Historians rank Reagan #8 among presidents

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 16, 2000

[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

[BlueNgold]

Hmmm .. upon further review...

42 men have served as President, 39 of which were evaluated:
The 'ICONS' of modern liberalism:
17 (2 above the median) - LBJ
18 (1 above the median) - JFK (below LBJ .. interesting)
24 (5 BELOW the median) - WJC
30 (11 BELOW the median) - JEC

So, someone tell me, exactly WHICH one of these barely average to below average men would JF-Kerry call his role model? He has prased JFK as his inspiration, Willy Jeff as the right type of Democrat for the modern world, and Carter as a great man ...

It seems his heroes are men of resounding mediocrity ....

As for me? Yes it's trite, but true ...
My heroes have always been cowboys...

[Jimmy Valentine]

That is facinating. I am convinced that if they re-drilled the old fields in Pennsylvania and Northwest New york, they would find some interesting stuff

[Recovering_Democrat]

You're right about Arthur not being re-nominated by the Republican Party, but that isn't necessarily a negative reflection on him. Perhaps it was a compliment. :)

Besides, he was a dying man, right? He certainly rose way above expectations, and Clinton fell way short of the mark...even for many Democrats. (I know they sing his praises now, but deep down I think many really do know how bad he was for the office and for the country.)

[RightWhale]

Last I saw Pennsylvania and New York were still producing. When I was a kid in western Pennsylvania, those little pumps were everywhere bobbing up and down like sipping birds. Oil City is like a shrine, major town for a few years, then went bust. There is still some oil, though.

[Protagoras]

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."
August 22, 1862--A. Lincoln

[lennydetroit]

Washington: First in war, first in peace...and last in the American League.

(Showing my age BUMP)

Regards,
Lenny

[tame]

These historians must be on crack! Truman and FDR above Reagan?!? What a crock!

Reagan should be in the top one...tied with Washington for first place.

[Dianna]

Reagan should be above Truman and possibly even Jackson. I am trying to remember exactly what Jackson accomplished. I know he was very effective but my memory does not serve me well right now.

I wish someone would explain Jackson. From what I remember, he was the first, non-elite, wealthy type guy to become President. I imagine he had huge battles with Congress, and he was, unjustly, almost impeached. Maybe it was a "for the people" attitude?

[doug from upland]

Carter and Clinton are better than Buchanan? Who are they kidding?

[BJungNan]

bump

[Huck]

Setting aside the more obvious complaints, and saying this as a real bona fide fan of James Madison, his presidency was nothing to write home about. He had to flee the White House, for crying out loud. Love the guy, love what he did before his presidency, but unless I am missing something, his tenure as exec was less than stellar.

[tabsternager]

I think FDR was a "great" President, and I'm about as conservative as one can be. Under FDR and his leadership (in particular, his Lend-Lease), we became the superpower.

[Jimmy Valentine]

LOL! BUT! Not when Walter "Big Train" Johnson was playing.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I think FDR was a "great" President, and I'm about as conservative as one can be. Under FDR and his leadership (in particular, his Lend-Lease), we became the superpower.

We became a superpower when Theodore Roosevelt sent our ships halfway around the world and swiped Spain's colonies. That's why our participation in WW1 was critical to bringing that conflict to a swifter resolution.

If FDR had been more interested in something other than spreading communism, WW 2 would have been unnecessary IMO.

[tabsternager]

That's what I thought too when I first saw this list. LBJ was such a failure, even he knew better than to seek re-election.

[tabsternager]

As a result of FDR's Lend-Lease, we supplied our allies with what it took to win WWII, with our suffering way fewer casualties than our allies did, and we became the wealthiest nation in the world with everyone else being in debt to us. FDR deserves the credit for that.

[SAJ]

As to the Louisiana Purchase, one cannot really credit Jefferson except to the extent that he took advantage of what was, at bottom, a piece of good luck. He did not, you will note, go about seeking the purchase; Bonaparte needed funds for his wars and conducted what was basically a fire sale of French assets.

While in no way diminishing the astonishing accomplishments of the Lewis/Clark expedition, the plain fact of the matter was that the Louisiana territory would have been explored sooner or later, probably sooner, in any event. There was no perceptible shortage of pioneers, adventurers, opportunists, and/or traders in the U.S. in 1803. Jefferson deserves the credit (with not a little prompting from several Western politicians, btw) for commissioning the exploration, but can hardly have expected the cornucopia of discovery that unfolded. Again, a bit of good luck -- not despising luck, mind you, but let's not confuse lucky results with ''greatness'', however defined. By applying that sort of standard, one might have to conclude that the odious Bent Willy was ''great'' because he was bloody lucky enough to infest the office just as the major effects of the Reagan tax cuts were being felt throughout the economy.

The president who never gets enough credit IMNNHO (besides Coolidge, of course), is Madison. Jefferson left him a domestic economy in near-shambles, a Federal budget in almost complete disarray (read Nevin, among many others, for a description of this ugly situation), and with a trade war (essentially) with Britain. By the end of his term, Madison had resolved the trade war VERY favourably, somehow had managed to win that silly war that resulted from the trade war (hardly a mean feat, Britain being what she was at the time), had quelled the New England separatists, had initiated much more advantageous funding procedures (the banks' loan-origination fees in that day were stunningly outrageous, and Madison, while not completely able to stop their practices, curbed them rather sharply by introducing them, quite involuntarily, to the concept of competition), and -- by dint of NOT intefering much -- had seen to getting the economy back onto something resembling an even keel. Significant accomplishments indeed for the president of a 20ish-year-old nation with no international standing, nor any international credit before his advent.

However, Madison did, inadvertently I presume, stick America with that insufferable mediocrity Monroe -- so perhaps he shouldn't move TOO far up the list (g!).

[CMAC51]

Only a lefty would think of FDR as "near great". He'll come down dramatically as time goes by.

His social policies will be debated, but he will remain high in the rankings because during a period of great national distress, he held the heart and sole of the nation in his hands and carried them safely through. The impact of that may be lost on the general publics impression, but historians will always rate it highly.

[happygrl]

Had it not been for the decision to drop the bomb on Japan, Truman would have been lowered.

Truman stood up to Communism when it was threatening to over run Greece, and come to power in Western Europe through elections, by proposing both the Marshall Plan and the Policy of Containment. Both of those policies saved Western Europe from the fate of Eastern Europe. The situation was so bad economically in western Europe after WWII, that Communism could have been voted in.

Truman made sure the dike held firm in the West until RR could come along and see that Communism fell of its own weight and stupidity.

[PISANO]

William Clinton = average? The average president gets impeached?

My thoughts exactly. I guess it is "LUCKY" he didn't get an ABOVE AVERAGE, then IMPEACHMENT would have become a necessity for a successful Presidency.

The insanity of redefining standards DOWNWARD and WORDS in general continues.