Ten Best, ten worst Presidents

[Murica!]

The best
1.FDR
2.Theodore Roosevelt
3.Thomas Jefferson
4.JFK
5. Abraham Lincoln

and the worst
1. all the rest of 'em

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm going to try to make this objective as possible:

Best
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Ronald Reagan (Sorry, liberals.)
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower
8. Harry S. Truman
9. John F. Kennedy
10. James Madison

Worst
1. James Buchanan
2. Franklin Pierce
3. Andrew Johnson
4. Millard Fillmore
5. John Tyler
6. Benjamin Harrison
7. Martin Van Buren
8. Rutherford B. Hayes
9. Jimmy Carter
10. Herbert Hoover

The worst was a tough call between Pierce and Buchanan (Sorry again, liberals, but Dubya isn't anywhere near the worst ever.)

EDIT: Changed Arthur to Hayes.  I don't think most presidents were ever bad, so the "worst" list is comparative.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

What's wrong with Arthur? Abolished the spoils system, simplified and cut tariffs, watered down and. supported the Readjusters and attacked the anti-Chinese xenophobic bills passed by Congress.  Definitely the most underrated Presidents by a long shot.

[TNF]

"Civil Service reform" was, in that period, code for throwing all of the blacks out of federal jobs.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

"Civil Service reform" was, in that period, code for throwing all of the blacks out of federal jobs.

Source?

[SPC]

Top Ten (after the top two it is fairly arbitrary): Van Buren, Cleveland, Harding, Grant, Arthur, Hayes, Coolidge, Taylor, Fillmore, Monroe
Bottom Ten (once again, fairly arbitrary): Wilson, F. Roosevelt, L. Johnson, Bush II, Lincoln, Hoover, Truman, Nixon, Clinton, Obama

[Oldiesfreak1854]

What's wrong with Arthur? Abolished the spoils system, simplified and cut tariffs, watered down and. supported the Readjusters and attacked the anti-Chinese xenophobic bills passed by Congress.  Definitely the most underrated Presidents by a long shot.

Never mind, then.  You make some good points, so I'll edit that.  But even if he attacked the Chinese exclusion bills, didn't he sign them?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

What's wrong with Arthur? Abolished the spoils system, simplified and cut tariffs, watered down and. supported the Readjusters and attacked the anti-Chinese xenophobic bills passed by Congress.  Definitely the most underrated Presidents by a long shot.

Never mind, then.  You make some good points, so I'll edit that.  But even if he attacked the Chinese exclusion bills, didn't he sign them?

From what I know he vetod the original bill that banned immigration for twenty years, then signed a watered down "compromise" in a regrettable bit of Moderate Heroism.

[ScottieF]

Ten Best:

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Theodore Roosevelt
4. George Washington
5. Lyndon B. Johnson
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower
7. Harry S. Truman
8. Ulysses S. Grant
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Andrew Jackson

Ten Worst:

1. Franklin Pierce
2. Andrew Johnson
3. James Buchanan
4. John Tyler
5. George W. Bush
6. Zachary Taylor
7. Millard Fillmore
8. Martin Van Buren
9. Warren G. Harding
10. Rutherford B. Hayes

[ScottieF]

So since I'm a complete nerd about this stuff, here's an aggregate ranking of the presidents on this topic thus far (+1 each time someone got voted as a Top Ten pres, -1 each time they got voted as a Bottom Ten).

1. Washington +18
2. Jefferson +17
3. Eisenhower +13
3. T. Roosevelt +13
5. Lincoln +12
5. F. Roosevelt +12
7. Truman +10
8. Kennedy +5
8. Monroe +5
10. J. Adams +4
10. Arthur +4
10. Grant +4
13. Cleveland +3
14. J.Q. Adams +2
14. Carter +2
14. L. Johnson +2
14. Van Buren +2
18. H.W. Bush +1
18. Madison +1
18. Polk +1
18. Taylor +1
22. Coolidge -1
22. Garfield -1
22. Jackson -1
22. Taft -1
26. W.H. Harrison -2
26. Wilson -2
28. B. Harrison -3
28. McKinley -3
28. Obama -3
31. Clinton -4
32. Reagan -5
33. Harding -6
33. Tyler -6
35. Hayes -7
36. Fillmore -8
36. Nixon -8
38. Hoover -10
39. W. Bush -13
40. Pierce -14
41. Buchanan -15
41. A Johnson -15

The results are interesting, to say the least. The only president to appear on no one's best or worst lists was Gerald Ford. Seems as though there are a handful of names stratified highly above everyone else at the top, and a pretty clear handful anchored at the bottom. Oddly enough, exactly one half of the 42 presidents mentioned received an overall positive aggregate score and one half received an overall negative score.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Putting FDR above Lincoln = insane.

[ScottieF]

Putting FDR above Lincoln = insane.

Close race. They're easily my top two.