How to Rate the Presidents

What makes a great president? What is the yardstick for the measurement for greatness?

Answer the following questions:

• Has the president set precedents that have been followed by his successors?

For example, Washington established the two-term tradition.

• Has the president set up lasting institutions that have survived the test of time? For example, the Cleveland Administration set up the Interstate Commerce Commission.
• Has the president's political appointees been retained by future administrations?

For example, Obama has retained Bush's Secretary of Defense.

• Has the president's policies been continued by future administrations?

For example, Johnson continued Kennedy's fight for civil rights.

• Has the president's policies made an impact on world history?

For example, Franklin Roosevelt established America as leader of the free world and worked hard to re-establish a world organizaton dedicated to the pursuit of world peace and non-aggression.

• How well did the president manage a crisis?

The Soviet Union made an attempt to impose a unilateral peace settlement on the Middle East, when Nixon called up our reserves, put our nuclear forces on alert, and sent the Sixth Fleet into the Mediterranean Sea. Consequently, the Soviet Union backed down from this overwhelming show of force.

• What leadership qualities did the president have?

Reagan ended the Cold War, something that seven past presidents from Truman to Carter were unable to do. He made us feel proud to be Americans again and made us feel good about ourselves.

• Were the presidential appointees proficient and competent?

Monroe's Richard Rush negotiated the Bagot-Rush Treaty with Great Britain as acting secretary of state, while retaining his job as attorney general.

• Was the president politically skillful?

Jefferson ran his administraton through the House of Representatives as leader of the Republican Party and managed to get his program implanted as the Revolution of 1800. Incidentally, that Republican Party's name was later changed to Democratic. The President skillfully abolished the slave trade, with little opposition from the South.

• Was the president diplomatically skillful?

John Adams not only kept us out of war with France, but achieved something that Washington was not able to achieve in the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. Adams forced France to respect America's neutral rights at sea and secured a treaty to guarantee America's freedom of the seas.

• Was the president efficient and effective in getting his legislation approved by Congress? Both Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson get most of their program passed.
• Was the president efficient and effective as the leader of his party?

Madison eliminated the Monroe opposition to his administration and skillfully persuaded the Republicans to adopt some of the most objectionable Federalist programs, like the Charter for the Second Bank of the United States.

• What was the legacy of his administration?

Eisenhower left the legacy of the federal government's responsibility for social justice. The President sent federal troops to enforce an American citizens's right to public education.

• What about presidential character and integrity?

Wilson stated that America will become a beacon of moral leadership for the rest of the world. In this effort, we seek no territorial gain; we seek democracy and world peace; we will oppose our ally, France, in her effort to take the Rhineland from our former enemy, Germany, because we fought the war for universal justice between nations and not for dismemberment of our adversaries.

Don't make snap decisions . Think about your feelings on each matter.

Realize that the rating is not everyone else's . Just because you think that they were great or horrible, doesn't mean that everyone else will agree.

Warnings

• Do not use the political party of the president as a yardstick.
• Do not use the ideology of the president as a yardstick.

Do not assume that a president might be a poor one, because others have given him a poor rating. For example, Millard Fillmore is rated as a poor president. However, in the Compromise of 1850, the President managed to increase the political strength of the North in the Senate with full Southern approval. Instead of secession, the South approved the compromise with enthusiasm. What an accomplishment!