Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was one of the more productive and interesting presidents the United States has ever seen. Teddy Roosevelt established a lot of first not only for a president, but for an American. He was the first president to travel outside the United States when he went to Panama. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for his negotiating skills in the Russo-Japanese war. Teddy Roosevelt also became the first president to be known by just his initials, T.R., and also was the first president in flight when he took a four minute flight in a Wright Brothers plane. Theodore Roosevelt was also the youngest person to ever hold office outside of J.F.K. Theodore Roosevelt is known as being the first to do many things, but is also known for his personality and mental abilities/skills. Teddy had a photographic memory and was a great dictator despite the fact that he was blind in his left eye attained from a boxing injury. Teddy could dictate letters to two separate secretaries while also reading a book. Teddy was also known for his toughness, evidenced in his enjoyment in skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during winter, and by the fact that he gave a ninety minute speech after having just been shot, but concluding no major damage had been done despite the fact that he was bleeding through the whole speech.(Interesting Teddy Roosevelt Facts).
Outside of being the first person to do many things and his interesting behaviors Teddy Roosevelt was also a prolific president. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the best foreign affair presidents this nation could have ever hoped to have had. He ended the American policy of isolationism and sought to bring order and justice to American commerce. He also gained the nickname "Trust-Buster" through the many corporations he brought to people controlled status. He began work on the panama canal, negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese war, enabled many Americans to earn a living wage through his Square Deal, while also building up the American Navu thus making the United States a global power. He reduced the national debt by over $90,000,000 and passed many acts such as the Meat Inspection Act. He also broke up disputes in Morocco and Venezuela while also obtaining the passage of the Drago Doctrine that outlawed the use of force in collecting foreign debt. Many of his policies were used by many future presidents and his strong nature shows what America stands for at its best(Tweed Roosevelt).

Theodore Roosevelt Island

This island located in the Potomac River is a great honor to the love that Teddy had for being an outdoorsman. I am at this point deciding to give up on listing figures on how many people visit a location because no sites seem to list visitors.

William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison gets the distinct record of being the first United States president to die in office. William Harrison was a great war general who won many victories against the indians including the Battle of the Thames where the indian leader, Tecumseh, was killed. William Harrison followed the precedent of being a great war general who goes on to the presidency. William Harrison was a very stern and proud 68 year old man who may have been a good president had he not caught a cold during his nearly 2 hour inauguration speech and the died 1 month into his presidency.(Facts about William). William Harrison could have been a good president, but no-one will ever know. To call his time in office a presidency, seems kind of shameful to me. I don't think it's fair to consider him a terrible president when he never truly was president.

William Henry Harrison Memorial.

Again I am unable to locate any information on how many people visit this memorial in a year. I would venture to say that the number would be pretty low, but I am unsure.

George Washington

We all know the story of George Washington. George Washington was a great war general who led the American troops against the British. Georege Washington was a great leader in the effort to break away from the supressive British, and with his great leadership the United States began to take form. After the war, George Washington oversaw the writing of the United States Constitution and later became the unanimous winner of the first presidency. But did Washington do anything in office or is he widely loved because he helped us become a nation? While in office, Washington most certainly accomplished many major things. He established many of the requirements for being president such as, being 35, naturally born and live in U.S. for at least 14 years. He also led the change of the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution. He also set the precedent of only serving two terms in office and many of the roles of the president such as being commander-and-chief of the armed forces. Also during Washington's presidency five new states were ratified into the union(Facts about George Washington).



According to wikipedia, an excess of 800,000 people visit the Washington Monument each year. To me, this number is a surprise considering how many people visit the Lincoln Memorial and how close it is to the Washington monument.

Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding gets the distinct dishonor of not only being considered the worst Ohio president, but the worst president the United States has ever seen. Warren Harding had established himself as being opposed to the League of Nations and with his vibrant speaking voice, Harding was able to ride a week Republican candidacy all the way to the white house. The republican dominance in Congress plus Harding's republican allegiance led to the president signing a lot of bills that limited wartime controls, slashed taxes, established a federal budget, and put tight limitations on immigration. All these bills made the postwar depression seem over and as if prosperity was returning(Whitehouse.gov). But soon it was revealed that many men were taking advantage of Harding's good nature. Many scandals took place during Harding's presidency, with the most well-known scandal being the Teapot Dome scandal.  One of Harding's secretary was having illegal oil drilling take place in Montana. This scandal showed the corruption of politicians that has been present in people's minds ever since.(James,Zeck.). Shame was also brought to Harding's name when a woman claimed to have been one of his mistresses. Outside of dying shortly into his term and facing scandal many people still liked Harding. Harding didn't do much in office, but that was what the people wanted. Harding has been gaining more and more support in recent days as his scandals weren't deemed too serious.


Harding Memorial.

I searched and searched, but I could not locate any figures on how many people visit this memorial in a year.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is considered by most historians and most people today as the greatest president these Unitd States have ever seen. What makes Lincoln's success funny is that fact that he is considered a great president though many states actually seceded from the country just because he took office. When Lincoln took office, many states seceded from the union because they knew Lincoln was strongly against slavery. The issues of fighting slavery and the newly formed confederacy made Lincoln's presidency to be considered the greatest national crisis any president has had to face(Abraham Lincoln Presidential Accomplishments). Lincoln is considered the greatest president because he faced so much and excelled so brilliantly. Lincoln was a great strategist and this is highlighted in his Emancipation Proclamation in which he claimed all black men in the confederacy free. He stated this knowing that nothing would change, but he was able to make the war about freeing the black men instead of trying to save the union which was his true goal. Lincoln had such a strong character and such high leadership skills that he was able to keep other countries from getting involved in the civil war(R.J. Norton). Lincoln was such a successful president because he accomlished so many things. He was able to keep foreign countries out of our business and managed to make the war about slavery. His strong character and leadership led to the union staying together. Lincoln is the greatest president because he managed to keep the union together and he laid the ground work for the Abolition of slavery.

The Lincoln Memorial

One way I am going to compare the presidents support is by showing how many people visit each presidents memorial in a year just to show how much some are supported while others are not.
It is estimated that over 3.6 million people visit the Lincoln Memorial in a year(Lincoln Memorial, Wikipedia)

Ranking the presidents

I feel that the best way to evaluate something is by comparison. Since I am trying to answer the question of why Ohio's presidents are so bad, I should first discover where they are ranked in history compared to all the other presidents, and then delve into why some of these presidents are so highly ranked compared to others. The source I will use for this is wikipedia. The poll I have located on wikipedia is a combination of a wide variety of polls from abc polls, to rasmussen reports, to gallup polls, strongly democrat polls, strongly republican polls, and other various polls and calculated the overall rankings of the presidents based on this wide variety of information. Barack Obama will not appear in this poll as he hasn't fulfilled his term yet.

1.Abraham Lincoln(R)                       
2.Franklin Roosevelt(D)                    
3.George Washington(No Party)       
4.Thomas Jefferson(DR)                   
5.Theodore Roosevelt(R)                  
6.Woodrow Wilson(D)                      
7.Harry Truman(D)                            
T8.Dwight Eisenhower(R)                 
T8.Andrew Jackson(D)                     
10.James Polk(D)                              
11.John Kennedy(D)
12.John Adams(Federalist)
13.James Madison(DR)
T14.James Monroe(DR)
T14.Lyndon Johnson(D)
16.Ronald Reagan(R)
17.John Quincy Adams(DR)
18.Grover Cleveland(D)
T19.Bill Clinton(D)
T19.William McKinley(R)
T21.George Bush Sr.(R)
T21.William Taft(R)
23.Martin Van Buren(D)
24.Rutherford B. Hayes(R)
25.Gerald Ford(R)
26.Jimmy Carter(D)
27.Chester Arthur(R)
T28.Herbert Hoover(R)
T28.James Garfield(R)
30.Calvin Coolidge(R)
31.Richard Nixon(R)
32.Benjamin Harrison(R)
33.George Bush Jr.(R)
34.Zach Taylor(Whig)
35.John Tyler(Whig)
36.Ulysses S. Grant(R)
T37.William Harrison(Whig)
T37.Millard Filmore(Whig)
39.Franklin Pierce(D)
40.Andrew Johnson(D)
41.James Buchanan(D)
42.Warren G. Harding(R)

What stands out to me is that Ohio has given the United States the worst president in it's history and 3 of the worst 7 presidents.
             

Project Introduction

I am creating this blog as my multimedia final for my college class Hst 217. The topic I have chosen for my final project was inspired by my lack of interest in most topic's involving Ohio. My topic comes from a discussion that we had earlier in the quarter. We were discussing how terrible some of the Ohio presidents have been and I started wondering why Ohio's presidents seem to be so bad at ruling our country. So, that is the focus of my topic. I intend to day by day discuss one of our better president and then to discuss one of Ohio's presidents. Maybe by studying what the better presidents have done against what Ohio presidents have done I will be able to answer the question of Why are Ohio's presidents considered the worst ever?