Barack Obama celebrates his first President’s Day outside the White House ranked the 12th best chief executive, several spots ahead of former President Clinton and three behind former President Reagan, according to a sweeping survey of historians by C-SPAN.
The public service cable giant has conducted two prior President’s Day surveys of historians, in 2000 and 2009, and honest Abraham Lincoln has topped all three.
One notable change: Former President George W. Bush rose to three places to No. 33.
Maybe not so good news for Obama, though, said one of C-SPAN’s experts, historian Edna Greene Medford. She said, “Although 12th is a respectable overall ranking, one would have thought that former President Obama’s favorable rating when he left office would have translated into a higher ranking in this presidential survey,” she said.
“I am especially surprised that he was ranked at 7th in moral authority (despite heading a scandal-free administration); 19th in administrative skills; and 8th in economic management (despite having helped to save the auto industry and significantly reducing unemployment). But, of course, historians prefer to view the past from a distance, and only time will reveal his legacy,” she added.
Historian Douglas Brinkley, another of C-SPAN’s three heavyweight advisors, said, “Once again the Big Three are Lincoln, Washington and FDR — as it should be. That Obama came in at number 12 his first time out is quite impressive. And the survey is surprisingly good news for George W. Bush, who shot up a few notches,” he said.
And Richard Norton Smith noted the high rankings of modern presidents. “The golden age of the American presidency, according to this survey, is 1933-1969. Five presidents from this era each rank in the top ten which tells you something about the criteria that historians tend to use,” he said.
C-SPAN’s academic advisors devised a survey in which participants used a one (“not effective”) to 10 (“very effective”) scale to rate each president on the qualities of presidential leadership: “Public Persuasion,” “Crisis Leadership,” “Economic Management,” “Moral Authority,” “International Relations,” “Administrative Skills,” “Relations with Congress,” “Vision/Setting An Agenda,” “Pursued Equal Justice for All,” and “Performance Within the Context of His Times.”
1 — Abraham Lincoln.
2 — George Washington.
3 — FDR.
4 — Teddy Roosevelt.
5 — Dwight D. Eisenhower.
6 — Harry S. Truman
7 — Thomas Jefferson.
8 — John F. Kennedy.
9 — Ronald Reagan.
10 — Lyndon B. Johnson.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
