Greatest Presidents
From C-Span.org – “C-SPAN today releases the results of its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of 65 presidential historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership.”
I found this interesting. It’s kind of cool to see how people who have spent their whole life studying the presidents rank them against each other. Personally I’ve always been a fan of James Knox Polk. I’m gonna have to do some research on James Buchanan and find out why he’s such a bad president!
(Don’t miss the Animaniacs video at the bottom of the list)
| President’s Name | 2009 Final Score | 2009 Ranking | 2000 Ranking | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abraham Lincoln | 902 | 1 | 1 | ||
| George Washington | 854 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | 837 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Theodore Roosevelt | 781 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Harry S. Truman | 708 | 5 | 5 | ||
| John F. Kennedy | 701 | 6 | 8 | ||
| Thomas Jefferson | 698 | 7 | 7 | ||
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | 689 | 8 | 9 | ||
| Woodrow Wilson | 683 | 9 | 6 | ||
| Ronald Reagan | 671 | 10 | 11 | ||
| Lyndon B. Johnson | 641 | 11 | 10 | ||
| James K. Polk | 606 | 12 | 12 | ||
| Andrew Jackson | 606 | 13 | 13 | ||
| James Monroe | 605 | 14 | 14 | ||
| Bill Clinton | 605 | 15 | 21 | ||
| William McKinley | 599 | 16 | 15 | ||
| John Adams | 545 | 17 | 16 | ||
| George H. W. Bush | 542 | 18 | 20 | ||
| John Quincy Adams | 542 | 19 | 19 | ||
| James Madison | 535 | 20 | 18 | ||
| Grover Cleveland | 523 | 21 | 17 | ||
| Gerald R. Ford | 509 | 22 | 23 | ||
| Ulysses S. Grant | 490 | 23 | 33 | ||
| William Howard Taft | 485 | 24 | 24 | ||
| Jimmy Carter | 474 | 25 | 22 | ||
| Calvin Coolidge | 469 | 26 | 27 | ||
| Richard M. Nixon | 450 | 27 | 25 | ||
| James A. Garfield | 445 | 28 | 29 | ||
| Zachary Taylor | 443 | 29 | 28 | ||
| Benjamin Harrison | 442 | 30 | 31 | ||
| Martin Van Buren | 435 | 31 | 30 | ||
| Chester A. Arthur | 420 | 32 | 32 | ||
| Rutherford B. Hayes | 409 | 33 | 26 | ||
| Herbert Hoover | 389 | 34 | 34 | ||
| John Tyler | 372 | 35 | 36 | ||
| George W. Bush | 362 | 36 | NA | ||
| Millard Fillmore | 351 | 37 | 35 | ||
| Warren G. Harding | 327 | 38 | 38 | ||
| William Henry Harrison | 324 | 39 | 37 | ||
| Franklin D. Pierce | 287 | 40 | 39 | ||
| Andrew Johnson | 258 | 41 | 40 | ||
| James Buchanan | 227 | 42 | 41 | ||
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Cute video. What a great learning tool for kids. On a totally random note, what’s “shawbin”? A college thang?
James Buchanan let the South recede, and his predecessor Franklin Pierce did no do much to help the situation. Both were democrats, so it’s no wonder the next president was a republican by the name of “Abe.”
Zach, your blog may become infectious.
Kyle, I had no idea you knew your American History this well. I’m impressed…