Monday, February 16, 2009
Rating the presidents
C-SPAN rounded up some historians and asked them to rank the American presidents, 1-43 (44 being as yet unrankable, notwithstanding various efforts to place him at the top and the bottom of the list) according to various criteria. George W. Bush's low rank of 36 was hardly surprising -- did a single one of the samped historians vote for him? -- but the credibility of the survey suffered enormously from rank inflation of two other recent presidents: Bill Clinton, 15th, and Jimmy Carter, 25th. Seriously? There have been 18 presidents worse than Jimmy Carter? Even our great country could not have survived if that were true.
16 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Feb 16, 06:16:00 PM:
By 
drank, at
Mon Feb 16, 08:08:00 PM:
Well, given the obvious modern bias of the list (5 of the top 10 since WWII?), I don't think Clinton is that unfairly ranked.
The real joke, IMO, is Lyndon Johnson at #11. I guess that should give W some hope - bungle an unpopular war, spend your greatgrandkids into debt, wait 40 years, and "historians" will forgive everything!
By , at
Mon Feb 16, 08:27:00 PM:
Instead of their choice of historians I'd like to know how Robert George would rank the list. On that list I suspect Carter would be ranked closer to my idea of his rightful place.
By , at
Mon Feb 16, 08:31:00 PM:
I think both W. and H.W. are destined to be ranked higher.
By Viking Kaj, at
Mon Feb 16, 08:49:00 PM:
Lincoln wouldn't have ranked at all highly in 1863.
In fact, if the democrats hadn't split twice he never would have been elected.
And I'm just guessing most of those historians are Southerners...
By Viking Kaj, at
Mon Feb 16, 08:52:00 PM:
BTW, Carter well and truly sucked. He still does. Norwegians are idiots.
By , at
Mon Feb 16, 09:23:00 PM:
Truman was ranked #5. I believe when he left office his popularity ratings were similar to George W. Bush.
Another failed president.
By Tom the Redhunter, at
Mon Feb 16, 10:47:00 PM:
I long ago stopped taking these rankings seriously.
When I was a student at college I saw one and was amazed at how they ranked Wilson as "near great" It was only later that I learned that the professors at big-name universities (where I certainly didn't attend) were almost uniformly leftists.
By , at
Tue Feb 17, 12:12:00 AM:
The real joke, IMO, is Lyndon Johnson at #11. I guess that should give W some hope - bungle an unpopular war, spend your greatgrandkids into debt, wait 40 years, and "historians" will forgive everything!
LOL!
By , at
Tue Feb 17, 01:18:00 AM:
For all the talk, plays, songs and movies made about killing President Bush, Abraham Lincoln was actually murdered while in office by someone who disagreed with his policies. It seems Republicans have always been hated.
As far a Jimmy Carters vote goes, perhaps they didn't screen the Hamas voters out.
By , at
Tue Feb 17, 08:58:00 AM:
"....C-SPAN rounded up some historians and........."
There's your problem right there.
By , at
Tue Feb 17, 11:29:00 AM:
Here are my big issues:
JFK was #7? What exactly did he do? Mind you, I am an Irish Catholic and I believe that his brother's have actually tarnished the type of politician he was. He was tough on Communism and our second largest tax cut was driven by JFK. However, he only served From Jan 1961 to November 1963, and the fact that the Bay of Pigs was such a disaster and his dalliances and ultimately involvement in Vietnam should put him way down the list.
Ronald Regan at #10? huh? I guess winning the Cold War, re-engineering our nation's economy and reinserting our country's pride at a time when it was arguably at its lowest should probably put him in the top three.
With Regan's argument for a higher rating, one must automatically look to the problems his predecessor created and automatically he should drop like a rock. Jimmy Carter has been the sexually transmitted disease of a presidency. Every time I see Iran in the news I want to kick Carter in the balls.
Bill Clinton at #15? To my knowledge his two biggest accomplishments were NAFTA and Welfare reform (which has been effectively unreformed thanks to the stimulus bill.) One could argue how much of a hand he had in the booming economic times, but I will even give him that. However, the years that he served and the crisis that he had to overcome were all self-imposed.
Say what you will about G.W. he was one unluckly SOB, but at least he was forced to show his mettle; after 9/11, Katrina, two wars, the surge and the mortgage meltdown. Bill Clinton folded and lied under the weight of his own stupidity. How does he rank at 15? He should not be in the top 20 and I voted for him twice.
Other notables that should have had a higher ranking Jackson and Grant. As history begins to unwrap more of Nixon's years, aside from the obvious Watergate mess, the bills he signed and the huge wasteful domestic spending should push his rank still lower.
By , at
Tue Feb 17, 07:41:00 PM:
Clinton's welfare reform was Newt's doing. That leaves him NAFTA, and hummers from fat kooky office workers.
He left a recession for Bush, corporate fraud for him to deal with, a White House a literal mess, and basically no files to operate from. He punked on the first WTC bombing, and multiple attacks. And yet, the world apparently loved the guy.
And, they seem to love Bambi even more, so this should all be very interesting ...
By , at
Wed Feb 18, 12:57:00 AM:
By far JIMMY CARTER was americas worse presidents and then theres CLINTON and OBAMA and who knows else
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed Feb 18, 06:33:00 PM:
"Jimmy Carter has been the sexually transmitted disease of a presidency. Every time I see Iran in the news I want to kick Carter in the balls."
Lol!
By , at
Wed Feb 18, 10:07:00 PM:
Dawnfire82 I am glad I could make the day of a person I regularly read and admire. If you want to read more great laughs about this ridiculous survey Ann Coulter has put her two cents in. As always it has a quip or two that is quite memorable. I don't have the link here but you can find it on Human Events or Townhall if you look.
Be well,
QuakerCat
