The Greatest US Presidents - The Times US presidential rankings

Times Online ^ | 31 Oct 2008 | Nico Hines

[BGHater]

UK Paper.

1. Abraham Lincoln 2. George Washington 3. FDR

8. Ronald Reagan

20. George H.W. Bush

23. Bill Clinton

25. Gerald Ford

32. Jimmy Carter

37= George W. Bush

37= Richard Nixon

[skeeter]

Sorry - NO ONE is worse than Jimmy Carter.

At least not yet.

[ScaniaBoy]

Pretty good for being the Times (London). President Reagan among the 10 best presidents ever. Who would have thunk...

President GW Bush not the worst ever - another astonishing result from the leftist ignoramuses on the Times.

[djsherin]

Lincoln, FDR, Teddy, Truman, and Wilson all in the top 10... Hurray for government expansion!

[publius1]

You beat me to it — I was going to say that any poll that doesn’t rank carter dead last is off base. Also — Lincoln Before Washington? Gimme a break.

[Walrus]

OK, folks, let’s rate British PMs

1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Winston Churchill
3. None.

[americanophile]

In my opinion, top billing goes to George Washington, who presided over the birth of our democracy. His character alone prevented a slide into anarchy, monarchy or worse. Thousands of years of rule by kings, divine right, etc., then suddenly Washington...a man who gives up the ability to be king in order that we should have a government of popular sovereignty. There can be no greater achievement in my estimation. Then clearly, Abraham Lincoln, the man who saved it all from ruination. Where I think we go off the rails is FDR. How can liberals excoriate George W. Bush for Guantanamo and build statues to FDR on the Tidal Basin when he imprisoned thousands of Americans in concentration camps because of their race? Unreal. Reagan was obviously one of the greats, as was Theodore Roosevelt and of course Thomas Jefferson. Jimmy Cater at 32? He should be dead last - 43. It is way to early to rate George W. Bush.

[gorush]

1. James Madison
43. Tie John Adams, FDR

[ought-six]

Who writes this stuff? One of the endearing myths of American history is that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves: It freed no one! All one has to do is read the damn thing and with a half ounce of brain matter and an iota of familiarity with American history one will easily conclude (correctly( that the EP did not free anyone and was not intended to free anyone.

[americanophile]

Agreed. Washington should be #1.

[outlawjake]

i may be alone in this... but as iraq makes progress and becomes a thriving country and a great democracy.. i think geoerge w. will be one of our greats..

[DiogenesLaertius]

FDR is not number 3. Maybe something like 10 and only because he happened to help win WWII. Then again his selfishness in staying president while he was basically comatose at Yalta helped cause the cold war.

Truman is 7.

George Bush will get up there if Iraq is successful. You can’t really judge a president until about a generation after he’s left office.

I agree with most of the list at the top though. Props for putting Eisenhower and Reagan so high. They are characteristically underrated by our lefties here.

LBJ is an anomaly in the top. He was a disastrous president and his poor management of increasing civil rights led to mass riots and disaster on the domestic front. His mismanagement of the Vietnam war puts him near the bottom of the list as well.

Also carter is the worst of this century, well below nixon and dubya.

[WackySam]

President GW Bush not the worst ever - another astonishing result from the leftist ignoramuses on the Times.

FDR, Hoover, and Carter should all be tied for last- right behind W.

[Westlander]

Figured it would be a fish wrapper news source from a muzzie country to come up with this list.

[djsherin]

Carter was an idiot, but he didn’t do more damage than FDR, Wilson, or Johnson.

[I_Like_Spam]

Harding and Coolidge were both underrated. Although President Harding had his scandals, his administration was still a success in returning the United States to “normalcy” and his low tax policies helped create the boom of the 1920’s.

[djsherin]

Pet peeve of mine: We’re a Republic not a democracy.
I disagree about Lincoln and Teddy though.

[americanophile]

I agree that Madison should be rated far higher than he usually is. I think your assessment of Adams is a little harsh. No doubt motivated by the A&SA, and I agree that was a horrible thing, but the more I read about the atmosphere at the time, I can understand the motivation behind what, by today’s standards, would be an unbearable outrage. It is an unending blemish on the record of an otherwise stalwart crusader for American freedom and prosperity. Of course today, we have the “Fairness Doctrine” rearing its ugly head again...

[djsherin]

I think he’ll be remembered as a Truman.

But then again while most people look favorably at Truman I don’t.

[Westlander]

FDR-the man who gave half of Europe to Stalin.