Scholars Rank Obama the 15th Best President

A group of presidential scholars has ranked President Obama as the 15th best U.S. president of all time, a new survey shows, while his predecessor, President George W. Bush, is relegated to the bottom five.

Mr. Obama also has an advantage in the rankings over President Ronald Reagan, who came in 18th, but President Bill Clinton beats them both in 13th place.

The Siena College Research Institute's Survey of U.S. Presidents, which has been conducted five times since 1982, asked 238 presidential scholars to rank the 43 U.S. presidents on a number of characteristics.

The presidents were given rankings for six personal attributes (background, imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck and willingness to take risks), five forms of ability (compromising, executive, leadership, communication and overall), and eight areas of accomplishment (economic, other domestic affairs, working with Congress, party leadership, Supreme Court appointments, executive branch appointments, avoiding mistakes and foreign policy).

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was ranked the best president ever, followed by Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

While he has only been in office a year and a half, Mr. Obama was rated highly in areas such as imagination, communication and intelligence.

By comparison, Mr. Bush was ranked 23rd when the survey was conducted in 2002, after his first year in office. This year, Mr. Bush was ranked 39th after receiving poor ratings in communication, foreign policy, intelligence, the economy and his ability to compromise. Mr. Bush's best ranking came in the category of "luck," for which he was rated the 18th best president.

The four presidents who were ranked more poorly than Mr. Bush were Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce.

[jps4usa]

Talk about a useless academic exercise. But how else do the scholarly type spend their time? It's a worthless endeavor by Liberals who waste our tax dollars ad nauseum.

[bakerman2033--2008]

This economy could be bolstered by doing what Roosevelt would have done. Have a public works project to fix America's crumbling infrastructure. It has been so neglected that all you dummies out there might wake up by applying your logic that if we don't get the budget under control and fixed, we will be putting the problem on today's youth to fix it later. Well, what about the infrastructure? It seems to be a non issue. It won't be for generations to follow when all of it suddenly collapses at once. Bridges falling, Water Mains breaking all over the place, disease running rampant from water supply lines being contaminated from the aging sewer lines that run parallel to them.

Sure, the deficit will climb a few trillions more, merely a drop in the bucket to the enormous cost your going to have your own kids shouldering. I'm not talking about potholes in our roads. Go out and check out a bridge in your neck of the woods. I bet you can just barely touch a part of it's support system and it will crumble like an Oreo cookie in your hand.

Are you a risk taker or one who prays every time you fly over a bridge to visit Grandma? The collapse of the Bridge in Minnesota was more than just a wake up call. People died or were maimed for life from that incident, the other hundreds of accidents that are waiting more than likely contain a few in your neck of the woods.

If my Significant other or Kids were hurt or killed, you can your behind I'd sue the Feds for every dollar left in the Treasury not for the money, but to bring them to their knees for such outrageous negligence.

And let's not ignore the fact that China is building an infrastructure that has already surpassed ours, it used to be the envy of the world. Now it's becoming the laughing stock of those who watch our Ignorant Members of Congress quibble and act like Kindergartners from afar. Anyone who thinks we can become a great nation better wise up to the fact we can't remain number one or even a close number two unless we address this problem and do it fast. Now is the perfect time, it would be money wisely invested for the future of this Country that is sliding backwards. And it's only going to get worse if Taxes aren't raised on the Wealthy who pay just about Zippo and the Large Corporations who domicile in Delaware to avoid paying State Income Taxes, and Lobby Congress for every loophole they can think of to Republicans to avoid paying their fair share of Federal Income Taxes, A person with no more than a High School Diploma could understand this and be a better choice to Represent this country as a Member of Congress. It's shameful that they spend so much time spewing scare tactics and avoiding the problems we face. And we, yes us, are just as guilty because some of us are so stupid as to have voted for them. The nonsense from Sarah Palin is repugnant. So much Energy that could be put to better use elsewhere. John McCain needs to retire and turn the reigns over to a new generation, they couldn't possibly do any worse. And John Boehner needs to pickup a box of Kleenex, go home and cry in his basement in total exile. As for Eric Cantor and the Gentleman who didn't know the Branches of Government one as evidenced by his rage towards the Democrats should go back to school and learn the Constitution before re-entering Public Office. .

Not one of my comments can be logically disputed. Another one that always mystified me was the very old southern Congressman who passed away a few years ago. The only reason he kept getting re-elected, even at the age of 98 was because his own constituency felt that they were somewhat obligated to vote for him, competent or incompetent based merely on the fact that they didn't feel it would be nice to vote him out. At that age, if he had any wisdom at all, he would have been more respectful of his constituents rather than the other way around.

This country has a lot of problems, face the fact their is no way to bring the deficit down without increasing revenue. Cutting a part one program and a little from another, holding them together with some sort of lame bandaid isn't going to fix the problem, it's going to make it worse in the long run. Stupid once again. I don't make a lot of money, and i'm never going to be a millionaire, but I wouldn't gripe if I had to pay another $50 bucks a month in taxes if that's what my fair share amounted to. Big deal. So I can't get an extra movie with popcorn each month.

Get real people. Sooner or later what's happing in the Middle East is going to arrive, all because we were too stupid to sit back and let these incompetent idiots continue their shouting matches at each other over stupid things like birth Certificates or College Grades. Why can't they just get to work and tackle the problems. Each day that goes by is another day flushed down the proverbial toilet.

[BuckOfama2012]

Leftists giving other Leftists rewards for being Leftists. What else is new? Just like his Nobel Peace Prize. Hahahaha!!!!

[BuckOfama2012]

Hahaha...! I thought this was The Onion at first.
"Scholars" would vote Stalin as #1 if he were in this list.
Hahaha!!!!

[lucifersshadow]

"presidential scholars"? Was that after a friday night out on the town smoking crack?

[noloyalisti]

I'm surprised Reagan was ranked that high since he was responsible for the disaster that is America now. His failed and disastrous economic policies might have set us backwards 100 years.

I am glad to see Franklin Roosevelt get his due as the best president ever.

[ritik61]

leftist liberal losers. when push comes to shove "the meek shall not inherit the earth"

[pdchapin]

I'm a liberal democrat but objectively I wouldn't rate him that high, unless we've had a lot more poor presidents than I remember. I can't give him better than a B- and that's a bit of a gift.

If he wasn't the first black president, he would be on a course for historical obscurity. Ditto Clinton, Reagan, Carter and both Bushes. I suspect that in a hundred years or so the most recent batch of presidents will be about as well remembered as the presidents between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Quick, how many of them can you name and what was their greatest accomplishment?

[sharong59]

One name I don't see on here and would love to know where he ranked . . . John F. Kennedy!

[jgg000101]

funny how cbs drags out this survey which is 10 months old and completely ignores obama's steadily sinking poll numbers during the same time period as well as a recent survey that says 75% of the population thinks we're on the wrong track.

[jgg000101]

from July 2, 2010??? cbs, your news is just pathetic.

[sharong59]

No, you are pathetic!

[jgg000101]

nah, what I'd call pathetic is recycling a survey from 10 months ago that predates the disasterous stimulus bill, the ramrodding of the healthcare bill, record numbers living in poverty, on welfare and foodstamps, the devalued dollar, the IMF declaring America's superiority over, increased troops in afghanistan, the dismantling of NASA, porous borders, the "humanitarian effort" in libya and regurgitating this almost year old survey like all of these instances never happened.