On this Presidents Day, C-SPAN’s second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership puts George W. Bush in 36th place and ranks the top 10, in descending order, as Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Truman, JFK, Jefferson, Eisenhower, Wilson and Reagan. Bill Clinton moved up six spots since the 2000 survey, now coming in 15th. Jimmy Carter moved in the other direction, from 22nd to 25th, just two spots ahead of Richard Nixon. Now, as in 2000, James Buchanan brought up the rear for his failure to avert the Civil War, his prediction that “history will vindicate my memory” still unrealized.
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17 Comments
Here it comes in 3,2,1
Bush has got to be further down than 36. 36/43, toward the top of the bottom quintile: that is a mercy ranking if I’ve ever seen one.
I’m sure the only direction he’s got in front of him is to drift slowly down that bottom quintile.
Pretty soon it’ll be Bush and Buchanan rubbin’ historical elbows at the bottom of the barrel, the only two presidents who fatally confused history’s vindication for a blank check for bad judgment.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the top U.S. President in my opinion. He came from an affluent New York family and could have been a polo player and sportsman. But at age 39, in 1921, he contracted polio, disabling him in both legs to the hips. After polio crippled him, his political life began, from which he never received another real vacation.
In 1928, he became governor of New York to finish out a term and was re-elected in 1930.
Of course, the Great Depression hit America in 1929. After that, Roosevelt campaigned for President against Herbert Hoover, won and took office in 1933. Admittedly, some historians now say that Roosevelt’s leverage of the national government into the lives of all Americans might not have been the best answer … it eventually worked.
Then in the 1930’s, Hitler began his fanatical march against democracies. Although many Americans preached isolationism, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 gave Roosevelt the opportunity to give his speech, “This day shall live in infamy” beginning WWII.
Then for the remainder of his life, FDR led the war effort to defeat Hitler. Worn out, FDR died of a massive heart attack in April or May of 1945, shortly after the beginning of his fourth term as U.S. President.
Of course, only few months before, Roosevelt had briefly visited with Senator Harry S Truman to “tell” Mr. Truman that he would be his Vice Presidential candidate in 1944. As usual, as even Mr. Truman admitted, he always received more that he wanted in politics and far less than he wanted in the business world. So President Harry S Truman took over and finished WW II, jump started the United Nations, established Israel and managed the Korean War.
Obviously I am a big fan of President Harry S Truman. But I personally think President Franklin D. Roosevelt achieved more than any other U.S. President during his 13 years or so as President, amazingly without being able to stand on either of his polio devasted legs without assistance of steel braces and his personal aides.
The survey was done by “Historians?”
Yeah, what’s the breakdown by political affiliation?
I bet CSPAN won’t tell either.
Regular doubt their were any Federalists or Whigs
I wonder if Rush Limbaugh will autograph his portrait for me.
http://tinyurl.com/7a4zdk
FDR was a great president, agreed. Tremendous courage. Not cheap political courage, either. Or not limited to cheap political courage anyway.
I personally believe that Lincoln was the greatest, though. Mainly because he refused to allow the South to secede. Lincoln paid the ultimate price for his belief in a Federal government.
It’s also hard to argue with Washington. Of all the presidents, Washington probably had the most profound effect on the US. If it hadn’t been for Washington’s insistence on the peaceful and lawful transition of power, one president to the next, then Lincoln’s belief in one nation probably would have been rendered moot.
Also, Lincoln was by far the best American writer. He had a great sense of humor, too. Very self-deprecating, very American, very warm and gracious.
Lincoln had a low tolerance for Union generals who puffed up their accomplishments and bragged about what they would do to the enemy next time they met. One of these very generals had just been badly defeated by the Confederates, and Lincoln related this story to those who were present:
“He (the general) reminds me of the fellow who owned a dog which, he claimed, loved to fight wolves. The dog’s owner said that his animal spent its entire day tracking down and killing wolves.
“One day a group of the dog-owner’s friends organized a hunting party and invited the dog-owner and the dog to go with them. They soon noticed that the dog-owner was not excited about joining them. He said he had a business engagement, which greatly amused the others, who all knew that the man was so lazy that he would never have any reason to have a ‘business engagement’. They ridiculed him to a point where he had no choice but to go along.
“The dog, on the other hand, was excited to be going out into the woods, and the hunting party was soon on its way. Wolves were in abundance, and it wasn’t long before a pack was discovered. The dog saw the ferocious animals about the same time the wolves spotted him, and the chase was on. The hunting party followed on horseback.
“The wolves and dog soon were out of sight, but the party followed the sounds of the chase. Soon they arrived at a farmhouse, where a farmer stood leaning against his gate.
“’Did you see anything of a wolf-dog and a pack of wolves around here?’ he was asked.
“’Yep,’ he replied.
“’How were they going?’ came the next question.
“’Purty fast,’ he answered.
“’What was their position when you last saw them?’
“’Well,’ replied the farmer, ‘The dog was a just a little bit ahead.’”
“Now, gentlemen,” said the President to his visitors, “that’s exactly where you’ll find most of these bragging generals when they get into a fight with the enemy.”
http://www.angelfire.com/my/abrahamlincoln/Humor.html
Last time the History channel had a piece on Andrew Jackson, I was impressed by a duel he had but I did not catch the name of the other duelist. Anyway Jackson had pick a duel with someone whom had insulted the honor of Jackson’s wife. The insulter was known to be the best pistol shot in Tennessee. Jackson on the other hand was not a very good pistol shot. Jackson realizing he did not stand a good chance if he fired first. Made a logical plan he would allow his opponent to fire first then taking his time to aim and fire.
His opponent shot hit within two inches of Jackson’s heart, Jackson put a hand over the wound and slowly and carefully took aim and fired. Killing the opponent then went to a Doctor to be treated for his wound.
Jackson needed a freight wagon to haul such a large pair huh?
“…historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership.”
President Obama wasn’t included, only ‘former presidents.’ Forty two men held the office prior to President Obama, so bush is the 36th out of 42.
Only Fillmore, Harding, Harrison, Pierce, A. Johnson and Buchanan are lower on the rankings than bush.
It’s early, bush can get to the bottom with time!
I think Bush the Stupidus was #43, linda. Obama is the 44th POTUS.
I have to say this error takes a bit of the starch out of C-SPAN’s sails here!
lol
The list:
1. George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
5. James Monroe
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson
8. Martin Van Buren
9. William Henry Harrison
10. John Tyler
11. James Knox Polk
12. Zachary Taylor
13. Millard Fillmore
14. Franklin Pierce
15. James Buchanan
16. Abraham Lincoln
17. Andrew Johnson
18. Ulysses S. Grant
19. Rutherford B. Hayes
20. James Garfield
21. Chester Arthur
22. Grover Cleveland
23. Benjamin Harrison
24. Grover Cleveland
25. William McKinley
26. Theodore Roosevelt
27. William Howard Taft
28. Woodrow Wilson
29. Warren Harding
30. Calvin Coolidge
31. Herbert Hoover
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt
33. Harry S Truman
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower
35. John F. Kennedy
36. Lyndon Johnson
37. Richard Nixon
38. Gerald Ford
39. James Carter
40. Ronald Reagan
41. George H. W. Bush
42. William J. Clinton
43. George W. Bush
44. Barack H. Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/
writerdog
Posted February 16, 2009 at 5:54 pm | Permalink
Last time the History channel had a piece on Andrew Jackson, I was impressed by a duel he had but I did not catch the name of the other duelist. Anyway Jackson had pick a duel with someone whom had insulted the honor of Jackson’s wife. The insulter was known to be the best pistol shot in Tennessee. Jackson on the other hand was not a very good pistol shot. Jackson realizing he did not stand a good chance if he fired first. Made a logical plan he would allow his opponent to fire first then taking his time to aim and fire.
His opponent shot hit within two inches of Jackson’s heart, Jackson put a hand over the wound and slowly and carefully took aim and fired. Killing the opponent then went to a Doctor to be treated for his wound.
Jackson needed a freight wagon to haul such a large pair huh?
—
Either that or he was secretly a life-long 12-year old, lol. (actually, he was a product of his time)
The controversy surrounding their marriage remained a sore point for Jackson, who deeply resented attacks on his wife’s honor. Jackson fought 13 duels, many nominally over his wife’s honor.[citation needed] Charles Dickinson, the only man Jackson ever killed in a duel, had been goaded into angering Jackson by Jackson’s political opponents. In the duel, fought over a horse-racing debt and an insult to his wife on May 30, 1806, Dickinson shot Jackson in the ribs before Jackson returned the fatal shot; Jackson actually allowed Dickinson to shoot first, knowing him to be an excellent shot, and as his opponent reloaded, Jackson shot, even as the bullet lodged itself in his chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could never be safely removed. Jackson had been wounded so frequently in duels that it was said he “rattled like a bag of marbles.”[44] At times he would cough up blood, and he experienced considerable pain from his wounds for the rest of his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson#Family_and_personal_life
Bush was certainly overrated, good point reg. the historians must have been disproportionatel repub.!
History will not be so kind to bush.
disproportionately.
Cleveland served two terms as president but they weren’t consecutive (22nd and 24th), so yes, President Obama is the 44th president but only the 43rd man to serve.
Ah, got it now. Now I see that you clearly wrote “men,” not presidents.
Ok, of the men who’ve been judged as presidents, Bush the Lesser ranks 36/42.
I guess that puts him at the very top of the last or 7th-quantile.
So there are six seven-quantiles above him, but he’s at the very top of the very bottom.
Bush the Greater came in at 18th. I tell you what, I’d hate to be a trash can or a stray dog in certain parts of Dallas tonight. If I were either I’d be watchin’ pretty darn closely for a presidential boot to come a-kickin’ my way. I don’t think W lets trash cans or stray dogs off lightly when he comes in numero dos in any contest with the old man.
Grover came in as the 21st best president. For which term, do you think?
Not that it matters to me really, but historians are expected to have studied such things.
It’s amazing, for a history buff, to see how people judge the ones who rated lower than Shrub:
After George WMD Bush comes:
Millard Fillmore — He was cursed, of course. The 13th! President?
Warren G. Harding — What’s the male equivalent to “bimbo?” Harding was a bimboy.
William Henry Harrison — Took sick at the inaugural ball and died a month later. Shrub could have done the same thing with pretzels and improved his ratings.
Franklin Pierce — The only good thing about his presidency is his policies led to the coinage of the word “Jayhawk.” Oh… and the Civil War. (I guess that second thing isn’t all that good, huh?)
Andrew Johnson — His presidency isn’t all that worse than Shrub’s, really. He, too, was drunk throughout most of it.
James Buchanan — Gay.
“Last time the History channel had a piece on Andrew Jackson,”
They just showed that again the other day.
Well, I afford Presidents way back in history a little more leeway.
They did not have the forces and technology and information at their fingertips that modern Presidents do.
Given all that he had going for him. Given that 911 united the country and the world and then he pi$$ed that away. Given that he stole the office in the first place. There can BE no worse President than george w bush. He belongs on the bottom of the list.