New rankings of presidents: What rankings do you agree and/or disagree with?

[book_worm]

Here is the new rankings of presidents by historians:

For me overrated (other than W) are JFK (#6?) and Reagan (#10) and Poppy Bush (#18)
For me underrated: Jimmy Carter (#25) who was really ahead of his time on energy policy and the middle east. Also Calvin Coolidge should be rated below Herbert Hoover since Hoover really inherited the depression from do-nothing Calvin. Hoover after seven months in office didn't cause the depression on his own. Coolidge in six years in office prior to Hoover had more to do with the conditions that caused it.

Two presidents shouldn't have been rated at all: William Henry Harrison who died one month after taking office and James Garfield who died five months after taking office. Too soon to have accomplished anything.

President's Name 2009 Final Score Overall Ranking
2009 2000
Abraham Lincoln 902 1 1
George Washington 854 2 3
Franklin D. Roosevelt 837 3 2
Theodore Roosevelt 781 4 4
Harry S. Truman 708 5 5
John F. Kennedy 701 6 8
Thomas Jefferson 698 7 7
Dwight D. Eisenhower 689 8 9
Woodrow Wilson 683 9 6
Ronald Reagan 671 10 11
Lyndon B. Johnson 641 11 10
James K. Polk 606 12 12
Andrew Jackson 606 13 13
James Monroe 605 14 14
Bill Clinton 605 15 21
William McKinley 599 16 15
John Adams 545 17 16
George H. W. Bush 542 18 20
John Quincy Adams 542 19 19
James Madison 535 20 18
Grover Cleveland 523 21 17
Gerald R. Ford 509 22 23
Ulysses S. Grant 490 23 33
William Howard Taft 485 24 24
Jimmy Carter 474 25 22
Calvin Coolidge 469 26 27
Richard M. Nixon 450 27 25
James A. Garfield 445 28 29
Zachary Taylor 443 29 28
Benjamin Harrison 442 30 31
Martin Van Buren 435 31 30
Chester A. Arthur 420 32 32
Rutherford B. Hayes 409 33 26
Herbert Hoover 389 34 34
John Tyler 372 35 36
George W. Bush 362 36 NA
Millard Fillmore 351 37 35
Warren G. Harding 327 38 38
William Henry Harrison 324 39 37
Franklin D. Pierce 287 40 39
Andrew Johnson 258 41 40
James Buchanan

[charlyvi]

1. I would put Roosevelt at #2, Jefferson at #3. n/t

[jkshaw]

3. My thoughts exactly

Lincoln -- FDR -- Jefferson

[stevedeshazer]

2. W 7th from bottom?

I don't think so.

[leftstreet]

4. What are the ratings based on?

:shrug:

[drmeow]

5. Both Reagan and Shrub too high. eom

[Idealism]

6. I have a lot of problems with this list

First: Harry S. Truman 708 5 5

Harry was an utter failure on the diplomacy front. He advanced the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned against immediately following Truman's departure. He created the myth of the Cold War and "the Russian's are coming" along with the Us vs Them mentality that has burrowed itself in our collective psyche. You can still see it today with Neo-Conservatives.

Second: Ronald Reagan 671 10 11

This piece of shit did NOTHING good for this country. He was an opportunist when it came to the fall of the Soviet Union- they would've gone bankrupt and collapsed no matter WHO was in office. Domestically, he fucked unions (and thus the middle class), got us passed the $1 trillion national debt (back when that was a lot of money), and supported big business above all else. His tax cuts led to the Savings and Loan crisis and one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. His bullshit "free market" fundy-ism, coupled with keeping wages down (so businesses profit more), have brought us -with help- our present financial crisis. Fuck Reagan.

Third: Bill Clinton 605 15 21

His policies help promote the longest economic expansion in our country's history and he gets relegated to middle-of-the-pack status? Sure, NAFTA was repulsive and it helped ship jobs overseas, but it would have been done by Bush, Big Business, and the GOP-controlled Congress at some point this decade anyways. It was an inevitability. Clinton actually RAISED taxes in the face of a recession- and it was only on the wealthy! It led to economic prosperity like America hasn't ever seen before.


Seriously who made this list? Jefferson needs to be higher, Bush is definitely the worst, Harding should be lower, FDR needs to be one notch higher.

[liberalmuse]

7. Bush should be dead last.

Really. I'd put George Washington as #1. He had the hardest job of all. Lincoln should be at #2. FDR at #3. Teddy Roosevelt at #4. JFK at #5. Monroe at #6, maybe, for impact. Reagan should only rate ahead of Clinton because of he was the great Pretender in Chief. I don't like it. IMHO, Reagan started this country on it's disasterous path to now. Clinton was actually a much, MUCH better President, but more people from both parties sucked Reagan's dick than Clinton's.

[Graybeard]

8. Having Raygun in the top ten is laughable.

W.H.Harrison should have been given a bye and not rated. I would put Carter higher than Grant and Ford. W dead last.

[blues90]

9. How in the hell can we even rate presidents?

Each was from a completely different time period so you can only base some rating and I really hate ratings because they mean absolutely nothing. Some my fit into a specific time where one took over from the other and changed things whether for better or worse but that's about it.

Lets just look at this country and use that to judge where we are now from then and see the reality that the population consists of mainluy stupid people who see the world through their own eyes as it should be.

If we as a nation just for once worked for the same cause and to better each and everyones life without judgement then maybe we would finally get somewhere.

But as it is now we have failed to grow in the proper manner , we have cheated and lied and killed and bombed and burned and robbed no matter what form the government takes.

People blow away someone else based on race or a dollar bill or for just the sake of doing it.

What president has ever changed that screwed up mentality?

I am so tied of charts and graphs and talking points when the bottom line in all of this is mans in-capability to ever be satisfied just to have the basic needs which will always be the case. This never changes.

It's always more , and more and faster and faster and we end up worse off than before and now it's 2009 and can anyone truely say we have advanced at all. All we have to show for it is something called progress where all this has done is ruin the earth and twist and shape and form it into mans version of what it should be and yet we can't admit we have fucked it all up because of greed and power trips.

This planet is what it is and it can support just a certain amount of people yet we as humans think we have all the answers and look back at our history that we made as if there is some answer hidden in there somewhere.

If we were truely honest with history then we should look back to when we first arrived here and took the land away from the natives and hang our fool heads in shame. We murdered and killed to take land that did not belong to us and many sit here talking about god and god bless america , well if there is a god I wonder how she or he looks at us for that one.

If we would have stayed where we came from and made that work I'll bet anything that this land that is now so screwed up and poisoned and paved over would still be what it was before we set foot on it and called it ours and named it america the land that no ones free unless you have the almighty dollar.

Sir Francis Scott Key should go fuck himself with his insane banner tune that makes sense to only him and the truely delusional insane who keep this shit going like it means a damn thing.

RANT OVER .

[Skittles]

10. Reagan was disgusting and did lasting damage to America

he paved the way for the repukes to come - he should be very low on the list

[JCMach1]

11. Sorry, but W is dead last and Washington should be 1

2 Lincoln

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. #1, three-way tie

Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. Washington's greatness in setting the example of peaceful and democratic transfer of power can't be underestimated, especially in the context of late 18th century political norms. He provided capable leadership and a lasting example at a formative period of the American experiment.

Lincoln and Roosevelt in contrast were transformative; Lincoln's presidency established firmly the principle of Federal ascendancy over the states, and Roosevelt's established the principles of modern liberal social democracy as an integral part of the US government. You can't really say one was greater than either of the others, although if forced I'd put Washington first, then Lincoln, then FDR.

Fourth, Jefferson, fifth, Theodore Roosevelt; Reagan I'd rank considerably lower, along with Wilson. Bush would be next-to-last, after Harding and before Buchanan.

[BlooInBloo]

13. Reagan > Clinton = laughable.

[dysfunctional press]

14. carter should definitely be higher than raygun and clintoon.

and kennedy seems pretty high up for someone whose three years in offfice included the bay of pigs and the cuban missile crisis.

i would put raygun, both bushes and clinton down around the hoover level for what they have wrought on us, economically.

[NoPasaran]

15. Millard Fillmore was robbed!

George W. Bush 362 36 NA
Millard Fillmore 351 37 35

Like Bush, he presided over the shipwreck of a great national political party, but at the end of his Administration, Fillmore still was a player on the national scene. Bush will be lucky to get a gig on Dancing With The Stars.

[Graybeard]

17. W belongs much further down.

We still don't know the extent of the damage Bush/Cheney did.

[Ex Lurker]

16. JFK should not be in the top ten

he didn't accomplish much except have a pretty wife and get himself killed. Sorry, but it had to be said. And John Adams is extremely underrated.

[KillCapitalism]

18. Two of them should be ranked much lower.

Nixon should be second to last, and W last.

[Ron Green]

19. Any list that puts Truman above Jefferson is a failed list.

[WI_DEM]

20. These are my top ten and bottom ten

Top:
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
3. George Washington
4. Thomas Jefferson
5. Dwight D. Eisenhower
6. Theodore Roosevelt
7. James Monroe
8. James K. Polk
9. Lyndon Johnson
10. Harry Truman

Bottom Ten:
Ronald Reagan
Warren Harding
George Herbert Walker Bush
Calvin Coolidge
Millard Fillmore
Andrew Johnson
Franklin Pierce
John Tyler
James Buchanan
George W. Bush

[blue_onyx]

21. Bush Sr. seems a little too high

W. Bush should be last. Reagan did a lot of damage to the country and shouldn't be in the top ten.