No Surprise Here: Obama Among Best Presidents And Bush Among Worst

A survey of 238 presidential scholars showed exactly what would be expected. After eight years in office which were disastrous for the country, George Bush is ranked as one of the worse presidents. Barack Obama has done a tremendous job to correct much of the damage caused by George Bush and ranks among the top presidents:

George W. Bush was no FDR, but Barack Obama could be.

That’s the verdict of 238 of the nation’s leading presidential scholars, who – for a fifth time – rated Franklin Delano Roosevelt the best president ever in the latest Siena College Research Institute poll.

In office for barely two years, Obama entered the survey in the 15th position – two spots behind Bill Clinton and three spots ahead of Ronald Reagan.

Obama got high marks for intelligence, ability to communicate and imagination, but his score was dragged down by his relative lack of experience and family background.

“Most of the presidents came from elite backgrounds, and he certainly did not,” said professor Douglas Lonnstrom, who crunched the numbers. “He grew up without a father.”

By contrast, Bush’s dad was our 41st president, George H.W. Bush, who came in 22nd in the poll.

And yet, the scholars rated Dubya a dud as a president, ranking him in the bottom five at 39th place.

That’s a steep drop from 23rd place, which is where Bush ranked when he entered the survey after his first year in office.

Bush got docked for saddling Obama with two bloody wars and a recession, and he got low marks for “ability to compromise, foreign policy
accomplishments and intelligence,” according to the survey.

Only Warren G. Harding, who was 41st on the list, scored lower in the intelligence category.

4 Comments

  1. 1
    Philip Miller says:

    RT @ronchusid: No Surprise Here: #Obama Among Best Presidents And #Bush Among Worst in Survey of Presidential Scholars #p2 http://bit.ly/aOPO3M

  2. 2
    Philip Miller says:

    RT “@RonChusid: No Surprise: #Obama Among Best Presidents And #Bush Among Worst in Survey of Presidential Scholars #p2 http://bit.ly/aOPO3M”

  3. 3
    Jim Z. says:

    The panel clearly way too generous to GWB.  Perhaps as history puts more distance….

  4. 4
    Grung_e_Gene says:

    This actually makes Bush worse because the Presidency is like Baseball and Bush is the worst of the Modern Era. Sure Warren G. Harding and Ulysses Grant were terrible and had corrupt presidency’s but their times didn’t have the steroid infused problems facing the world of the 21st century.

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