September 7, 2012

NPR lists "The 7 Coolest Presidents In American History" — and Obama's not on the list.

And George Bush is! What can explain this? Either the world has turned upside down, or it's all about Bill Clinton, who is #1. Or... is it just that Obama is not "in history," because we can't yet say — or would you? — he's history?

43 comments:

Meade said...

"he's history."

*chuckle*

Sydney said...

They left out the coolest president of all - George Washington. I noticed they mentioned in him in a back handed way in the Jefferson paragraph, but he was cooler than Jefferson. I've read that he had an easy comaraderie and the women swooned over him. Also, he declined the offer an imperial type presidency. I would choose him over Jefferson.

Sydney said...

Oh, but just to get back on topic- let's hope it's a sign Obama is history.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Jeez- and we taxpayers have to pay for this craptastic network.

Amartel said...

NPR tries to get my attention, and donation dollars, back. How uncool!

Paul said...

Obama has FAKE COOL, not REAL COOL.

And there is a big difference.

Bush, like Clinton, were Governors for years and could handle themselves. Obama has always been a wannabe.

And he still is.

Matt Sablan said...

Obama? Cool? They probably just didn't want to be called racists.

Seriously though, I think for these historical look backs, living presidents just shouldn't be included.

Patrick said...

If W and FDR were cool, then either NPR or I don't know what cool means. Could easily be me.

edutcher said...

No, TR was coolest.

And Ol' Hickory right behind him - he was a fool for love. Besides, Jack Kennedy sounded funny most of the time.

Don't forget James Madison - the nerd who married the prom queen - Dolly and those tasty cakes.

And ol' Abe was cooler than FDR. Everything could go wrong and he could still get a laugh out of it.

Cedarford said...

Cool Cal Coolidge.
"Mr President, I bet that gentleman I could get 3 words out of you".
"You lose".

Andy Jackson. If being a badass is cool, Andy was cool.

Eisenhower. Cool when it counted.

Danno said...

I prefer to use the term toast.

Joe said...

Because Obama's type of narcissism isn't cool; it's irritating.

Clinton likes being liked and being the center of attention, but once you cross the threshold of the former, he relaxes. Obama never does; it never ceases to be about him. He's the type of guy who insists that you listen to his stories and then tunes out when you tell your own.

Joe said...

Another way to put it; if various presidents were neighbors and a tree was knocked down in a storm, Reagan and Bush would be there the next morning with a chain saw. I could see Clinton joining in once the work got started. Obama would be the guy peaking out the window, complaining to his wife about the noise.

Saint Croix said...

Coolidge, definitely.


Senator: "You can go to hell."

Coolidge: "Senator, I've looked up the law on that and I don't have to go."

Saint Croix said...

Mrs. Coolidge: "What was the sermon about?"

Coolidge: "Sin."

Mrs. Coolidge: "Well, what did the minister say about it?"

Coolidge: "He was against it."

wild chicken said...

Cool *should* mean calm and unflappable, not merely down with the latest shit.

Saint Croix said...

Coolidge playing baseball.

Indian tribe gives him an honorary headdress and he puts it on.

That's just awesome.

wyo sis said...

If you want to be on the cool list you're not cool.

Anonymous said...

Haven't you heard from the pc police, "cool" is a racist code word?

jeff said...

I enjoyed the comments about Bush. All boiled down to "we hate him, ergo, not cool."

jeff said...

" Obama would be the guy peaking out the window, complaining to his wife about the noise." No, he would come out to help, but he would want to be in charge, and he would take a lot of breaks. He would also spend a lot of time blaming someone else for it taking so long. Also for the tree falling down in the first place.

Joe said...

Actually, Jeff, we're both wrong; he would be golfing.

The Godfather said...

If "cool" means you'd like to spend some informal time with him, kick back, shoot the breeze, then I'd take FDR and JFK off the list (unless I were Marilyn Monroe, in which case I'd keep JFK on the list). I would certainly include Lincoln, the great story teller -- God! Wouldn't you like to just sit there and listen to Abe and The Gipper swap stories?

Richard Dolan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Richard Dolan said...

The 'cool' business is just a dodge. The list was compiled the same way US News & WR does its best law and grad school thing -- heavy weighting of SAT or LSAT scores. So, of course Ronnie and W got on the list, while JFK had Sorensen take the tests for him so he could make the cut. And poor O got left on the cutting room floor. Naturally.

traditionalguy said...

Once again NPR is fair and balanced, on occaision.

But when the liberal narrative is front and center, the NPR can cause more anger per snide word than any other known source.

bgates said...

Coolidge, definitely.

Can't spell the name without it.

bgates said...

Harding died while Coolidge was at his family home, which had neither electricity nor phone. A delegation went out to tell him the news in the middle of the night. He got dressed, said a prayer, said hello to the reporters who had driven up the house, and had his dad (a notary public) administer the oath of office.

Then he went back to bed.

Cool.

Ambrose said...

George Wahington suffers from the earler hype that now makes him look like a square. He led troops in battle, pushed for our constitution, served as first president and then WENT HOME. How cool is that? "Mr. Washingtom, we'd like to make you King." "Sorry. F you. I am going back to Mt Vernon. Eight years and out. I'm done."

Carnifex said...

David Palmer was the coolest president...evah!!!! Having Jack Bauer kick muj ass is cooler than a penquins ass, purple or otherwise.

Followed by Thomas J. Whitmore. Because an ex-fighter pilot that kick's E.T.'s ass is pretty damn cool too.

Abe Lincoln. Vampire slayer. Bangs some cheerleader in Sunnydale. Beat's the hell outta' stuffin' a cigar up some fat chick with "Daddy" issues twat.

Reaching here, do you remember..."Super President"! Hanna-Barbera cartoon? His name was James Norcross. Right there in the title..."SUPER".

The Crack Emcee said...

You put "And George Bush is!" like he doesn't have his fans or, if he does, we're the ones who are wrong ("Either the world has turned upside down,..."). Here's one for you to roll around for a while:

You're wrong.

Everyone who was so disappointed in George, decided to blame George - still blames George - thinks they had to choose Obama to get rid of George's influence, or feels superior to George based on the simple fact they're not George, you're wrong.

George said he'd let history judge, and this discovery that he's cool - by NPR! - is just the latest evidence that his vision of the world was correct, that time is probably the only medicine for delusion, and those who've suffered BDS should have been acknowledged as such to begin with. It's not like George, or the correct perception of him, was going to change for them - they have to come to terms with reality:

George W. Bush is cool, and they're not, and that's all there is to it.

It was nothing to destroy the world over,...

mccullough said...

When W put his arm around that firefighter and spoke at ground zero through the bullhorn just after 9/11, that was the most iconic presidential moment since FDR speaking after Pearl Harbor.

kentuckyliz said...

I was thinking JFK's cool came from the whole nuke Russkie brinkmanship shit.

Obama is Kool.

Billboards for Kool cigarettes are always in the African American neighborhoods.

That's racist.

Salem Lights here (formerly), because I'm a Jew lover. Pro-Semitic. Salem is from Shalom "Peace." Shalom, y'all.

Chip S. said...

Everybody knows that Grover Cleveland was the only person elected to non-consecutive terms of office, but not everybody knows that he was also the only president to get married in the White House.

His true coolness, however, resides in the fact that a famous baseball pitcher was named after him, and that pitcher was subsequently portrayed in a movie by another cool president.

The story about his daughter being the eponym for a candy bar that is still enjoyed by millions may be bogus, but still adds to his coolness.

William said...

Uncool is easier to define than cool. Uncool is Nixon walking on the shore in his suit and wingtips. Uncool is LBJ flashing his abdominal scars....Poor Millard Fillmore. How can anyone wih a name like that aspire to anything but mediocrity. And yet he did succeed in becoming President.....Besides definitely sleeping with Marilyn Monroe and Gene Tierney, JFK was rumored to have had affairs with Audrey Hepburn, Angie Dickinson, and Sophia Loren. Clinton got Monica and that lounge singer. JFK had that whole war hero thing working for him. Clinton was more a band geek than a Miles Davis. I don't know who the coolest President was but JFK must surely rank far higher than Clinton.

bagoh20 said...

JFK, Clinton, and others were having fun, but disrespecting your wife like that, especially so publicly is decidedly uncool.

Teddy Roosevelt seemed like he knew how to live a life and taste what's offered - that's cool.

Anonymous said...

Obama is not on the coolest list because there is an election coming up and his name is on one of the levers.

NPR is already under a cloud for being a liberal mouthpiece -- in general and specifically for the scandals in which Juan Williams was fired and an NPR executive was recorded calling Tea Partiers, "seriously, seriously racist people."

Maybe NPR can see the handwriting on the wall of a Republican sweep in November which would put their funding in jeopardy. Most conservatives would welcome that development. I know I would.

yashu said...

Besides definitely sleeping with Marilyn Monroe and Gene Tierney, JFK was rumored to have had affairs with Audrey Hepburn, Angie Dickinson, and Sophia Loren.

He also slept with Marlene Dietrich, 20 years his senior.

“I hope you aren’t in a hurry,” Dietrich quoted Kennedy as saying when the German actress arrived after accepting an invitation for drinks at the White House, according to The New Yorker.

Dietrich, according to Tynan’s journal entry from April 4, 1971, replied that, in fact, she was in a hurry, as “2,000 Jews were waiting to give her a plaque at 7 p.m., and it was now 6:30.”

“That doesn’t give us much time, does it?” Kennedy said, to which Dietrich replied, “No, Jack, I guess it doesn’t.”

“It was all over sweetly and very soon,” Tynan recounted, quoting Dietrich as telling him, “And then he went to sleep. I looked at my watch and it was 6:50.”

Dietrich said she shook Kennedy awake “because I didn’t know my way around the place, and I couldn’t just call for a cab.” With that the president, clad only in a towel, led the glamorous actress to an elevator, telling the elevator operator to get her a car to the hotel for her scheduled appearance.

As she departed, Dietrich said Kennedy asked her “just one thing. … Did you ever make it with my father?”

Joseph P. Kennedy was friends with Dietrich during the 1930s and had a well-documented affair with another Hollywood siren, Gloria Swanson.

“‘No Jack,’ I answered truthfully, ‘I never did,’” Dietrich said, according to The New Yorker.

“‘Well,’ he said, ‘that’s one place I’m in first.’ Then the lift door closed and I never saw him again.”

yashu said...

"That's one place I'm in first." But according to other reports, "I never did" was a little white lie:

As Marlene is quoted as saying in Charlotte Chandler's new book, Marlene:

"Most of him was relaxed, but not all of him."

Ba-dum-pum.

"I don't remember most of what happened because it was all so quick," the screen goddess went on.

"Afterward, I remember saying, 'Please don't muss my hair.' 'I had a show to do later that night.

"I thought he was even faster than his father," continued Marlene, amazed.

"He seemed satisfied. Maybe much of it happened in his mind before he got there."

Or maybe JFK's main focus was asking the screen goddess if she'd really done it with his father, as JFK actually asked while zipping up!

"No," swore Dietrich in reply. "He tried, but I didn't agree."

What a pro. Always telling the men what they wanted to hear.

lemondog said...

Courage is grace under pressure

-- Ernest Hemingway

Toughness and guts is cool.

Clinton walked in to a recovering economy, no war, and rarely faced pressure from external events, mainly pressure from actions arising out of his own stupidities.

Meade said...

Know who's cool?

kentuckyliz.

Funny and cool. Cool as Asian Menthol.

"Above it All"/"The Bright Mild kentuckyliz"

yashu said...

Know who's cool?

kentuckyliz.


Seconded.

Known Unknown said...

Cool usually becomes the opposite of whatever we think cool is.

I would echo putting Washington at the top. Maybe we should do a separate "bad ass" list and start with him.

Coolidge and Alexander would make my list. As would Reagan, Jefferson, and Lincoln. I suppose the last spot (of 7) would probably be Old Hickory.