Posted on 06/10/2004 8:55:07 AM PDT by Cableguy
More than 3 years old, but still valid. Clinton should go down next time, given his failures on Al Qaeda and North Korea. Reagan will probably move up.
------------------ The Wall Street Journal Survey on Presidents
RANK NAME MEAN GREAT 1 George Washington 4.92 2 Abraham Lincoln 4.87 3 Franklin Roosevelt 4.67 NEAR GREAT 4 Thomas Jefferson 4.25 5 Theodore Roosevelt 4.22 6 Andrew Jackson 3.99 7 Harry Truman 3.95 8 Ronald Reagan 3.81 9 Dwight Eisenhower 3.71 10 James Polk 3.70 11 Woodrow Wilson 3.68 ABOVE AVERAGE 12 Grover Cleveland 3.36 13 John Adams 3.36 14 William McKinley 3.33 15 James Madison 3.29 16 James Monroe 3.27 17 Lyndon Johnson 3.21 18 John Kennedy 3.17 AVERAGE 19 William Taft 3.00 20 John Quincy Adams 2.93 21 George Bush 2.92 22 Rutherford Hayes 2.79 23 Martin Van Buren 2.77 24 William Clinton 2.77 25 Calvin Coolidge 2.71 26 Chester Arthur 2.71 BELOW AVERAGE 27 Benjamin Harrison 2.62 28 Gerald Ford 2.59 29 Herbert Hoover 2.53 30 Jimmy Carter 2.47 31 Zachary Taylor 2.40 32 Ulysses Grant 2.28 33 Richard Nixon 2.22 34 John Tyler 2.03 35 Millard Fillmore 1.91 FAILURE 36 Andrew Johnson 1.65 37 Franklin Pierce 1.58 38 Warren Harding 1.58 39 James Buchanan 1.33
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
The backlash from conservatives on FDR comes from the left's love of the man. However, much like most on the left giving a begrudging respect to Ronaldus Magnus this week, I am willing to give FDR the same courtesies.
"how did FDR get so high??"
Probably on the very best Scoth that money can buy.
LBJ ahead of JFK?? Wow!
As much as I hate to say it, Carter deserves some credit for listening to Milton Freedman about deregulation, and Clinton
for signing the free trade agreement.
As I predicted to a pathetic lib last night:
Fifty years from now, my guy's gonna be remembered for the quote "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" (and my great grandchildren will ask "What wall?"). Yours will be remembered for "Ahhhh did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky". Now, that's a fitting legacy.
President Ford should be recognized for pardoning Nixon. It probably cost him several positions on the chart and any chance at being elected president, but it eliminated much of the devisiveness that was in the country at the time and helped the country to get on with its business.
Free Republic should post its own official Presidential rating...put it to a vote "questions" and when it is completed put out an official Free Republic press release.
FR opinions are more balanced than those of the so-called 'experts.'
Even the great Reagan used to quote him in admiration, so does Bush.
I am not certain if they really do think that highly of him or just know it is pointless to not praise him.
Why is a below average President, Grant on our currency?
What puts Coolidge up in your book?
Yeah. "One in a row" for both of them.
Not me, thanks to FDR we had 50 years of cold war and Reagan had to clean up his mess!! The Russian army was destroyed and what did FDR do at Yalta? HE GAVE STALIN HALF OF EUROPE!!! FDR was the founder of the nanny state with all of his failed social programs. What a turd!!!
I was talking about the historians being liberal. They would rank FDR, Kennedy, Clinton, Carter higher than conservative historians would.
A Reagan-esque quote if there ever was on. He presided over great propserity and although the term was not used in the sense it is today, Coolidge was a conservative President.
Reagan should be above FDR. I wouldn't even consider FDR to be a great president.
These guys must include a healthy sampling of leftists.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Period.
FDR doesn't belong there. He gave away half of Europe and helped create the mess that Ronald Reagan had to clean up. Truman was President during the first war we lost.
I'd give Polk honorable mention for stealing away the entire southwest from that tinhorn dictator Santa Ana.
Andrew Jackson was a crook, an alcoholic, a racist, and he cheated when he dueled - which was frequently - typical Democrat.
I believe you have nailed it. Some were placed so high upon pedestals, and praised for so long, before their warts were discovered, that now they are untouchable.
Considering how many of those untouchables were already set in stone before President Reagan came along and him being rated at # 8, I don't believe it would be unreasonable at all for us to presume that if all positions were open and the ratings were today, President Reagan would more than likely be placed within the top five.
Dang! that is one long sentence, but I couldn't find a stopping place.
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