So You Want to Be President?

Alexander J. Hoffarth

SPLASH – FALL 2011

Alvin Felzenberg, author of The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn’t), wasn’t satisfied with how vaguely, in his opinion, success and failure are defined in presidential evaluations.

Felzenberg teaches at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He was the principal spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, and served as an adviser to the U.S. Departments of Defense and State, in several senior staff positions at the U.S. House of Representatives, and as New Jersey’s Assistant Secretary of State.

October 31, 2008

The Greatest US Presidents - The Times US presidential rankings

Who is the greatest of them all? While Barack Obama and John McCain battle to become the 44th President of the United States, we asked a panel of experts from The Times to rank the previous Commanders-in-Chief in order of greatness.

1. Abraham Lincoln
1861-65 (Republican, National Union)
"Fought and won a just war, kept the United States united and created the ground for a country which could live up to its constitution." Camilla Cavendish, columnist.
"Had the coolest-sounding presidential name of all time." Chris Ayres, Los Angeles correspondent.

2. George Washington 1789-97 (No party)
"Inspired generalship and making it all possible." Ben Macintyre, writer-at-large.
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-45 (Democratic)
"FDR is top for me, because he navigated America out of depression and through the Second World War." Tom Baldwin, Washington Bureau chief

4. Thomas Jefferson 1801-09 (Democratic-Republican)
"The cleverest man ever to occupy the presidency." Ben Macintyre.
5. Theodore Roosevelt 1901-09 (Republican)
"Controversially reset America's compass for the 20th century." Gerard Baker, US editor.
6. Dwight Eisenhower 1953-61 (Republican)

7. Harry Truman 1945-53 (Democratic)

"Prevented a possible Third World War by containing the Soviet Union." Camilla Cavendish.
8. Ronald Reagan 1981-89 (Republican)
"Revived American self-confidence at its lowest ebb." Gerard Baker.

9. James Polk 1845-49 (Democratic)

"Trounced the Mexicans and dramatically increased the size of the Union, all in one term." Chris Ayres.

10. Woodrow Wilson 1913-21 (Democratic)

11. John F. Kennedy 1961-63 (Democratic)
"Restored the romance." Ben Macintyre.
12. Lyndon Johnson 1963-69 (Democratic)
"Deserves more credit for civil rights than Kennedy." Tom Baldwin, Washington bureau chief.
13. John Adams 1797-1801 (Federalist)
14. Andrew Jackson 1829-37 (Democratic)
"As one American friend of mine put it, 'he was a baddass', he also practically invented populism." Chris Ayres.
15. James Madison 1809-17 (Democratic-Republican)
"Kudos for his pre-presidency Federalist Papers and a useful military disaster, which many believe united the country." Chris Ayres.
16. John Quincy Adams 1825-29 (Democratic-Republican)
17. William McKinley 1897-1901 (Republican)
18. Ulysses S. Grant 1869-77 (Republican)
"Allowed the south to institutionailse racism after reconstruction, setting the scene for 100 years of oppression of the supposedly free." Camilla Cavendish.
19. Grover Cleveland 1885-89 and 1893-97 (Democratic)

20. George H.W. Bush 1989-93 (Republican)

"He was a tone deaf politician, hiking up taxes after that infamous 'read my lips' pledge." Chris Ayres.

21. James Monroe 1817-25 (Democratic-Republican)
"My greatest president. . . he cannot boast a great cathartic moment, a spectacular military victory, a triumph of will. But Monroe's low-temperature presidency became known as the 'era of good feeling'. And that sounds just fine to me." Daniel Finkelstein, chief leader writer.
22. Chester Arthur 1881-85 (Republican)
"His four years in office saw him turn widespread cynicism into grudging respect - the opposite of the usual Presidential experience." Camilla Cavendish.
23. Bill Clinton 1993-2001 (Democratic)
"Promised so much, delivered so little and embarrassed everyone." Ben Macintyre.
24. Andrew Johnson 1865-69 (Democratic, National Union)
"Nearly blew Lincoln's success." Gerard Baker.
25. Gerald Ford 1974-77 (Republican)
26. Calvin Coolidge 1923-29 (Republican)
"Probably the most modest man ever to hold the office. Disliked for his small-minded isolationist tendencies but on balance, it's a shame there were not more like him." Camilla Cavendish.
27. Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-81 (Republican)

28. Zachary Taylor 1849-50 (Whig)

29. William H. Taft 1909-13 (Republican)

29. Benjamin Harrison 1889-93 (Republican)

31. John Tyler 1841-45 (Whig)
32. Jimmy Carter 1977-81 (Democratic)
"Carter got just about everything wrong." Chris Ayres.
33. Millard Fillmore 1850-53 (Whig)
"Created a compromise on extending slavery that laid the ground for the US Civil War." Camilla Cavendish.
34. James Garfield 1881 (Republican)
34. Warren Harding 1921-23 (Republican)
"Headed one of the most corrupt administrations." Gerard Baker, US editor.
36. Herbert Hoover 1929-33 (Republican)
"Unwittingly turned the 1929 crash into a global depression which weakened democracies and prepared the ground for the Second World War." Camilla Cavendish.
37. George W. Bush 2001-2009 (Republican)
"Bush Jr. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence and then catastrophically mismanaged the war, dragging America's name through the mud." Chris Ayres.
37. Richard Nixon 1969-74 (Republican)
"Cynical manipulation, bringinging the presidency into disrepute and changing the language to the extent that even a whiff of scandal merits the suffix '-gate'." Ben Macintyre.
39. William Harrison 1841 (Whig)
40. Martin Van Buren 1837-41 (Democratic)
"I found it hard to place high up on the list those who sanctioned the slaughter of Native Americans." Tom Baldwin, Washington bureau chief.
41. Franklin Pierce 1853-57 (Democratic)
42. James Buchanan 1857-61 (Democratic)
“Failed to prevent the near disintegration of the nation.” Gerard Baker.

THE AMERICAN LEADERS ORGANIZATION

Ranking the Presidents

Much has been done over the years to answer the question--"Who are the best and worst presidents of all time?" Here is our list below, with an explanation link to follow.
"Legendary"
1) Franklin Roosevelt 2) Abraham Lincoln 3) George Washington
"Outstanding"
4) Thomas Jefferson 5) Dwight Eisenhower 6) Theodore Roosevelt
7) Woodrow Wilson 8) Harry Truman 9) John Kennedy
"Above Average"
10) John Adams 11) James Monroe 12) William McKinley
13) James Polk 14) James Madison 15) Ronald Reagan
16) Bill Clinton 17) Lyndon Johnson 18) John Quincy Adams
"Average"
19) Gerald Ford 20) Grover Cleveland 21) George H.W. Bush
22) William Howard Taft 23) Richard Nixon
"Below Average"
24) Andrew Jackson 25) Rutherford Hayes 26) Calvin Coolidge 27) Jimmy Carter
28) Martin Van Buren 29) Ulysses Grant 30) Chester Arthur 31) Zachary Taylor
32) Benjamin Harrison
"Regrettable"
33) George W. Bush 34) Herbert Hoover 35) John Tyler 36) Franklin Pierce
37) James Garfield 38) Warren Harding 39) James Buchanan
40) William Henry Harrison 41) Andrew Johnson 42) Millard Fillmore
Want our justification for all this?
We used the following ratings in our studies: Vision, Integrity, Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, Speaking Ability, Team-Building, Intelligence, Political Skill, Wall Street Journal Public Opinion Poll 2005, and Wikipedia Poll 2006.

Popular opinion polls regarding Presidential Rankings

C-SPAN viewer survey

C-SPAN asked viewers in 1999 to rank the presidents, and 1,145 people participated. The results of the viewer survey were similar to the results of the 1999 C-SPAN historian survey, with a few notable differences.

  1. Ronald Reagan
  2. Abraham Lincoln
  3. Theodore Roosevelt
  4. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  5. Thomas Jefferson
  6. Harry S. Truman
  7. Dwight D. Eisenhower
  8. James Monroe
  9. James Madison
  10. John Adams
  11. Lyndon Baines Johnson
  12. Woodrow Wilson
  13. Andrew Jackson
  14. John Quincy Adams
  15. George H.W. Bush
  16. James Polk
  17. William McKinley
  18. Richard Nixon

ABC poll

An ABC News poll about presidential greatness, taken 16–20 February 2000, asked 1012 adults nationwide, "Who do you think was the greatest American president?"

  1. Abraham Lincoln (19%)
  2. John F. Kennedy (17%)
  3. Franklin Roosevelt (11%)
  4. No opinion (10%)
  5. Ronald Reagan (9%)
  6. George Washington (8%)
  7. Bill Clinton (7%)
  8. Theodore Roosevelt (4%)
  9. George H.W. Bush (4%)
  10. Thomas Jefferson (3%)
  11. Harry Truman (2%)
  12. Richard Nixon (2%)
  13. Jimmy Carter (1%)
  14. Dwight Eisenhower (1%)

Rasmussen Reports poll

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken June 13–24 of 2007 asked 1,000 randomly selected adults to rate America's presidents.

Favorably-viewed Presidents

  1. George Washington (94% favorable)
  2. Abraham Lincoln (92% favorable)
  3. Thomas Jefferson (89% favorable)
  4. Theodore Roosevelt (84% favorable)
  5. Franklin D. Roosevelt (81% favorable)
  6. John F. Kennedy (80% favorable)
  7. John Adams (74% favorable)
  8. James Madison (73% favorable)
  9. Ronald Reagan (72% favorable)
  10. Dwight Eisenhower (72% favorable)

Unfavorably-viewed Presidents

  1. George W. Bush (66% unfavorable)
  2. Richard Nixon (60% unfavorable)

Washington College poll

A Washington College poll about presidential greatness, taken 11 February 2005, asked 800 adults nationwide, "Thinking about all the presidents of the United States throughout history to the present, who would you say was America's greatest president?"

  1. Abraham Lincoln (20%)
  2. Ronald Reagan (15%)
  3. Franklin D. Roosevelt (12%)
  4. John F. Kennedy (11%)
  5. Bill Clinton (10%)
  6. Other/Don't Know (9%)
  7. George W. Bush (8%)
  8. George Washington (6%)
  9. Theodore Roosevelt (3%)
  10. Dwight Eisenhower (3%)
  11. Jimmy Carter (2%)
  12. Thomas Jefferson (2%)
  13. Richard Nixon (1%)
  14. John Adams (<1%)
  15. Andrew Jackson (<1%)
  16. Lyndon Johnson (<1%)

Gallup poll

A Gallup poll about presidential greatness, taken February 9–11, 2007, asked 1006 adults nationwide, "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?"

  1. Abraham Lincoln (18%)
  2. Ronald Reagan (16%)
  3. John F. Kennedy (14%)
  4. Bill Clinton (13%)
  5. Franklin Roosevelt (9%)
  6. Other/None/No opinion (8%)
  7. George Washington (7%)
  8. Harry Truman (3%)
  9. George W. Bush (2%)
  10. Theodore Roosevelt (2%)
  11. Dwight Eisenhower (2%)
  12. Thomas Jefferson (2%)
  13. Jimmy Carter (2%)
  14. Gerald Ford (1%)
  15. George H.W. Bush (1%)
  16. Richard Nixon (0%)

APA News Release

August 2000

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PRESIDENT?

Psychologists Assess the Personality Of Every President in American History

Washington - Stubbornness and disagreeableness may not be traits you want in a neighbor or a spouse, but researchers say that these two traits are associated with great presidents. In research to be presented at the American Psychological Association's (APA) 108th Annual Convention in Washington, D.C., August 4 - 8, the personality traits of all 41 U.S. presidents to date were analyzed and compared with historian's views of presidential greatness.

As part of their The Personality and the President Project, psychologist Steven J Rubenzer, Ph.D., of Houston, Texas and co-authors Thomas Faschingbauer, Ph.D., of Richmond Texas and Deniz S. Ones, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, used several objective personality instruments to analyze the assessments made by more than one hundred presidential experts who were instructed to assess the lives of presidents they studied. The experts were instructed to look only at the five-year period before their respective subject became president to avoid the influence that life in the White House might have had on their behavior.

Results of the research indicate that great presidents, besides being stubborn and disagreeable, are more extraverted, open to experience, assertive, achievement striving, excitement seeking and more open to fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas and values. Historically great presidents were low on straightforwardness, vulnerability and order.

Achievement striving was found to be one of the best correlates of greatness in the oval office and competence was also a big predictor of presidential success. "Presidents who succeed set ambitious goals for themselves and move heaven and earth to meet them," said the researchers. They say Teddy Roosevelt was such a man but Grant and Harding were not. And don't look for great presidents to have neat desks in the Oval Office. "It seems that being a bit disorganized, like Lincoln, is somewhat of an asset for attaining historical greatness," explained the authors.

The researchers gave special attention in their study to the personalities of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They note that both men have been in the top three of every historian's poll of presidential greatness, but besides being very tall and imposing men, they seemingly had little in common. Washington scored very high on conscientiousness but scored lower than typical Americans today on openness, extraversion and agreeableness. He also scored quite low on vulnerability, which indicates an exceptional ability to tolerate stress and adversity. He also scored low on openness to values, which indicates that he was traditional in his morals and relied on leadership from church and religious figures in these matters. Additionally, Washington scored high on achievement striving, competence, self-discipline and deliberation.

Lincoln scored high on openness, but his highest score was on depression, which the authors say is consistent with reports that he occasionally suffered periods of deep despair. Lincoln scored low on straightforwardness. "He was willing to bend the truth," said the authors, "although he was usually seen as honest and well intentioned."

The authors say that nearly all presidents could be classified into one or more of eight presidential types, with some belonging to more than one group. These include The Dominators (Nixon, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Johnson, Jackson, Polk, Teddy Roosevelt and Arthur), The Introverts (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Nixon, Hoover, Coolidge, Buchanan, Wilson and Benjamin Harrison), The Good Guys (Hayes, Taylor, Eisenhower, Tyler, Fillmore, Cleveland, Ford and Washington), The Innocents (Taft, Harding and Grant), The Actors (Ronald Reagan, Warren Harding, William Henry Harrison, Bill Clinton and Franklin Pierce), The Maintainers (McKinley, Bush, Ford and Truman), The Philosophes (Garfield, Lincoln, Jefferson, Madison, Carter and Hayes), and the Extraverts (FDR, Kennedy, Clinton, Theodore Roosevelt, Reagan, William Harrison, Harding, Jackson and LBJ).

It may come as no surprise that the research shows that most modern presidents are clearly extraverts. However, the data indicates that the early presidents scored below average on this factor. Does that mean that presidents are becoming more extraverted, or that the entire population has become more extraverted? The researchers say their data can't answer that question, but "given the increasing role of the media in presidential elections, the more plausible explanation is that the change is limited to the presidents and not the general population."

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 159,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.