re: Who is/was your favorite president?

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Thomas Jefferson. Dude was straight up awesome. Built his own mansion, designed the university of Virginia, and well every knows about the Declaration of Independence.

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Jefferson was a great President, and wrote more eloquently about freedom than just about anybody in history, etc., etc.

But he was a massive hypocrite. He never freed his slaves, even in his will, except for the slave he was having an affair with. This was a man who knew slavery was wrong but simply didn't have the courage of his convictions to do anything about it.

He tried his very best to undermine Washington while he was Secretary of State. To the extent that Washington had to recall him and he was forced to resign.

He railed against the two-party system, all while secretly starting one.

He bought himself his own newspaper and hired a writer to do nothing but make up dirt about John Adams - all the while denying it to their (John and Abigail Adams) faces.

Was on the wrong side of history on the Jay Treaty, the U.S. Navy, the French Revolution, and the National Bank.

While he was President he took full advantage of many of the things he vehemently criticized while running for office, which was smart, but hypocritical.

Wrongly accused John Adams of being pro-monarchy while Adams was anything but (Adams actually worked for a living and was never wealthy, but died with no debt). Meanwhile, Jefferson lived like royalty as a plantation owner and died with a mountain of debt which he left to the state of Virginia to try to dispense with using a state lottery.

As to the Declaration of Independence, he wrote less than half of it and did NOT like the finished product because it omitted a lot from his original. So he published his original one separately. Take a look at it sometime. It sucks compared to the final draft.

Anyway, I could go on. Jefferson deserves his place in the pantheon of Founding Fathers, but way behind Washington, Adams, and even Hamilton.

IMVHO.