Who Is Your Favorite Politician, Past or Present?

[metis]

I'd include Gandhi but I don't think of him as a politician but rather a spiritual figure active in the political realm.

I didn't include him for the same reason, but one could do as such. If so, he'd be my #1.

 

[metis]

As for political leaders from the rest of the world, I would say Nelson Mandela is pretty much the geatest.

When I think internationally, I would also pick him #1 as well.

 

[Secret Chief]

Gandhi and Mandela, both not born politicians but made a great political impact.

And, for me, domestically:
Keir Hardie
Clement Attlee.

 

[metis]

For American politicians, Bobby Kennedy.

I wasn't too crazy about him at first, but he really grew on me, plus he grew himself as well as he really changed after brother John's death. In Chris Matthew's excellent biography on him, he really had a transformation when in early 1968 a black leader took him into one of the inner-city slums, and it just set like lead on him. The irony is that many thought that Bobby was a "conniver" and John was the straight & narrow guy, whereas in reality it was the reverse.

At Bobby's funeral, I was so upset that I could couldn't watch the funeral train any more and went outside to wash my car. This was his favorite song of inspiration, and I play this also in memory of John Lewis, who is an icon, imo:

 

[metis]

I'd have to go with JFK just because of his skilled handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and ability to avoid a nuclear war. If the wrong person were in charge at that time, none of us would even be here today to ask this question.

Amen to that.

I remember watching the news coverage when the Soviet ships were approaching Cuba, wondering if this is going to be "the end". And then we found out later that some advised President Kennedy to launch a preemptive attack on the Soviet Union using our strategic ICBM's. I don't think we'd be having this conversation if he had taken their advice.

 

[ChristineM]

And, for me, domestically:
Keir Hardie
Clement Attlee.

I can go with them, good choices

 

[exchemist]

OK, I know that's like asking "What's your favorite plague?", but tough it up anyway, Snowflake, and answer the %$#& question! Also, please explain why So-and-So is your favorite, and add anything that you think is pertinent.

However, what this thread is NOT about is debate nor reasons to trash someone here or their favorite politician, so please keep the negativity out of this. [I know, following this should last about 10 seconds ]

Ken Clarke.

Or maybe Dominic Grieve.

 

[Secret Chief]

Ken Clarke.

Or maybe Dominic Grieve.

I'm no tory, but they must be mortified at the state of the party.
What strange times: During the People's Vote campaign I had an email from Dominic Grieve asking me for (another!) donation.

PS I quite like Ken Clarke. There, I've said it.

 

[exchemist]

I'm no tory, but they must be mortified at the state of the party.
What strange times: During the People's Vote campaign I had an email from Dominic Grieve asking me for (another!) donation.

PS I quite like Ken Clarke. There, I've said it.

Yup I became a Conservative voter in 1979 after the Winter of Discontent and remained one until the era of Michael "Prison Works" Howard (ugh) as Home Sec, when I switched to Labour....until the Iraq War, when I reverted to Cameron's Tories. I think that coalition between Cameron and Clegg was, from my perspective, close to the ideal style of government.

But now the Conservatives have been purged of all the 6-cylinder intellects and experience (such as Clarke and Grieve), and have morphed into a sort of ugly and stupid English Nationalist party, yearning for yesterday. I shall never forgive them for Brex5hit, which destroyed my family's dream of citizenship of the EU. My late wife was French, my bilingual son has dual nationality and we've also lived in the Netherlands, so Continental Europe feels like home. And now we are excluded from that welcoming home by these small-minded idiots, living in a long-gone fantasy world of Empire and spitfires. (If I have to endure yet another bloody spitfire fly-past on TV, I shall retch.)

I can't imagine voting Tory ever again.

 

[Yerda]

Nye Bevan. Oversaw the creation of the NHS as health minister. Few politicians anywhere have ever done anything so monumentally important for the lives of their countrymen.

I have great respect for Bernie Sanders for attempting to do much the same in th US.

 

[Yerda]

PS I quite like Ken Clarke. There, I've said it.

Always thought Ken was alright for a tory. Have a genuine soft spot for Michael Portillo.

 

[Secret Chief]

Always thought Ken was alright for a tory. Have a genuine soft spot for Michael Portillo.

Terrible isn't it. Watched all his train journey programmes. I don't see how he can visit places and basically say things like "...and so it was the mill workers demands for safety measures that led to less deaths at work..." (for example) and not see how this clashes with the typical tory pro-employer/anti-employee mindset...

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

OK, I know that's like asking "What's your favorite plague?", but tough it up anyway,

I found the question to be more difficult than I expected, but ...

Jan Schakowsky impresses me as a hard working, honest progressive with a long history of doing her best in the real world.

 

[ChristineM]

Nye Bevan. Oversaw the creation of the NHS as health minister. Few politicians anywhere have ever done anything so monumentally important for the lives of their countrymen.

I have great respect for Bernie Sanders for attempting to do much the same in th US.

Nye Bevan, yes a great man. Its such a shame to see the NHS decimated by the conservatives.

 

[ChristineM]

Always thought Ken was alright for a tory. Have a genuine soft spot for Michael Portillo.

Portillo is something of an enigma to me, a conservative who would have been better placed in a left/centre party

 

[Shaul]

I could not pick any single one but can think of several that did certain things well even despite blunders.
Golda Meir balanced promoting her own people’s interests while maintaining relations with even her enemies.
President Chester Alan Arthur for two things. One was his advocacy for racial equality by winning a precedent setting legal case that established minority rights in the public arena (a precedent that is the basis for much civil liberties to this day). The other was renouncing his own base (the political machine of the Port of New York) after ascending to the Presidency in favor of the greater common good and establishing our modern non-politicized civil service system (replacing spoils systems, which he himself was a product of).
Margaret Thatcher for her patriotism and unflinching principles. She got things wrong, that’s true. But she was open about who she was.
President Herbert Hoover. In my opinion he is misunderstood and underrated. He deserves less blame for the Depression than he receives and far, far more recognition for his many, many humanitarian works. It is no exaggeration to suggest that he saved tens of millions of lives through his relief works.
Raoul Wallenberg, for his tremendous, courage. This diplomat risk his own life many times to save Jews during the Holocaust with no thought of gain.

 

[Milton Platt]

OK, I know that's like asking "What's your favorite plague?", but tough it up anyway, Snowflake, and answer the %$#& question! Also, please explain why So-and-So is your favorite, and add anything that you think is pertinent.

However, what this thread is NOT about is debate nor reasons to trash someone here or their favorite politician, so please keep the negativity out of this. [I know, following this should last about 10 seconds ]

When I was very much younger, I could have answered that question by naming a person. Over time, the specific person changed. And now at 70 years of age, I can say that I don't have a favorite politician. Each has had strong points and weak points, strengths and weaknesses. Sure, some are better than others, but all must lie to gain office, so they are all off to a bad start.

 

[pearl]

Sure, some are better than others, but all must lie to gain office, so they are all off to a bad start.

Which doesn't speak well of the voter. Borrowing a line from a movie, "I'm a politician, when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollypops." I remember HW Bush's promise of not raising taxes, but then found he had to.

 

[Yerda]

I found the question to be more difficult than I expected, but ...

Jan Schakowsky impresses me as a hard working, honest progressive with a long history of doing her best in the real world.

From that wiki article she seems like a good one.