If these candidates had been nominated by different parties and were competing for presidency, which one would you have preferred as president in the world of today?
Assume that your choice would have enough political support to implement his reforms.
Try posting your reasons if you can.
This is a no-contest. G. Washington all the way. Something is wrong with you if you think otherwise.
Bring it, Nate, you can’t possibly argue that Thomas Jefferson would make a better wartime president than GW. No way, no how. The man would provide the moral rock this country so badly needs.
It was a close call between Washington and Jefferson, but I chose Jefferson in the end. After all, the man wrote the Declaration of Independence! If we’re talking about being the President today, Jefferson’s slave-holding issue (which is my only reservation about his moral character) is a non-issue-- I find it highly dubious that a man with all of Jefferson’s convictions born today would consider advocating slavery, much less holding slaves personally.
However, I wouldn’t at all mind having a candidate nowadays who has the kind of character (like Washington’s) necessary to win a war against a tyrranical regime in the name of liberty and then, upon winning it, voluntarily step down from power when no term limits existed.
Felipe,
I honestly hadn’t considered the need for a wartime president-- so you actually make a pretty good point. But for what it’s worth, Jefferson did put the smackdown on piracy towards US ships, which if anything more closely mirrors today’s terrorist situation than a domestic invasion.
He did bring a can of whoop-ass with the navy John Adams built, but I say Washington would without hesitation rid of us of this pesky Islamic problem. (By the way, I get really excited about the Fathers, so don’t mistake my enthusiasm for animosity!)
He did bring a can of whoop-ass with the navy John Adams built, but I say Washington would without hesitation rid of us of this pesky Islamic problem.
I think both candidates would do an effective, and more importantly uncompromising, job taking care of Islamic terrorists-- after all, all of our candidates would be using today’s superior US military anyway, right? 
(By the way, I get really excited about the Fathers, so don’t mistake my enthusiasm for animosity!)
No problem-- I’ve always been meaning to study the Founding Fathers in more detail, since what little I know is from a crappy public school civics class and a significantly better college AmNatGov class. Since you’re an enthusiast, do you have any recommendations on where to look for good biographies and other writings?
Well, as some will tell you here, I’m rather biased toward John Adams and George Washington, so take my recommendations with that in mind. First I recommend John Adams: The Spirit of Liberty by C. Bradley Thompson. I haven’t found a trustworthy bio on any of the other founders, but I generally like what Joseph Ellis writes. For example, Founding Brothers is a fun read. I still haven’t read American Sphinx which is supposed to be about TJ.
I have gone with Thomas Jefferson.
George Washington would be a very good president in war but at the same time he would not be as big a believer in small government as Thomas Jefferson.
In times like these we need a president who is eloquent and can effectively answer critics. Jefferson has that quality. Washington doesn’t.
Jefferson would get rid of the Islamic threat very effectively if not as effectively as Washington.
If Washington was as ardent an advocate of small govt. as Jefferson, I would have undoubtedly gone for him. But as it turns out, he wasn’t.
Well, as some will tell you here, I’m rather biased toward John Adams and George Washington, so take my recommendations with that in mind. First I recommend <i>John Adams: The Spirit of Liberty</i> by C. Bradley Thompson. I haven’t found a trustworthy bio on any of the other founders, but I generally like what Joseph Ellis writes. For example, <i>Founding Brothers</i> is a fun read. I still haven’t read <i>American Sphinx</i> which is supposed to be about TJ.
Thanks Felipe-- a good biography on John Adams is exactly what I was looking for, since I know next to nothing about him.
I accidentally hit Null Vote, but I would have voted for Washington. Though I hesitated when I saw Jefferson-- I just watched an episode of Bullshit where they had this great quote of Jefferson’s:
“Government big enough to supply you everything is big enough to take everything you have… The course of history shows that as government grows, liberty decreases”. ~Thomas Jefferson
But as I said, I’d still vote for Washington.
Thanks Felipe-- a good biography on John Adams is exactly what I was looking for, since I know next to nothing about him.
A great biography on JA is what you’ll get by an O’ist historian. Let me know what you think of JA, and what people have done to his legacy, after you’ve read it.
Bah, please don’t let the Jefferson romantics win this battle as they’ve done every single time since the founding. C’mon people, GW is the singularly most important figure in this country’s founding.
Bah, please don’t let the Jefferson romantics win this battle as they’ve done every single time since the founding. C’mon people, GW is the singularly most important figure in this country’s founding.
GW was the most important figure in this country’s founding. However atleast in practice, when he held office, Jefferson favored more restraint on the government in comparision to Washington.
A great biography on JA is what you’ll get by an O’ist historian. Let me know what you think of JA, and what people have done to his legacy, after you’ve read it.
Bah, please don’t let the Jefferson romantics win this battle as they’ve done every single time since the founding. C’mon people, GW is the singularly most important figure in this country’s founding.
I voted for Washington, so I did my part! (That’s sounds good saying to to myself, “I voted for George Washington!” 
)
I recommend the Dr. John Ridpath’s lecture George Washington: Integrity and the Founding of America - it brought tears to my eyes both times I listened to it. Definitely inspirational!
Felipe, this is a bit off-topic, but have you seen the movie, “The Crossing”? It is the story of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River and the surprise attack on the Hessians. The movie shows, in a very low-key, strictly factual style, just how close we came to losing the Revolutionary War, and just how much we owe to the integrity, courage and sheer will power of George Washington.
Hm, no I haven’t, but I sure as hell will now! (I actually have a “Crossing-the-Delaware” painting framed at home.)
I guess the Jefferson romantics will have it again. Lame, real lame.
Yeah, Tommy J, all the way!
I’d rather have the original GW leading from the front. Let the General do what he does best - call down the fire of Lady Liberty.
I guess the Jefferson romantics will have it again. Lame, real lame.
w00t!
It’s not our fault that your boy inhaled.
…don’t let the Jefferson romantics win this battle …, GW is the singularly most important figure in this country’s founding.
Felipe (and others), If you had to recommend a single book about George Washington, which one would it be.
Write in for Alexander Hamilton. Out of the given choices, I would take Thomas Jefferson. However, Jefferson envisioned an agrarian America full of farmers who just minded their own businesss. Hamilton envisioned an industrial America…I like this idea better. I know he was never president, but I write him anyway.
Although I was mainly leaning towards Thomas Jefferson, I ended up going with James Madison for one primary reason. The greatest weapon that the Islamicists have against America is the fact that our political and intellectual elites have the confounded idea that the US constitution applies to anyone who just happens to share this planet with us, including these physco-suicidal turbin-wearing Islamo-nuts. In addition to a military solution, the person who wrote the constitution would be vital in clearing out the intellectual bile that is allowing these sleeper-cells to infiltrate the US and plot terror attacks. Jefferson gave us intellectual independence from the intellectually-deteriorating European establishment, but Madison’s constitution gave us the philosophical base by which we established our own identity as a nation, that is what we are losing today and are in dire need of reclaiming.