FDR was the last President to face an economy like today, and the US has never been this isolated in the world. There is no example to follow.

We have a mess that is going to take a good deal longer than 8 years to repair, and we need some one willing to point out who did it.

The “Great Communicator” meant he could lie with a straight face and no one would call him on it. It was under Reagan that the media lost its way and forgot its purpose, covering for the man at every step because “he was such a likable guy”.

Jerry Ford was the last Republican the press looked at skeptically, and they over did it in his case. He wasn’t a great leader, but he wasn’t as bad as people remember thanks to the media.

Reagan and Bush created Saddam Hussein as a regional power. They created the groups that became the Taliban and al Qaeda. They got people killed all over the world, and yet, refused to react to real humanitarian crises. They are not people anyone should admire or emulate.

Bill Clinton fired cruise missiles after we were attacked by al Qaeda; got blamed for the mess Bush left him with in Somolia; and reacted to problems in the Balkans by participating in a NATO response.

Something that most people don’t give him credit for is his attendance when those who died in the service of the US were returned to the country. He attended memorial services for those who died, but didn’t announce it to the media. He attended some of those memorials here, because local units were involved, but if you didn’t spot Air Force One on the Eglin runway, you wouldn’t know it. He didn’t give speeches, he attended as a mourner and sat behind the families.

If you are looking for people to emulate for a constructive foreign policy, you could do a lot worse than the last two Democratic Presidents, who are admired and respected around the world for what they accomplished. They don’t need armored conveys to travel the world, because the world likes them.

What Bryan does say is that Reagan and G.H.W. Bush projected force internationally using the U.S. military much more actively than Bill Clinton did. That is a fact, and you will find it difficult to buttress any argument against that fact. And clearly no one on this thread thinks a return to Cold War mentality is a good idea.

The only reason you might think that Clinton projected force is because you don’t know what Reagan and GHW Bush did. The NATO campaign in Kosovo was the major military operation undertaken by Bill Clinton.