One of the first rules
I learned when I joined Toastmasters International in the 1980’s was to try to avoid
discussing religion or politics.
The reason is
simple.
Nobody’s opinion
is wrong.
It is simply their
opinion.
It may not be
based on facts, but there is always SOME reason why a person thinks the way they
do.
There is no end to
which topics we can disagree one, but let’s keep it simple and just pick one.
How about if we tried to determine who are best president
is/was.
There have been
numerous studies done to determine the proper ranking, but they do not always
measure the same thing.
Here is where it
gets complicated:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States
In political studies, since the mid-20th-century, surveys have been conducted in
order to construct historical rankings of the success of the presidents
of the United States. Ranking systems
are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists, or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on
presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures, and faults. Among
such scholarly rankings, Abraham Lincoln is most often ranked as the best, while his
predecessor James Buchanan is most often ranked as the worst. Popular-opinion
polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents.
A 1948 poll was
conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. of Harvard University. A 1962 survey was also
conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians. Schlesinger's
son, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., conducted
another poll in 1996. The Chicago Tribune surveyed
49 historians in 1982.
The Siena College Research Institute (SCRI)
began conducting surveys in 1982 and continued in 1990, 1994, 2002, 2010, 2018,
and 2022 during
the second year of the first term of each president since Ronald Reagan These
surveys collect presidential rankings from historians, political scientists,
and presidential scholars in a range of attributes, abilities, and
accomplishments.[9] The
1994 survey placed only two presidents (Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt) above 80 points and two
presidents (Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding) below 50 points.
In 1996, William
J. Ridings Jr. and Stuart B. McIver conducted and published a
poll and in 1997, an accompanying book on the poll results. 719 people took
part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists,
although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from
every state were included and emphasis was placed upon getting input from
female historians and "specialists in African American studies" as well as
a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the presidents in five
categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments, crisis management, political
skill, appointments, and character and integrity) and the results were tabulated
to create the overall ranking.
2000–2017
A 2005
presidential poll was conducted by James Lindgren for
the Federalist Society and The Wall Street Journal. As in
the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and
conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and
Republican-leaning scholars equal weight". Although Franklin D. Roosevelt
still ranked in the top three, editor James Taranto observed
that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the
sixth-worst president of all time while Republican scholars rated him the
sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average" In
2008, The Times daily newspaper of London asked eight of
its own "top international and political commentators" to rank all 42
presidents "in order of greatness".
The C-SPAN Survey
of Presidential Leadership consists of rankings from a group of presidential
historians and biographers. The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership has
taken place four times: in 2000, 2009,[2017, and 2021. The
2021 survey was of 142 presidential historians, surveyed by C-SPAN's Academic
Advisor Team, made up of Douglas G.
Brinkley, Edna Greene Medford, Richard Norton Smith, and Amity Shlaes.
In the survey, each historian rates each president on a scale of one ("not
effective") to 10 ("very effective") on presidential leadership
in ten categories: Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Economic Management,
Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, Relations with
Congress, Vision/Setting An Agenda, Pursued Equal Justice for All, and
Performance Within the Context of His Times—with each category equally weighed The
results of all four C-SPAN surveys have been fairly consistent. Abraham Lincoln
has taken the highest ranking in each survey and George
Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt have always ranked in
the top five while James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson,
and Franklin Pierce have been ranked at the
bottom of all four surveys.
The 2011 survey,
the first poll asking UK academics to rate American presidents, was conducted
by the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) at the Institute for the Study of the
Americas (located in the University of London's School of Advanced
Study). This polled the opinion of British specialists in American history and
politics to assess presidential performance. They also gave an interim
assessment of Barack Obama, but his unfinished presidency was
not included in the survey (had he been included, he would have attained eighth
place overall).
In 2012, Newsweek asked
a panel of historians to rank the ten best presidents since 1900. The results
showed that historians had ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton,
Ronald Reagan, and Obama as the best since that year. A 2015 poll
administered by the American Political Science
Association (APSA) among political scientists specializing in
the American presidency had Abraham Lincoln in the top spot, with Washington,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson,
Truman, Eisenhower, Clinton, Andrew Jackson,
and Wilson making the top 10. 2016 survey of
71 British specialists by the Presidential History Network produced similar
results to the 2011 USPC survey, with Obama placed in the top quartile.
Since 2018
A second Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey
was sent to members of the Presidents and Executive Politics section of the
APSA in 2018. It ranked Donald Trump for
the first time, putting him in the last position. In the 2024 edition,
Trump scored 10.92 out of 100, easily the worst, while self-identified
Republican historians rated Trump in the bottom five. The study organizers
observed a drop in recent Republican presidents' scores by speculating that
respondents valued presidents that respected political and institutional norms. The
first version of this poll was conducted in 2015
The 2018 Siena
poll of 157 presidential scholars reported George Washington, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson as the top
five U.S. presidents, with SCRI director Don Levy stating, "The top five,
Mount Rushmore plus FDR, is carved in granite with presidential
historians."[9] Trump—entering
the SCRI survey for the first time—joined Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan
among the bottom three U.S. presidents. George W. Bush, whom presidential
scholars had rated fifth lowest in the previous 2010 survey, improved in
position to 12th lowest. The 2022 Siena poll had Franklin D. Roosevelt first,
Lincoln second, and Washington third, with the bottom three as Trump, Buchanan,
and Johnson.
The 2021 C-SPAN
poll showed a continued recent rehabilitation of Ulysses S. Grant, showed
George W. Bush improving, Barack Obama remaining high, and Trump with the
fourth lowest ranking. After Trump's election to a non-consecutive second
term, C-SPAN postponed its planned 2025 survey, explaining that "with a
former president returning to office, conducting the survey now would turn it
from historical analysis to punditry.
Scholar survey summary
2010 Siena College
Abbreviations
Bg = Background
PL = Party
leadership
CAb =
Communication ability
RC = Relations
with Congress
CAp = Court
appointments
HE = Handling of
economy
L = Luck
AC = Ability to
compromise
WR = Willing to
take risks
EAp = Executive
appointments
OA = Overall
ability
Im = Imagination
DA = Domestic
accomplishments
Int = Integrity
EAb = Executive
ability
FPA = Foreign
policy accomplishments
LA = Leadership
ability
IQ = Intelligence
AM = Avoiding
crucial mistakes
EV = Experts' view
O = Overall
2011 USPC
In
September/October 2010, the United States Presidency Centre (USPC) of the Institute for the Study of the
Americas at the University of London surveyed 47 British
specialists on American history and politics. Presidents were rated from 1 to
10 in five categories:
1.
Vision/agenda-setting:
"did the president have the clarity of vision to establish overarching
goals for his administration and shape the terms of policy discourse?"
2.
Domestic leadership:
"did the president display the political skill needed to achieve his
domestic objectives and respond effectively to unforeseen developments?"
Foreign policy leadership: "was the president an
effective leader in In 2016, the Presidential History Network surveyed 71 named
British and Irish specialists. The questions were the same as in the USPC
survey, which was directed by some of the same people. Some respondents did not
rate presidents that they were not familiar with. The minimum number of
responses (62) were for the rather obscure and inconsequential presidents
Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin
Harrison. 69–70 rated all recent presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt on.
Abbreviations
VSA =
Vision/Setting an agenda
DL = Domestic
leadership
FPL =
Foreign-policy leadership
MA = Moral
authority
HL = Historical
legacy (positive significance of)
O = Overall
3.
promoting US foreign
policy interests and national security?"
4.
Moral authority:
"did the president uphold the moral authority of his office through his
character, values, and conduct?"
5.
Positive historical
significance of legacy: "did the president's legacy have positive benefits
for America's development over time?"
2017 C-SPAN
Abbreviations
PP = Public
persuasion
CL = Crisis
leadership
EM = Economic
management
MA = Moral
authority
IR = International
relations
AS =
Administrative skills
RC = Relations
with Congress
VSA =
Vision/Setting an agenda
PEJ = Pursued
equal justice for all
PCT = Performance
within context of times
O = Overall
2018 Siena College
On February 13,
2019, Siena released its sixth presidential poll. The poll was initiated in
1982 and occurs one year into the term of each new president. It is currently a
survey of 157 presidential scholars across a range of leadership parameters.
The ranking awarded the top five spots to George Washington, Franklin
Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, in
keeping with prior surveys. Washington had been ranked fourth in all previous
surveys, and Franklin Roosevelt first.
Note
·
The numbers below do not
match the source where there are ties in the rankings. They have instead been
counted as ties are in other polls (e.g. 26, 27, 27, 27, 30 rather
than 26, 27, 27, 27, 28), so that all categories span the range
1–44.
Abbreviations
Bg = Background
Im = Imagination
Int = Integrity
IQ = Intelligence
L = Luck
WR = Willing to
take risks
AC = Ability to
compromise
EAb = Executive
ability
LA = Leadership
ability
CAb =
Communication ability
OA = Overall
ability
PL = Party
leadership
RC = Relations
with Congress
CAp = Court
appointments
HE = Handling of
economy
EAp = Executive
appointments
DA = Domestic
accomplishments
FPA = Foreign
policy accomplishments
AM = Avoiding
crucial mistakes
EV = Experts' view
O = Overall
2021 C-SPAN
Abbreviations
PP = Public
persuasion
CL = Crisis
leadership
EM = Economic
management
MA = Moral
authority
IR = International
relations
AS =
Administrative skills
RC = Relations
with Congress
VSA =
Vision/Setting an agenda
PEJ = Pursued
equal justice for all
PCT = Performance
within context of times
O = Overall
2022 Siena College
The Siena College
Research Institute released their seventh poll results on June 22, 2022. The
best 10% and worst 10% remain unchanged from their 2018 poll (top five: F. D.
Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, T. Roosevelt, Jefferson; bottom five: A.
Johnson, Buchanan, Trump, Harding, Pierce). 41% of the scholars polled said
that if a president were to be added to Mount Rushmore, it should be FDR. 63%
believed that the president should be elected by a national popular vote;
whereas, 17% supported the Electoral College
A year into his
term, Joe Biden entered the ranking in the second quartile, at nineteenth place
out of 45. Among recent presidents, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack
Obama moved up in the rankings, while George W. Bush and Donald Trump moved down,
though part of the downward shift was due to the addition of a new president to
the poll. Counting from the other direction, Trump remained unchanged at third
place from last. The changes were relatively small (one or two places), apart
from Obama, who moved up six places (14%) to eleventh place, in the first
quartile. Notable shifts among earlier presidents included the continuing
rehabilitation of Lyndon Johnson, up 8 places into the first quartile, and of
Ulysses Grant, up 3 places (up 8 in the individual evaluations) into the second
quartile; and the lessening appreciation of Andrew Jackson, down 4 places to
the median (down 7, into the third quartile, in the individual evaluations);
Ronald Reagan, down 5 places, remaining in the second quartile; and Zachary
Taylor, down 6 places into the fourth quartile.[43]
Abbreviations
Bg = Background
(family, education, experience)
Im = Imagination
Int = Integrity
IQ = Intelligence
L = Luck
WR = Willing to
take risks
AC = Ability to
compromise
EAb = Executive
ability
LA = Leadership
ability
CAb =
Communication ability (speak, write)
OA = Overall
ability
PL = Party
leadership
RC = Relationship
with Congress
CAp = Court
appointments
HE = Handling of
U.S. economy
EAp = Executive
appointments
DA = Domestic
accomplishments
FPA = Foreign
policy accomplishments
AM = Avoiding
crucial mistakes
PV = Present
overall view [the average ranking of the polled experts][i]
O = Overall rank
[the average of the individual parameters][j]
2019 Tillery–Greer
In May 2019, Alvin
Tillery of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University and Christina Greer of Fordham University "conducted a poll
of 113 academic researchers and asked them to rate the 14 modern presidents on
both their overall leadership and rhetoric on diversity and inclusion using a
scale ranging from 0 to 100. Survey respondents were significantly
more liberal than the national average,
"with only 13 percent of the respondents describing themselves as either
moderate, slightly conservative, or conservative."[
2010 Gallup poll
A Gallup poll
taken on November 19–21, 2010, asked 1,037 Americans to say, based on what they
know or remember about the nine most recent former presidents, whether they
approve or disapprove of how each handled his job in office.
1.
John F. Kennedy (85%
approval/10% disapproval)
2.
Ronald Reagan (74%
approval/24% disapproval)
3.
Bill Clinton (69%
approval/30% disapproval)
4.
George H. W. Bush (64%
approval/34% disapproval)
5.
Gerald Ford (61%
approval/26% disapproval)
6.
Jimmy Carter (52%
approval/42% disapproval)
7.
Lyndon B. Johnson (49%
approval/36% disapproval)
8.
George W. Bush (47%
approval/51% disapproval)
9.
Richard Nixon (29%
approval/65% disapproval)
2011
Vision Critical/Angus Reid Public Opinion poll
A Vision Critical/Angus Reid
Public Opinion poll taken on February 18–19, 2011, asked 1,010
respondents about 11 former presidents plus the current president and whether
each was a good or bad president.
1. John
F. Kennedy (80% approval/6% disapproval)
2. Ronald
Reagan (72% approval/16% disapproval)
3. Bill
Clinton (65% approval/24% disapproval)
4. Dwight
D. Eisenhower (61% approval/6% disapproval)
5. Harry
S. Truman (57% approval/7% disapproval)
6. Jimmy
Carter (47% approval/28% disapproval)
7. George
H. W. Bush (44% approval/38% disapproval)
8. Barack
Obama (41% approval/33% disapproval)
9. Gerald
Ford (37% approval/25% disapproval)
10. Lyndon
B. Johnson (33% approval/27% disapproval)
11. George
W. Bush (30% approval/55% disapproval)
12. Richard
Nixon (24% approval/54% disapproval)
2011 Public Policy Polling poll
A Public Policy Polling poll taken between
September 8–11, 2011, asked 665 American voters whether they held favorable or
unfavorable views of how each of the nine most recent former presidents
performed their job
John F. Kennedy
(74% favorability/15% unfavorability)
1.
Ronald Reagan (60%
favorability/30% unfavorability)
2.
Bill Clinton (62%
favorability/34% unfavorability)
3.
George H. W. Bush (53%
favorability/35% unfavorability)
4.
Gerald Ford (45%
favorability/26% unfavorability)
5.
Jimmy Carter (45%
favorability/43% unfavorability)
6.
Lyndon B. Johnson (36%
favorability/39% unfavorability)
7.
George W. Bush (41%
favorability/51% unfavorability)
8.
Richard Nixon (19%
favorability/62% unfavorability)
2014 Quinnipiac poll
A Quinnipiac University poll taken June
24–30, 2014, asked 1,446 American registered voters who they believed were the
best and worst presidents since World War II.
Best president
since World War II:
1.
Ronald Reagan (35%)
2.
Bill Clinton (18%)
3.
John F. Kennedy (15%)
4.
Barack Obama (8%)
5.
Dwight Eisenhower (5%)
6.
Harry S. Truman (4%)
7.
Lyndon B. Johnson (tie)
(3%)
7.
George H. W. Bush (tie)
(3%)
9.
Jimmy Carter (2%)
10.
Richard Nixon (tie) (1%)
10.
Gerald Ford (tie) (1%)
10.
George W. Bush (tie)
(1%)
Worst president
since World War II:
1.
Barack Obama (33%)
2.
George W. Bush (28%)
3.
Richard Nixon (13%)
4.
Jimmy Carter (8%)
5.
Lyndon B. Johnson (tie)
(3%)
5.
Ronald Reagan (tie) (3%)
5.
Bill Clinton (tie) (3%)
8.
Gerald Ford (tie) (2%)
8.
George H. W. Bush (tie)
(2%)
10.
Dwight Eisenhower (1%)
11.
Harry S. Truman (tie)
(<1%)
11.
John F. Kennedy (tie)
(<1%)
Sadly, that is not
even the complete list of surveys, but here is my suggestion:
The Presidential
Greatness Project, a partnership of Jusin Vaughn and Brandon Rottinghhaus.
It was mentioned in
the first presidential debate of 2024.
https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/
Justin Vaughn, Ph.D., is a professor of political
science at Coastal Carolina University. A scholar of American politics and culture, particularly the
American presidency, he has published several books, including
"Czars in the White House" (University of Michigan Press, 2015) and "Women &
the White House" (University of Kentucky Press, 2012), which received the Popular Culture Association’s
Susan Koppelman Award and the SWPACA’s Peter Rollins Award. He is
also the founder and co-director of the Presidential Greatness Project and
co-editor of the Journal
of Political Science. His work on Presidential Greatness has been
mentioned by sitting presidents and covered internationally, including by the New York Times, BBC, NPR, CNN, CBS, Politico, and Newsweek. He earned
his Ph.D. in political science at Texas A&M University.
Brandon Rottinghaus is a Professor in the Department of
Political Science at the University of Houston. He holds a Ph.D. in
political science from Northwestern University. His teaching and research
interests include the presidency, political scandals, public opinion, and Texas
politics. He is the author of the books Inside Texas Politics, Current
Debates in the Lone Star State, Inside American Government (all
Oxford University Press), Rick Perry: A Political Life (University
of Texas Press), and Scandal: How Politicians Survive Controversy
in a Polarized Era (Columbia University Press). He is the
co-director of the Presidential Greatness Project. He is
the co-host of Party Politics, a PBS TV8 program, radio
show, and podcast on Houston Public Media, a political analyst for KHOU 11 in
Houston, and the creator and host of Texperts, a
political primer podcast and radio segment on Hello Houston on
Houston Public Media.
Education
Ph.D., Northwestern University
M.A., Northwestern University
B.A., Purdue University
To save you time, skip
the mechanics of the survey, and just look at the final results.
Like many surveys,
it ranks Lincoln at the top, closely followed by FDR.
If you just look
at the presidents who were elected after the year I was born (1947) , here is
the summary:
Truman - #5
Obama - #6
Ike - #7
LBJ - #8
JFK - #9
Clinton - # 11
Biden - # 14
Reagan - #16
Bush 1 - #19
Carter - #22
Ford - #27
Bush 2 - #30
Nixon - #33
Trump - #45
I’m not saying
that my opinion is right, but at least it is an informed opinion.
I normally read 4 newspapers
a day, I read about 50 books a year, I have read roughly 25 books about Trump,
and the only thing we watch on Fox is sporting events.
Our new neighbor
in New Mexico has a Trump flag in his garage, but he is actually a pretty
decent guy.
Even though it is
hard sometimes, It is best to simply accept the fact that he has the right to
his opinion – and I have the right to mine.
