Last year, there was a poll of the American people ranking the Presidents. Reagan was Number One - as WF Buckley once said, “I would rather be ruled by the first one hundred names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty.”
WWII ended FDR’s depression.
Link?
RE: FDR
Did they give their reasons why?
Why was Lincoln #1?
Because he waged war to prevent free men from leaving a Union they voluntarily joined?
The rehabilitation of Japan, for instance, was due almost entirely to MacArthur's leadership and the resiliency of the Japanese people and had nothing to do with FDR and his successors other than getting out of the way long enough so MacArthur could accomplish what he did.
Japan ended the Great Depression....................
George Washington should always be ranked #1 out of respect and by default. There is no question he was the greatest president bar none.
I bet Coolidge wasn’t there either, but of course did BJ get a rank?
Teddy Roosevelt would have been high on my list. Panama Canal, parks, etc.
1 Washington - Duh.
2 Jefferson
3 Lincoln - Despite many misgivings, a lesser person would have really used the moment to become a dictator.
4 Reagan
5 Coolidge
6 Jackson - For preventing an early version of the Fed from materializing.
7 Eisenhower
8 TR - Before he became an insane “progressive”.
9 Monroe
10 Ted Cruz (place on list subject to change as events unfold)
You got to be kidding me.
Who goes to these sites? The clueless, the zero information doofuses.
The ones who ask, when purchasing something, "which one do you think I should get?"
Lists are arbitrary and a reflection of the person assembling it. Ignorant or informed, it's all the same. People who play that game never need to give any reason for their choices, cogent or otherwise.
Polls are collections of opinions. I have mine.
Who are the top ten presidents?
I can compile a list, but to what end?
What everyone else thinks, I couldn't care less.
Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan tied for first
The next 17 tied for second.
The next 23 tied for third
Jimmie Carter came in fourth
Barack Insane Odumbo came in fifth.
That was supposed to be the point of the film and book High Fidelity -- that guys rate things from 1 to 10 as a way of thinking that we've imposed order on the disorder that is life.
If forced to rate the presidents, I'd put Washington at number one. I can understand their rating Lincoln and FDR highly. It's more a matter of our making it through devastating crises that could have destroyed the country or turned it into a dictatorship, though, than anything else. Reagan would certainly have to be in the top ten.
Over the years, have seen many top ten presidents lists.
Generally, the top three are George, Abe and Franklin.
Which order depends on the poll. IMO these three had the greatest effect on this country. People are free to argue the merits or demerits of those effects. But one cannot deny that the presidencies of these men drastically altered the course of American History. JMO