The Best and Worst Presidents — the PragerU Survey
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 scream. 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 left-wingers — about 80-90 percent of the professoriate — to stack the deck with a small group (a few dozen) of likeminded left-wing 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 nothing but surveys of the sympathies of left-wing academics. They didn’t tell you a damned thing 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. 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.
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 jokers. The results are very interesting, and most of those reading this column will appreciate them.
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.
For starters, the PragerU top three presidents are: 1) George Washington, 2) Abraham Lincoln, and 3) Ronald Reagan. These happen to be 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 itself. 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 bizarro Minnesota. Reagan was widely beloved. The PragerU results reflect that, as should any legitimate presidential survey not corrupted by left-wing hackery.
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 the odious LBJ. 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 awful 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, what I like most about the PragerU survey is the trio of incompetents bringing up the rear. 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. The man was an unmitigated disaster. We’re still dealing with colossal messes bequeathed by Carter in places like Iran and Afghanistan. (READ MORE: Jimmy Carter’s Iran.)
Then came Barack Hussein Obama, who brazenly vowed to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America. Despite a presidency of little to no positive accomplishments, liberal scholars in the C-SPAN evaluation conjured up enough points to shoehorn Obama in the top 10, tainting an otherwise excellent survey. It was quite the spectacle. (READ MORE: Rating the Presidents—and Obama)
Alas, then came Joe Biden, the appropriately named “Sleepy Joe,” who for four years sleepwalked through the presidency. He did nothing. He was a paragon of incompetence. His lack of a hand on the wheel, with the nation governed by whoever held the presidential autopen, created chaos at home and abroad. His total mental disengagement led to real destruction. 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 in the basement (akin to the spot where he campaigned from in 2020). He’s 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.
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