WWTBAM Bored

C-Span's Presidential Historians Survey, a ranking of all past presidents by 91 historians, has now listed Barack Obama in 12th place in its 2017 survey. They only do the survey when each president completes his term of office. Not surprisingly Abraham Lincoln ranks first, followed by George Washington, Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower. Other notables include Reagan in 9th, Clinton in 15th, Bush Senior in 20th, and Bush Junior in 33rd. Also of note, currently in last place is James Buchanan, a ranking subject to change the next time the survey is conducted after Trump's term of office ends.

https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2 ... ge=overall

Wow. I have him ranked 5th.

1. Reagan and Lincoln tied for first. 2. Seventeen presidents tied for second. 3. Twenty-three other presidents tied for third. 4. Jimmy Carter came in fourth, and… 5. Obama was fifth.

BackInTex wrote:Wow. I have him ranked 5th.

1. Reagan and Lincoln tied for first. 2. Seventeen presidents tied for second. 3. Twenty-three other presidents tied for third. 4. Jimmy Carter came in fourth, and… 5. Obama was fifth.

You should give credit where credit is due.

That's a meme going around.

I would have thought that Harrison, who only lived for a month after taking office would be hard to beat out for last place. I guess that the five who placed below him prove that being bad is far worse than being nothing at all.

jaybee wrote:I would have thought that Harrison, who only lived for a month after taking office would be hard to beat out for last place. I guess that the five who placed below him prove that being bad is far worse than being nothing at all.

Buchanan was completely ineffectual as the Union fell apart. Harding was corrupt. That's off the top of my head. Didn't check who the other three below Harrison were. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote:

jaybee wrote:I would have thought that Harrison, who only lived for a month after taking office would be hard to beat out for last place. I guess that the five who placed below him prove that being bad is far worse than being nothing at all.

Buchanan was completely ineffectual as the Union fell apart. Harding was corrupt. That's off the top of my head. Didn't check who the other three below Harrison were. --Bob

Andrew Johnson was second from last. No surprise there. He was equally corrupt, and he had to deal with the aftermath of the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination. Franklin Pierce and John Tyler rounded out the bottom five.

Dwight Eisenhower's stock has risen over the years. He was in 9th place in the 2000 survey. He is now 5th.

The opposite is the case for Woodrow Wilson. He was 6th in 2000. He is now 11th, just slightly ahead of President Obama.

A deeper look at the presidential survey. The scores of each president are based on ten characteristics:

1. public persuasion
2. crisis leadership
3. economic management
4. moral authority
5. international relations
6. administrative skills
7. relations with Congress
8. vision/setting an agenda
9. pursued equal justice for all
10. performance within context of times

Not surprisingly, President Obama ranked very high on four of those categories--3d in equal justice for all, 7th in moral authority, 8th in economic management, and 10th in public persuasion.

Also not surprisingly, President Obama was fifth from last in relations with Congress--wholly because Congress didn't want a relationship with him. That score of 37/100 was responsible for putting President Obama 18 points shy of tying LBJ for 10th overall greatest president.