During his second term in office the popularity of George W. Bush sank to depths rarely seen. The public looked at his tax cuts for the rich, starting of two unending wars, spying on American citizens, torturing of prisoners, attempts to tear down the wall between religion and government, failure to help Hurricane Katrina victims, destruction of the economy, and general incompetence, and didn't like what they saw.
Many on the left (myself included) began to call him the "worst president ever". But his few remaining supporters on the right, while admitting his unpopularity, said he would be vindicated by history. They said he would someday be regarded as a good president. Well, if that is going to happen it will be very far in the future because presidential scholars rate him currently among the worst of the 43 presidents this country has had.
The Siena College Research Institute (SRI) has been polling respected presidential scholars since 1982 and compiling a list of the best and worst presidents the United States has ever had. This year the SRI polled 238 of the most respected presidential scholars and the results were not good for George W. Bush. They put him near the bottom as one of the five worst presidents in America's history. Here are the bottom five:
43. Andrew Johnson
42. James Buchanan
41. Warren G. Harding
40. Franklin Pierce
39. George W. Bush
That's some pretty sad company for Bush to be in, but I think he deserves it. Each president was rated on personal attributes (background, imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck, willingness to take risks), ability (compromising, executive, leadership, communication, overall), and accomplishment (economic, domestic affairs, working with Congress and their party, Supreme Court and executive branch appointments, avoiding mistakes, foreign policy). Bush scored especially low in intelligence, communication, ability to compromise, handling the economy and foreign policy accomplishments.
On the other end of the spectrum are the presidents that scholars consider the best. Here are the top eleven presidents according to the 238 presidential scholars. Although I might juggle the order they put them in slightly, it's hard to argue that these eleven don't belong somewhere among the best. They are:
1. Franklin Roosevelt
2. Teddy Roosevelt
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. George Washington
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. James Madison
7. James Monroe
8. Woodrow Wilson
9. Harry Truman
10. Dwight Eisenhower
11. John Kennedy
Here's how some other recent presidents rated in this years poll of scholars:
13. Bill Clinton
15. Barack Obama
16. Lyndon Johnson
18. Ronald Reagan
22. George H. Bush
28. Gerald Ford
30. Richard Nixon
32. Jimmy Carter
George W. Bush has a long way to go to even be considered an average president. Personally, I think he may drop further. Andrew Johnson was clearly as bad or worse a president as George W. Bush, but I have my doubts about Pierce, Harding and Buchanan. Bush may actually be worse than them.
Posted by Ted McLaughlin
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