we elect citizens to be public servants not popes or saints
Who as a candidate was "really good"
Lincoln --
FDR
Jefferson
perhaps Washington - but history tells us he had his flaws
I fully expect you to go all Reagan
These are people that want to fill the potholes.
People are flawed.
Why would you expect otherwise from politicians ?
I guess that would depend on which Pope you're talking about, as some of them have been among history's worst scumbags, others really great and everywhere in between. I like the current Pope for the same reason that the far right hate him. I try to separate (and I try to get my students to do this too) the person and the deeds of that person. For example I am NOT a fan of John Adams the man, I simply don't care for him, but I honestly feel that John Adams the president was very good, at a time when it wasn't easy to be president, ie tap dancing on that fine line between keeping the British sort of happy with us, and also keeping the French sort of happy with us, and trying to stand up for our rights to both countries without pissing them off too much. tough job, but Adams did it and did it well IMO.
I love Washington and Jefferson as great Americans, as great founding fathers, etc., but honestly I don't think either was a great president. Washington tried to establish a practice of keeping us out of foreign entanglements and being satisfied with 2 terms. Jefferson did the Louisiana Purchase which was YUGE, but how much of that was skill and how much of it was luck/timing? He did a good job building a navy for our war with the Barbary Pirates but less than 10 years later that same navy proved to be greatly outmatched by the British Men-of-War we faced during the War of 1812.
I like FDR, the New Deal didn't fix the Great Depression, but at least he tried something to help regular Americans instead of falling through his own arse to help the wealthy and big business at all costs like previous presidents had done, including Herbert Hoover, who I actually like other than his total inaction during the first years of said Depression.
I like Lincoln, though I firmly believe he baited the South into starting the actual hostilities of the Civil War, so that he could use military force without looking completely like the bad guy. He threatened to arrest Chief Justice Taney for being, well Roger Taney, who was a complete and total asshat IMO. The thing I like best about Lincoln was that he was really really smart but looked about as smart as your average fence post. This of course caused enemy after enemy to fall into his trap. I think preserving the Union was the right thing to do and getting rid of slavery was definitely the right thing to do, but I really do hate how the North always seems to be put forth as the "good guys" when they were just as bigoted and racist as the South, and even though they didn't use "regular slavery" which was a horrible institution straight from the pits of hell, they used millions of immigrants as "cheap disposable labor" which to me is just about as bad.
I like JFK fairly well, though when you have a dad like his, you can't help but get a little stink on you. All of LBJ's great social triumphs like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, among others, were all JFK's ideas, he just came along a little too early. JFK also suffered from the old lie of "whatever makes the MIC more money and at the same time preserves the concept of the Truman Doctrine must be a good idea". I feel like when JFK tried to implement another plan that we weren't ready for yet, ie getting along with the Russians, at least well enough to not blow up the planet, even after he made them back down over the Cuban Missile Crisis, was the main thing that got him killed, because "good old boys" like Dulles saw this as a weakness and turned on him.
How's this for a start?