Who's YOUR president? Meaning, what president did you primarily grow up with?

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Answers

Reagan. I remember Nixon faintly because of Watergate but I was only 6 or so at the time and kept asking what all the fuss was about. My mom said I'd probably learn about it when I was older. Ford wasn't really in office long enough to remember anything about him. Carter was just kind of there in the background. But Reagan was a very big part my teens and early 20's.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Unfortunately, Clinton is the one I primarily grew up with.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

My formative years were the Reagan/Bush Sr. years. I thought Reagan was so damned cool. I think that's why I'm so damned Republican.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Reagan (who just turned 90, by the way.) A great man and a great president. I was 9 when he took office in 1981, 17 when he left in 1989. Compared to the mediocre Bush (Sr.) and the criminal Clinton, there can be no contest. I have no memory of Nixon. I do remember Ford, even though I was very young.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Clinton is the only president I voted for who actually won. I grew up watching the country turn against Carter (he publicly said he wouldn't run for reelection but later changed his mind) and then we had a over a decade of Reagan/Bush. For the first time in my life I'm not following political news because I feel like I already know what's going to happen.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

i'm a clinton girl, i was originially from arkansas. i remember being in 4th grade and standing during his swearing in, my teacher was a nasty bitch republican that tryed to brainwash us all (seriously. she was satan. but not because she was republican.. well possibly). and i cried. god i cried. i was raised in a very political family, i'm going to blame it on that.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

I grew up with Clinton, too. I was 10 when he went into office, I'm 18 now, so for almost half my life, it's just been Clinton everywhere. I can't even remember anything about Bush [the older one] being president. So it's definately weird for me too, seeing Dubya all over the place.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Clinton. Masterful politician that he is....

I wasn't *really* into politics until I was probably 15....but I can remember arguing with my (Republican) gramma over why Bush (the elder) was a stupid, stupid man when I was 8.

Now political science is my major. Woohoo!

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

I know exactly what you mean! I remember being 8 years old watching and first watching Clinton on tv. It's really kind of strange having him not be the President anymore.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Thought I'd answer even though I'm in Canada, and we have Prime Ministers. Let me see who I've been stuck with. Jean Chretien just started his third term as Prime Minister (I actually like the fact that we can keep reelecting the same bastards over and over again. Trudeau ran our country for 16 years.) Before that Kim Campbell for about 3 months I believe. Before that Mulroney. (Who is a very close friend of George Bush, so we can all guess what he's like.) And Trudeau was for awhile when I was younger.
I think I would have liked to have been born during "Trudeau-mania" though. He was definately our most memorable and charismatic Prime Minister.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

"Reagan (who just turned 90, by the way.) A great man and a great president. I was 9 when he took office in 1981, 17 when he left in 1989. Compared to the mediocre Bush (Sr.) and the criminal Clinton, there can be no contest."

Criminal Clinton... hmmm. You do know that the Reagan Administration was one of the most corrupt administrations in US history? Worse than Nixon, depending on who you ask, and definitely worse than Clinton.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

I grew up with Jean Chretien. None of that silly Trudeau bastard prime minister for me, thank God. I guess he was only a great man if you lived in Ontario..here in BC, he is only known for his bad manners. Stupid man flipped us the bird on a visit.

I grew up with Clinton though..

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Reagan. Or maybe it was Nancy... whoever was really running the government. I think Nixon was the President when I was born.. I graduated from high school with Bush and now I'm going to my reunion with Bush. Fuck.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Bush Sr. Althought my politically formative years were Clinton, I liked Bush sr so much! I was 9, I guess, when Clinton was elected and I was SO angry at my dad for voting for Clinton because I thought Bush was a total hottie. :P My parents think it's hilarious that I'm a Democrat though... I still think Bush Sr. is adorable, but did he HAVE to procreate?

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

reagan was president still when I was born. I don't really remember though. first I remembered, bush sr. was president. we had a fake election in middle school and I voted for clinton...heh. and he won. okay, that's all I recall. I have a bad memory for only being 19. and well, I was never very political.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

Clinton. of course Clinton. I'm 16 for chrissakes. I actually remember his swearing in, because I'm from an uber-political family. Democratic, under-political, if that makes a difference. I somewhat-sort-of-but-not-really remember the Bush Sr. administration, and I'd like to forget the "W" administration as soon as humanly possible. Does anyone else see our patter starting over with the presidency? First you had Washington which, by some standard, we'll relate to Reagan. Then you have Bush Sr. & John Adams, followed by another of a different party - Clinton and Jefferson - followed by the previous presidents' sons - W. and John Quincy. .Psychobabble much.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

Well, if you want to get technical, I was born in October 1980, which would mean Carter was still president, but I didn't really start paying attention to these matters until Clinton came in. The weird thing is, I think I voted for Bush Sr. back in elementary school when we had our mock election, but I was rather clueless at the time, so...

Yeah, definitely Clinton. If this was a "favorite presidents" discussion, though, I'd have to vote for Kennedy. And imposing term limits on the presidency post-FDR was a BIG mistake, if you ask me.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

I seem to remember being in (Catholic) elementary school during the 1988 election, and we would say "Dukakis, Dukakis, bang, bang." I have no idea why. Does anyone know why?

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

Your question betrays American insularity ! Not all of your readers are American.

Heres another example of American insularity. Baseball is a sport which is played in the United States and virtually no other places. Yet, the championship decider is called the "WORLD" series !!

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

My president is Clinton. From the age of 13, Clinton was President. Sure, there was Carter, Reagan, and Bush, but I don't remember too much about any of them. I was never interested in politics when I was younger. Maybe it was because I come from a highly political family and I wanted to rebel. I hated attended all the Democratic party dinners and such, because I was bored out of my mind. Now I wish we still attended those parties. I have yet to put the word "President" before the current shmuck's name. If I were to choose a favorite president (like Tim?) I would choose Kennedy. On a sidenote: My dad had the chance to meet Kennedy when he came to our town in Illinois for a speech. If only dad hadn't gotten hit by a car two days before Kennedy's arrival.



-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

Well, Katie, first let me say that I must be the oldest person ever to read your page. I actually remember like it was yesterday the day Kennedy got shot. I was in middle school (we called it Jr. High) and when the principal made the announcement and said school was closing early so we could all go home and watch our televisions, the entire student body cheered!!! He heard the cheers from his office and really blasted us...we did deserve it though. How thoughtless we were. I'm still ashamed I was part of that. Anyway, the entire country went into moarning...schools and businesses closed and everyting shut down. People cried for days. He was young and handsome, had a beautiful wife and young children. He was always so full of life and everyone loved him...then it was over. I guess it was comparable to how the people in England reacted when Princess Diana was killed. I think I would say President Kennedy was my President.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

Actually, Wanda's President was Chester Arthur.

Mine was a mix of the tail end of Reagan, the Bush years, and the first term of Clinton. I was actually a Republican for about three days because I wanted to be on the side of power (this was immediately following the Gulf War). Then I heard Bush say something about abortion, and realized that he really WAS a goober.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

Clinton!!!

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

I'm in the UK, where we have Prime Ministers. hmm, I can remember Maggie Thatcher, and definitely John Major but now it's Tony Blair. (was there anyone after John Major and before Tony Blair? I have noo idea) UK Prime Ministers suck.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

I remember watching C-SPAN the night John Major lost to Tony Blair. (C-SPAN had picked up the coverage of one of the British networks, probably BBC.) I found the quickness and ease of the change of power really inspiring (not quite the word I'm looking for, but it'll do). Once the results were tabulated and Blair was declared the winner, Major went immediately to the Queen and resigned/conceded/whatever, paving the way for Blair to take over. I remember watching this and thinking, "Why can't things work that smoothly over here? Why do we have to wait 2 months between election and inauguration when they can do it in one night?"

I liked John Major. I don't really know all that much about British politics, so I have no idea if his political philosophies were similar to mine, but to me he had a charisma that said, "I'm the one in charge and I know exactly what I'm doing, thank you very much." And I wouldn't be surprised to see all of Katie's British readers tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about. =)

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

Ummm, you don'thave to live in Ontario to think Trudeau was a good man? He actually kinda sucked as Prime Minister. The truth is he was absolutely horrible on the economy everywhere. Obviously whoever said he was the greatest man ever has only read about him in the paper the past year when he passed away. Trudeau was in Office until '84, meaning she'd be one, and you possibly couldn't remember anything about him. Plus Turner was between Trudeau and Mulroney for a few months.

Sure Trudeau was cool and dated Barbra Striesand and other Hollywood celebs, but . . . what's the good for to the people.

I'm a Mulroney-Cretien girl.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

I'm just wondering who the last comment was directed to. Me, or the other person who said something about Trudeau. I was older than 1 when Trudeau was in office. Turner was obviously not very impactful on myself, since I have almost no memory of him. Mulroney squandered money. (I remember having to do a report on how he used tax payers money to put in a swimming pool in his backyard.) Jean Chretien is well, just the lesser of two evils. And actually, he was Trudeaus right hand man. I voted Liberal not to keep the Liberals in office, but to keep the Canadian Alliance, out.


-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

Well, the president whom I have the most direct memories of was Clinton. Not because I actually liked the man, but mostly because I was getting interested in politics by that point. I faintly remember Reagan and Bush, but mostly through my parents' complaining about the perceived policy effects. During high school, I started reading up on 80's economic policy, built some models from government data, and realized that it wasn't quite as hare-brained of a scheme as people claimed, just misapplied. From that point on, I leaned more towards fiscal conservativsm, and my parents regarded it as a sign of betrayal. oops.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2001

Clinton. Without a doubt. Not just because I can't really remember any other presidents (again, too young) but because I really did LIKE Clinton.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

I would have posted earlier..but I had to figure out some ages and dates. :)

I guess you could say I've always been in tune with politics, at least since I was 8 and in the second grade. That's the year we elected George Sr. I came to school the next day, furious, with a sign around my neck that said "Bush Won. Boo." My teacher made me take it off. :P

A few years later, in fifth grade, I construed a mock election all on my own for my class. Clinton won, of course. I can't exactly comment on how *fair* the election was... :)

Clinton, like Katie, is my man. He's an amazing politician, despite the obvious character flaws. Very charismatic, and dare I say, good looking when he was first campaigning. 8 years of zero sleep turned him into an old man of sorts.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

This is completely off topic but I just couldn't help it. Every time I read the title of this forum question I get a mental image of Clinton doing the nasty spanking someone saying, "Who's your president? Who's your president?"

This sophomoric moment has been brought to you by:

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

"Criminal Clinton... hmmm. You do know that the Reagan Administration was one of the most corrupt administrations in US history? Worse than Nixon, depending on who you ask, and definitely worse than Clinton. "

OK, Katie, cite some corruption, please? And don't tell me "Iran- Contra" either, since that had nothing to do with corruption even if one considers it either wrong or illegal (although in my opinion it was neither.)

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

Reagan threatened to take away federal funding to states (for road/highway work specifically, I believe) unless they changed their minimum drinking age to 21. Yay blackmail. I hate all current and past presidents, though. I wasn't meant to live in a democracy.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

"Reagan threatened to take away federal funding to states (for road/highway work specifically, I believe) unless they changed their minimum drinking age to 21. Yay blackmail. I hate all current and past presidents, though. I wasn't meant to live in a democracy. "

Clinton did the same thing several times. Federal funding is a hammer that every president uses to beat states into line. Maybe if there were some politicians in DC who believed in liberty we wouldn't have that problem, but Harry Browne didn't get elected, did he?

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001