#44 is #15 say Professors

[berni_mccoy]

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/presidential-scholars-obama-is-our-15th-best-president----bush-is-in-the-bottom-five.php

Presidential Scholars: Obama Is Our 15th Best President -- Bush Is In The Bottom Five

Where do presidential scholars rank Barack Obama and George W. Bush among their fellow U.S. presidents?

The answer may not surprise you: Obama comes in at number 15. Bush is 39th.

For the fifth time in a row, the 238 presidential scholars who participated in the Siena poll ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt as the number one president overall, with Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson rounding out the top five.

The poll also asks respondents to rank the presidents according to a few personality traits: "imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck, background, and being willing to take risks."

The responds ranked President Obama sixth for imagination, seventh for communication ability and eighth for intelligence. His history-making personal background ranked only 32nd (due to that elusive birth certificate, no doubt), leaving him in the 15th spot overall.

President Bush, who ranked number 23 overall in 2002, now finds himself 39th, putting him, for the first time ever, among the five worst presidents in American history. He's ranked 40th for imagination, 42nd for communication ability, and 42nd for intelligence. His own background is ranked 36th.

Bush joins such presidential luminaries Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding and Franklin Pierce in the bottom five, with Johnson taking the honor for worst president ever.

The strangest WTF part of this report is that Obama was ranked 32nd for his BACKGROUND?! I'd say it's one of his strengths! TPM cites his Birth Cirtificate issue as part of the problem. Simply incredible that birthers have had this kind of impact on perception.

Full rankings in PDF here: http://www.siena.edu/uploadedfiles/home/parents_and_community/community_page/sri/independent_research/Presidents%202010%20Rank%20by%20Category.pdf

[lpbk2713]

1. Smirky ranked 42nd in intelligence.

These people were extremely generous. :rofl:

[Scurrilous]

2. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Chiyo-chichi]

3. 42nd for communication ability is generous.

Andrew Johnson was worse?

[berni_mccoy]

5. I know. Bush has 5 categories at 42... LOL

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. He was really drunk a lot of times

Word Salad


First Annual Message (December 4, 1865)
Andrew Johnson

The hand of Divine Providence was never more plainly visible in the affairs of men than in the framing and the adopting of that instrument. It is beyond comparison the greatest event in American history, and, indeed, is it not of all events in modern times the most pregnant with consequences for every people of the earth?

The members of the Convention which prepared it brought to their work the experience of the Confederation, of their several States, and of other republican governments, old and new; but they needed and they obtained a wisdom superior to experience. And when for its validity it required the approval of a people that occupied a large part of a continent and acted separately in many distinct conventions, what is more wonderful than that, after earnest contention and long discussion, all feelings and all opinions were ultimately drawn in one way to its support?

The Constitution to which life was thus imparted contains within itself ample resources for its own preservation. It has power to enforce the laws, punish treason, and insure domestic tranquillity. In case of the usurpation of the government of a State by one man or an oligarchy, it becomes a duty of the United States to make good the guaranty to that State of a republican form of government, and so to maintain the homogeneousness of all.

Does the lapse of time reveal defects? A simple mode of amendment is provided in the Constitution itself, so that its conditions can always be made to conform to the requirements of advancing civilization. No room is allowed even for the thought of a possibility of its coming to an end. And these powers of self-preservation have always been asserted in their complete integrity by every patriotic Chief Magistrate by Jefferson and Jackson not less than by Washington and Madison.

The parting advice of the Father of his Country, while yet President, to the people of the United States was that the free Constitution, which was the work of their hands, might be sacredly maintained; and the inaugural words of President Jefferson held up "the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad."

[sandnsea]

4. Isn't that birther comment sarcasm?

I took it that way, that it was incredulous that they could rank this President's historic background so low. With a haha, it must be because they don't believe he's really an American, haha.

Maybe it's how they made sure he didn't outdo Clinton, lol.

[berni_mccoy]

6. Probably, but what could have caused them to rank his background so low?

Yes he grew up poor and without a Father. But he brought himself up by the bootstraps and graduated from both Columbia and Harvard. 32nd ranking is unwarranted here and if ranked appropriately, he'd be likely in the top-12.

[Scuba]

8. +1 Hardship strenghtens character. Spoiled rich boys lack character.

[sandnsea]

9. Kenyan father, Indonesian step-father

Mother from Oklahoma, in the 60s. First Hawaiian President. I mean come on, if this isn't #1 on background, holy criminy. That is the definition of the American Dream for cryin' out loud.

Who knows what they were thinking.

[berni_mccoy]

12. Yes, I would like to know as well.

[pinboy3niner]

7. I read it the same way

Perhaps respondents were looking for a long career in public office or the military or something? I'd be curious to know what kind of criteria some of the participants had in mind on that one.

:hi:

[TexasObserver]

10. "Bush joins ... Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren Harding and Franklin Pierce in the bottom 5"

[MadHound]

13. Historically speaking, this is bogus bullshit

Sorry, but you really can't judge a president until his full term is run, and in some cases, like Carter, not even until well after he leaves office.

Furthermore, this is breaking the prime historian's directive, don't start analyzing history until at least twenty years after the event.

This is nothing more than a pretentious puff piece.