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Rating the occupants of the Oval Office
Was Harry Truman a better commander-in-chief than Woodrow Wilson? Would Richard Nixon be considered a great president if not for his penchant for political espionage? Does having a likeness of your face carved in a mountainside mean you were a memorable leader, and even if it does, is Teddy Roosevelt really in the same class as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln? Who was the best American president? Who was the worst? The least trustworthy? The most admired?
Prominent historians and political scientists have been asked these questions over the years, and a nice compilation of their answers can be found at Historical Rankings of the United States Presidents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_
of_U.S._Presidents). This Wikipedia entry summarizes the findings of 12 surveys—in total, more than 1,000 scholars participated. The earliest poll is from 1948 and was conducted by the Harvard historian Arthur M. Schlesinger; the most recent is a Wall Street Journal poll conducted in 2005.
Three presidents find their way to the top of almost every poll: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt also rank fairly high, as do Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and James K. Polk. In recent surveys, Ronald Reagan, James Monroe and James Madison have appeared on the top 10 list. The bottom dwellers usually include Warren G. Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.
Our current president, George W. Bush, is often absent in rankings because his term of office is not yet completed, but in 2005, the journalist Richard Reeves theorized that Bush could be regarded as the worst president in American history. He based his opinion on an unscientific survey of historians conducted by George Mason University's History News Network (http://hnn.us/articles/5019.html). Of the 415 historians that responded to the survey, 338 said they believed the current presidency was a failure, while only 77 said it was a success—50 respondents said they thought Bush was the worst president ever. But as time passes and our present crises subside, future historians may well be kinder to our current chief executive.
Those interested in presidential ratings/rankings may want to check out these books at Lockwood Library:
"Presidential Greatness: The Image and the Man, From George Washington to the Present" (Call #: E176.1 B17)
"Popular Images of American Presidents (Call #: E176.1 P82 1988)
"Rating the Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. Leaders, From the Great & Honorable to the Dishonest & Incompetent" (Call #: E176.1 R55 2000)
Also, a keyword search on the terms "presidents" and "ratings" in "American: History & Life" (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/am_history_life.html) will produce many fruitful results.
—Don Hartman, University Libraries