I truly don't know why I let it bother me every year. But like clockwork, whenever C-SPAN releases their annual "Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership" results, I feel compelled to click on the story, read the results, and plunge into an emotional corkscrew.
For alums of Seinfeld fandom, I get as worked up about these presidential rankings as Izzy Mandelbaum did seeing Morty walk around in the "#1 Dad" t-shirt. And even though I know there's nothing official about these ratings, and they don't mean anything, there's just something about seeing their obvious, glaring errors being held out as authoritative that burns me up.
If you missed it, here were this year's top ten:
- Abraham Lincoln
- George Washington
- Franklin Roosevelt
- Teddy Roosevelt
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Harry Truman
- Thomas Jefferson
- John Kennedy
- Ronald Reagan
- Barack Obama
Let's start at the top. What an utter disgrace. A list that begins with any president other than George Washington in the top spot deserves to be shredded, burned, ashes spit upon, placed into a space capsule, and fired into the center of the sun. Without Washington there is no country, and thus no presidency. What, Lincoln saved the Union? There would have been no Union to save without Washington. Just stop embarrassing yourself and put the Father of the Country where he belongs and admit that the gap between him and the second greatest president is wider than the combined gaps between all the rest.
Next, just in case you had any question as to the ideological breakdown of the survey participants, simply note the inclusion of both Roosevelts in the top five. The father of progressivism, Teddy Roosevelt, and his distant cousin Franklin, the creator of the nanny-state. If you enjoy in-your-face government regulating every moment of your life, I suppose these two are logical choices. If you find yourself capable of functioning without a bureaucracy micromanaging it all, drop these two out of your top 25.
I like Ike. I think Ike deserves immense credit for his military leadership. I'm not sure why Ike qualifies as a great president, however. Granted, I would go for the kind of good-natured dignity that he brought to the office in a heartbeat. But leadership? I mean, I like driving on interstates, so I guess there's something.
Then comes JFK. I know he was assassinated and his whole family has been through immense heartache. I know he was a charismatic visionary who inspired a lot of people. But he simply didn't have enough time in office to do much. If this is a list about great presidencies, it's hard to see how he can qualify.
And you know I can't leave the Obama thing alone. None of us should. No survey should truly be taken seriously if it allows consideration of presidencies that occurred within the last 20 years. Not enough time has passed to gauge a president's true effectiveness and lasting influence.
Want proof of that? Look at #6, Harry Truman. I don't have any problem with Truman being in the top ten. But it's only been in recent decades that historians have recast his presidency. When Truman left office, he was one of the most unpopular presidents of the last century, with only a 22% approval rating. That reputation lasted for quite awhile before the passage of time has allowed us to view his accomplishments for what they were.
Barack Obama was undoubtedly popular, and being the first half-black man to hold the office immediately makes his an historic presidency. But Obama also governed almost exclusively from executive order, leaving a small footprint that was erased almost completely by his successor. His landmark legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has been whittled down, carved up, and largely undone by the states and the federal courts. Take away the inspirational aspect of being the first black president, and it's hard to see how Obama isn't eventually confined to the bottom half of future rankings.
What is most frustrating about the yearly C-SPAN survey, however, is less about undeserving presidents ranked in the top ten, and much more about deserving presidents left out.
Where's James K. Polk? He went into office without lofty promises, saying he wanted to accomplish four things and then he would move on after one term. He accomplished those four things, which included expanding our country "from sea to shining sea," and walked away.
Where's Calvin Coolidge? He presided over the greatest economic expansion in history, a time of unparalleled prosperity. Taxes were cut by 50%, spending was cut over 40%, and the national debt was sliced by a third. Most impressively, he stayed out of people's way, famously quipping that his greatest accomplishment was "minding my own business."
Where's Grover Cleveland? A constitutionalist if there ever was one, Cleveland was the original "drain the swamp" guy, waging a fierce campaign against government fraud and corruption. He also restrained America's growing hunger for world empire, and focused like a laser on reducing taxes and tariffs.
And there are others – Taft, Van Buren, McKinley, just to name a few. But they'll never appear on these yearly lists for one simple reason: these lists are terrible.
