of 1840, the nation's economic troubles continued. Despite his moves that he made to try and get the economic troubles under controlled his attempts failed. He also tried to handle foreign affairs over the border between the United States and Canada. Van Buren ignored calls from some Americans to respond to Canadian and British provocations with force, working instead successfully through diplomatic channels to calm tensions in the region. Van Buren's measured approach to the northern border problems, however, only earned him the enmity of those who urged a more aggressive response. Even though Van Buren did not accomplish what he set out to do, he played key roles in the creation of both the Democratic Party and the so-called "second party system" in which Democrats competed with their opponents, the Whigs. In these ways, he left an indelible mark on American politics.

Comment on Edward King, Stephanie Griffin, and Robert Cook.