The most famous and oft-referred to poll was taken in 1962 by Professor Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. He polled 75 "experienced historian-observers of the Presidency." The rankings omit William Henry Harrison and James A. Garfield due to their short tenure. They also excluded John F. Kennedy, who was then in office (and of course, all those who came afterwards).
They set no specific criteria, although certain traits become obvious when you view the ratings. Below are the ratings from that survey.
"GREAT"
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. F.D. Roosevelt
4. Woodrow Wilson
5. Thomas Jefferson
"NEAR GREAT"
6. Andrew Jackson
7. Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
8. James Knox Polk
9. Harry Truman
10. John Adams
11. Grover Cleveland
"AVERAGE"
12. James Madison
13. John Quincy Adams
14. Rutherford B. Hayes
15. William McKinley
16. William Howard Taft
17. Martin Van Buren
18. James Monroe
19. Herbert Hoover
20. Benjamin Harrison
21. Chester A. Arthur
22. Dwight David Eisenhower
23. Andrew Johnson
"BELOW AVERAGE"
24. Zachary Taylor
25. John Tyler
26. Millard Fillmore
27. Calvin Coolidge
28. Franklin Pierce
29. James Buchanan
"FAILURES"
30. Ulysses S. Grant
31. Warren G. Harding
Recently, C-SPAN conducted a poll of participating historians. They were given ten specific character traits and asked to rate each President by that trait alone. This kind of poll will not produce the same results since only certain traits are considered, and others are excluded. The ten scores were then compiled to give an overall score. These results were rather different. They are listed below, with the total point totals.
1. Abraham Lincoln 900
2. F.D. Roosevelt 876
3. George Washington 842
4. Theodore Roosevelt 810
5. Harry S. Truman 753
6. Woodrow Wilson 723
7. Thomas Jefferson 711
8. John F. Kennedy 704
9. Dwight D. Eisenhower 699
10. Lyndon B. Johnson 655
11. Ronald Reagan 634
12. James K. Polk 632
13. Andrew Johnson 632
14. James Monroe 602
15. William McKinley 601
16. John Adams 598
17. Grover Cleveland 576
18. James Madison 567
19. John Quincy Adams 564
20.George Bush 548
21. Bill Clinton 539
22.Jimmy Carter 518
23. Gerald Ford 495
24. William Howard Taft 491
25. Richard M. Nixon 477
26. Rutherford B. Hayes 477
27. Calvin Coolidge 451
28. Zachary Taylor 447
29. James A. Garfield 444
30. Martin Van Buren 429
31. Benjamin Harrison 426
32. Chester A. Arthur 423
33. Ulysses S. Grant 403
34. Herbert Hoover 400
35. Millard Fillmore 395
36. John Tyler 369
37. William Henry Harrison 329
38. Warren G. Harding 326
39. Franklin Pierce 286
40. Andrew Johnson 280
41. James Buchanan 259
The complete results of this poll, including ratings by each of the ten traits, are available at www.americanpresidents.org/survey/historians/overall.asp.
In both types of polls, Presidents who take strong actions in facing difficult situations rate high. Those that provide weak leadership or do nothing rate much lower. What makes a good President is a matter of opinion, and history shows us that there is little way to predict what a President will do, or how well he will do it.
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