Obama ranked 12th best president by historians in new C-SPAN poll

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Just weeks after leaving the White House, President Barack Obama ranks as the 12th best U.S. president overall in a new poll of historians conducted by C-SPAN ahead of Presidents Day.

It's the first time Obama was eligible for the Presidential Historians Survey, which asked 91 historians to rank all 43 former presidents across 10 categories. Those include "Pursued Equal Justice for All," in which Obama ranked 3rd, and "Relations with Congress," in which he ranked 39th.

Abraham Lincoln retained his top spot for the third time in the poll, which debuted in 2000 and last took place in 2009. Other consistently high-ranking presidents include George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, all of whom made the top five overall in each survey.

Also notable: George W. Bush bumped up three spots to 33rd since the poll's 2009 edition, while Bill Clinton stayed steady at 15th.

https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2017/?page=overall

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/02/20/obama-ranked-12th-best-president-historians-new-c-span-poll/98149240/

Close to the top quarter. I would have rated him a bit higher, but I am biased. These lists are highly subjective, kind of like the list of the greatest in any field.

[unblock]

1. Shrub is way too high lol

How is William Henry Harrison lower? How much damage could he have done in 32 days? I mean he was no donnie....

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Interesting how high Ike is rated...

I come up with my one sentence test:

Ike consolidated the gains of the New Deal, ended the Korean War, built the interstate highway system, and sent troops into the south to force them to comply with court orders to integrate their schools.

BTW, he would have loathed a mountebank like Drumpf.

[Chitown Kev]

9. Ike has been steadily on the rise

for the past 20 years really...and let's not forget his warnngs about the MIC in his Farewell Speech and remember that that warning came from a soldier.

[3catwoman3]

3. Ronald Reagan #9?????

Oh, I beg to differ. Much lower.

[unblock]

4. Agreed, though I wonder what criteria they use

If they ignore crucial things like "improving the lives of most Americans", and focus instead on things like "having an enduring legacy" or "having a lot of popular support", then Reagan fares pretty well.

Of course, you have to turn a blind eye as to whether that legacy is good or bad....

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Methodology

C-SPAN's academic advisors devised a survey in which participants used a one ("not effective&quot to ten ("very effective&quot scale to rate each president on ten qualities of presidential leadership: "Public Persuasion," "Crisis Leadership," "Economic Management," "Moral Authority," "International Relations," "Administrative Skills," "Relations with Congress," "Vision/Setting An Agenda," "Pursued Equal Justice for All," and "Performance Within the Context of His Times."

Surveys were distributed to historians and other professional observers of the presidency, drawn from a database of C-SPAN's programming, augmented by suggestions from the academic advisors. Ninety-one agreed to participate. Participants were guaranteed that individual survey results remain confidential. Survey responses were tabulated by averaging all responses in a given category for each president. Each of the ten categories was given equal weighting in arriving at a president's total score.

[unblock]

6. Yeah Reagan scores high in some of those

Public persuasion and vision/setting an agenda, e.g. But to my point, that says nothing about whether it's a good vision, e.g.

It's not enough that he loses a few points on equal justice. He put us on the wrong path, and he was a *worse* president because he was effective in doing so.

[yuiyoshida]

8. THAT IS A WTF pick...

Seriously. This poll has to have been created by a Republican.

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. What the hell is little Bushie doing at Number 33?

No way he should be anywhere except last or close to it.

[BannonsLiver]

10. What a pantload

There's no way Ike, St. Ronnie or Woodrow Fucking Wilson should be ahead of Obama. We can debate most of the others including Kennedy (brevity of administration) and LBJ (perpetuated Vietnam quagmire) as well, though I concede both were monumentally historic. As was Obama given his status as the first black president.

They also ding Obama for relationship with congress which was 100 percent the fault of the Republicans who plotted universal obstruction the night he was inaugurated.

We'll see what this list looks like in 10 or 15 years. I have a pretty good idea of who will be ranked dead last.

[Cha]

11. trump has forever besmirched himself but at least

we know he'll always be in last place.

Thank you for sticking up for President Obama.. he sure as hell should be above Reagan.

Poll by c-span watchers.. lots of gop no doubt

I'll let better judges of Presidents decide that.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. It's a poll of leading historians and professional observers

https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2017/?page=participants


As to Reagan I slept a lot easier when he was president. At least he paid lip service to liberal democracy, pluralism, and the rule of law.

[BannonsLiver]

16. Yep, I've gleefully defendedd him for 8 years

And I'm proud to do it. He's the greatest president of my lifetime and I don't know that I'll ever feel the same way about another politician again the way I feel about Obama. He is a treasure.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Wilson was a racist, but the reason he is rated so high is because he gave us...

Wilson was a racist, but the reason he is rated so high is because he gave us Wilsonian Internationalism. Kennedy is rated so high because , well, he was martyred, and was the inspiration for Medicare, Medicaid, and the landmark civil rights legislation passed by his successor. Reagan is rated so high because he presided over a period of economic prosperity and had a message of hope and optimism. That is what an historian would say.

I would rate President Obama higher than Reagan, but I am biased. Any way, 12 out of 45 is pretty darn good.

Drumpf should get an *.

[BannonsLiver]

15. Reagan also laid the groundwork for the income inequality we have now

I'd love to ask the panel why they ding Obama so hard on Congress when even the Republicans admit their objective was to obstruct and destroy his presidency from day 1. Takes two to tango.

Anyway, these lists are mostly subjective bullshit.

[ucrdem]

12. Way too low.

He basically saved the planet, just like the next Dem will need to, if there's anything left to save that is.