C-SPAN asked 65 historians to rate all our former presidents in ten categories, including Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, and Pursued Equal Justice For All.
The top and bottom few and some recent with ranking and overall scores (out of 1000):
1-902 Lincoln
2-854 Washington
3-837 FD Roosevelt
4-781 T Roosevelt
5-708 Truman
6-701 Kennedy
11-641 L Johnson
15-605 Clinton
18-542 GHW Bush
25-474 Carter
36-362 GW Bush
37-351 Fillmore
38-327 Harding
39-324 WH Harrison
40-287 Pierce
41-258 A Johnson
42-227 Buchanan
Lots of people, of course, think that GW Bush is rated too high. His reputation is bound to change as we assess the consequences of his actions. Bush came out almost at the bottom for Economic Management and International Relations but close to the middle in Crisis Leadership, and Vision/Setting Agenda (too bad we didn't like his vision and agenda).
It is probably unfair to rate WH Harrison because he was president for just over 1 month before dying of pneumonia.
I noticed that the bottom two were president just before (Buchanan) and just after (A Johnson) Lincoln, the guy at the top of the list.
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