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 ...
It goes Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, then Reagan.
What's VERY surprising is Polk as "near great"..I concur, but I'd wager that 7 out of 10 HS seniors today wouldn't know who Polk was..
I don't know if I'd put FDR in 3rd place, and I don't think Truman was of nearly same stature as Reagan.. but other than that, in general the list seems pretty good.
Here are my thoughts:
TEN BEST
1) Washington
2) Lincoln
3) Reagan
4) Teddy Roosvelt
5) Andrew Jackson
6) FDR
7) Thomas Jefferson
8) George W. Bush
9) Calvin Coolidge
10) Harry Truman
FIVE WORST:
1) Buchanan
2) Andrew Johnson
3) Jimmy Carter
4) Grant
5) Wilson
6) Harding
AND A SPECIAL CATEGORY FOR THE DEVIL INCARNATE:
WILLIAM JEFFERSON KLINTOON
I don't know if I'd put FDR in 3rd place, and I don't think Truman was of nearly same stature as Reagan.. but other than that, in general the list seems pretty good.
The one is badly underrated is Harding in my view. He brought economic prosperity, lower taxes, released Woodrow Wilson's political prisoners, and had a good civil rights record. As to corruption, Harding was a amateur compared to Nixon, LBJ, for Kennedy.
My top 5:
1) George Washington
2) Theodore Roosevelt
3) Abraham Lincoln
4) Ronald Reagan
5) Thomas Jefferson
honorable mention: Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson
My bottom 5:
38) Ulysees Grant
39) Lyndon Johnson
40) Jimmy Carter
41) Warren Harding
42) James Buchanan
* only 42 different men have been President
Most overrated:
1) Franklin D Roosevelt
2) John F Kennedy
3) Harry S Truman
Most under appreciated
1) Calvin Coolidge
2) James Knox Polk
3) James Monroe
Agreed.
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.
The union was fragile at the time, he has to be #1 for holding it all together and helping to ensure the constitutional form of the federal republic we have.
Historians love big government.
Exactly. Mr. Coolidge was also the last president who committed, as far as I can learn, exactly zero egregious violations of the Constitutional, and for that alone should rank no worse than 10th.
I am actually amazed Reagan ranked so high given historians ranked them. I think Reagan is second only to the #1 guy. But I give the historians credit for being somewhat intellectually honest and having Reagan among the near great presidents. I can't imagine anything Reagan could have done better. The crap that liberals spew about the man is laughable. Deficits were a neccesary evil, and we grew out of them like he predicted. AIDS, Reagan signed Bills for nearly $6 Billion on AIDS research. Little was known, and Reagan was actually quite progressive on the issue. Additional money would not likely have saved lives. Iran-Contra was a joke of a controversy. Weighing those against all of Reagan's accomplishments with the economy and the cold war. Believe it or not, Clinton's tax reforms were just minor tweeks to what Reagan did. Our marginal tax rates are still much closer to what Reagan established, then the near-communistic 1970's marginal rates.
Reagan over Jefferson? You're kidding, right?
BUMP!
Exactly right.
Wilson is severely overrated.
That's my thought exactly...he should be listed as a failure as should Carter!!!
No way Johnson was above average.
Bye bye
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