Below The Beltway

Several weeks ago, I wrote about blogger Alex Massie’s informal poll of the most over-rated and under-rated American Presidents.

Well, the results are out.

Here’s the list of the most over-rated Presidents:

1. 111 (6) Ronald Reagan
2. 92 (15) John F Kennedy
3. 67 (11) Woodrow Wilson
4. 45 (22) Bill Clinton
5. 41 (3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt
6. 29 (10) Andrew Jackon
7. 23 (4) Thomas Jefferson
8. 17 (5) Theodore Roosevelt
9. 11 (34) Jimmy Carter
10. 9 (2) Abraham Lincoln
10. 9 (18) Lyndon B Johnson

Others: 12. 8 (1) George Washington 13. 7 (17) James Madison 13. 7 (8) Dwight Eisenhower 15. 6 (21) George HW Bush 16. 5 (19) George W Bush 16. 5 (7) Harry Truman 16. 5 (23) Calvin Coolidge 19. 3 (12) Grover Cleveland 19. 3 (32) Richard Nixon 21. 2 (14) William McKinley 21. 2 (13) John Adams 23. 1 (9) James Polk.

The first number represents the number of votes received, the second the ranking that the President had in a 2005 survey of historians.

Its interesting to see how things turned out, especially given this comment by Massie about Reagan’s rank at the top:

I should perhaps observe that Reagan’s romp to victory was not the result of a liberal betting coup or court-packing conspiracy. Plenty of self-identified conservatives voted for him too, mostly on the not unreasonable grounds that Reagan’s recent beatification over-estimates his ability to turn night into morning or cause walls to tumble with a single blast of his trumpet.

There is a point to that in that there are many conservatives today who seem to look back on the Reagan years as some sort of Republican Camelot — probably because every Republican that has come after him has paled by comparison.

Incidentally, my own choices for the most-overrated were:

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. Woodrow Wilson
3. John F. Kennedy

As for the under-rated Presidents:

1. 49 (8) Dwight Eisenhower
2. 44 (34) Jimmy Carter
3. 42 (9) James Polk
4. 39 (18) Lyndon B Johnson
5. 37 (23) Calvin Coolidge
6. 36 (32) Richard Nixon
7. 26 (21) George HW Bush
8. 21 (29) Ulysses S Grant
9. 17 (39) Warren Harding
10. 16 (12) Grover Cleveland

Others:11. 15 (7) Harry Truman, 12. 13 (13) John Adams, 13. 11 (25) John Quincey Adams, 14. 10 (6) Ronald Reagan, 14. 10 (19) George W Bush, 16. 9 (26) Chester Arthur, 16. 9 (11) Woodrow Wilson, 16. 9 (28) Gerald Ford, 19. 8 (3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 19. 8 (16) James Monroe, 21. 7 (2) Abraham Lincoln, 21. 7 (4) Thomas Jefferson, 23. 6 (1) George Washington, 23. 6 (17) James Madison, 25. 5 (37) Andrew Johnson, 26. 4. (N/A*) William H Harrison , 26. 4 (15) John F Kennedy, 26. 4 (20) William Howard Taft, 29. 3 (14) William McKinley, 29. 3 (33) Zachary Taylor, 29. 3 (35) John Tyler, 29. 3 (10) Andrew Jackson, 29. 3 (22) Bill Clinton, 34. 2 (5) Theodore Roosevelt, 35. 1 (27) Martin Van Buren, 35. 1 (N/A*) James Garfield.

Eisenhower makes sense simply because he presided over a period of relative calm and didn’t seem to accomplish much when, in reality, he accomplished a great deal.

I don’t get the Carter thing, though.

Anyway, here were my picks for most under-rated:

1. Calvin Coolidge
2. James Monroe
3. Grover Cleveland

None of this means much, of course, but it’s a fun little exercise.