By Edwin Cooney
I’ve survived fourteen presidencies from Harry Truman (that feisty little haberdasher) through old man Joe Biden. It's been quite a journey, but it's possible that the next presidency might get a little dangerous!
Since 1962 when presidential ratings were first published, the top ten rated presidencies have been those of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington. Harry Truman who led us through the 1948 Berlin blockade and the Korean War, and on into the atomic age since the 1970s, has been rated fourth. Occasionally, James Knox Polk, because he kept absolutely all of his 1844 campaign promises, has often been rated the fifth greatest president. (Yes, indeed, he kept all of his promises, but the Civil War was brought about due to some of those promises. They included the settlement of the Mexican border, the acquisition of new territory, and the slavery issue that was exacerbated by the gains of the Mexican war.
As for the current presidential ratings, Lincoln, FDR and Washington. are followed by Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. Feisty Harry has slipped to sixth. He is just ahead of Barack Obama who advanced nine places in just about eight years! The top ten are rounded out by Ike, LBJ and JFK. However, next comes the shocker!
President Joseph Robinette Biden is rated the 14th greatest president and his 2024 opponent, Donald John Trump, is rated number 46 of 46. Ah! But who listens to those "candy assed academicians” who have never held a real man's job — such as steel worker, farmer, cab driver, or plumber. (Remember “Joe the Plumber” turned out to be Samuel Wurzelbacher who apparently turned in his plumber’s tools to become a right wing political commentator!)
I'm pleased that Jimmy Carter is rated #22, up four places from the 2018 rating. Another shocker for me is that Nixon has dropped to 35th. About a decade ago, I rated him 16th.
I've always rated presidents as a success or a failure according to their reputations in foreign and domestic policies. As I saw it, Richard Nixon’s breakthroughs in Moscow and Beijing along with the significance of his efforts in the environment and healthcare gave him and his administration substantial credit. His failures were personally disappointing to me, but as his assistant John Ehrlichman pointed out, he was a good administrator. As for President Reagan, it has been said that he mastered the art of the presidency as "the great communicator."
The fate of Woodrow Wilson is similar to that of Ulysses S. Grant. At the close of the 19th Century, Grant was considered a great citizen, soldier and president. Then along came the Progressive Era. As an economic and international affairs reformer, Thomas Woodrow Wilson came to be considered by many as the greatest example of human morality since Christ and St. Paul. His fall from fourth and sixth in the top ten presidents is due to his racism which limited the rights of Blacks both in and out of the federal government. Today, Wilson is rated 15th of all the presidents.
As I understand it, in this latest survey, presidential scores rather than labels evaluate the presidents. Zeros represent failures while fifties represent average ratings. Each president was rated according to a percentage of accomplishments from zero to one hundred percent. Hence, not even President Trump was a failure. However, his rating of 10.91 was vastly lower than Joe Biden's rating of 62.56.
Oh yah! President Ulysses S. Grant's latest 17th highest rating of 60.93 made my friend “Portola Valley Steve” rub his hands together and grin like the proverbial Cheshire Cat! No longer are presidents rated great, near great, average, below average and failures. Recently I read that President Kennedy once asserted that no one who'd never served as president had any business rating presidents.
Personally, I have no credentials as either a historian or an academician, but it's fun to play the rating game. Some of the most interesting and appealing presidents are Jimmy Carter for his post presidential activities, Cal Coolidge as a “character,” William McKinley for his likability, Millard Fillmore due to Queen Victoria's claim that he was the “handsomest man” she ever saw, James Polk for his hard work and dedicated sense of duty, and Chester A. Arthur for his eloquent style and personal
respectability which was largely gained while in office.
I’m told that there's information available showing how conservative vs. liberal academicians rated different presidents, but this information is not currently available to me.
It's unlikely that the above six presidents, with the possible exception of Mr. Polk, will ever again be numbered among the top ten chief executives, but it's always fun for this political and historic dabbler to indulge in such ratings!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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