Two Republican in the top 15 from this list of “greatest” Presidents of all time….no bias here eh? And Obama? He gets the 15th stop, three spots ahead of Reagan. (h/t Hot Air)
Yeeeaaaaah: [PDF]
In office for barely two years, Obama entered the survey in the 15th position – two spots behind Bill Clinton and three spots ahead of Ronald Reagan.
Obama got high marks for intelligence, ability to communicate and imagination, but his score was dragged down by his relative lack of experience and family background
~~~[T]he scholars rated Dubya a dud as a president, ranking him in the bottom five at 39th place
~~~Bush got docked for saddling Obama with two bloody wars and a recession, and he got low marks for “ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence,” according to the survey.
Only Warren G. Harding, who was 41st on the list, scored lower in the intelligence category.
That’s not all from these nimrods. They ranked Reagan third in the category of “luck.” Which means they feel he had nothing to do with the USSR crumbling…AND put him 36th for intelligence.
And the Pièce de résistance? Number 1 ahead of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln is…..wait for it….Franklin D. Roosevelt. They even have him number one for handling of the economy!
Unbelievable.
The requisite sanctification of JFK is in full force here too. He placed 11th in intelligence, just above George Washington(!) and 18 slots ahead of Ulysses S. Grant, who was not only brilliant on the battlefield but who churned out one of the great memoirs in American history (highly praised by Mark Twain, among many others) while he was dying of cancer. But hey — JFK looked great on camera, so there you go.
And Obama can read well off a teleprompter.
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Obama scored much higher than GWB in ability to compromise – how ironic is that? GWB didn’t compromise with our nation’s enemies, but he did compromise with his political opponents. Obama is just the opposite.
These are all subjective categories decided by emotions with no real quantitative data. Why is Obama more lucky than GWB? GWB had 9/11 and war stuff, but is Obama really that lucky to have “inherited” all of that? Perhaps Obama is lucky that the MSM doesn’t report on him like they did on GWB.
Stupid poll with no substantive basis for the rankings.
I assume they used Liberal Chicago historians for this,,, so, the words of “dead guys” don’t mean much!! LOL! Oh, that’s voters.. but then again, could be both!! The “fix” is in?? 😉
They need to name WHO the “Judges” were to have any real validity….. Alfred E Neuman , Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews might be a tad biased…..and/or not too awful credible…
The USSR crumbling ??? Well certainly Reagan got a lot of help from those radical Islamists fighting the Ruskies in Afghanistan like Osama bin Laden who were receiving billions in aid from us. Gee I wonder what they are up to now ?
Easy to manipulate, just rate Obama in the teens in a bunch of feel-good categories and then anybody who really wants to prove you wrong has to build eight or ten lists of twenty presidents to make their case. Aside from the stupidity of rating Obama so high (16th in leadership is my favorite laugh-out-loud rating) you can tell from the other ratings that the scholars are as a whole not that well-informed and are mostly inclined to safe consensus choices. For example, Lincoln gets rated highly in every category for no special reason except that (most) people think of him as the greatest president. Early presidents that everyone learned about in history class also end up rated very highly. But Lincoln didn’t have more integrity than Coolidge, Jefferson for all his virtues was not a very good leader, and it’s ridiculous to say that Teddy Roosevelt was more willing to take risks than George Washington. The whole exercise is stupid.
BTW there *are* two Republicans in the top fifteen: Lincoln and Eisenhower.
Let’s see. A small school unheard-of except for basketball victories over Syracuse manages to cherrypick 236 “leading presidential scholars” who end up ranking FDR number one and fellow New York stater Teddy Rooseveldt number two in the all-time POTUS lineup. I wonder how many out-of-state “scholars” participated!?!
These “scholars put the “tard” in “libtard.”
This is of course absurd. You really need to wait 50 years before judging any president, but nonetheless, this is clearly a set of lefties who like Obama because they see the world the way he does. If I did a ranking of presidents, they would mock it for the same reason.
But one thing I’ve always found fascinating is the high ranking of Obama’s communication skills. GWB was considered inarticulate. In fact, even as GWB may have used clumsy grammar and even non-existent words at time, I always knew what he meant. Obama has such a wonderful ability to use language, but I defy anyone to tell me what he meant when he was done, and “he said that he’s going to do things differently” doesn’t count. Yes, I know what the words mean, but I have no idea what he’s thinking.
The truth is Obama either cannot or will not communicate clearly.
This poll is useful for one thing — it demonstrates the sordid intellectual destruction of higher education and its replacement with trendy ideological bias. What ought to worry us more than the fact that the liberals will bandy this around as a ‘gotcha’ for a few days is that this kind of vapid tripe is being used to indoctrinate our children in the schools.
You are looking at the figures backwards. You have to remember that the liberal’s agenda is to make the USA some kind of dictatorship. They are awarding points accordingly.
Turn the list upsidedown and look at it again. Now, you will get a more accurate reading. You have to do this with all liberal stuff. Their stuff always looks better upsidedown.
so now we are at “if you tell a big enoug lie long enough some of the people will believe you.”
personally i think the media thinks if they keep repeating this bs long enough we’ll buy it. NOT
Need some help please!
I am being royally screwed by ClearWire Internet service and am out in the boondocks. Can some of you give me ideas that I can get websites and print their offers so I can save to my pc before Clear cuts off my service?
They promised “about $60 per month for internet service and phone” which I copied from the online inquiry and they have hit me with $116 each month the last two months. When I called or got in touch with customer service, they effectively laughed in my face for believing them.
@stodghie: Obama and his fellow libs go by the philosophy, “You don’t have to fool all of the people all of the time. You only have to fool enough of them until the election.”
Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity. Before hes done, they will say hes bigger then Jesus. Personally, I think the mans a lame duck.
@jlfintx: I have been using EarthLink for years and am very pleased with them. Their broadband over the phone line is only $40 a month. They do have satellite if you can’t get it through the phone, but I don’t know anything about how good it is. Their price web page is at:
http://www.earthlink.net/access/
You also get free web hosting where you can have your own web page for free. They have 24/7 customer service. I haven’t used it for years, but when I did, they were top notch.
Talk about putting lipstick on a pig….
Obowma is so good, he has got the cheapest bathroom cleaners on the planet ready to go to work. And you thought the Statue of Liberty was about freedom and liberty … Haha silly you.
Are these the same ‘historians’ who are rewriting hostory for Michelle so she can tell you what the new history in Newspeak is all about?
See the problem with concentrating power in the executive offices is really all about … YET?
Dear Christ, I just spit my coffee all over this screen trying to hold the laughter in check, what will they come up with next, he’s like a god.
I rank this poll right up there with his Nobel Peace Prize. 🙄
You can be a great General and a lousy President. Whether Grant was brilliant on the battlfield before he was President and whether he wrote a great memoir after he was President – doesn’t reflect how good he was as President. Eisenhower was a better President than Grant – not because of his wartime record or because he also wrote a bestselling memoir – but because what he did during is time in office.
As for Obama – they should wait until his time as President is over before they rank him.
Gaffa#18 what DID Eisenhower do while in office that made him better than Grant.On a side note,Ike was a far better Gen.then Grant,but it was a far diferent situation.
@1903A3:
The Interstate Highway System is an accomplishment of epic proportion. I don’t know if you were alive before freeways, but they transformed commerce in this country in a way that is difficult to explain to those people who weren’t around to remember what life was like pre freeway. Ike also managed to build a space program which is credited unjustly to Kennedy. The economic boom which happened in the 50’s was due in no small part to Ike’s willingness to get out of the way of American Business. Ike was a good President.
.On a side note,Ike was a far better Gen.then Grant,but it was a far diferent situation.
I disagree and do not know what you base that statement on.Grant’s operations at Vicksburg and Chattanooga were sheer brilliance.Then he comes east and through dogged simplicity defeats Lee one of the greatest generals the world has ever known.
Not to belabor the point but it can be argued that Eisenhower’s indecisiveness during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket allowed much of the German Army in France to escape encirclement and destruction thus probably extending the War
You’re right, Bill. Under Obama, history is turning into a ho-story. Prostituting truth to ideology.
In addition to the interstate highway system, space program and economy, Eisenhower should be given credit for Operation Wetback, for advancing the cause of civil rights, and for foreign policy that was largely successful in protecting American interests and containing Communism without a high cost in lives. He wasn’t much of a conservative and I actually think of him more as America’s greatest liberal president :-P, but obviously that’s not a mainstream perspective.
@ Curt,
Very humorous post. Thanks.
Describe and define what a historian really is, and, . . . MAGIC, you have a replica of Obama without the Chicago community organizer rabble rousing part. So no surprise.
What would be really insightful would be an honest pole of Business owners, managers, leaders etc. Obama would automatically drop off the bottom of the list.
To even further correct an earlier point, there are three republicans in the top 15. Ted Roosevelt was a member of the GOP as well. So that means Teddy, Lincoln, and Reagan. I am somewhat underwhelmed with this list.
“They promised “about $60 per month for internet service and phone” which I copied from the online inquiry and they have hit me with $116 each month the last two months. When I called or got in touch with customer service, they effectively laughed in my face for believing them.”
If you were in a non-rural area, you could involve yourself in a similar exercise in futility and frustration by trying to get a clear, straightforward answer from Comcast concerning the regular monthly price for any of their various services. The straight answers are apparently only available on a need to know basis. Customers aren’t a part of the select group who have a need to know.
Yep, I am in a rural area and they know they have us. No other company has what they offer so they just make it up as they go.
This was a joke right? This was a sketch for SNL right? You’re not serious, 15th best? How does he rankl among dieties?
Is the post by John Ryan the qualifier for the dumbest post of the year?
Stupid is as stupid writes.
Precedent Obiwon gets an epic fail in all categories, except for reading the teleprompter. “Oh someone fainted here in the front row-give him some air”‘.
My top 3 are Lincoln, Washington, and Reagan.
Raygun bluffed the Soviets with his Star Wars. With help from the Pope and Maggie Thatcher, Ronnie helped to liberate hundreds of millions of Eastern Europeans, without firing a shot. His tax cuts helped the US get out of the Carter funk, and produced 50 consecutive months of economic growth, an economic record that will never be broken. He inherited worse than Obowma. His 2 electoral victories were record landslides. Tell me he can’t communicate, think, and lead. He had to work with a Democratic Congress in his 2 terms and did it with panache. His military build up was responsible for the epic victory in the Gulf War. Luck was on his side during the attempt on his life. Bush, the elder inherited a confident America, an economic and military juggernaut. Its morning in America- you betcha!
See that, ‘lil LIAR johnnie ryan? It took 27 posts before someone even noticed you were here at all.
Feeling relevant today?
@Prairie: Keep in mind, the deadline nominations for the Peace Price was around 2-3 weeks after Obama was sworn in. So he must have gotten his award for all he did as a senator and the 2-4 weeks as president. He is truly a miracle worker.
@GaffaUK: As I mentioned before, turn the list upsidedown and it will read more accurately. The libs always get things backwards.
@Flyovercountry: To give credit where credit is due, General Eisenhower saw the Autobahn system that Hitler had and he developed it in the USA after he became president.
I still remember my first experience of a 4-lane divided highway (not an Interstate). Dad was driving on a two-lane road and I saw what is now called an overpass. A sign before it said, “TO TURN LEFT GO UNDER BRIDGE AND TURN RIGHT.” It didn’t make any sense at first.
@Smorgasbord:
That very well may be, but using a successful idea, even if you got it from some other source is not against the rules of being a good leader. What Eisenhower did with the Interstate system was so much beyond the Autobahn. A crossed hatch of freeways connecting cities in north south grids. The Autobahn is one road, the Interstate system has connected an entire continent.
@Smorgsboard
So you believe Presidents A Johnson, Buchanan, Harding, Pierce, GW Bush, Fillmore, Tyler, Hoover, WH Harrison & B Harrison were better Presidents than FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Wilson, Truman & Eisenhower? lol
@1903A3
So people have given good reasons why Ike was a better President than Grant…so what reasons do you believe Grant was better than Ike.
@Flyovercountry: All I am saying is it was Hitler or his people who started what we now called the Interstate system.
@Smorgasbord
http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth08.htm
@GaffaUK: I didn’t say any president was any better than any other. I was lousy at history and didn’t know some of the names listed. I was just referring to the Interstate system.
Each person will have people they like better than others. Take a different group to rate the presidents and you will get a different list. I try to stay out of those kinds of discussions for that reason. It can lead to arguing, and I don’t like to argue.
@GaffaUK: You’ll have to send The History Channel the link because that is where I heard it. Thanks for the update.
WHAT I UNDERSTAND: ALL except one where dedicated to serve AMERICANS and take the interest of AMERICANS, and work to rally AMERICANS instead of divide them,AND project
THE MIGHT of AMERICA,not appologise for THE AMERICANS, and built not destroy, and
PROTECT the REPUBLIC UNDER the CONSTITUTION , and respect the advance of the whealth for the benefit of AMERICA, and being part of achieving the rise of the SUPERPOWER that is AMERICA
THE power of today work to destoy all that, but they wont succeed,
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE AMERICA. review the number which is the big 0 instead of 15th.
Kinda hard to take these 243 “scholars” seriously when, for the fifth year in a row, they rate Mr. New Deal FDR as #1. Uh… that tell you anything about their political agenda? FDR… the guy who dearly loved the EO power, issuing 3728 during his 13 years. He did 1047 of them in the first two years alone. Had he just served our current term limit of two, he still would have kicked out 3204 of them.
In contrast, the average of the other POTUS were about 300 to 365 for two terms.
The resemblence between the Zero and FDR is uncanny when it comes to solving economic woes…. federal spending to the max being their goal. Trouble is when you start paying the piper, that bill comes due a few years later and the euphoria wears off. Thus FDR’s New Deal lead to another recession, and he had to implement a 2nd New Deal. Even putting so many on the federal payroll for WPA still left unemployment over 12%. So what does he do? Ponzi schemes… Social Security. But his real power move was when he signed the Wagner Act where, like the Zero, gave him the power of the labor unions for votes.
In short, to give the opinion of 243 of historic poll/snobby psuedo intellectuals and their award system any credibility is beyond the suspension of disbelief. Or, as Groucho said…”I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”
But, more revealing, this award system sure is indicative of just what school of thought controls the US education curriculae.
Sounds exactly right to me.
I cannot reconcile Obama even being near Reagan, let alone ahead of him, on a list of greatest presidents. Not only did Reagan force the downfall of the USSR and the communist Eastern Bloc, but presided over(during most of his two terms) one of the greatest economic periods in US history, and all of that despite not having total control of congress as Obama has.
Obama has done nothing but ram through a massive supporter payback bill disguised as a “stimulus” bill which hasn’t done anything close to what was promised, and signed into law one of the most opposed, sweeping governmental takeover bills in Obamacare. Throw in his attempts at undermining America’s greatness by his constant America-bashing and unashamed apologizing to the world, his attempt at nationalization of the US auto-industry, his constant blaming of anyone and everyone who isn’t a current Democrat in federal office for every problem, big or small, facing his admin., and the continual lying and backtracking from his campaign promises, and I think that survey is as bogus as anything I’ve seen lately.
FDR as #1 is a stretch as well, as Lincoln had arguably the worst situation to ever face a President, and arguably was the most successful at resolving that situation as well. And, of course, all Washington did was to lead a fledgling nation out of war and place it on the road to prominence in the world. All in all, a thoroughly forgettable survey.
JOHN GALT: thank you. bye 🙄
I heard on the Mark Levin Show that over a 25 year period(1980 to 2005), hat tip to the Heritage Foundation, Reaganomlcs, in whole and in part, was responsible in creating over
43 MILLION JOBS !!!!!!!!!
Reagan did very little for this country except increase the debt and support a bunch of dictatorships in the Central and South Americas. He was not responsible for the ‘crumbling of the Soviet wall’, but he did give a pretty good speech encouraging it. His solution to the recession of his day, was to take steps in the tax system leading to the present day Corporatocracy.
prescienceblog.com
@tadcf:
Where can I find the drugs which have made you so delusional. Reagan took the reigns when our nation was in the depths of Jimmy Carter’s Malaise. When he left office, America was much better off than when he started. There was even an economic indicator called the misery index when Reagan started. The liberal mindset has always been to be judged by intentions rather than results. Never hold them accountable for the destruction left in their wake. Was Reagan perfect? Of course he wasn’t, but he was a damn sight better than Obama, Carter, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, or any of the other liberal destruction machines which got themselves elected.
@tadcf: “He was not responsible for the ‘crumbling of the Soviet wall’”
I agree with you in the fact that Reagan wasn’t responsible for the CRUMBLING of the wall. He was responsible for the TEARING DOWN of the wall. Most of the republicans even said what he was doing wouldn’t work in defeating Russia. He pretty much tore the wall down by himself.