The Dotard-in-Chief making his followers proud... Trump comes in last in expert presidential rankings survey By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 02/19/2018 12:52 PM EST Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan are up, Bill Clinton is down and Donald Trump is off to a historically bad start — and the greats, meanwhile, remain the greats. That was the finding of the 2018 Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey, released Monday by professors Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Boise State University. The survey results, ranking American presidents from best to worst, were based on responses from 170 current and recent members of the Presidents and Executive Politics section of the American Political Science Association. Obama moved from 18th in 2014, when the survey was last conducted, to 8th in the current survey. Reagan jumped from 11th to 9th. Bill Clinton, meanwhile, fell from 8th to 13th — perhaps as a result of heightened attention to sexual misconduct in the midst of the #MeToo movement. Trump came in dead last. The top seven remained unchanged, with Abraham Lincoln holding the top spot, followed in order by George Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Even among self-identified Republicans and conservatives, Trump came in 40th out of 44 (while Trump is officially the 45th president, the survey did not count Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive terms separately, so the ranking runs from 1-44). Washington received the top spot from Republicans and conservatives, while liberals, Democrats and independents chose Lincoln. Franklin Roosevelt, the architect of the New Deal and the father of the modern Democratic Party, continues to enjoy high marks across the political spectrum. Reagan, on the other hand, who ushered in the modern era of small-government conservatism, receives high ranks from conservatives and Republicans but falls in the teens for Democrats and liberals. Obama sees the reverse. Trump closely follows James Buchanan, America’s 15th president, who presided over the increasingly explosive national debate over slavery, and who saw the Union split apart after the election of his successor, Lincoln.
What would historians and political experts know about presidents... any list that doesn't have OBUMMER in last place and MAGA in the top ten (ten? Top FIVE) has got to be fake news.
Couldn't this have waited until at least President Trump's term is over? I mean, I understand...what with those problem-solving nuclear weapons at his fingertips, I get the idea of haste...just for posterity's sake... ...but c'mon...he CAN'T be as bad as William Harding was...he took at least TWO years before he was unceremoniously "impeached" by his death... #MAGA FOREVER!
Trump’s already back at the golf course today. That’s how great he is. He single handily fixed school shootings in 3 days! God Bless Trump and #MAGA
Thank you my president....? we haven't entered a REAL war. I'm looking positives anywhere. Positive is good or no, wait, what?
The last such poll came out while President Obama was still in office. And I guess there is a degree of recency bias in play here... but its also possible that he is getting hammered for his apparent siding with Russia, and I think the presidential historians graded him poorly on the avoiding treasonous behavior scale...
Washington received the top spot from Republicans and conservatives, while liberals, Democrats and independents chose Lincoln. _____ Interesting I would think FDR would be the top choice for Dems and Lincoln for Repubs.
I have my own opinions about the list, which I won't get into now. As for Mr. trump, my take is that he ranked so incredibly low because those men and women see him as a clear and present danger to the United States. If so, I agree with them. Mr. trump has caused more damage to this country in a year than most presidents can manage in 4 years or 8, in my humble opinion.
A lot of modern southern conservatives don't appreciate Lincoln's war of northern aggression. Basically supporters of treason.
Biology professors at U of H were still jokingly calling it the "War of Northern Aggression" in the late '90s, lots of people down here covertly but wholeheartedly despise Lincoln.
If you have Obama, a highly divisive president that accomplished nothing in 8 years, in your top 10, you probably shouldn't be ranking presidents.
I'm no fan of 45, as y'all well know. But it's too early to rank him. I don't think he has the personality to change, but lots of people have surprised me in life. I wish that he could surprise us all.
