C-SPAN recently conducted a survey of over fifty historians and observers of the American presidency, and have ranked the presidents on ten individual categories such as Public Persuasion, Economic Management, International Relations, etc. The scores were averaged and produced an overall ranking of the Presidents of the United States.
Of course, this is only opinion, but it’s the opinion of a pretty broad ideological range of qualified historians. When Richard Nixon was about to resign in disgrace, Henry Kissinger assured him that history would remember him more favorably than his contemporaries. Nixon’s reply was, “It depends on who writes the history.”
Here’s the link to the survey: http://www.c-span.org/PresidentialSurvey/Index.aspx
In my view, there is much more right than wrong here. Lincoln is the obvious choice for number one. FDR, Truman and TR are ranked appropriately high. I tend to think that Theodore Roosevelt was the best president we ever had. He just didn't have the crises that Lincoln or FDR had to deal with. In any case, I take issue with some of the rankings. First of all, George H.W. Bush, as all distinguished historians would say, got jacked up. His overall ranking is 18th, which sounds okay, but the numbers that produced that average are grossly unfair. He received a 46 (out of 100) on economic management. No doubt this rating was fueled by memories of the recession that hit during Bush’s term, and his obvious discomfort debating economic issues with Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaign.
It should be remembered, however, that a recession after the growth stimulated by the Reagan years was all but inevitable. Bush should be judged on how he responded to the downturn. In 1990, he brokered a deal to lower the deficit which contributed greatly to economic recovery and the booming economy of the 1990’s that Clinton gets so much credit for.
Bush’s numbers are part of an overall underestimation of his performance as president. I tend to believe that in this survey, the father is being punished for the sins of the son. Here are some shorter observations of the survey:
-George Washington is too high for the relative lack of concrete accomplishments he achieved during his presidency. It’s not a list of greatest Americans, it’s a list of greatest presidents.
-Teddy Roosevelt is rated far too low in the category of “Pursued Equal Justice for All”.
-Jimmy Carter was a pretty poor president, but a 62 in “Moral Authority”? That’s all he had was moral authority!
-Given the catastrophe of Vietnam, I cannot in good conscience agree with ranking LBJ our 11th greatest president. I’m sorry to say that, because he had greatness in him.
-The guys who did no harm, like Millard Fillmore and William Henry Harrison, should not be ranked below George W. Bush. I’m not sure anyone should be.
I could go on, but again, it’s all opinion. There are no correct answers, and the best that one can hope for from surveys like these is that they provoke debate. For those who are well versed in presidential history, the debate is the thing. For others, it’s a chance to become better acquainted with these figures who impacted our country.
