C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey 2017: Obama debuts at #12

[Lumine]

That top ten has quite a few overrated choices.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

We've had so many terrible Presidents that William Henry Harrison should rank higher since he didn't have time to do much damage.

[Phony Moderate]

I wouldn't want to be next to Woodrow Wilson under any context.

[Gass3268]

1. Why is FDR so high?

1) Win World War 2
2) Beat the Great Depression

You could argue he deserves to be #2

[pbrower2a]

It's telling that Eisenhower now goes so far up the list.

Even if Eisenhower and Obama are similar in temperament, one critical difference separates them: Eisenhower's successor, however different, is John F. Kennedy while Obama's successor is the horrible Donald J. Trump.  

(I was ready to give the wrong middle name to President Trump, and it would have been inflammatory).

Unless someone can completely repudiate the damage that President Trump seems likely to do, nobody is going to challenge the top three.

[The_Doctor]

How is Ike ahead of Reagan, a realigning and major president who set the tone for the current era while Ike was bookended by liberal New Deal Presidents? I get Ike was a good President but ahead of the guy who ushered in the current party system?

And how is Jack Kennedy rated so highly? The guy did nothing in 2 years, except bungle the Bay of Pigs invasion, deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then ... I'm drawing a blank. LBJ did the heavy lifting, not JFK.

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

How is Ike ahead of Reagan, a realigning and major president who set the tone for the current era while Ike was bookended by liberal New Deal Presidents? I get Ike was a good President but ahead of the guy who ushered in the current party system?

And how is Jack Kennedy rated so highly? The guy did nothing in 2 years, except bungle the Bay of Pigs invasion, deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then ... I'm drawing a blank. LBJ did the heavy lifting, not JFK.

-Reagan and Eisenhower both helped realign the GOP; the former to contract its base right, the latter to expand it to the South and West.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

1. Why is FDR so high?

1) Win World War 2
2) Beat the Great Depression

You could argue he deserves to be #2

He's #1. Lincoln is #2.

[OSR stands with Israel]

How is Ike ahead of Reagan, a realigning and major president who set the tone for the current era while Ike was bookended by liberal New Deal Presidents? I get Ike was a good President but ahead of the guy who ushered in the current party system?

And how is Jack Kennedy rated so highly? The guy did nothing in 2 years, except bungle the Bay of Pigs invasion, deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then ... I'm drawing a blank. LBJ did the heavy lifting, not JFK.

IKE was the first president who slowed the advance of the USSR and kept our military advanced and prepared to contain them elsewhere.On the domestic front he built our freeways and desegregated schools across the south which was huge . Lastly the 1950s are known as the golden age for the American economy while the first 4 years of the Reagan years were spent recovering from the worst economy since the depression . I think Reagan is better then IKE but I could easily argue why IKE was better too

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

What's really a joke about this list is that Obama is ranked 8th on the economy...they're really going to tell me only 7 presidents had better economic policy? I mean even if you're a hardcore leftist, it's not like Obama brought down income inequality or anything.

Truman and Wilson are always rated too highly in these rankings. Both were wildly unpopular, ironically most so among the college-educated, by the time they left office (to an even greater extent than GWB). And their decisions were generally very bad ones.

There's no justification for Wilson's high ranking given how badly the 1920 elections were for his party. The 1952 election results weren't quite as bleak for Democrats...they were having to run against Eisenhower, and the Republicans just barely won Congress. Democrats recovered quite nicely down the ballot once Truman was gone (a similar thing happened with Republicans after Dubya). After Wilson, however, Democrats were looking at political oblivion until the Depression came along.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm not at all a Wilson fan and there are a couple of things about Truman that really stick in my craw, but

Both were wildly unpopular, ironically most so among the college-educated, by the time they left office (to an even greater extent than GWB).

So?

-They were unpopular for a reason. I'm not a fan of historical amnesia.

Yes, they were unpopular for a reason, and people's opinions at the time do matter, but they can't be the only opinions that matter after we've had fifty or a hundred more years of these people's legacies to look at.

[Gass3268]

What's really a joke about this list is that Obama is ranked 8th on the economy...they're really going to tell me only 7 presidents had better economic policy? I mean even if you're a hardcore leftist, it's not like Obama brought down income inequality or anything.

1) Policies prevented a depression, which most economists said we were on inches from
2) Saved the Auto Industry, with all the loans now paid back
3) 75 consecutive months of job gains, best steak in America history
4) Reduced the unemployment rate from 10.0% to 4.6%

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

How is Ike ahead of Reagan, a realigning and major president who set the tone for the current era while Ike was bookended by liberal New Deal Presidents? I get Ike was a good President but ahead of the guy who ushered in the current party system?

And how is Jack Kennedy rated so highly? The guy did nothing in 2 years, except bungle the Bay of Pigs invasion, deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then ... I'm drawing a blank. LBJ did the heavy lifting, not JFK.

Ike is ahead of Reagan because Reagan, as you note, "set the tone for the current era". Being even a partially responsible for the disasters of W and Trump would drag anyone down.

Kennedy is rated so highly because he had the good sense to get shot, thus placing him forever above criticism.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

No President in the future - no matter how wonderful she or he may be - will ever take Abraham Lincoln off the top of that list.

Not even one who puts the US back together from the shattered flaming manure pile Trump leaves it in? (Assuming anyone will be able to do that.)

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

What's really a joke about this list is that Obama is ranked 8th on the economy...they're really going to tell me only 7 presidents had better economic policy? I mean even if you're a hardcore leftist, it's not like Obama brought down income inequality or anything.

1) Policies prevented a depression, which most economists said we were on inches from
2) Saved the Auto Industry, with all the loans now paid back
3) 75 consecutive months of job gains, best steak in America history
4) Reduced the unemployment rate from 10.0% to 4.6%

1) With what? The stimulus that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8%?
2) Yeah..Detroit might've gone bankrupt otherwise..oh wait
3) Low quality of jobs gave rise to Trump
4) 10% was on his watch...labor participation rate and employment-to-population ratio have gone down

You might think I would rate Obama below average on economic policy...no, but I think objectively, average would be fair. Why should Obama be rated higher than LBJ who had much faster GDP growth?

[Sir Mohamed]

A few ones are overrated. Eisenhower is an above-average president, but not better than Obama.

I would list the top ten as follows:

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. George Washington
4. Lyndon B. Johnson
5. Barack Obama
6. Harry S. Truman
7. John F. Kennedy
8. Thomas Jefferson
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Theodore Roosevelt

1. Why is FDR so high?

1) Win World War 2
2) Beat the Great Depression

You could argue he deserves to be #2

He's #1. Lincoln is #2.

I think FDR deserves to be #1.

[Shadows]

FDR was hands down No.1 - Changed politics & economics globally for generations. Took unemloyment from 25% to historical lows - And massive growth - At some point there was 16-17-18% growth with 2-3% employment.

Massive building of infra, equitable distribution of wealth, Social Security, Security & Exchange Board, Glass Steagal, etc. And ofcourse he ended WWII & Hitler.

Reagan should be lower IMO. Truman is massively over-rated.

LBJ would be Top 3 if not for Vietnam - Legislative genius who got Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Civil Rights passed.

Obama should be lower - Around 15-18 odd & not 12!

[Sir Mohamed]

FDR was hands down No.1 - Changed politics & economics globally for generations. Took unemloyment from 25% to historical lows - And massive growth - At some point there was 16-17-18% growth with 2-3% employment.

Massive building of infra, equitable distribution of wealth, Social Security, Security & Exchange Board, Glass Steagal, etc. And ofcourse he ended WWII & Hitler.

Reagan should be lower IMO. Truman is massively over-rated.

LBJ would be Top 3 if not for Vietnam - Legislative genius who got Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Civil Rights passed.

Obama should be lower - Around 15-18 odd & not 12!

Well, but Eisenhower is not better than Obama. His foreign policy was very mixed (Iran coup was horrible). Domesticly, he only got the highway program and relatively good economy (post WW2-boom). As much as I respect Ike as a person and general, he's a little overrated as president.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

That's way too high. Obama isn't one of the all-time greats. He did well enough.

[Lothal1]

Obama should be around 25.

[Blue3]

That's way too high. Obama isn't one of the all-time greats. He did well enough.

Obama should be around 25.

Have you seen the others on the list? Which 12 ranked below Obama now would you put ahead of him?

[Lothal1]

That's way too high. Obama isn't one of the all-time greats. He did well enough.

Obama should be around 25.

Have you seen the others on the list? Which 12 ranked below Obama now would you put ahead of him?

Polk GHWB Bill Clinton Jame Monroe William McKinley
Obama was popular only arounf election years.

[Blue3]

That's way too high. Obama isn't one of the all-time greats. He did well enough.

Obama should be around 25.

Have you seen the others on the list? Which 12 ranked below Obama now would you put ahead of him?

Polk GHWB Bill Clinton Jame Monroe William McKinley
Obama was popular only arounf election years.

That's 5.

So you're fine with him at #17, then.

[Reaganfan]

I winged it.

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Ronald Reagan
4. Franklin Roosevelt
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Andrew Jackson
7. Theodore Roosevelt
8. Harry Truman
9. James Madison
10. John F. Kennedy


11. Richard Nixon
12. James Polk
13. James Monroe
14. Dwight Eisenhower
15. George H.W. Bush
16. William McKinley
17. John Adams
18. George W. Bush
19. Bill Clinton
20. Calvin Coolidge


21. Woodrow Wilson
22. Chester Arthur
23. Ulysses Grant
24. Grover Cleveland
25. Barack Obama
26. Lyndon Johnson
27. Gerald Ford
28. Rutherford Hayes
29. William Howard Taft
30. John Tyler


31. Jimmy Carter
32. Zachary Taylor
33. Benjamin Harrison
34. John Quincy Adams
35. James Garfield
36. William Henry Harrison
37. Herbert Hoover
38. Warren Harding
39. Franklin Pierce
40. Martin Van Buren


41. Millard Fillmore
42. James Buchanan
43. Andrew Johnson

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

21. Woodrow Wilson

The only way Woodrow Wilson deserves spot 21 on a list of presidents is if you are using base twenty arithmetic.