The greatest and worst Presidents of all time

[odiin]

Presidential rankings have been something that has interested me for a while now. Problem is though, every time they do them it's always different: Sure, some presidents barely move from poll to poll, but others can move up to 10 spots in any position, so it's hard to get a "definitive" ranking of the presidents.

So, I decided to remedy this by taking 12 different polls from 1948 to 2005, weighed them accordingly for how many presidents were on each list (Being 10/10 is a LOT different than being 10/43) and averaged them out in order to a definitive ranking, and it turned out pretty good if I say so myself. There are very few places that anyone could have any real problem with if at all. I'll post the full results, but before I do I wanted to pull out some special graphics I made for the top and bottom 10.... Drumrolls, please:

Now for the complete list:

1 Abraham Lincoln
2 Franklin D. Roosevelt
3 George Washington
4 Thomas Jefferson
5 Theodore Roosevelt
6 Woodrow Wilson
7 Harry S. Truman
8 Andrew Jackson
9 Dwight Eisenhower
10 James K. Polk
11 John F. Kennedy
12 John Adams
13 James Madison
14 Lyndon B. Johnson
15 James Monroe
16 Ronald Reagan
17 Grover Cleveland
18 Grover Cleveland
19 William McKinley
20 John Quincy Adams
21 Bill Clinton
22 George W. Bush
23 William Taft
24 George H. W. Bush
25 Martin Van Buren
26 Rutherford B. Hayes
27 Gerald Ford
28 Jimmy Carter
29 Chester A. Arthur
30 Herbert Hoover
31 Benjamin Harrison
32 James Garfield
33 Richard Nixon
34 Calvin Coolidge
35 Zachary Taylor
36 John Tyler
37 William H. Harrison
38 Millard Filmore
39 Ulysses S. Grant
40 Andrew Johnson
41 Franklin Pierce
42 James Buchanan
43 Warren G. Harding


I know Cleveland is on their twice but I wanted to keep with the official (yet impossibly stupid) numbering that has him as both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States

Lastly.... How about them Whigs, man? Worst political party, EVER. Out of a grand total of 4 Whig presidents, ALL of them are on the bottom ten. Fun fact: With all four of them combined, the Whigs actually served less than two whole terms in office. TEH MOAR U KNO!

 

[Noir]

The More You know =*

 

[Malice]

Nice post...interesting.
The Whig party was an interesting party...but it was doomed to fail from the get go...no cohesive believe in it.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

Wait..wait..wait. Bush is on the "Fearless Leaders" list? What kind of utter trash is that? Bush belongs in the Hall Of Shame.

 

[odiin]

Another interesting observation is that Grant is the only president on the bottom list to have been elected twice. It's kind of interesting how public perception can change over time. The people of the 1870s thought he was swell enough to stick around for another 4 years but now he's considered among the worst.

On the flipside, Polk is the only guy on the top list NOT to serve more than one term. FDR was, of course, elected to four, and both Theodore Roosevelt and Truman filled in for their predecessor before serving a term of their own each, but Polk only got one. Now I have to admit that I had to do a little research on Polk because you hear a lot about the other 9 guys, but no body ever really talks about him. Turns out, he was pretty damned awesome. He was a guy who basically ran for president saying "If I'm elected I want to accomplish this, and this, and this" So he wins the election and then goes out and proceeds to, in just four years, accomplish every thing he set out to. Feeling content with his accomplishments he decided to bow out and not seek a second term. He then died three months after leaving office. He was also responsibly for the second largest expansion in the country's history which included Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming in addition to the annexation of Texas. Pretty awesome guy.

 

[odiin]

Wait..wait..wait. Bush is on the "Fearless Leaders" list? What kind of utter trash is that? Bush belongs in the Hall Of Shame.

Bush is 22 out of 43, that's "average" if anything. Besides, he's the current president and we live day to day with the decisions he makes. There's obviously going to be some bias there. I'm sure his position will change once his presidency is in the past and he's able to be looked at more objectively.

 

[The Chairman]

That list for me is inaccurate. For starters, Nixon should not be below Bush Jr., Carter, Ford and Clinton. He was a far better president than any of them. Kennedy ranks too highly as well. He got by mostly appeal and charisma.

 

[Noir]

Nixon was a crook, a scammer, and probably a racist..

Kennedy avoided a full-on nuclear confrontation, Nixon had people break into a hotel and dabbled in Podcast.

 

[odiin]

That list for me is inaccurate. For starters, Nixon should not be below Bush Jr., Carter, Ford and Clinton. He was a far better president than any of them. Kennedy ranks too highly as well. He got by mostly appeal and charisma.

I actually agree with you on Nixon. If you take away the Watergate scandal he actually wasn't a very bad president. It just goes to show you how much of a black mark something like that can leave on your record. The same kind of goes for Harding, I don't know a lot about him so I don't know the whole story, but he had a whole hell of a lot of corrupt officials in his cabinet who took bribes and stole money from the government and that really hurt him in the long run. He was actually fairly popular when he was president.

 

[Kelly]

My top 10...

1 Abraham Lincoln
2 Franklin D. Roosevelt
3 Thomas Jefferson
4 Ronald Reagan
6 Woodrow Wilson
7 Harry S. Truman
8John F. Kennedy
9George Washington
10Herbert Hoover

I know many would not have Hoover anywhere near the top 10. But, as a student of History, I know that many of the New Deal legislation was actually his that he was unable to get passed......there were MANY, MANY behind the scenes meetings between him and Roosevelt. Roosevelt knew his ideas were good for America, and he knew he could get them passed. Makes me respect Roosevelt even more.

 

[The Senator]

My top ten list always changes, but here it goes:

1) Truman
2) Lincoln
3) FDR
4) T. Roosevelt
5) Jefferson
6) Eisenhower
7) Washington
8) Polk
9) Jackson
10) Nixon

Honorable mention: LBJ

 

[The Senator]

Nixon was a crook, a scammer, and probably a racist..

Kennedy avoided a full-on nuclear confrontation, Nixon had people break into a hotel and dabbled in Podcast.

Nixon started to withdraw our troops from Vietnam, fixed social security so it adjusted with inflation, created the EPA, and was the second president to propose a universal health care system (after Truman).

He was anything but a racist, considering he signed the first major affirmative action legislation into law and supported school integration.

Of course, when Kennedy was president, he distanced himself from the civil rights movement because he was afraid he wouldn't win the south when he ran for re-election... so I think that says something about Kennedy and how he was your run of the mill politician...

 

[The Chairman]

Nixon started to withdraw our troops from Vietnam, fixed social security so it adjusted with inflation, created the EPA, and was the second president to propose a universal health care system (after Truman).

He was anything but a racist, considering he signed the first major affirmative action legislation into law and supported school integration.

Of course, when Kennedy was president, he distanced himself from the civil rights movement because he was afraid he wouldn't win the south when he ran for re-election... so I think that says something about Kennedy and how he was your run of the mill politician...

The fact that his father was a militant racist surely had something to do with it.

 

[Noir]

Anyone would have withdrawn from Vietnam it was the in-thing.
The EPA is total ********, it does nothing but keep people from building their homes and actually using their land for anything.

Kennedy distanced himself from the civil rights movement, yeah, so? Its not like he was so afraid he wasn't going to win because of them he sent his minions to break into their office and steal/sabotage.. whoever would do something like that is a real *****e.. oh wait.

 

[Matt]

My top 10:

1) FDR
2) Washington
3) Truman
4) Teddy Roosevelt
5) Lincoln (I know most consider him top 3, but I take issues with how much he expanded the role of federal government and the executive authority of the President).
6) Jefferson
7) Eisenhower
8) LBJ
9) Wilson
10) Jackson

Honorable mention: Nixon, who would've gone down as one of the greats were it not for Watergate. One could argue that the only difference between Nixon and every other president is that Nixon got caught.

I left off Reagan, which is something I know a lot of people will consider blasphemy, but lets face it, Reagan got lucky. He happened to be President when the Soviet Union collapsed into itself. Whether it was Reagan or Mondale who was President at the time, the Soviet Union still would've collapsed as it was bankrupt and unable to continue running as such. His "Reaganomics" while creating a brief economic upswing, have proven to have horrible long term effects.

 

[The Chairman]

My top 10:

1) FDR
2) Washington
3) Truman
4) Teddy Roosevelt
5) Lincoln (I know most consider him top 3, but I take issues with how much he expanded the role of federal government and the executive authority of the President).
6) Jefferson
7) Eisenhower
8) LBJ
9) Wilson
10) Jackson

Honorable mention: Nixon, who would've gone down as one of the greats were it not for Watergate. One could argue that the only difference between Nixon and every other president is that Nixon got caught.

I left off Reagan, which is something I know a lot of people will consider blasphemy, but lets face it, Reagan got lucky. He happened to be President when the Soviet Union collapsed into itself. Whether it was Reagan or Mondale who was President at the time, the Soviet Union still would've collapsed as it was bankrupt and unable to continue running as such. His "Reaganomics" while creating a brief economic upswing, have proven to have horrible long term effects.

FDR would be my pick for best if he didn't let Hitler stomp through Europe. And Jackson was an ******* who ****ed up life for Native Americans as we know it.

 

[Noir]

Jackson was one of the best Presidents IMO..
Also, FDR let Hitler stomp through Europe because we were for and I know its hard to believe, isolationist for a longtime, a lot of people in America believed that we should only worry about what goes on in the USA.. Shocking, how wrong they were.

 

[Matt]

FDR would be my pick for best if he didn't let Hitler stomp through Europe.

In his defense, FDR was dealing with a population who would've called for his impeachment had he attempted to send military support prior to Pearl Harbor. He was one of the most vocal opponents against isolationism, but in the end he bowed before the wishes of his people whom he was elected to serve.

And Jackson was an ******* who ****ed up life for Native Americans as we know it.

You have to look at it in historical context. When he did it, it wasn't seen as such a bad thing. Native Americans were seen as savages and less than people. To say Jackson was a bad president because of what he did to Native Americans is like saying Jefferson was a bad president because he had slaves.

 

[The Chairman]

In his defense, FDR was dealing with a population who would've called for his impeachment had he attempted to send military support prior to Pearl Harbor. He was one of the most vocal opponents against isolationism, but in the end he bowed before the wishes of his people whom he was elected to serve.

True.

You have to look at it in historical context. When he did it, it wasn't seen as such a bad thing. Native Americans were seen as savages and less than people. To say Jackson was a bad president because of what he did to Native Americans is like saying Jefferson was a bad president because he had slaves.

But Jefferson didn't treat his salves lieks hit.

 

[Matt]

True.



But Jefferson didn't treat his salves lieks hit.

They were slaves. They weren't treated that well. All of the founders had slaves. You just gotta be able to understand it was a different time. Woodrow Wilson was horribly racist. He claimed that Birth of a Nation (a movie that glorified the KKK and showed black men as savages trying to rape white women) was one of the most historically accurate representations of early America ever. That doesn't take away from his presidency as it was a different time and different context. It is important to understand that.

 

[Kelly]

Nixon was a crook, a scammer, and probably a racist..

Kennedy avoided a full-on nuclear confrontation, Nixon had people break into a hotel and dabbled in Podcast.

You probably can use the words crook, scammer etc for Nixon. But, he was raised a Quaker, so racist is a word that would not describe him.


Oh, BTW, Presidents have taped, scammed, etc.....etc.......etc.......throughout history........Nixon was the one that got caught.

 

[Noir]

Nixon was using racist slurs on his tapes

 

[odiin]

They were slaves. They weren't treated that well. All of the founders had slaves. You just gotta be able to understand it was a different time. Woodrow Wilson was horribly racist. He claimed that Birth of a Nation (a movie that glorified the KKK and showed black men as savages trying to rape white women) was one of the most historically accurate representations of early America ever. That doesn't take away from his presidency as it was a different time and different context. It is important to understand that.

John Adams didn't.

But yes, I agree with the point your making. Though it can be somewhat of a slippery slope, I don't believe that the people of the past should be held to the moral standards of today. Again, it's a real slippery slope because at the same time one could argue that if say, Wilson had personally murdered dozens of black people for "fun" you can't really justify that no matter what, so I guess there are some limits, but also imagine say, 50 years from now they might be saying "What?? President <The President> from the 2000s didn't support gay marriage??, Well that's just horrible, they were an AWFUL president!" I guess you just have to know where to draw the line. If you held every historical figure to the standards of today then NO ONE would be considered a good person, let alone president. The fact that these people were able to accomplish what they accomplished in SPITE of the state of the world they were living in is just something so incredibly and worthy of praise in its own right.

 

[The Senator]

Anyone would have withdrawn from Vietnam it was the in-thing.
The EPA is total ********, it does nothing but keep people from building their homes and actually using their land for anything.

Kennedy distanced himself from the civil rights movement, yeah, so? Its not like he was so afraid he wasn't going to win because of them he sent his minions to break into their office and steal/sabotage.. whoever would do something like that is a real *****e.. oh wait.

You called Nixon a racist, yet he passed the legislation which gave birth to modern-day affirmative action and school integration. Meanwhile Kennedy stood silent as the Civil Rights movement escalated in the South and all across the country.

And your response?

"Well, he had his minions break into Watergate! He's evil!!!" (or the equivalent thereof)

Which means your willing to discredit Nixon's achievement in race relations, while completely overlooking JFK's hesitance, because Nixon did more 'evil' things in his administration... hmm...

 

[The Senator]

Nixon was using racist slurs on his tapes

Actions speak louder than words sometimes.