HISTORICAL RANKING OF UNITED STATES PRESIDENTS
44 items ranked
Rankings Focus on the Presidential Achievements, Leadership Qualities, Failures and Faults.
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I think Eisenhower was a great president. He served during a period of peace and prosperity. Most important he told us to be aware of the miltary complex.
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Trickle down doesn't work, even when you rename it to "Regeanomics" it never has and it never will. The rich don't want to give away their money to the less wealthy, if they did we wouldn't have social classes, sorry Reagan.
Republicans always talk about Reagan's tax cuts, but never mention that he also raised taxes 11 times. He raised taxes far more than he cut them. Under his presidency government grew tremendously in that the deficit was increased by one of the largest percentages at the time.
Reagan is also responsible for the major outsourcing of jobs we are now experiencing. Reagan took the outsourcing started by Nixon in the 1970's and expanded on it. By the end of Reagan's presidency the U.S. was beginning to see quite a few products with the "Made In China" tag on them.
Regardless of what everybody says the trickle down theory does not work. Tax breaks for the rich do not create a trickling down of jobs and money to the middle class and poor. The only thing tax breaks for the rich accomplishes is putting more money into the bank accounts of the rich.
Effectively changed our culture to ignore the poor and underprivileged in America.
one of the top 5 greatest presidents ever wthout a doubt, he destroyed the soviet union with increased defense spending and improved the economy with tax cuts and lower regulations. he also brought power back to the states like Jefferson wanted.
Reagan was a good president in that he believed that government was the cause of many of our problems. His tax cuts led us out of an economic downturn. He also, along with Pope John Paul, brought down the Soviet Empire.
Willam A. Ogorodny
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Leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the first President of the United States of America (1789–1797); presided over the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the United States Constitution in 1787; Washington is seen as a symbol of the United States and republicanism in practice; his devotion to civic virtue made him an exemplary figure among early American politicians; Washington died in 1799, and the funeral oration delivered by Henry Lee stated that of all Americans, he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen"; he has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.
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Yes, because we could have easily done without the only unanimously elected President, and the only possible person who could have guided the country through its early infancy. But our country not existing today certainly does not affect our everyday lives, so good job.
we do not know is true or untrue about this great president. Overall, I rank him below FDR, as he did not affect our everyday lives as much,
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A leader of the Republican Party and of the Progressive Party, he was a Governor of New York and a professional historian, naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier; most famous for his personality: his energy, his vast range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image; originating from a story from one of Roosevelt's hunting expeditions, teddy bears are named after him; at 42 years old, he remains the youngest person to become president; first U.S. president to call for universal health care and national health insurance; first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize, winning its Peace Prize in 1906, for negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War;
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A great man and president. Pushed the limit to get things done, if he had been re-elected World war one and thus two might never have been fought to such extents.
Absolutely awful president. He felt the constitution didn't apply to him. Anything good he did, was outside of the constitution. He also enacted bad laws like the Hepburn Act and prosecuted trust not because they broke the law, but for the "greater good".
TR started the Progressives through his administration: the Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act etc. He did this in reaction to the light being shed on the industries by muckrakers, and therefore ushered in the Progressive era that was continued by Taft and Wilson.
He was not a Progressive. Wilson ushered in the Progressives.
he was very over-rated. progressives are what kill the nation.
Was he what Republicans had been for years and years? Is that why you despise him so. He was indeed Progressive, and I for one am glad he was gung ho for the national parks and for regulating the unconscienable plutocrats of wealth. Clearly a great president.
The first Progressive president. He was not a lover of the Constitution; although there were real problems at the time, like tainted food and child labor in industry, one can follow his trail to Obama and the triumph of In-Your-Face big government!
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Lincoln successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery; he successfully rallied public opinion through his rhetoric and speeches; his Gettysburg Address is one example; before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate; Lincoln's assassination in 1865 was the first presidential assassination in U.S. history.
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He brought America back together after the succession, and ended slavery.
There were tense regional relations in America long before the Civil War: see Bleeding Kansas, the American Southwest. Segregation was even apparent in the North before Lincoln's Presidency. Therefore, he could not have possibly created either as a "hostile environment" was already in place.
No doubt Lincoln was a great man, but to be an advocate for the other side for just a second it is entirely wrong to have the preservation of the union as a defining point of his presidency. When the civil war occured, the Confederates felt they were just as legitament as the Union, and by declaring the Union "true" America, and through waging a war to force the confederates to rejoin, he laid the foundation for a hostile enviroment post--slavery that led to segregation and tense regional relations.
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What everyone forgets is the wrong info from the CIA and other countries. And didn't the Congress vote to go to Iraq?
Bush lied about Iraq. His tax cuts only passed because Cheney broke the tie in the Senate. The cost of those cuts worsened the economy and squandered any surplus that would have built up due to Clinton.
Not an entirely terrible President. He did what he could with what he had, if he had been the leader of the United States in a different period of her history, than maybe we would remember him as a greater man than what we do now. I bear no hate for him, it would be like hating FDR because WWII happened during his presidency. The world works outside one man's control, unfortunately, he's the one who got blamed for next to every negative thing thats happened since 2000.
An excellent example of why one should not go into the family business. While hiding out from military service in Vietnam, in Montgomery, AL, his dream was to become Commissioner of Baseball...then, as we all know, something went terribly, terribly wrong with history...
he was not a great president but he was far from horrible. bush loves the country and handled 9-11 perfectly helping to keep the country safe, protection is the main purpose for the federal government, not regulating the economy to death.
Oft maligned President. Everyone seems to blame him for conditions ORIGINALLY initialized by Clinton. Clinton was actually the one that began the sub-prime mortgage debacle. As far as the war on terror goes, again if Clinton had done his job we wouldn't need to be there. I would much rather have had W leading the country during 9-11, even though he may have been inarticulate at times. I feel he was the right man for the times. And afterall, isn't the greatness of a President often judged by the times they are confronted with?
Was one of the worst presidents. He helped the country to have a trillion dollar deficit. Bush also got us involved in Iraq under dubious conditions. Finally,
Bush could not articulate his ideas and seemed to be intellectually lazy.
William A. Ogorodny
His inflexible, incurious method of governing was a disaster for the country. A great example of the man being out of his depth and the puppet of others. Easily led by Cheney into one disaster after another. And really needed to deal wlith his daddy issues outside of the presidency.
He's better than Barack Hussein Obama...although not by much.
The worst president of all time by far. Where to begin, the wrecked economy, the wasted buget surplus, increased teen pregnancy due to abstinence based bs, the over stressed military (which I'm a member of), giving the rest of the world the middle finger, back burnering clean energy, outing Valerie Plame (that's a crime), or just taking more vacation days than working days. Yep! The Worst of all time!
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Died deeply in debt; held slaves. Not sure about this but Lincoln not No. 1? Read history...
Wrote that great document, our Declaration of Independence. Boldly went for the Louisiana Purchase, beginning our westward expansion, and sent Lewis & Clark to look over the new land. A man for all seasons, and most likely one of, if not the, most intelligent president we've ever had. A restless mind and a busy mind. Number Four is exactly right.
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he was an okay president however, not at all a war criminal and tax breaks to the rich is good for buisness which creates jobs, not the middle and lower class.
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watergate was what destroyed his presidency but i agree that without it he was decent. however F.D.R. took us of the gold standard which lowered the value of the dollar.
He cared only about foreign affairs, thus the Democrat Congress was able to set the agenda. Watergate is no trifling matter, and the man was probably certifiable. Crazy people can be intelligent, too.
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Our Long National Nightmare is over.... thats says it all. One of our greatest presidents
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I'm a Democrat, and Hoover gets a pretty bad rap. He inherited an economy marked by a decline in most everyone's disposal income, a decade-long farm depression and a construction boom gone bust. Almost immediately, businesses react to the lower demand for goods and slash production 20 percent in mid-'29. Reality dawns on investors a few months later, stocks crash, and then unemployment doubles a year into Hoover's administration. Hoover rejects predecessor Coolidge's do-nothing approach to markets and intervenes, but not enough. Then Hoover hurt his image with his rough handling of the Bonus marchers, the generally peaceful WWI vets who just wanted the money the government had promised them. Overall, he deserves an "E" for effort. but the efforts failed; no other president ever left office with a 25 percent unemployment rate before or since.
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Under Coolidge, real disposable income decreased for the bottom 93 percent of earners, the ongoing farm depression continued and the construction boom stopped. So consumer demand then slowed and, three months after Coolidge left office, businesses slashed production 20 percent while personal income plummeted. Coolidge just didn't think that wage and price levels mattered, and he vetoed bills that tried to address them. He did live long enough, until 1933, however, to witness the Great Depression for which his laissez-faire policies laid the foundation. Most historians give him low grades as president.
Too bad he died before great depression .. there would be none then.
No. Not great at all. He mostly slept through the presidency, and it is believed this the policies of his administration was a set up for the Great Depression, just as the policies of Bush set up for the Great Recession.
The most minimalist President in the last 110 years! When the 1920 Depression broke out, the Harding/Coolidge team cut taxes and spending and the country launched into the most prolific period of growth in our history [1920-1928]. We need a Coolidge now more than ever. A man who can mind his own business and let the country move on.
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Often referred to by his initials, "FDR", he was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war; elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms; during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems; some of his other legacies include the Social Security system and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); he and his wife, Eleanor, remain touchstones for modern American liberalism; Roosevelt's administration redefined American liberalism and realigned the Democratic Party based on his New Deal coalition of labor unions, farmers, ethnic, religious and racial minorities, intellectuals, the South, big city machines, and the poor and workers on relief; FDR is consistently ranked as one of the greatest American presidents.
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Changed the social compact between citizens and federal government forever. His leadership in obtaining victory in WW II speaks for itself.
It had only been a precedent, not a law, that a president serve two terms. It's hardly dictatorial to decide not to. In 1940, Europe was at war, and we were barely a year from being in the war ourselves. If Mr. Roosevelt thought he'd been doing a good job, why would he not think he should continue? He probably should not have run in 1944 because of his health, but again ... we were in a war then. Perhaps he felt an urge to keep on until the war was finished. He seems to have been in all his actions as president a most democratic of men, despite being reared in a weathy family. Feeling obliged to finish a job is hardly the mark of a dictator.
A very good President, but what keep him from being great is that after he was elected to his 2nd term he began to show the mindset of a dictator, e.g. his attempts to "pack" the Supreme Court and breaking George Washington's 2-term precedent. He forgot he was a servant of the public. He got to thinking he was entitled to the presidency, so he kept running and running for more terms until he died..
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He made thee white house a friendlier place with his kids being there.
Aside from the fact that his presidency was tragically cut short, he probably was one of the most motivational presidents of all time. However, he was undoubtedly elected because of his wealth and good looks, and seemed to be more of president of promise, rather than a president of action.
maybe he moved too slowly on civil rights because he was worried about nuclear was with the russians,
NOT IN OFFICE LONG ENOUGH TO COMPILE A RANKING OF NO. 3. MOVED TOO SLOWLY ON CIVIL RIGHTS
Though his career as president was cut short, JFK led a new generation of people while in office. He continued the economic progress that the United states was already experiencing and furthered national defense and space sciences. Furthermore, he was the man who helped increase the minimum wage of Americans, giving more to the families of the country. He did experience failure, though, such as the Bay of Pigs incident in Cuba which cost many lives. He also fell short of bringing civil rights to a total close due to an unresponsive congress at the time. All in all, a good president.
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Harding cut taxes, ended wartime controls, opened the doors to the Roaring 20s, stopped a recession after SIX MONTHS, and he's considered bad from a few minor scandals that he didn't even have a clue about? People are ridiculous.
Maybe most corrupt. Grant's administration might be an equally corrupt. Harding was generally a nice fool. Grant truly was a great general, just not a good president.
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Only president to have seen combat in World War I; Truman's presidency was eventful in foreign affairs, with the end of World War II and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Korean War; he has never ranked lower than 9th place in presidential rankings.
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Our only 20th century president with only high-school education was perhaps our best educated president in history. He understood the voltile nature of post WW II and safely led us through the global quagmire he inherited. Also, made the most far-reaching decision ever made in the oval office to end WW II with the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan.
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He did not give women the right to vote that was amended to the constitution, and an amendment has nothing to do with a presidents approval, he was an incredibly racist man, and he suspended the right of free speech during world war 1 with the Espianage acts. he was a horrible president and his league of nations failed to control Hitler when they had the chance, and was a very big reason for world war 2. not to mention he was a socialist.
If this isn't evil, I don't know what is.
We want one class of persons to have a liberal education and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.
- Woodrow Wilson
from an address to The New York City High School Teachers Association
Jan. 9th, 1909
Don't listen to a word Glenn beck says about this guy. Woodrow is one of the best presidents and always will be. HE did so much for this country like the women the right to vote, he tried to stop the volstead act, he created the federal reserve, he made america a world power and tried to bring peace to the world after WW1 for he predicted that if there was no peace another war would come soon....WW2, This man does not deserve to be destroyed by Glenn Beck.
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He wasn't an alcoholic while he was President. He flat out quit when he was booted out of politics for it early in his career. He was a sad man; he lost his children. Can't hold him to it.
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He was not a good executive; however he WAS a GREAT president. Great Presidents dominate politics in their era: e.g. Reagan and this man right here. Too low.
A no nonsense President, enough said! Yes he has a few blemishes on his record as President and one very shunning moment with the Native Americans but hands down one of the better Presidents our nation has had. Again, a no nonsense President and a people's President indeed. Our country and current administration could heed his logic in dealing with our modern enemies!
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Buchanan's the worst. Secession started when he was president, yet he did nothing about it. Northern politicians weren't just worried about the South leaving the Union; they were also worried about secession talk in the gold-rich new state of California, separated from the rest of the states by 1,000 miles of unsettled land. That was one reason Lincoln acted so quickly to get the transcontinental railroad started, linking California to the rest of the US. But Mr. Buchanan never saw the long-term implications of the feds seeming to accept secession. Thanks for nothing, James.
He is generally rated by historians as the dead last in presidents, i.e., the worst. Couldn't agree more.
29 is way too high. Ranks right there with Carter and Harding among the worst of all time. He didn't lift a finger to try to stop the South from seceding, made no attempts to preserve the Union. Only a great man like Lincoln could have cleaned up the mess he left.
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Living proof that idealists make ineffective Presidents. An honest, morally upright man whose ideas were woefully out of touch with the public and whose own ideological stubbornness prevented him from working effectively with Congress. His refusal to stand up to the Soviets and the Evil Religion caused the USA to take a huge drop in international standing. The "Crisis of Confidence" speech and his pathetic handling of the Iranian Hostage Crisis were his death knells.
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Last president with the courage to tell the US public the truth, good or bad.
More likely that engineering make ineffective generalists, which our presidents must be. I'd rank him higher than 33, but not a great by any means. Given the choice between a Richard Nixon, generally effective until Watergate, but utterly without morals, and a Jimmy Carter, ineffective as a president but with a great moral fiber ... I'd take the Carter's.
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Truly a very political president. Got more bills passed
than any other admiistration. Some were good some bad. he could be viewed as being socialist. Overall his problem Vietnam war is forever in our minds which ruined his presidency
I dunno mabel, I think Lincoln was a little bit higher in the civil issues than LBJ!
Jackie O said that she thought LBJ was behind JFK's murder
It took political guts for a Southern president to firmly back civil rights ("Their fight is our fight. And we shall overcome.") in the mid-60s. He did it knowing it would turn the then-solidly Democratic South into Republican territory. He got Medicare started despite fierce Republican opposition (see Ronald Reagan), but eventually even the Republicans accepted its existence. He balanced budgets and lowered the national debt vs. GDP,. Then Johnson went into denial over the reality of what was happening in Vietnam, and it cost him and the US dearly. A gruff man who was clueless about military matters, the media found him easy pickin's -- so we may have forgetten that down deep, his heart was in the right place.
He was instrumental in bringing about the end of Jim Crow segregation. The most significant White figure of the Civil Rights Movement. Would have been a successful President had he not escalated in Vietnam.
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Obama is one of the worst presidents ever! He continues, after 5 years, to blame the Bush Administration for everything. Obama takes no responsibility and it was not even Bush's fault for the hard times, it was Clinton's. Obama is awful
fast and furious isnt helping him, Eric Holder needs to go, he is hurting obama. I know many of my family who never voted GOP in their life voting that way now!!
Dont forget his illegal aunt and uncle living off the tax payers! Barack, cant all your rich Hollywood pals get them jobs? we are broke!!
He is not that good, seems like a nice fella, but bad leader.
Obama will most likely go down in history as one of our hardest working presidents. I think by the time his second term is over he will have accomplished some great things for the U.S.
The reason his popularity or favorable ratings aren't as high as when he was elected is because he's not as progressive as we hoped for. If he did what we elected him for he'd be top 10 material. As it is he still far from worst in my lifetime. I'm 55 and the worst in my ltime is Dubya Bush by a country mile. Having to follow and clean up after that jacka$$ is a hard job.
Pres. Obama is doing a tremendous job in cleaning up after his predecessor
He's acheived in 2 years more than any other president other than FDR.
I agree he should not be ranked yet ... let's wait 30-40 years. But he's far from our worst president ... very far indeed. Being on the far side of 60, I've lived through a few presidents. So far he's unexceptional but adequate. We'll see if greatness awaits him.
I don't think it's fair to rank Obama after only 20 months in office. Let's hold judgment until at least the end of Year 2. However, you make very valid arguments about the inefficiency of his presidency.
Definitely on track to become the worst president in our nation's history. His administration is laced with corruptocrats from Chicago; a man who has read nothing of value outside Alinsky's Rules For Radicals and Marx. Has bankrupted the future of our children and grandchildren for decades; by quadrupling our national debt massive tax hikes are in the offing and his health care bill will kill hundreds of thousands of our senior citizens.
He has cut or eliminated almost all of our missile defense programs and has left Poland dangling in the wind as a result.
He is our chief law-enforcement officer, yet he as Bush did before him, done little to protect the citizenry from illegal gang/drug lords.
He wants comprehensive immigration laws with Republican help! not to help these people, but to add them to the Democratic Party.
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