Being elected to the highest office in the land is a job that comes with immense responsibility. Whether it was guiding the U.S. through its earliest days of independence, attempting to reunite a nation torn apart by the Civil War, weathering financial crises, or avoiding escalating conflict during the Cold War, every commander in chief has tackled obstacles and made decisions that form their legacy. But just like any job—and in many ways, more than any other job—how they handle their time in office is open to analysis and criticism, including the former presidents who performed poorly enough to be considered among the worst to ever sit in the Oval Office.
A recent survey of 142 presidential historians conducted by C-SPAN continued the tradition of ranking former executives based on a wide range of criteria. Each respondent issued a score from 1 (meaning "not effective") to 10 (meaning "very effective") in 10 categories that encompass presidential leadership: crisis leadership, public persuasion, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, pursuing equal justice for all, relations with congress, vision or setting an agenda, and their performance within the context of the times. The average of each president's responses was then added to rank them overall, with each category given equal weighting.
New questionnaires are issued at the beginning of every new administration so that only former presidents are included in the rankings, meaning you won't see current President Joe Biden on this list. The latest survey also invited dozens more respondents to participate so as to create "new diversity in race, gender, age and philosophy" in the results, C-SPAN said. (Here is a full list of the historians surveyed.)
Each time the survey is conducted, presidents rise and fall among the ranks, and this year is no different. With everything considered from impeachment to landing on the moon, here is every former president of the United States ranked from best to worst, according to historians.
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1 Abraham Lincoln
Final score: 897
2 George Washington
Final score: 851
3 Franklin D. Roosevelt
Final score: 841
4 Theodore Roosevelt
Final score: 785
5 Dwight D. Eisenhower
Final score: 734
6 Harry S. Truman
Final score: 713
7 Thomas Jefferson
Final score: 704
8 John F. Kennedy
Final score: 699
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9 Ronald Reagan
Final score: 681
10 Barack Obama
Final score: 664
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11 Lyndon B. Johnson
Final score: 654
12 James Monroe
Final score: 643
13 Woodrow Wilson
Final score: 617
14 William McKinley
Final score: 612
15 John Adams
Final score: 609
16 James Madison
Final score: 604
17 John Quincy Adams
Final score: 603
18 James K. Polk
Final score: 599
19 William J. Clinton
Final score: 594
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20 Ulysses S. Grant
Final score: 590
21 George H. W. Bush
Final score: 585
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22 Andrew Jackson
Final score: 568
23 William Howard Taft
Final score: 543
24 Calvin Coolidge
Final score: 535
25 Grover Cleveland
Final score: 523
26 Jimmy Carter
Final score: 506
27 James A. Garfield
Final score: 506
28 Gerald R. Ford
Final score: 498
29 George W. Bush
Final score: 495
30 Chester A. Arthur
Final score: 472
31 Richard M. Nixon
Final score: 464
32 Benjamin Harrison
Final score: 462
33 Rutherford B. Hayes
Final score: 456
34 Martin Van Buren
Final score: 455
35 Zachary Taylor
Final score: 449
36 Herbert Hoover
Final score: 396
37 Warren G. Harding
Final score: 388
38 Millard Fillmore
Final score: 378
39 John Tyler
Final score: 354
40 William Henry Harrison
Final score: 354
41 Donald J. Trump
Final score: 312
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42 Franklin Pierce
Final score: 312
43 Andrew Johnson
Final score: 230
44 James Buchanan
Final score: 227
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Zachary Mack Zach is a freelance writer specializing in beer, wine, food, spirits, and travel. He is based in Manhattan.Read moreFiled UnderFacts • History • NewsRead This NextThis Is the State That Drinks the Most Alcohol
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