[meandog]

Interesting...
The historians that I admire, however, have ranked them this way(top and bottom dozen)

Top
1. Lincoln
2. Washington
3. Jefferson
4. T. Roosevelt
5. Polk
6. F. Roosevelt
7. Madison
8. Jackson
9. Reagan
10. Adams
11. Truman
12. Monroe...

Bottom dozen:
31. G. Bush
32. Pierce
33. Harding
34. Filmore
35. Carter
36. Hoover
37. L.B. Johnson
38. Nixon
39. Grant.
40. A. Johnson
41. Buchanan
42. Clinton

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Not worth quibbling over the little stuff (FDR vs. Reagan, though I'd personally rank FDR far lower).

From the worst list, I'd take off 41 -- that sounds too much like a personal vendetta on the writer's part. Coolidge sounds like a similar, smaller grudge to me.

I'd also take off Ford. He didn't do much, granted, but I think the pardon of Nixon ended something that would have hurt the American psyche so much that Carter's malaise would've been cock-eyed optimism in comparison. Ford sacrificed his political career for the good of the country when he pardoned Nixon -- and still managed to almost get re-elected.

My top Three:

1. Washington. Established the Presidency
2. Reagan. Re-established the nation's strength. Essentially won the Cold War without too much baggage being left over.
3. Truman. Made the hard decisions to drop the bomb; then to stand up to communism.

Lincoln and FDR have too much baggage for me to put in my top three. Honorable mention to John Tyler, for no other reason than he's one of my wife's ancestors. Well, he did establish that a President who comes to power, through the VP position, has all the powers of the Presidency; I suspect there could have been some major and destructive power-struggles when later Presidents died, if that had not been established.

My Worst 3:

1. Carter. Let America be kicked, then said, "Please, sir, may I have another."
2. Buchanan. I think this article states it well enough.
3. JFK. Whether or not Eisenhower planned it, with the Bay of Pigs, JFK started the American "tradition" of half-a'ing military actions. Either do what it takes or don't do it at all. Every President since then has done the same -- even Reagan ducked on Lebanon. I'm hoping that 43 breaks the tradition, but we've yet to see, one way or another.

Clinton was a morally corrupt, possibly even murderous, President. However, once the Health Care plan collapsed, he was content to do what it took to stay alive politically. His Presidency was sickening, but not, life-threatening to the nation, as I think Carter, Buchanan, and JFK's were.

[ZULU]

My top choices, in order:

1. George Washington - without him we wouldn't have an independent country and a free republic.

2. Thomas Jefferson - ditto

3. Teddy Roosevelt - read his biography. A great American bigger than life.

4. Ronald Reagan - Destroyed the "Evil Empire' and changed our view of government

5. Adams - another prime architect of our Republic

6. Polk - won the first war with Mexico (the Second one is down the road somewhere).


7. Monroe - Monroe doctrine



The Bottom of the Barrel. These were all so bad, I can't even rank them in any order:

Bill Clinton

Franklin Roosevelt

U.S. Grant

Warren G. Harding

Woodrow Wilson

Abraham Lincoln

Richard M. Nixon

Jimmy Carter

Lyndon Johnson

George Bush I

Gerald Ford

[537 Votes]

III Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

Saved the world from the greatest evil in the history of civilization.

Fascism killed six million, Communism killed a hundred million. Are we indulging in another round of Communist Holocaust Denial here?

[x]

He's right that if you want to do this at all seriously, you have to have, state and defend objective criteria, not just one's own subjective preferences. But that is very hard to do.

In no way is JFK even close to the top ten. Anti-imperialist Cleveland looks strange sandwiched between expansionists like Roosevelt, Polk, Jackson and Jefferson. Something doesn't look too objective there. Cleveland also convinced very few that free trade was the right policy. It would be later Democrats, more committed to big government, who did that. And if we blame other Presidents for not coping with depressions and recessions, Cleveland's desire to let the economy fix itself, an admirable decision in itself, lowers him rating. Grover Cleveland may have been an admirable man, but clearly he doesn't belong with the others.

Buchanan has to be the worst, but Pierce was a worse President than Coolidge. And worse than Grant, Harding, Carter, Ford, Bush or either of the Johnsons, too. Zachary Taylor, like Jerry Ford, falls in a category close to that of Garfield and the first Harrison: those who weren't in office long enough to do much good or evil. Taylor might have been a very good President had he lived. And Ford did much to pick up the pieces after Nixon.

Ford may have been the most mediocre of mediocrities, but he was not a failure in the same sense as the others. In fantasy, he might have done any number of things. In reality his options were limited, and he did leave the country better than Nixon left it to him.

Probably the George Bush rating is the most controversial. I don't want to believe it, but GHWB did blow a lot of splendid opportunities.

[uncbuck]

As an historian, I have to disagree with my fellows.

My top 5:

1. George Washington.

He creates the post and all its powers. I have a copy of a letter from Jefferson to him, written when GW was done his second term, TJ fears the next Pres will try to become a king, TJ asks him to become king, for he knows he is benevolent.

2. Theodore Roosevelt.

He almost single handedly creates modern America

3. Ronald Reagan.

Do I have to explain it to you?
(It is commonly understood in the historical communtity, that you don't judge your contemporary leaders, but is also understood that Ron is an exception.)

4.Jemmy Madison. (Spelled intentionally wrong)

Who better to be president, than the man who wrote the constitution?

5. James Polk.

I just like the guy, without him Santa Anna keeps Texas, therefore keeping GWB. (Although he did give us California)

Bottom 5:

38. James Buchanan.

Who? So that's who the high school is named after.
Unlike Lincoln, he had no cajones.

39. Warren Harding.

Women elected him as there first president. LOL.

40. Franklin Pierce.

Was all about staying in power, much like WJC.

41. There Royal Lowness's, William and Hillery Clinton.

Again, do I have to explain it to you?

42. Lyndon Johnson.

Came way too close to destroying this nation, and after close to 40 years, we are still trying to straiten up his mess.*

*Special mention should go to Andrew Johnson, the other reason why you should never vote for someone named Johnson.

[KevinDavis]

I think George Washington is number one in my book (next to Reagan of course). GW stayed true to the american ideals that he help create.