Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States

In political science, historical rankings of Presidents of the United States are surveys conducted in order to construct rankings of the success of individuals who have served as President of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The rankings focus on the presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults.^[1]^[2]^[3]

General findings[edit]

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are consistently ranked at the top of the lists. Often ranked just below those Presidents are Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. The remaining places in the top ten are often rounded out by Harry S. Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James K. Polk, and Andrew Jackson. Presidents such as John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton tend to be rated among the greatest in public opinion polls, but do not always rank as highly among presidential scholars and historians. The bottom ten often includes James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, Millard Fillmore, George W. Bush, Herbert Hoover, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and John Tyler. Because William Henry Harrison (32 days) and James A. Garfield (200 days, incapacitated after 119 days) both died shortly after taking office, they are sometimes omitted from presidential rankings. Zachary Taylor also died after serving as president for only 16 months, but is usually included. In the case of these three, it is not clear if they received low rankings due to their actions as president, or because each was president for such a limited time that it is not possible to rate them more highly.

Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles" of presidents, which can make some hard to classify. Historian Alan Brinkley said, "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Nixon)". James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?"^[4]

David H. Donald, noted biographer of Lincoln, relates that when he met John F. Kennedy in 1961, Kennedy voiced his deep dissatisfaction and resentment with historians who had rated some of his predecessors. Kennedy said, "No one has a right to grade a President—even poor James Buchanan—who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions."^[5]

Historian and political scientist Julian E. Zelizer argues that traditional presidential rankings do not explain much concerning actual presidential history, and that they are "weak mechanisms for evaluating what has taken place in the White House."^[6]

Notable scholar surveys[edit]

Abraham Lincoln is often considered the greatest president for his leadership during the American Civil Warand his eloquence in speeches such as the Gettysburg Address.

The 1948 poll was conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., of Harvard University.^[1] The 1962 survey was also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians.^[7] Schlesinger's son Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., conducted another poll in 1996.^[8]

The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents also gives the results of the 1982 survey, a poll of 49 historians conducted by the Chicago Tribune. A notable difference from the 1962 Schlesinger poll was the ranking of Dwight D. Eisenhower, which rose from #22 in 1962 to #9 in 1982.

The Siena Research Institute of Siena College conducted surveys in 1982, 1990, 1994, 2002, and 2010. The 1994 survey placed only two Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, above 80 points and two Presidents, Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding, below 50 points.^[9]^[10] The 2010 Siena Survey had George W. Bush plummet from the initial 2002 ranking of 23 down to 39.

The 1996 column shows the results from a poll conducted from 1988 to 1996 by William J. Ridings, Jr., and Stuart B. McIver and published in Rating the Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent (2000, ISBN 0806521511). More than 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from every state were included, and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and "specialists in African-American studies", as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the Presidents in five categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments & crisis management, political skill, appointments, character & integrity), and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.

A 2000 survey by The Wall Street Journal consisted of an "ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science". This poll sought to include an equal number of liberals and conservatives in the survey, as the editors argued that previous polls were dominated by either one group or the other, but never balanced. According to the editors, this poll included responses from more women, minorities, and young professors than the 1996 Schlesinger poll. The editors noted that the results of their poll were "remarkably similar" to the 1996 Schlesinger poll, with the main difference in the 2000 poll being the lower rankings for the 1960s presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, and higher ranking of President Ronald Reagan at #8. Franklin Roosevelt still ranked in the top three.

Another presidential poll was conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2005, with James Lindgren of Northwestern University Law School for the Federalist Society.^[11] As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight." Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top-three, but editor James Taranto noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the sixth-worst president of all time, while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average".

A 2006 Siena College poll of 744 professors reported the following results:^[12]

"George W. Bush has just finished five years as President. If today were the last day of his presidency, how would you rank him? The responses were: Great: 2%; Near Great: 5%; Average: 11%; Below Average: 24%; Failure: 58%."
"In your judgment, do you think he has a realistic chance of improving his rating?” Two-thirds (67%) responded no; less than a quarter (23%) responded yes; and 10% chose "no opinion or not applicable".

Thomas Kelly, professor emeritus of American studies at Siena College, said: "President Bush would seem to have small hope for high marks from the current generation of practicing historians and political scientists. In this case, current public opinion polls actually seem to cut the President more slack than the experts do." Dr. Douglas Lonnstrom, Siena College professor of statistics and director of the Siena Research Institute, stated: "In our 2002 presidential rating, with a group of experts comparable to this current poll, President Bush ranked 23rd of 42 presidents. That was shortly after 9/11. Clearly, the professors do not think things have gone well for him in the past few years. These are the experts that teach college students today and will write the history of this era tomorrow."^[12]

A 2010 Siena poll of 238 Presidential scholars found that former president George W. Bush was ranked 39th out of 43, with poor ratings in handling of the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments, and intelligence. Meanwhile, the current president, Barack Obama was ranked 15th out of 43, with high ratings for imagination, communication ability and intelligence and a low rating for background (family, education and experience).^[13]^[14]

The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership consists of rankings from a group of presidential historians and "professional observers of the presidency"^[15] who ranked presidents in a number of categories initially in 2000 and more recently in 2009.^[16]^[17] With some minor variation, both surveys found that historians consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt the three best presidents by a wide margin and William Henry Harrison (to a lesser extent), Warren G. Harding, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, George W. Bush and James Buchanan the worst.

In 2008, The Times newspaper asked eight of its own "top international and political commentators" to rank all 42 US presidents "...in order of greatness".^[18]

In 2011, through the agency of its United States Presidency Centre (USPC), the Institute for the Study of the Americas (located in the University of London’s School of Advanced Study) released the first ever U.K. academic survey to rate U.S. presidents. This polled the opinion of British specialists in American history and politics to assess presidential performance. They also gave an interim assessment of Barack Obama, but his unfinished presidency was not included in the survey (had he been included, he would have attained eighth place overall).^[19]

In 2012, Newsweek magazine asked a panel of historians to rank the ten best presidents since 1900. The results showed that historians had ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama as the best since that year.^[20]

A 2013 History News Network poll of 203 American historians, when asked to rate Barack Obama's presidency on an A–F scale, gave him a B- grade. Obama, whom historians graded using 15 separate measures plus an overall grade, was rated most highly in the categories of communication ability, integrity, and crisis management, and most poorly for his relationship with Congress and transparency and accountability.^[21]

Scholar survey results[edit]

Blue backgrounds indicate first quartile.
Green backgrounds indicate second quartile.
Orange backgrounds indicate third quartile.
Red backgrounds indicate fourth quartile.

Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view the rankings for each survey in numerical order.

No	President	Political party	Schl.1948	Schl. 1962	M-B 1982	CT1982	Siena1982	Siena 1990	Siena 1994	R-McI 1996	Schl. 1996	C-SPAN1999	WSJ2000	Siena 2002	WSJ2005	Times2008**	C-SPAN 2009	Siena 2010	USPC 2011	Aggr.^[22]
01	George Washington	None	02	02	03	03	04	04	04	03	02	03	01	04	01	02	02	04	03	03
02	John Adams	Federalist	09	10	09	14 (tie)	10	14	12	14	11	16	13	12	13	13	17	17	12	12
03	Thomas Jefferson	Dem-Repub	05	05	04	05	02	03	05	04	04	07	04	05	04	04	07	05	04	04
04	James Madison	Dem-Repub	14	12	14	17	09	08	09	10	17	18	15	09	17	15	20	06	14	13
05	James Monroe	Dem-Repub	12	18	15	16	15	11	15	13	15	14	16	08	16	21	14	07	13	14 (tie)
06	John Quincy Adams	Dem-Repub	11	13	16	19	17	16	17	18	18	19	20	17	25	16	19	19	20	18
07	Andrew Jackson	Democratic	06	06	07	06	13	09	11	08	05	13	06	13	10	14	13	14	09	08 (tie)
08	Martin Van Buren	Democratic	15	17	20	18	21	21	22	21	21	30	23	24	27	40	31	23	27	24
09	William Henry Harrison	Whig	–	–	–	38	26	35	28	35	–	37	–	36	–	39	39	35	–	38 (tie)
10	John Tyler	Whig	22	25	28	29	34	33	34	34	32	36	34	37	35	31	35	37	37	36
11	James K. Polk	Democratic	10	08	12	11	12	13	14	11	09	12	10	11	09	09	12	12	16	10
12	Zachary Taylor	Whig	25	24	27	28	29	34	33	29	29	28	31	34	33	28	29	33	33	35
13	Millard Fillmore	Whig	24	26	29	31	32	32	35	36	31	35	35	38	36	33	37	38	35	38 (tie)
14	Franklin Pierce	Democratic	27	28	31	35	35	36	37	37	33	39	37	39	38	41	40	40	39	40
15	James Buchanan	Democratic	26	29	33	36	37	38	39	40	38	41	39	41	40	42	42	42	40	42
16	Abraham Lincoln	Republican	01	01	01	01	03	02	02	01	01	01	02	02	02	01	01	03	02	01
17	Andrew Johnson	Democratic	19	23	32	32	38	39	40	39	37	40	36	42	37	24	41	43	36	41
18	Ulysses S. Grant	Republican	28	30	35	30	36	37	38	38	34	33	32	35	29	18	23	26	29	37
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	Republican	13	14	22	22	22	23	24	25	23	26	22	27	24	27	33	31	30	25
20	James A. Garfield	Republican	–	–	–	33	25	30	26	30	–	29	–	33	–	34	28	27	–	29 (tie)
21	Chester A. Arthur	Republican	17	21	26	24	24	26	27	28	26	32	26	30	26	22	32	25	32	28
22/24	Grover Cleveland	Democratic	08	11	17	13	18	17	19	16	13	17	12	20	12	19	21	20	21	19
23	Benjamin Harrison	Republican	21	20	23	25	31	29	30	31	19	31	27	32	30	30	30	34	34	33
25	William McKinley	Republican	18	15	18	10	19	19	18	17	16	15	14	19	14	17	16	21	17	20 (tie)
26	Theodore Roosevelt	Republican	07	07	05	04	05	05	03	05	06	04	05	03	05	05	04	02	05	05
27	William Howard Taft	Republican	16	16	19	20	20	20	21	20	22	24	19	21	20	29	24	24	25	22 (tie)
28	Woodrow Wilson	Democratic	04	04	06	07	06	06	06	06	07	06	11	06	11	10	09	08	06	06
29	Warren G. Harding	Republican	29	31	36	37	39	40	41	41	39	38	37	40	39	35	38	41	38	43
30	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	23	27	30	27	30	31	36	33	30	27	25	29	23	26	26	29	28	31
31	Herbert Hoover	Republican	20	19	21	21	27	28	29	24	35	34	29	31	31	36	34	36	26	29 (tie)
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	03	03	02	02	01	01	01	02	03	02	03	01	03	03	03	01	01	02
33	Harry S. Truman	Democratic	–	09	08	08	07	07	07	07	08	05	07	07	07	07	05	09	07	07
34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Republican	–	22	11	09	11	12	08	09	10	09	09	10	08	06	08	10	10	08 (tie)
35	John F. Kennedy	Democratic	–	–	13	14 (tie)	08	10	10	15	12	08	18	14	15	11	06	11	15	11
36	Lyndon B. Johnson	Democratic	–	–	10	12	14	15	13	12	14	10	17	15	18	12	11	16	11	14 (tie)
37	Richard Nixon	Republican	–	–	34	34	28	25	23	32	36	25	33	26	32	38	27	30	23	32
38	Gerald Ford	Republican	–	–	24	23	23	27	32	27	28	23	28	28	28	25	22	28	24	26
39	Jimmy Carter	Democratic	–	–	25	26	33	24	25	19	27	22	30	25	34	32	25	32	18	27
40	Ronald Reagan	Republican	–	–	–	–	16 *	22	20	26	25	11	08	16	06	08	10	18	08	17
41	George H. W. Bush	Republican	–	–	–	–	–	18 *	31	22	24	20	21	22	21	20	18	22	22	22 (tie)
42	Bill Clinton	Democratic	–	–	–	–	–	–	16 *	23 *	20 *	21 *	24 *	18	22	23	15	13	19	20 (tie)
43	George W. Bush	Republican	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	23 *	19 *	37 *	36	39	31	34
44	Barack Obama	Democratic	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	15 *	–	14 (tie) *
	Total in survey		29	31	36	38	39	40	41	41	39	41	39	42	40	42	42	43	40	43

† Died in office during first term.

†† Due to their short time in office, William Henry Harrison (died after serving as President for 32 days) and James A. Garfield (incapacitated after 119 days as President, died after 200 days) are sometimes omitted from Presidential rankings.

* Ranking calculated before President had completed his term in office. For G. W. Bush, the Siena ranking dropped from number 23 in 2002, to number 39 in 2010.

** The Times poll is a British newspaper's poll of journalists, not of academics.

Note that Grover Cleveland was elected to two non-consecutive terms, serving as both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States; to date he is the only person to have achieved this distinction. Because of it, the total number of people who have served as President is one fewer than the number of Presidents in order of succession.

The surveys have been criticized for the way they have been organized.^[23] At times, the surveys have had low responses.^[23] The issue of the validity of the rankings has been of special interest to historians and political scientists, who have tried to specify the relative importance of personality, leadership, issues and partisanship. It has also been argued that those surveyed have tended to select their choices from personal preference rather than from a neutral perspective.^[24] Historian Thomas Bailey describes the endeavor as trying to "measure the immeasurable".^[25] Quantitative ranking by groups of scholars has been in favor in recent decades, displacing the traditional methods of evaluation by individual writers as typified by Bailey (1966) and most biographers.^[26]

Liberal and conservative raters[edit]

The Murray-Blessing 1982 survey asked historians whether they were liberal or conservative on domestic, social and economic issues.^[27] The table below shows that the two groups had only small differences in ranking the best and worst presidents. Both groups agreed on the composition of nine of the top ten Presidents (and were split over the inclusion of either Lyndon B. Johnson or Dwight D. Eisenhower), and six of the worst seven (split over Jimmy Carter or Calvin Coolidge).

Rankings by Liberals and Conservatives
Rank	Liberals (n=190)	Conservatives (n=50)
1	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Abraham Lincoln
2	Abraham Lincoln	George Washington
3	George Washington	Franklin D. Roosevelt
4	Thomas Jefferson	Thomas Jefferson
5	Theodore Roosevelt	Theodore Roosevelt
6	Woodrow Wilson	Andrew Jackson
7	Andrew Jackson	Harry S Truman
8	Harry S Truman	Woodrow Wilson
9	Lyndon B. Johnson	Dwight D. Eisenhower
10	John Adams	John Adams
...
30	Calvin Coolidge	Jimmy Carter
31	Franklin Pierce	Richard Nixon
32	James Buchanan	Franklin Pierce
33	Andrew Johnson	Andrew Johnson
34	Ulysses S. Grant	James Buchanan
35	Richard Nixon	Ulysses S. Grant
36	Warren G. Harding	Warren G. Harding

Excluded groups ranking approach[edit]

In 2002, Ronald Walters, former director of the University of Maryland's African American Leadership Institute, stated that Presidents ranked by how each President balanced the interests of majority interests and the interests of excluded groups was practical in respect to American debate on racial politics. Presidents have traditionally been ranked on personal qualities and their leadership ability to solve problems that move the nation in a positive direction. Walters stated there was a qualitative difference between white and African American intellectuals in evaluating Presidents. In the 1996 New York Times Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. poll, 31 white historians and one black historian ranked Presidents on differing categories of greatness. In a survey done by Professor Hanes Walton, Jr., and Professor Robert Smith, in their text book American Politics And The African American Quest For Universal Freedom, 44 African American political scientists and historians ranked Presidents in terms of racial attitudes and racial legislation proposed.^[28] Individual President's attitudes, policies, and perspectives were historically ranked in five categories: White Supremacist; Racist; Racially Neutral; Racially Ambivalent; Antiracist.^[29]

Popular opinion[edit]

C-SPAN poll[edit]

In addition to conducting a historian survey, C-Span also conducted a presidential leadership survey of 1145 viewers in December 1999.^[30]

ABC poll[edit]

An ABC News poll about presidential greatness, taken February 16–20, 2000, asked 1,012 adults in the U.S., "Who do you think was the greatest American president?"^[31]

Washington College poll[edit]

A Washington College poll about presidential greatness, taken February 11, 2005, asked 800 adults in the US, "Thinking about all the presidents of the United States throughout history to the present, who would you say was America's greatest president?"^[32]

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

Gallup poll[edit]

A Gallup poll about presidential greatness, taken February 2–5, 2011, asked 1015 adults in the US, "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?"^[3]

Ronald Reagan (19%)
Abraham Lincoln (14%)
Bill Clinton (13%)
John F. Kennedy (11%)
George Washington (10%)
Franklin Roosevelt (8%)
Barack Obama (5%)
Theodore Roosevelt (3%)
Harry Truman (3%)
George W. Bush (2%)
Thomas Jefferson (2%)
Jimmy Carter (1%)
Dwight Eisenhower (1%)
George H. W. Bush (1%)
Andrew Jackson (<1%)
Lyndon B. Johnson (<1%)
Richard Nixon (<1%)

Rasmussen poll[edit]

According to a Rasmussen poll conducted in 2007, six presidents—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy—were rated favorably by at least 80% of Americans. ^[33]

President	Favorable	Unfavorable	Net favorable
George Washington	94	2	92
Abraham Lincoln	92	4	88
Thomas Jefferson	89	4	85
Theodore Roosevelt	84	8	76
Franklin D. Roosevelt	81	12	69
John F. Kennedy	80	13	67
John Adams	74	9	65
James Madison	73	8	65
Ronald Reagan	72	22	50
Dwight D. Eisenhower	72	15	57
Harry S. Truman	70	14	56
Andrew Jackson	69	14	55
Gerald Ford	62	26	36
John Quincy Adams	59	7	52
Ulysses S. Grant	58	24	34
George H. W. Bush	57	41	16
Jimmy Carter	57	34	23
William Taft	57	15	42
Woodrow Wilson	56	19	37
Bill Clinton	55	41	14
James Monroe	49	10	39
Herbert Hoover	48	34	14
Lyndon B. Johnson	45	42	3
Andrew Johnson	45	26	19
Chester A. Arthur	43	17	26
James A. Garfield	42	16	26
William McKinley	42	24	18
George W. Bush	41	59	-18
Grover Cleveland	40	26	14
Calvin Coolidge	38	31	7
Rutherford B. Hayes	38	19	19
Richard Nixon	32	60	-28
Benjamin Harrison	30	35	-5
Warren G. Harding	29	33	-4
James Buchanan	28	32	-4
James K. Polk	27	21	6
Zachary Taylor	26	18	8
Martin Van Buren	23	19	4
William Henry Harrison	21	16	5
Franklin Pierce	17	25	-8
Millard Fillmore	17	25	-8
John Tyler	9	15	-6

Recent president polls[edit]

These polls evaluate recent Presidents only.

2012 Gallup poll[edit]

A Gallup Poll, taken February 2–5, 2012, asked 1029 adults in the US, "How do you think each of the following presidents will go down in history—as an outstanding president, above average, average, below average, or poor?"^[34]

Gallup poll 2012
Result	Barack Obama	George W. Bush	Bill Clinton	George H. W. Bush	Ronald Reagan	Jimmy Carter	Gerald Ford	Richard Nixon
1. outstanding	10%	7%	18%	6%	27%	5%	5%	3%
2. above average	28%	18%	42%	29%	42%	20%	16%	11%
3. average	26%	28%	28%	44%	20%	34%	54%	28%
4. below average	17%	22%	7%	11%	6%	22%	15%	32%
5. poor	18%	25%	5%	9%	4%	16%	4%	23%
no opinion	1%	-	-	1%	1%	3%	6%	3%

Public Policy Polling[edit]

A Public Policy Polling poll, taken between September 8–11, 2011, asked 665 American voters, based on what they know or remember about the nine most recent former presidents, whether they hold favorable or unfavorable views of how each handled his job in office.^[35]

John F. Kennedy (74% favorability/15% unfavorability)
Ronald Reagan (60% favorability/30% unfavorability)
Bill Clinton (62% favorability/34% unfavorability)
George H. W. Bush (53% favorability/35% unfavorability)
Gerald Ford (45% favorability/26% unfavorability)
Jimmy Carter (45% favorability/43% unfavorability)
Lyndon B. Johnson (36% favorability/39% unfavorability)
George W. Bush (41% favorability/51% unfavorability)
Richard Nixon (19% favorability/62% unfavorability)

2010 Gallup poll[edit]

A Gallup poll, taken on November 19–21, 2010, asked Americans to say, based on what they know or remember about the nine most recent former presidents, whether they approve or disapprove of how each handled his job in office.^[36]

John F. Kennedy (85% approval/10% disapproval)
Ronald Reagan (74% approval/24% disapproval)
Bill Clinton (69% approval/30% disapproval)
George H. W. Bush (64% approval/34% disapproval)
Gerald Ford (61% approval/26% disapproval)
Jimmy Carter (52% approval/42% disapproval)
Lyndon B. Johnson (49% approval/36% disapproval)
George W. Bush (47% approval/51% disapproval)
Richard Nixon (29% approval/65% disapproval)

Vision Critical/Angus Reid poll[edit]

A Vision Critical/Angus Reid poll, taken on February 18–19, 2011, asked respondents about 11 former presidents plus the current president and whether they were a good or bad president.^[37]

John F. Kennedy (80% approval/6% disapproval)
Ronald Reagan (72% approval/16% disapproval)
Bill Clinton (65% approval/24% disapproval)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (61% approval/6% disapproval)
Harry S. Truman (57% approval/7% disapproval)
Jimmy Carter (47% approval/28% disapproval)
George H. W. Bush (44% approval/38% disapproval)
Barack Obama (41% approval/33% disapproval)
Gerald Ford (37% approval/25% disapproval)
Lyndon B. Johnson (15% approval/27% disapproval)
George W. Bush (30% approval/55% disapproval)
Richard Nixon (24% approval/54% disapproval)

Siena College Research Institute survey[edit]

^[38]UPDATED by 2010 study ^[39] ^[40]

Seq.	Name	Background	Party Leadership	Communication Ability	Relations with Congress	Court Appointments	Handling of Economy	Luck	Ability to Compromise	Willing to take Risks	Executive Appointments	Overall Ability	Imagination	Domestic Accomplishments	Integrity	Executive Ability	Foreign Policy Accomplishments	Leadership Ability	Intelligence	Avoid Crucial Mistakes	Expert's View	Overall
1	George Washington	7	18	12	3	3	4	1	3	4	1	4	9	4	2	2	3	1	12	1	3	4
2	John Adams	4	29	18	26	10	13	23	32	16	15	13	17	22	3	19	12	20	7	15	12	17
3	Thomas Jefferson	1	4	6	4	6	16	6	11	8	5	5	3	6	14	5	7	6	1	6	5	5
4	James Madison	3	10	11	9	7	12	17	7	15	9	6	8	12	5	14	20	17	2	10	8	6
5	James Monroe	9	12	15	8	14	9	9	8	17	8	16	16	8	10	11	2	13	15	7	9	7
6	John Quincy Adams	2	34	20	35	16	14	30	29	23	13	15	11	18	4	21	16	26	5	20	21	19
7	Andrew Jackson	30	2	10	14	27	28	4	38	5	19	12	13	14	23	6	19	5	23	12	13	14
8	Martin Van Buren	16	13	23	19	24	38	33	13	32	25	24	24	27	29	23	25	27	22	27	24	23
9	William Henry Harrison	24	30	25	31	33	27	42	35	30	24	37	35	36	30	33	39	24	31	33	34	35
10	John Tyler	33	42	39	42	39	31	22	39	26	34	35	29	34	33	37	35	36	33	32	36	37
11	James K. Polk	17	9	13	12	21	15	7	23	7	16	17	14	11	24	9	8	10	20	9	11	12
12	Zachary Taylor	37	35	28	37	37	24	36	34	28	28	34	27	37	21	31	34	25	37	25	33	33
13	Millard Fillmore	40	41	40	38	35	33	25	25	37	35	38	36	35	36	38	33	39	39	30	35	38
14	Franklin Pierce	38	37	37	41	40	34	35	36	38	38	39	39	39	38	40	40	40	38	35	40	40
15	James Buchanan	23	40	41	40	42	41	40	41	43	39	42	42	43	40	42	41	43	40	41	43	42
16	Abraham Lincoln	28	6	2	6	4	5	13	1	2	2	1	2	1	1	1	5	2	3	2	1	3
17	Andrew Johnson	42	43	43	43	43	37	39	43	34	42	41	41	42	37	41	38	42	41	42	42	43
18	Ulysses S. Grant	26	28	24	22	25	29	21	22	22	40	28	26	26	27	34	24	21	29	31	31	26
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	29	33	30	29	29	26	19	18	33	33	33	32	33	28	30	30	32	30	24	29	31
20	James A. Garfield	20	22	22	24	32	23	41	27	31	29	25	28	25	25	26	31	23	26	22	27	27
21	Chester A. Arthur	41	31	32	27	28	19	14	21	27	26	30	25	20	32	27	26	28	32	17	26	25
22/24	Grover Cleveland	19	16	17	15	17	22	20	19	24	18	20	22	17	19	17	21	19	25	14	19	20
23	Benjamin Harrison	39	32	34	28	30	35	29	30	39	36	36	34	32	31	35	28	34	35	23	32	34
25	William McKinley	21	14	19	11	23	18	24	20	21	20	21	23	19	22	18	15	18	27	11	20	21
26	Theodore Roosevelt	6	7	3	5	1	2	2	12	1	4	3	1	2	6	4	4	4	6	3	4	2
27	William Howard Taft	14	36	29	30	18	20	32	24	36	22	23	30	21	18	25	23	31	18	28	23	24
28	Woodrow Wilson	8	8	9	16	8	8	15	37	9	10	8	5	9	11	10	10	12	4	29	10	8
29	Warren G. Harding	43	38	36	34	36	39	37	26	40	43	43	43	40	42	43	37	41	43	39	41	41
30	Calvin Coolidge	25	24	38	21	26	30	12	28	41	30	32	37	31	17	28	32	33	28	19	28	29
31	Herbert Hoover	10	26	31	33	19	43	43	40	42	32	26	38	41	13	29	36	37	14	40	38	36
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	5	1	1	2	2	1	5	2	3	3	2	4	3	16	3	1	3	10	4	2	1
33	Harry Truman	35	15	14	20	15	6	11	15	6	7	7	15	7	8	8	6	9	17	8	6	9
34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	12	17	21	10	9	11	8	5	20	17	11	20	13	9	7	9	7	19	5	7	10
35	John F. Kennedy	13	19	4	13	12	7	27	6	10	6	14	7	15	35	13	17	11	11	16	14	11
36	Lyndon B. Johnson	15	3	16	1	5	10	28	9	12	12	9	12	5	34	12	43	15	21	37	16	16
37	Richard Nixon	18	20	26	36	38	25	34	33	14	37	22	19	24	43	24	11	29	16	43	37	30
38	Gerald Ford	27	25	35	17	22	36	31	17	35	23	31	33	30	15	32	27	30	34	26	25	28
39	Jimmy Carter	31	39	27	39	20	40	38	31	25	21	29	21	29	7	36	29	35	13	36	30	32
40	Ronald Reagan	34	5	5	7	31	21	3	14	11	31	19	18	23	26	20	13	8	36	13	17	18
41	George H. W. Bush	11	27	33	23	34	32	26	16	29	27	27	31	28	20	22	14	22	24	18	22	22
42	Bill Clinton	22	11	8	25	11	3	10	4	18	11	10	10	10	41	15	18	14	9	34	15	13
43	George W. Bush	36	39	42	32	41	42	18	42	19	41	40	40	38	39	39	42	38	42	38	39	39
44	Barack Obama	32	21	7	18	13	17	16	10	13	14	18	6	16	12	16	22	16	8	21	18	15

Five Thirty Eight analysis[edit]

In January 2013, New York Times journalist and statistician Nate Silver composed a composite list of previous presidential rankings by scholars for the purpose of predicting President Barack Obama's ranking among presidents.^[41]

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Thursday, 29 May 2014