Presidential Rankings

In light of recent discussions regarding presidents and their rankings in history, I thought it would be fun to list my own ranking of all the men who have served in the Oval Office since my birth in 1951.

Here are my rankings:

1. George W. Bush

9/11 leadership
Civil Rights
Appointment of minorities to high office
Principled--acts regardless of public opinion

Negative--none to date

2. Richard Nixon

China
Detente
EPA
Wage and Price Controls
Appointment of more minorities than any previous president
Economic prosperity

Negative--Watergate

3. Jimmy Carter

Morality and decency
Principled--acted regardless of public opinion
Human rights interwined with international policies
Israeli-Egyptian settlement
Tripled number of Hispanic federal judges
Civil Service reform
Slashing of 1,000 OSHA regulations
Windfall Profits Tax
Deregulation of airline and trucking industries
More Blacks/Hispanics to judicial positions than all previous
presidents combined

Negative--economy and too many inexperienced "Georgia boys" in gov't.

4. Ronald Reagan

Inspirational
Conviction-driven, not poll-driven
Restored economy
Helped end Cold War
More moderate than perceived

Negative--Iran-Contra; poor Civil Rights record

5. John F. Kennedy

Cuban Missile Crisis
Civil Rights

Negative--"Johnny-come-lately" with Civil Rights; Vietnam

6. Bill Clinton

Economic improvements

Negative--too numerious to mention

7. Lyndon Johnson

Civil Rights

Negative--Vietnam

8. Gerald Ford

WIN program
Restored sense of "normalcy" to presidency

Negative--poor leadership abilities

9. George H. W. Bush

More moderate than perceived

Negative--never "came into his own" following Reagan years; reneged on no new tax pledge

10. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Economic prosperity
Not a fan of Joe McCarthy

Negative--poor leadership abilities outside military

11. Harry S. Truman

Civil Rights

Negative--Pendergast connections; poor leadership skills

Best president in U.S. history, in my opinion was Teddy Roosevelt followed closely by Chester A. Arthur

Worst president in U.S. history, in my opinion was Woodrow Wilson--he had no clue

Most underrated president in U. S. history, in my opinion, Herbert Hoover. Why?

1. Progressive intellectual
2. Non-coercive foreign policy
3. Indian rights
4. RFC

Men who ran, never made it, but would have been good presidents

1. Alf Landon
2. Wendell Wilkie
3. Harold Stassen
4. Nelson Rockefeller
5. Bobby Kennedy
6. Scoop Jackson
7. George Romney
8. Hubert Humphrey
9. Pete duPont
10. John Anderson
11. Ed Clark
12. Lamar Alexander
13. Arlen Specter
14. Ross Perot

Most overrated president, in my opinion, FDR

Why--most of his programs to end the depression were drafted during the Hoover Administration

These are my opinions.

 

I can see that you are Republican my friend.

 

Yes, but not particularly partisan or an idealogue.

 

I would tend to put the best President's in my lifetime (1961) in the following order:

1. Reagan
2. Clinton
3. JFK
4. Carter
5. Nixon
6. Johnson
7. G.H.W. Bush
8. Ford
9. G.W. Bush

Just my two. Ike wasn't a bad President, just didn't do anything. Bush Jr. - lying about a bj in the oval office with an adult intern is one thing, lying about the reasons for a war is another. He can spin it all he wants, he still lied and should be held accountable.

I think Reagan was the best President, even though I never voted for him or particularly supported him while he was in office. He did bring America out of a very long deep recession and brought about hope for a new generation. It set the stage for the boom in the 90's which deficiets were cut instead of added on to.

Interesting trivia - for all of the supposed "Conservative" anti-government types, the only President to cut the amount of federal workers was Clinton. The only President to substantially cut the welfare roles was also Clinton. Just food for thought.
(despite what fat drug using commentators say, Clinton was hardly a liberal - he was in fact one of the most moderate Presidents in our history)

 

Clinton #2 !?!?

You panned Ike because he didn't do anything then you put Clinton in at 2? What the heck did Clinton do? Nothing is what. He passed not a single major piece of legislation in office and lived off of the good times (for which he had no responsibility) to make his reputation. Never mind he let the middle east situation rot and did more damage to the office of the presidency than any other president before or since except for maybe Nixon. Eisenhower had good times too but that didn't help him in your estimation. Where is your evidence that G.W. lied? I still have not seen all you Bush haters post anything. There has been, however, tons posted that a whole lot of people, including those opposed to the war, believed he had it. Clinton was drug kicking and screaming to welfare reform only after he took the worst mid term election shellacking of any president in moder history. The Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Blame Gingrich and the good economy for reducing Welfare rolls but Clinton didn't do it. Clinton didn't reduce government workers either, retirements and the military drawdown did.

Ok,Clinton bailed out Mexico, which is something.

 

It's interesting how the name of a particular president will stir passions! In fairness to all who have been president of this great country, none of us knows exactly what led to many of the decisions each one made.

Government and world politics are extremely intricate and detailed and the weight of burdens on any national leader must be incredible. Issues of national security, international diplomacy and intrigue, espionage and counter-espionage, etc., all make the decisions of the president actions that may never be fully revealed or explained or even justified beyond what each president felt, at the time, was in the best interest of the nation.

Actually ranking presidents is futile. Many of us rank them based on current times and personal political leanings, rather than on the situations, circumstances and events of the times judged.

It's fun though, isn't it!

Let's move beyond America. Who was the greatest political leader in the modern world? Many will say Churchill. I think Anwar Sadat tops the list.

 

Ghandi

 

I guess I should have said "elected." Unless, of course, you meant either Indira or Rajiv but I doubt it, ha!

 

Jimmy,

I love ya man, but you are SO off on this one. FDR's programs were hatched by him and his staff. Many of the back to work programs were tried on a small scale in New York during his governorship. It is in the books, Jimmy. I am a New Deal historian. Come on. Lay off the Dr Pepper, man. I know about the RFC,but it was a little to little late from Hoover. Hoover did not know how to deal with the crisis. He even quoted poetry to the nation. FDR embodied a spirit of trying anything to help the country.




lol

 

Jimmy,

You knew you would get the Roosevelt Democrat in this. Ok,

Tell me the president that took us from the Great Depression to and through World War II. Ding Ding. FDR. The first modern president who used the radio for his fireside chats. I have books that chronicle the letters that were written to him from the common man. Come on. He at least TRIED to put America to work. His programs live with us today as a living legacy to his work. Without the SEC, the greedy 80's would have killed us. Reagan years?? I am not bashing Reagan, but watch out on FDR.

 

Neither Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv Gandhi was ever President of India. Nor were they related to M. K. Gandhi, while we're at it.

Motilal Nehru begat
Jawaharlal Nehru begat
Indira Gandhi bore
Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv married
Sonia Gandhi bore
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi

These are the generations of Nehru/Gandhi.


G-a-n-d-h-i

 

Almost Biblical, but where are the conflicting genealogies?

 

I have looked at the posts and I don't see where anyone said they were. They were Prime Ministers. No one said they were related to Mohandas.

 

Do ya feel da love, ha!

Seriously, the following historians and history professors disagree with you:

Donald McCoy--PhD, American University

David Burner--PhD, Columbia University

Albert Romasco--PhD, University of Chicago

Jordan Schwarz, PhD (two) from Columbia University

Ellis Hawley, PhD, University of Wisconsin

Albert Rollins, PhD, Harvard

Frank Freidel, PhD, University of Wisconsin

Selig Adler, PhD (two) University of Illinois

Joan Hoff Wilson, PhD, Univeristy of California

(This reminds me, I left off two women who would have made good presidents, Margaret Chase Smith and Elizabeth Dole.).

Tireman, no matter what position any of us take on any U.S. president, we can always find scholarly research to validate our views.

There are historians who question Washington's and Lincoln's "greatness." A few historians actually say James K. Polk was the best president in American history because he kept all his campaign promises.

Discussion is fun, isn't it. Thanks for the civil debate! Take care, my friend.

 

The thread was about presidents, no?
The comment about the Mahatma was phrased as an incidental observation, no?
Indira and Rajiv were both "elected" as p.m. candidates of Congress (I) and Congress, and then elected to serve as p.m. by the party, no?

 

Hi, Uncle Janko,

Yes, it began about presidents and then, in one of my posts, I threw out the question about who would be considered the greatest political leader in the modern world.

In all honesty, prior to your incidental remark, I thought Indira was M.K.'s great granddaughter (or great-great). It seems to me I heard that or read that some time ago. Thanks for the info.

Sorry about the confusion.

 

Jimmy,

Here we go:

These are historians that agree that FDR was one of the greatest:

John Hope Franklin Phd Harvard
Authur Schlesinger Phd Harvard and CUNY
William Leuchtenburg Phd University of North Carolina
Alan Brinkley Phd Columbia
C. Van Woodward Phd Yale
Landon Storrs Phd University of Houston
Beverly Jones Phd University of North Carolina
Freddie Parker Phd University of North Carolina


Others Ted Morgan FDR A Biography
Kenneth Davis FDR The New Deal Years
Michael Beschloss The Conquerors


The list can go on and on. I would like you to show me the documents that say the Roosevelt's programs were drafted during the Hoover Administration. If this is the case( I highly doubt it), then I must revise my lectures and thinking.

 

The scholars I named consider Hoover "The first anti-depression president."

The writings of the historians I listed will provide you with the info I mentioned. One in particular, Dr. Alfred Rollins, documents how Roosevelt began fighting Hoover as far back as Hoover's days as Secretary of Commerce and how FDR sabbotaged (spelling?) Hoover's anti-depression efforts in behind-the-scenes ploys with governors, congressmen, etc., to pave a path for his own White House run.

It's all very interesting reading. How much is actually accurate? Who knows? Who can really say how much of anything written about history is accurate. Revisionist historians are aplenty?

 

Thats cool. I will read them. Thank you for the list. Sometimes revisionist history is good. Case in point, the William Dunning thesis that portrayed Reconstruction as a corrupt and oppressive outrage imposed on a prostrate South by a vindictive group of Northern Republican radicals.( Reconstruction,Political and Economic(1907). This led the way for writers to portray the South as the victim( Margaret Mitchell Gone With the Wind) Obviously that is not the thinking any more, but it was up to the 1940's. So you see, some revisionist history is good. Thank you for the list of historians. I shall read them and tell you my opinion later.

 

A summary of their writings can be found in THE HOOVER PRESIDENCY, A REAPPRAISAL, edited by Martin Fausold and George Mazuran. I shall look forward to your assessment.

Now, Thaddeus Stevens certainly wasn't "Mr. Niceguy."

By the way, An interesting side note to the FDR-Hoover discussion is that FDR actually liked Hoover at one time.

He urged Hoover to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1920. FDR even wrote, to a friend, "He (Hoover) is certainly a wonder and I wish we could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one."

Amazing, isn't it?