Postby Jason Toddman » Wed Jul 31, 2013 7:30 am
As more than one person has already pointed out, it depends on what you mean by greatest.
If you mean the most influential for ill as well as for good, Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin and Chairman Mao are probably the three chief candidates, since each had nearly ultimate power in their own countries at one time, caused the deaths of millions of people home and abroad, and all engaged in expansionist activities that greatly affected their neighbors. All were also total bastards and hated by more people than they are loved, so power isn't everything.
If by greatest you mean those who have done the most good for the world (or at least for their own countries), the potential choices are almost limited. So, being an American who is a bit biased about the 'American century', my picks would be Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F Kennedy; all of whom did much to improve the lives of American citizens despite the latter two also getting us into a major war (though FDR at least didn't cause his and got us through most of it before he died).
TR was an all-around 'good' politician who actually believed in a 'fair shake' for everyone and was perhaps the most scrupulously honest president the US ever had (even though he was a Republican!) as well as one of the most forceful; had he been president in 1918 he might have been able to convince the victorious European powers to amend their demands enough so that the horrible economic conditions in Germany that helped set the stage for WW II never happened.
FDR got us through the Depression (though admittedly making some mistakes along the way) and created programs eliminating the worst of the poverty that afflicted the US at the time.
Kennedy got us into space (though unfortunately also into Vietnam) and inspired a generation to be fit in body and in mind and to look to the stars and a brighter tomorrow.
Were today's politicians of the same caliber of any of these three maybe the 21st century would be a much happier time than it is right now.
Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...