My personal favorite is the FAL (as done by DSA). I can't imagine a situation in the lower 48 that it's not qualified to handle.

Having said that, I would still feel far from helpless with a good Enfield No.4 in my hands.
I actually think that if I had known what I was doing a few years ago, I would have just found a No.4 and stuck with it. IMO, military style rifles are great and everyone should have one, but I don't think they're as much of a necessity as many seem to believe.

Unfortunately, I am soured on many of the "good" name brands because of some of the lousy gun's they've turned out. In the past couple years I've had two of the "higher" quality AK's defective out of the box and SIG Sauer was unable to fix a P-226 I owned and tried to stick me with it. I had to act like a jerk to get them to pony up a replacement gun, which I promptly sold before I could get into another screaming match with their customer service people.
I'd advise testing whatever you get extensively, or better yet, finding someone locally who is selling what you want and trying the gun before you buy it.