I’ve been in academia long enough to remember the dark days of presidential rankings by groups like Political Science Quarterly and the New York Times. These “surveys,” particularly the one done by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., made you want to pull your hair out. Academic political scientists pride themselves in conducting scientific surveys with large enough sample sizes to gain accuracy of, say, plus or minus 1-3 percent on a political question. But leave it to liberal professors—which describes about 80-90% of the professoriate—to stack the deck with a small group (a few dozen) of likeminded academics to “rank” presidents from best to worst. Predictably, the likes of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson and Woodrow Wilson would show up among the top, while Republicans like Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge were bottom dwellers.
These surveys were essentially mere statements of the leftist sympathies of academics. They didn’t tell you about the reality of best and worst presidents. They told you about the biases of professors. And yet, predictably, the liberal press touted these “studies” as if they deserved to be chiseled on Mt. Rushmore.
In more recent decades, this has mercifully changed, as groups like the Wall Street Journal and C-SPAN have gotten into the game. C-SPAN includes a much larger and more balanced group of historians and biographers, including myself and my Grove City College colleague Dr. Jason Edwards. I’ve participated in the superb C-SPAN survey from the beginning; it’s the most serious, unbiased of them all. Full disclosure, I’ve also participated in the newest such survey—by Prager University—which likewise sought out authorities beyond the progressive professoriate. The Prager survey includes Edwards, our colleague Dr. Jay Cost, and our recent IFF speaker Dr. Larry Schweikart, who spoke on the subject of his best and worst presidents.
PragerU has posted a compelling ranking. It asked 155 scholars for their assessment of each and every president, using a scale of 1-10 to judge various criteria. To be sure, those surveyed slant to the conservative side, but there’s still more diversity in this group than anything by the Schlesinger group. The results are very interesting, and most of those reading this piece will appreciate them.
For starters, the PragerU top three presidents are: 1) George Washington, 2) Abraham Lincoln, and 3) Ronald Reagan. These happen to my top three. They embody the greatest achievements of the nation’s first three centuries. Washington is truly the father of the country. What he did to establish the nation and the presidency was without parallel. As PragerU’s Richard Lim notes, “Washington’s refusal of a crown forever changed the definition of leadership.” It all could have collapsed under Washington from the outset, but because of his knowledge, understanding, temperament, selflessness, and more, the American founders’ “great experiment” was established.
Of course, it could have fallen apart a century later under Abraham Lincoln, who ensured it endured amid the bloodiest conflict the nation ever experienced. No president can compare to what Lincoln went through, unto death himself. He gave his life to preserve the literal United States of America.
The long battle of the century that followed—superseding the intervening war against Nazism—was the fight against communism, which ran from 1917-91. The man most responsible for that victory was Ronald Wilson Reagan. And beyond that triumph, what Reagan did in added areas merited bestowing him the title of best of the 20th century. His countrymen so appreciated him that he was reelected by winning 49 of 50 states and the Electoral College 525-13. Reagan twice won California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even liberal Massachusetts. The only state he couldn’t win in 1980 or 1984 is the strange Minnesota. Reagan was widely beloved. The PragerU results reflect that, as should any legitimate presidential survey not corrupted by leftist ideologues.
Readers here will be stunned but love to see that Calvin Coolidge is ranked 4 in the PragerU survey. Leftist historians would never place him so high. Coolidge was a conservative in the classic sense, committed to conserving order and limiting government. He was not a revolutionary. The left prefers its presidents as activists, as advancers and expanders of what Woodrow Wilson called the “administrative state.” Coolidge represented what leftists seek to reverse.
The PragerU survey also has Dwight Eisenhower high on the list at number 6. Indeed, Ike is consistently ranked near that spot in modern surveys. He is at long last getting the respect he deserves.
Among the worst presidents of the 20th century are three liberal Democrats usually hoisted atop surveys by leftist professors: FDR (usually placed in the top three), Wilson, and LBJ. Most readers here will be pleased to see that in the PragerU survey these three rank unimpressively at 20 (FDR), 37 (Wilson), and 35 (LBJ). These men did great harm.
Yes, FDR was the president during World War II, and his leadership there was crucial. For that reason, I’ve personally ranked FDR higher in my evaluations. However, he did too many counterproductive things to merit being rated among the three best men to run this country. (I would need to write an entire book laying out my litany of grievances against FDR. As a shorter read, see the chapters on FDR’s shocking blindness toward communism, the USSR, Stalin, and more, in my 2010 book Dupes.)
Lest I be accused of a Republican bias, I should add that I’ve always favorably rated FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, as well as fellow Democrat John F. Kennedy. In the PragerU survey, Truman is 12 and Kennedy is 18. I would argue that Truman, despite key faults, merits the top 10. (Kennedy does not.)
Finally, most eye-opening about the PragerU survey is the trio near the bottom. I’ll preface them with a few observations:
I’ve been torn recently over who I would rank as the worst president ever. I was convinced no one could outdo Jimmy Carter. We’re still dealing with colossal messes left by Carter in places like Iran and Afghanistan. (My cover piece for WORLD magazine at Carter’s death elaborates on the good, the bad, and the ugly.)
Then came Barack Obama, who vowed to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America. The liberal scholars in the C-SPAN evaluation generated enough points to put Obama in the top 10. In my opinion, this plainly was not justifiable, as I explained at the time.
Then came Joe Biden, who for four years was shockingly disengaged at the Oval Office. His mental disengagement led to real chaos at home and abroad. We often did not know what Biden knew or who was genuinely in charge. When Jimmy Carter died at the end of the Biden presidency (ironically), and I told people that I thought Carter was America’s worst president ever, they said to me incredulously, “I know Carter was bad, but surely Biden is worse.” That judgment seemed hard to argue with.
Well, for those thinking along these lines, you’ll appreciate the PragerU worst of the worst. Among the 42 presidents, Joe Biden sits at the very bottom at number 42. Obama is 38 and Carter is 39. (Andrew Johnson is 40 and James Buchanan is 41. We could argue with those.)
Overall, an interesting list, and a fun discussion. And you can join in. Click the link at the site to do your own evaluation. A good exercise for Presidents Day.