Top 10 Presidents: Survey Says...
If you check out this page on Wikipedia, you find a fascinating article on rankings of the Presidents. There are rankings done by scholars from 1948 to 2008, rankings from liberals and conservatives, rankings in public opinion polls taken by ABC News, Gallup, Rasmussen and USA Today. In most polls, the top three are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in differing orders.
I'm no scholar of note, but for what it's worth, let me give you my list compared to the last survey of historical scholars. Given the length of the lists, I'll put them behind a cut. Feel welcome to comment with your lists, whether it be 10 best, 10 worst or all 43. (Even though President Obama is the 44th POTUS, only 43 men have held the office. Grover Cleveland had two non-consecutive terms and is considered as the 22nd and 24th President.)
First, here is the 2008 scholars' list:
1. Lincon
2. Washington
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Jefferson
5. Theodore Roosevelt
6. Eisenhower
7. Truman
8. Reagan
9. Polk
10. Wilson
11. Kennedy
12. Lyndon Johnson
13. John Adams
14. Jackson
15. Madison
16. John Quincy Adams
17. McKinley
18. Grant
19. Cleveland
20. George H. W. Bush
21. Monroe
22. Arthur
23. Clinton
24. Andrew Johnson
25. Ford
26. Coolidge
27. Hayes
28. Taylor
29. Taft
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Tyler
32. Carter
33. Fillmore
34. Garfield
35. Harding
36. Hoover
37. George W. Bush
38. Nixon
39. William Henry Harrison
40. Van Buren
41. Pierce
42. Buchanan
Some of these seem a little weird to me. Andrew Johnson was almost impeached and Zachary Taylor spent so little time in office, that I'm surprised he was ranked that high. I also thought that Carter and Harding were over-rated and Hoover was under rated.
Here's my ratings, with a sentence comment as to why they were placed where they were. I approached the exercise by first giving the president a letter grade (A, B, C, D or F) and then ranking them within the letter. Here's what I came up with:
The A List
1. George Washington: the man had to lead the nation through a war that they should have lost, then unite the country and perform a job for which there were no precedents. Considering that nobody ran against him, he did it very well.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: not only did he have to take the nation out of a depression, he also had to fight a war on two fronts. He led so well that he's the only president to fight and win 4 elections. He did all this while contending with polio, and the job literally killed him.
3. Abraham Lincoln: he confronted the issues of slavery and secession that his predecessors had been ducking and carried the nation through it all, without becoming vindictive or angry. Had he lived through his second term, he would probably be higher up the list.
4. Ronald Reagan: he led the nation out of the second greatest economic downturn (including 20% mortgages) and brought about an end to the cold war. He gave the nation hope when it needed it most and proved that populism could be more than just a pipe dream.
5. Theodore Roosevelt: a strong leader with unbounded energy not only internationally, but domestically, especially as an environmentalist long before protecting the environment was in vogue.
6. Thomas Jefferson: a brilliant thinker who had a marvellous grasp of what liberty is all about.
7. James Monroe: not flashy, but a solid leader who established the US as a world power and who presided over the "era of good feelings" or some such.
8. Dwight Eisenhower: well respected for his leadership in WW2, he projected real strength and kept the peace as the cold war heated up. He kept the military in check and presided over the building of the highway system.
9. James K. Polk: he expanded the nation south, north and west and reached all of his stated goals in just one term. The job literally killed him (though not until after he finished it.)
10. Lyndon Johnson: he should lose points for his mismanagement of Vietnam, but for all he accomplished in the field of civil rights, he deserves a spot in the top 10.
11. Woodrow Wilson: he knew when to stay out of World War 1 and when to get in. He efforts at building and maintaining the peace after were commendable. If nations had listened to him, Hitler would have never come to power.
The B Team
12. Andrew Jackson: the originator of Jacksonian democracy, even if he was an angry man with little respect for the rule of law.
13. John Adams: though unpopular, he was a visionary with a good moral compass for charting the nation's place in the world.
14. Harry S. Truman: he knew how to make tough decisions regardless of their popularity. Polls, schmolls.
15. George H. W. Bush: he presided over the end of the cold war and was a real consensus builder internationally.
16. John Tyler: Surprised he's so high up the list? Well he did have to blaze a trail for vice-presidents who ascend to the presidency and he did so with strength and didn't let congress push him around in doing so.
17. James Madison: yet another in a series of presidents who steered the nation through rough waters in its infancy. As one of the authors of the Federalist Papers, he shaped the law for centuries to come.
18. John F. Kennedy: after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy learned from his mistakes and maintained international calm at a time when everyone was afraid of the bomb. If he had lived, Vietnam would never have happened.
19. William McKinley: after a series of weaker presidents, McKinley restored dignity and strength to the office and would have achieved even more had he not been assassinated.
20. Barack Obama: yes, I know it's early on in his term, but just by passing health care legislation (something that others since Teddy Roosevelt have tried and failed to do), he's earned a place in history.
21. Ulysses Grant: a man of great integrity who stabilized the nation and took on the racism in the south. The scandals in his second term stem from a poor choice of subordinates and not from any personal moral failings.
The C List
22. Bill Clinton: After a series of deficit budgets, he brought in several surplus ones. If only he hadn't disgraced the office with his sexual peccadillos.
23. Grover Cleveland: he brought personal integrity to the office, taking on the patronage system. After voting him out once, electors soon realized their mistake.
24. Gerald Ford: He healed the nation after Watergate. His pardon of Nixon was controversial, but motivated by honest considerations.
25. George W. Bush: Faced with the challenge of 911, he initailly reassured and rallied the nation and kept it safe on his watch, despite later economic failings.
26. Chester Alan Arthur: when he came to power everyone expected a crook. He surprised everyone by biting the corrupt hands that had fed him earlier.
27. Herbert Hoover: He's blamed for the great depression, but history has shown that it wasn't his policies that caused it. If only he had projected a better sense of optimism, he may have convinced voters that he wasn't the uncaring snob many thought him to be.
28. John Quincy Adams: probably America's greatest diplomat.
29. Richard Nixon: yeah, I know that there was that whole Watergate thing, but he opened up relations with China, ended the Vietnam War and authored some pretty interesting social changes as well.
30. Calvin Coolidge: he restored faith in the office following the scandals of the Harding administration.
31. Zachary Taylor: he died after a year or so in office, but while he held the job he avoided micro-managing and was admired for his leadership as a general in the Mexican War.
The D-List (friends of Kathy Griffin?)
32. Martin Van Buren: failed to steer the nation out of a recession resulting from Andrew Jackson's war with the banks.
33. James Garfield: he didn't do anything wrong, he just wasn't in office long enough to accomplish anything.
34. William Howard Taft: he disappointed Teddy Roosevelt after being hand-picked as TR's successor.
35. Benjamin Harrison: he made the people regret tossing Grover Cleveland out of office.
36. Rutherford Hayes: he won the job despite getting fewer votes than his opponent. This led to a lack of confidence in his authority and a compromising of his principles.
F for Fail
37. William Henry Harrison: he died in office after a month in the job and didn't do anything when in power.
38. Franklin Pierce: he was a nice guy who meant well, but he believed that slavery should be tolerated until it died through attrition.
39. Millard Fillmore: he was an abolitionist who abandoned his principles to try and get along. In the end, everyone disliked him.
40. Jimmy Carter: a nice man, but ineffective when it came to getting Iran to respect his authority or in heading off an economic crash and an energy crisis. He inspired panic, not confidence.
41. James Buchanan: he tried to avert civil war through weakness. Like Nero, he fiddled while the nation fell apart and may have even been an accessory to the crisis.
42. Warren Harding: his administration was just one scandal after another. If he had his way, the Grand Canyon would be full on oil derricks. A friend of the environment he was not.
43. Andrew Johnson: he undermined Lincoln's promise to protect freed African-Americans. Thanks to him the KKK was allowed to prosper. No wonder they tried to impreach him on the flimsiest of reasons.
There's my dorky list. Feel free to comment and criticize it, or better still, to comment with your own.
I'm no scholar of note, but for what it's worth, let me give you my list compared to the last survey of historical scholars. Given the length of the lists, I'll put them behind a cut. Feel welcome to comment with your lists, whether it be 10 best, 10 worst or all 43. (Even though President Obama is the 44th POTUS, only 43 men have held the office. Grover Cleveland had two non-consecutive terms and is considered as the 22nd and 24th President.)
First, here is the 2008 scholars' list:
1. Lincon
2. Washington
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Jefferson
5. Theodore Roosevelt
6. Eisenhower
7. Truman
8. Reagan
9. Polk
10. Wilson
11. Kennedy
12. Lyndon Johnson
13. John Adams
14. Jackson
15. Madison
16. John Quincy Adams
17. McKinley
18. Grant
19. Cleveland
20. George H. W. Bush
21. Monroe
22. Arthur
23. Clinton
24. Andrew Johnson
25. Ford
26. Coolidge
27. Hayes
28. Taylor
29. Taft
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Tyler
32. Carter
33. Fillmore
34. Garfield
35. Harding
36. Hoover
37. George W. Bush
38. Nixon
39. William Henry Harrison
40. Van Buren
41. Pierce
42. Buchanan
Some of these seem a little weird to me. Andrew Johnson was almost impeached and Zachary Taylor spent so little time in office, that I'm surprised he was ranked that high. I also thought that Carter and Harding were over-rated and Hoover was under rated.
Here's my ratings, with a sentence comment as to why they were placed where they were. I approached the exercise by first giving the president a letter grade (A, B, C, D or F) and then ranking them within the letter. Here's what I came up with:
The A List
1. George Washington: the man had to lead the nation through a war that they should have lost, then unite the country and perform a job for which there were no precedents. Considering that nobody ran against him, he did it very well.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: not only did he have to take the nation out of a depression, he also had to fight a war on two fronts. He led so well that he's the only president to fight and win 4 elections. He did all this while contending with polio, and the job literally killed him.
3. Abraham Lincoln: he confronted the issues of slavery and secession that his predecessors had been ducking and carried the nation through it all, without becoming vindictive or angry. Had he lived through his second term, he would probably be higher up the list.
4. Ronald Reagan: he led the nation out of the second greatest economic downturn (including 20% mortgages) and brought about an end to the cold war. He gave the nation hope when it needed it most and proved that populism could be more than just a pipe dream.
5. Theodore Roosevelt: a strong leader with unbounded energy not only internationally, but domestically, especially as an environmentalist long before protecting the environment was in vogue.
6. Thomas Jefferson: a brilliant thinker who had a marvellous grasp of what liberty is all about.
7. James Monroe: not flashy, but a solid leader who established the US as a world power and who presided over the "era of good feelings" or some such.
8. Dwight Eisenhower: well respected for his leadership in WW2, he projected real strength and kept the peace as the cold war heated up. He kept the military in check and presided over the building of the highway system.
9. James K. Polk: he expanded the nation south, north and west and reached all of his stated goals in just one term. The job literally killed him (though not until after he finished it.)
10. Lyndon Johnson: he should lose points for his mismanagement of Vietnam, but for all he accomplished in the field of civil rights, he deserves a spot in the top 10.
11. Woodrow Wilson: he knew when to stay out of World War 1 and when to get in. He efforts at building and maintaining the peace after were commendable. If nations had listened to him, Hitler would have never come to power.
The B Team
12. Andrew Jackson: the originator of Jacksonian democracy, even if he was an angry man with little respect for the rule of law.
13. John Adams: though unpopular, he was a visionary with a good moral compass for charting the nation's place in the world.
14. Harry S. Truman: he knew how to make tough decisions regardless of their popularity. Polls, schmolls.
15. George H. W. Bush: he presided over the end of the cold war and was a real consensus builder internationally.
16. John Tyler: Surprised he's so high up the list? Well he did have to blaze a trail for vice-presidents who ascend to the presidency and he did so with strength and didn't let congress push him around in doing so.
17. James Madison: yet another in a series of presidents who steered the nation through rough waters in its infancy. As one of the authors of the Federalist Papers, he shaped the law for centuries to come.
18. John F. Kennedy: after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy learned from his mistakes and maintained international calm at a time when everyone was afraid of the bomb. If he had lived, Vietnam would never have happened.
19. William McKinley: after a series of weaker presidents, McKinley restored dignity and strength to the office and would have achieved even more had he not been assassinated.
20. Barack Obama: yes, I know it's early on in his term, but just by passing health care legislation (something that others since Teddy Roosevelt have tried and failed to do), he's earned a place in history.
21. Ulysses Grant: a man of great integrity who stabilized the nation and took on the racism in the south. The scandals in his second term stem from a poor choice of subordinates and not from any personal moral failings.
The C List
22. Bill Clinton: After a series of deficit budgets, he brought in several surplus ones. If only he hadn't disgraced the office with his sexual peccadillos.
23. Grover Cleveland: he brought personal integrity to the office, taking on the patronage system. After voting him out once, electors soon realized their mistake.
24. Gerald Ford: He healed the nation after Watergate. His pardon of Nixon was controversial, but motivated by honest considerations.
25. George W. Bush: Faced with the challenge of 911, he initailly reassured and rallied the nation and kept it safe on his watch, despite later economic failings.
26. Chester Alan Arthur: when he came to power everyone expected a crook. He surprised everyone by biting the corrupt hands that had fed him earlier.
27. Herbert Hoover: He's blamed for the great depression, but history has shown that it wasn't his policies that caused it. If only he had projected a better sense of optimism, he may have convinced voters that he wasn't the uncaring snob many thought him to be.
28. John Quincy Adams: probably America's greatest diplomat.
29. Richard Nixon: yeah, I know that there was that whole Watergate thing, but he opened up relations with China, ended the Vietnam War and authored some pretty interesting social changes as well.
30. Calvin Coolidge: he restored faith in the office following the scandals of the Harding administration.
31. Zachary Taylor: he died after a year or so in office, but while he held the job he avoided micro-managing and was admired for his leadership as a general in the Mexican War.
The D-List (friends of Kathy Griffin?)
32. Martin Van Buren: failed to steer the nation out of a recession resulting from Andrew Jackson's war with the banks.
33. James Garfield: he didn't do anything wrong, he just wasn't in office long enough to accomplish anything.
34. William Howard Taft: he disappointed Teddy Roosevelt after being hand-picked as TR's successor.
35. Benjamin Harrison: he made the people regret tossing Grover Cleveland out of office.
36. Rutherford Hayes: he won the job despite getting fewer votes than his opponent. This led to a lack of confidence in his authority and a compromising of his principles.
F for Fail
37. William Henry Harrison: he died in office after a month in the job and didn't do anything when in power.
38. Franklin Pierce: he was a nice guy who meant well, but he believed that slavery should be tolerated until it died through attrition.
39. Millard Fillmore: he was an abolitionist who abandoned his principles to try and get along. In the end, everyone disliked him.
40. Jimmy Carter: a nice man, but ineffective when it came to getting Iran to respect his authority or in heading off an economic crash and an energy crisis. He inspired panic, not confidence.
41. James Buchanan: he tried to avert civil war through weakness. Like Nero, he fiddled while the nation fell apart and may have even been an accessory to the crisis.
42. Warren Harding: his administration was just one scandal after another. If he had his way, the Grand Canyon would be full on oil derricks. A friend of the environment he was not.
43. Andrew Johnson: he undermined Lincoln's promise to protect freed African-Americans. Thanks to him the KKK was allowed to prosper. No wonder they tried to impreach him on the flimsiest of reasons.
There's my dorky list. Feel free to comment and criticize it, or better still, to comment with your own.