Bear in mind this was a very tough list for me, just because there haven't been many "good" presidents. I'd go so far as to say that only two presidents- Lincoln and Roosevelt- had a net positive effect on the country. The rest on this list are the "least bad," if you know what I mean. Anyhoo, in a nutshell...
Ulysses Grant: Support for civil rights
William Henry Harrison: Died before he could screw up (and seemed like a decent fellow)
William Howard Taft: Most progressive president between Grant and FDR. Unlike his lunatic predecessor, he actually fought the big trusts
Warren Harding: Pardoned scores of political prisoners (including Debs
), oversaw perhaps the greatest per-capita decimation of the military budget in US history; and I have a soft spot for our first black president
