Atlas ranks the presidents -- week 9 (WORST OF THE WORST)

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Lincoln
Polk
Tyler (there's a large gap here between 2 and 3, I'll give Tyler credit for being an independent president with no support in Congress and establishing succession)
Fillmore
Pierce
Taylor (responsible for starting the disintegration of the Whig Party)
Grant (most corrupt administration until Harding? presidents should be responsible for their appointments, also the first president that ran for a 3rd term even if not nominated)
Buchanan and Johnson tied

Harrison I consider unrankable.

Round 1:

Washington
Jefferson
J. Adams
Monroe
Jackson
Van Buren
J.Q. Adams (think as a person much more highly of John Quincy than I do Jackson, we are not ranking the ethics of the men, we are ranking the accomplishments during the presidency)
Madison ("Thou Shalt Not Declare War on England")

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As a slight aside, I strongly recommend the History Channel's Ultimate Guide to the Presidents that I mentioned earlier.  All of the episodes through Woodrow Wilson are on YouTube for free, and that only requires you to purchase three more ... they were $1.99 each on Amazon, so I of course did.

I had already seen it before, but it's easily the best documentary I have seen on the Presidents.  Instead of sharing random trivia about them or giving an overly moralizing narrative that is void of historical context, it really tries to look at how each man shaped the office for better and for worse.  I came away with different perspectives on a few different Presidencies:

Better Than Before: James Madison, Andrew Johnson, John F. Kennedy

On those last 2, how? Johnson was admittedly put in a can't win situation of whatever he did, everyone was still going to hate him, but still didn't handle the situation well. Kennedy in contrast is completely lionized in death. If anything him being shot meant historians pass the buck to LBJ for stuff they don't want to blame Kennedy for.

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As a slight aside, I strongly recommend the History Channel's Ultimate Guide to the Presidents that I mentioned earlier.  All of the episodes through Woodrow Wilson are on YouTube for free, and that only requires you to purchase three more ... they were $1.99 each on Amazon, so I of course did.

I had already seen it before, but it's easily the best documentary I have seen on the Presidents.  Instead of sharing random trivia about them or giving an overly moralizing narrative that is void of historical context, it really tries to look at how each man shaped the office for better and for worse.  I came away with different perspectives on a few different Presidencies:

Better Than Before: James Madison, Andrew Johnson, John F. Kennedy

On those last 2, how? Johnson was admittedly put in a can't win situation of whatever he did, everyone was still going to hate him, but still didn't handle the situation well. Kennedy in contrast is completely lionized in death. If anything him being shot meant historians pass the buck to LBJ for stuff they don't want to blame Kennedy for.

Most Johnson apologism runs along the lines of "he preserved the principle of an independent executive." (This is the story the official White House website tells, IIRC.) That mostly isn't true, and some would argue it's even a reason to hate Johnson more, but hey.

Tangentially related, one of my favorite anecdotes re: Johnson is that initially some Radical Republicans were pleased that he had become president, assuming that because of his humble upbringing and known dislike for slaveholders that he would be a more reliable ally than Lincoln. A cautionary tale against assuming everyone perceives their self-interest the way you do.

The Republican delegates deciding to nominate him at the 1864 "National Union" Convention for Vice President is literally one of the biggest political blunders ever in this country. There was never any thought given to he actually could become President, because Republicans obviously had no intentions of giving the presidency to the "Southern party" for free.

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Where is this fiction coming from that Rutherford B. Hayes literally ended Reconstruction? Yeah, he got to be president instead of Tilden, and that ended Reconstruction, but the hard negotiating that went on and how it went down had almost nothing to deal with Hayes the individual. To put in Alfred Hitchcock terms Hayes was the MacGuffin in the episode. President was important but Congress called the shots in this era, the president was not someone that can rule by dictate and his party would follow lockstep behind him.

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I'm having a hard time ranking these.

1. T. Roosevelt - if Andrew Jackson came around in 1900, I feel he would be Teddy
2. McKinley
3. Taft - always kind of thought he was underrated due to Teddy dominating the scene
4. Arthur - spoils system reform
5. Cleveland

3-way tie for 6th for nothing distinguishable about them between Hayes, Harrison, and Garfield.

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I'm having a hard time ranking these.

1. T. Roosevelt - if Andrew Jackson came around in 1900, I feel he would be Teddy
2. McKinley
3. Taft - always kind of thought he was underrated due to Teddy dominating the scene
4. Arthur - spoils system reform
5. Cleveland

3-way tie for 6th for nothing distinguishable about them between Hayes, Harrison, and Garfield.

Why in the world should Andrew Jackson be a Republican if he had come around in 1900?

Meant more in terms of character and style of governance.

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Eisenhower - easily my favorite post-World War II president
F. Roosevelt
L. Johnson
Truman - 1st president in the country's history that had to try and deal with the post-World War II order of "war is over, us and the Soviets are only powers left in the world, now what?", which means his presidency as far as grading is considerably different from every president prior to him, so I would've cutoff the periods at FDR and have Truman start a new one
Coolidge
Kennedy
Woodrow Wilson - I really hate Wilson
Hoover
Harding

Nowadays Hoover is completely forgotten, he's just "some lousy politician who mucked up the great depression."  If you ask most people about him, all they could tell you about is "Hoovervilles" and "I guess he did do the Hoover Dam."  It's a shame because he probably had a wilder life story than even Teddy Roosevelt, the consensus "most interesting president."

He's probably as close a historical parallel you could find for a president to Jimmy Carter. Almost universally acknowledged bad presidency, very extended post-presidency period (died in October 1964, 31.5 years after he left the office when LBJ was president) where he at least in the time of his life rehabilitated his image somewhat. We're now a long way past his death and no one pays attention to what he did post-presidency. Maybe this is what awaits Carter in the decades ahead.

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3. John F. Kennedy (Kennedy gets dinged for the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I suspect that if he had survived and defeated Barry Goldwater in 1964, we would not be involved in Vietnam)

I dispute that take heavily.

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3. John F. Kennedy (Kennedy gets dinged for the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I suspect that if he had survived and defeated Barry Goldwater in 1964, we would not be involved in Vietnam)

I dispute that take heavily.

LBJ literally went to war in Vietnam to secure his image as a wartime President. I don't think Kennedy cared that much about whether or not he was a wartime President or not.

Oh bullsh**t. Both presidents had the same administration! Dean Rusk - Secretary of State for Kennedy and Johnson. Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense for Kennedy and Johnson. You think Kennedy died and Rusk and McNamara suddenly became "we need war!"?

He was president for two and a half years and in his time had the Bay of Pigs (total disaster), the Cuban Missile Crisis (success), and started Vietnam. Being objective about it, he had the foreign policy of George W. Bush. Throw on top of it long-rumored mob ties which may or may not have influenced the result of the 1960 election, and he had the sexual proclivities of Clinton. His backers don't want to think about all that, so they talk about Jackie and JFK Jr. As far as playing on the media and his personal image, John Fitzgerald Kennedy is an absolute A+. His performance as president, it's something else.

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Reagan
G.H.W. Bush
Clinton
Ford (always thought he was a little underrated)
Nixon (if there was no Watergate or the press covered for him like they did certain other presidents that are thought fondly of, I think he would be considered a great president)
G.W. Bush
Carter

Trump and Obama are not ranked. It's impossible to rank presidents until you can have a semblance of historical view once they are out of office. You need the distance of time so people can be honest about presidencies instead of relying on their emotional attachment. 10 years seems like a sufficient amount of time.

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Ah, the modern era.

1. Barack Obama (Didn't have any massive accomplishments as Presidents, but being the first Black President is a huge accomplishment in and of itself.)

What a burial of the man.

"Hey man, you didn't do anything. But because of the color of the skin you were born as, thumbs up to you." - like I said, you need time to be more historical and less emotional about grading presidencies.

By the way, the press previously told me that Bill Clinton was "the first black president". That was pre-2008 of course.

6. Gerald Ford (I'm convinced there was a quid pro quo between Ford and Nixon to secure Nixon's resignation, and Ford's Pardon of Nixon. Why Congress didn't have the backbone to impeach and remove Ford over it, I'll never understand)

Ted Kennedy in 2001 presented Gerald Ford with a Profile in Courage Award:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2009/08/sen_ted_kennedy_crossed_politi.html

"I'm honored to be here today with President Gerald R. Ford, the winner of this year's Profile in Courage Award.

"At a time of national turmoil, America was fortunate that it was Gerald Ford who took the helm of the storm-tossed ship of state. Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision, one that historians now say cost him his office, and he pardoned Richard Nixon.

"I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us. He eminently deserves this award, and we are proud of his achievement."

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Ah, the modern era.

1. Barack Obama (Didn't have any massive accomplishments as Presidents, but being the first Black President is a huge accomplishment in and of itself.)

What a burial of the man.

"Hey man, you didn't do anything. But because of the color of the skin you were born as, thumbs up to you." - like I said, you need time to be more historical and less emotional about grading presidencies.

By the way, the press previously told me that Bill Clinton was "the first black president". That was pre-2008 of course.

6. Gerald Ford (I'm convinced there was a quid pro quo between Ford and Nixon to secure Nixon's resignation, and Ford's Pardon of Nixon. Why Congress didn't have the backbone to impeach and remove Ford over it, I'll never understand)

Ted Kennedy in 2001 presented Gerald Ford with a Profile in Courage Award:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2009/08/sen_ted_kennedy_crossed_politi.html

"I'm honored to be here today with President Gerald R. Ford, the winner of this year's Profile in Courage Award.

"At a time of national turmoil, America was fortunate that it was Gerald Ford who took the helm of the storm-tossed ship of state. Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision, one that historians now say cost him his office, and he pardoned Richard Nixon.

"I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us. He eminently deserves this award, and we are proud of his achievement."

Obama was better in the sense that he provided steady leadership that Americans had been lacking since roughly the Eisenhower Administration, and he did no harm to America, period in any way shape or form, whereas every other President did some form of harm.

I'm literally listening to a podcast right now from a few years ago decrying his administration for their actions on civil liberties.

Like I said, I don't take anyone's opinion in this thread on Obama or Trump seriously because I don't believe it is possible you can be being principled versus emotional on your analysis. Based on a few responses, some posters are not being principled and instead emotional on presidents from the past 40 years.

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Guys, Jimmy Carter wasn't a good president.

and? he tried and didn't actively f**k things up more than could be expected which is more than I can say for the rest (besides Obama but I like Carter a little more on a personal level, his political philosophy is also the one I agree with the most by far out of basically any president we've ever had)

I agree with the political philosophy of Herbert Hoover more than I did FDR. That doesn't mean Hoover was a better president than FDR.

Half the responses to this list is just evidence in support of my theory about how recency means you cannot fairly rank presidents because people put their partisanship before historical evidence.

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I believe Mr. Clinton was from Arkansas.

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Washington
Lincoln
Eisenhower
F. Roosevelt
Jefferson
T. Roosevelt
Polk
L. Johnson
Monroe
Truman

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Reagan
G.H.W. Bush
Polk
J. Adams
Monroe
Taft
Arthur
Madison
Clinton
Coolidge

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The Wilson rank by the person two posts up reminds me of something I recently read. The more I read about Wilson the less and less I think about him. He should've been removed/thrown out as president in 1919 because he couldn't do the job due to his stroke and in effect a mini-coup occurred as all his Cabinet secretaries and his wife were making decisions in the name of the president. Yet...

HE WAS SEEKING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S NOMINATION IN 1920 FOR A THIRD TERM!