Among Recent Presidents, Clinton is Tops With Historians

Yahoo! News ^ | March 09, 2007 | Tim Blessing and Anne Skleder

[mcvey]

In a recent poll, more than 250 college and university history professors placed former President Bill Clinton as the best president of the last quarter entury, Ronald Reagan as the second best, followed by Jimmy Carter and then the first President Bush. (The current president was excluded since his term of office had not yet ended.) The survey also asked the historians to rank the recent Secretaries of State and Supreme Court justices as well as the relative threat to constitutional liberties posed by presidential actions.

Dr. Tim H. Blessing, Professor of History and Political Science at Alvernia College, Reading, Pa., has conducted presidential polls for many years as part of the Presidential Performance Study. Since 2001, he has been joined in ranking presidents by Dr. Anne Skleder, Associate Professor of Psychology. They asked historians, all with doctoral degrees and all teaching full-time at a college or university, to rank these four presidents as "great," "near great," "above average," "average," "below average," or "failing." Using this system, Clinton received the highest average score, though no historian ranked him as one of the "Greats." Reagan garnered a number of "great" marks, but also received numerous "below average" marks, dragging down his score and indicating that he is still a polarizing figure.

[mcvey]

Montag:

I was one of the 250 who filled out the survey. It was a legitimate survey. If Blessing and Skleder or whoever would release the whole thing, you could see that it was well-built and covered much more than the ratings of four presidents. I am fascinated by the fact that the broad range of questions were not released. As I remember there were questions on military interventions, educational policies, economic policies and even things such as personal characteristics on it.

I just sent Blessing an e-mail and will pass on his response when I get it.

McVey

[Verginius Rufus]

I think you mean the American Historical Association, although presumably the other organizations are equally dominated by the left/liberal types.

Back in the mid-'90s the AHA was planning to hold its annual convention in Cincinnati, when the voters of Cincinnati adopted a resolution that the left didn't like (something along the lines of saying that gays are not entitled to special privileges). The AHA then moved the site of its convention although that cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars...but they had to teach the "bigots" in Cincinnati a lesson.

[Finalapproach29er]

followed by Jimmy Carter ....
-------
WTF????

10% unemployment
15% Inflation
20% Intrest rates

[zendari]

Clinton over Reagan? Uh, ok.

[stevem]

This could be more a tribute to the thinking process of such professors rather than a grading of administrations. It says right here that Jimmy Carter wasn'y any kind of a President, good, bad or indifferent in the last quarter century.

[AVNevis]

I remember I once read a survey of "historians" that ranked Reagan in the bottom quarter. What does this tell you? Historians are mostly libs.

[Tony O]

Yes, you've got it right. I guess if you are a democrat president you automatically have to be rated above any republican.

A president who is impeached and one that virtually singlehandedly ruined the economy during his administration, as well as letting the Shah of Iran be deposed, should not even be considered as a valid candidate for a "good" rating.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Gee, it's such a surprise that the liberal university system would gush over Krinton. Most public school history books say damn near nothing about Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, and Reagan but they have entire chapters devoted to Karter and Klinton, too. They're always busy filling the next generation full of crap and are succeeding grandly. Makes me sick.

[andy58-in-nh]

Bill Clinton was a great President...for left-wing academics, many of whom now inhabit the Federal bureaucracy.

[mcvey]

They did that again over a labor dispute at one site (St. Louis?) to demonstrate solidarity with the workers.

I think the Organization of American Historians did the same thing several years later.

McVey

[freekitty]

ROTFLOL.

[microgood]

I agree with you. My generation truly screwed things up.

Being from the 70s generation, I do not think we are much better. Does not bode well for the future.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The same boneheads who watched this year's Oscars and thought it was just wonderful how the celebrities just gushed over Al "School Flunk-out" Gore.

[oremites]

I just sent Blessing an e-mail and will pass on his response when I get it.

Thank you. That will be very interesting to see.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Says a lot about where the liberals want this country to be, doesn't it?

[microgood]

Detached from reality kind of insane. The kind of insane that would claim the word "marriage" is "hate speech" and rally for their own country to LOSE a war.

That pretty much sums up the situation. I really think the effect of this psychotic generation will eventually wear off, although that may be wishful thinking.

[Lancey Howard]

In a recent poll, more than 250 college and university history professors

Har! That's where I stopped. I trust Wikipedia more than I trust that simple litter of socialist mice.

[gondramB]

>>Among Recent Presidents, Clinton is Tops With Historians<<

They only include the last 25 years - thats not very many presidents.

[ClaireSolt]

When I belonged to the AHA in the 80's, 6000 historians attended the annual conferance. So, 250 is a small sample. A historian worth his salt would not opine on events in his own lifetime, imho. That is easy for a medievalist to say, I suppose.

[lowbridge]

It was a legitimate survey.

That doesnt mean it wasnt filled out by mostly legitimate idiots.