Professional Ranking of US Presidents

Adam's Apple

Senior Member
Apr 25, 2004
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In a project conducted by the Federalist Society and the Wall Street Journal, a group of 78 prominent professors of history, law and political science have rated the U.S. presidents as to who were the best and who were the worst. Since we gave this subject some thought this summer on this board shortly after President Reagan died, I thought you would be interested in reading the results of this study.

GREAT: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt

NEAR Thos. Jefferson, Theo. Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman,
GREAT: Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, James Polk and Woodrow Wilson

BELOW Benj. Harrison, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, Zachary
AVG.: Taylor, Ulysses Grant, Richard Nixon, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore

FAILED: Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding, James
Buchanan

Presidents not included in the lists above were rated Above Average and Average. Bush 43 was not included in the rating because the study was concluded before his first term as president ended.

The results of this study were published in a book this year called Presidential Leadership, published by Free Press. The book discusses each of the presidents, giving a brief sketch of his personal life and then devoting from two to six pages to his presidency and the effect it had on the country, or the lack of effect, as the case may be. Although Bush 43 was not rated in the study, a 4-1/2 page write-up on his presidency was included in the book
 

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