A favorite pastime for many of us is to condemn/praise and compare presidents we know about, or think we know.
Earlier this year, a couple of writers compiled their list. Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin Vaughn “surveyed 162 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents & Executive Politics section and asked them to rate the U.S. presidents.”
#1…Abraham Lincoln was rated the greatest president with an average score of 95 or 100.
#2…George Washington
#3…Franklin D. Roosevelt
#4…Teddy Roosevelt
#5…Thomas Jefferson
#6…Harry S. Truman
#7…Dwight D. Eisenhower
#8…Bill Clinton
#9…Andrew Jackson
#10..Woodrow Wilson
The writers listed in order, all presidents that ranked 50 or more out of 100.
#11…Ronald Reagan
#12…Lyndon Johnson
#13…James Madison
#14…John F. Kennedy
#15…John Adams
#16…James Monroe
#17…George H.W. Bush
#18…Barack Obama
#19…James Polk
#20…William Taft
#21…William McKinley
#22…Quincy Adams
#23…Grover Cleveland
#24…Gerald Ford
James Buchanan was ranked the lowest and was joined at the bottom by Warren Harding, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce and William Harrison.
Presidents with shortened terms tend to fare worse, on average, as in other rankings.
According to the writer’s findings, the most overrated presidents were Kennedy, Reagan and Andrew Jackson.
The most underrated…..Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush and Harry Truman. They all managed international conflicts, something that most of the top 10 presidents did.
How does Barack Obama fare? Scholars had a mixed view of him. Obama ranks 18th overall and, among the modern presidents (those since FDR), he is in the middle of the pack. He ranks behind not only Clinton and Eisenhower but also Reagan, Johnson, Kennedy, and George H.W. Bush. Obama ranks ahead of Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush (who was ranked 35 overall)
Perhaps because of the era in which he governs, Obama is the second most polarizing president (after George W. Bush).
The writers completed their article by saying, “it is too early to fully assess Obama or even Bush. History is always shaping and reshaping the legacy of former presidents. As in the case of Eisenhower and Clinton, presidential legacies can improve with time.”
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