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Ranking the Presidents

lpetrich

lpetrich

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 Historical rankings of presidents of the United States - a big collection of rankings of the Presidents

I collected the ratings and I crunched the the numbers on them. I translated all the ratings into 0 = lowest and 1 highest, omitting the Presidents that each rater left rankers or was unable to rank.

The columns: combined ranking, President name, number of rankers, median, (3rd - 1st quartile), (max - min)
  1. Abraham Lincoln . 20 . 1.0 . 0.026 . 0.053
  2. Franklin D. Roosevelt . 20 . 0.966 . 0.051 . 0.071
  3. George Washington . 20 . 0.962 . 0.047 . 0.079
  4. Theodore Roosevelt . 20 . 0.907 . 0.034 . 0.19
  5. Thomas Jefferson . 20 . 0.906 . 0.054 . 0.124
  6. Woodrow Wilson . 20 . 0.857 . 0.108 . 0.163
  7. Harry S. Truman . 19 . 0.846 . 0.067 . 0.152
  8. Dwight D. Eisenhower . 19 . 0.789 . 0.066 . 0.588
  9. Andrew Jackson . 20 . 0.782 . 0.135 . 0.314
  10. Ronald Reagan . 16 . 0.735 . 0.285 . 0.504
  11. James K. Polk . 20 . 0.728 . 0.071 . 0.237
  12. John F. Kennedy . 18 . 0.701 . 0.141 . 0.325
  13. John Adams . 20 . 0.695 . 0.093 . 0.2
  14. Lyndon B. Johnson . 18 . 0.693 . 0.093 . 0.227
  15. Barack Obama . 5 . 0.667 . 0.11 . 0.242
  16. James Madison . 20 . 0.65 . 0.21 . 0.345
  17. James Monroe . 20 . 0.646 . 0.095 . 0.424
  18. Bill Clinton . 14 . 0.605 . 0.174 . 0.438
  19. William McKinley . 20 . 0.578 . 0.108 . 0.321
  20. John Quincy Adams . 20 . 0.566 . 0.1 . 0.258
  21. Grover Cleveland . 20 . 0.551 . 0.169 . 0.285
  22. William Howard Taft . 20 . 0.5 . 0.06 . 0.163
  23. George H. W. Bush . 15 . 0.5 . 0.09 . 0.378
  24. Martin Van Buren . 20 . 0.45 . 0.142 . 0.3
  25. Jimmy Carter . 18 . 0.405 . 0.157 . 0.41
  26. Rutherford B. Hayes . 20 . 0.4 . 0.139 . 0.351
  27. Gerald Ford . 18 . 0.364 . 0.096 . 0.263
  28. Chester A. Arthur . 20 . 0.334 . 0.115 . 0.239
  29. James A. Garfield . 12 . 0.317 . 0.112 . 0.161
  30. Calvin Coolidge . 20 . 0.305 . 0.168 . 0.311
  31. Richard Nixon . 18 . 0.299 . 0.18 . 0.421
  32. Benjamin Harrison . 20 . 0.281 . 0.066 . 0.372
  33. Herbert Hoover . 20 . 0.266 . 0.146 . 0.31
  34. Zachary Taylor . 20 . 0.238 . 0.091 . 0.183
  35. George W. Bush . 9 . 0.238 . 0.136 . 0.443
  36. Ulysses S. Grant . 20 . 0.177 . 0.282 . 0.506
  37. John Tyler . 20 . 0.165 . 0.051 . 0.173
  38. Millard Fillmore . 20 . 0.143 . 0.045 . 0.113
  39. William Henry Harrison . 12 . 0.124 . 0.055 . 0.295
  40. Franklin Pierce . 20 . 0.072 . 0.05 . 0.117
  41. Andrew Johnson . 20 . 0.049 . 0.069 . 0.357
  42. Warren G. Harding . 20 . 0.025 . 0.051 . 0.116
  43. James Buchanan . 20 . 0.024 . 0.051 . 0.107
  44. Donald Trump . 2 . 0.023 . 0.047 . 0.047
 
The most recent rankings were done in 2018, with the only two rankings of Trump: worst and third worst. In the second ranking, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan beat him as worst and second worst. I suspect that subsequent ratings of Trump will also be far down there. He will likely go down in history as one of the worst Presidents, if not the worst.

In addition to overall rankings, the article presents rankings by various administration features. I did a Principal Components Analysis on those, and I found some interesting patterns.

In two of these comparisons,
  • Background and Luck were inversely correlated.
  • IQ and Integrity were somewhat correlated with Background.
  • Ability to Compromise and Avoiding Crucial Mistakes were closely correlated.
  • On the opposite pole are Willingness to Take Risks and Imagination, both closely correlated.
In a third one, Pursuing Equal Justice was far from all the others. The others fell on an axis with Public Persuasion and Vision / Setting an Agenda on one end and Administrative Skills and Relations with Congress on the other end. In between were Economic Management and International Relations.

So we find some interesting things about variations in leadership styles.
 
lpetrich said:
 Historical rankings of presidents of the United States - a big collection of rankings of the Presidents

I collected the ratings and I crunched the the numbers on them. I translated all the ratings into 0 = lowest and 1 highest, omitting the Presidents that each rater left rankers or was unable to rank.

The columns: combined ranking, President name, number of rankers, median, (3rd - 1st quartile), (max - min)
  1. Abraham Lincoln . 20 . 1.0 . 0.026 . 0.053
  2. Franklin D. Roosevelt . 20 . 0.966 . 0.051 . 0.071
  3. George Washington . 20 . 0.962 . 0.047 . 0.079
  4. Theodore Roosevelt . 20 . 0.907 . 0.034 . 0.19
  5. Thomas Jefferson . 20 . 0.906 . 0.054 . 0.124
  6. Woodrow Wilson . 20 . 0.857 . 0.108 . 0.163
  7. Harry S. Truman . 19 . 0.846 . 0.067 . 0.152
  8. Dwight D. Eisenhower . 19 . 0.789 . 0.066 . 0.588
  9. Andrew Jackson . 20 . 0.782 . 0.135 . 0.314
  10. Ronald Reagan . 16 . 0.735 . 0.285 . 0.504
  11. James K. Polk . 20 . 0.728 . 0.071 . 0.237
  12. John F. Kennedy . 18 . 0.701 . 0.141 . 0.325
  13. John Adams . 20 . 0.695 . 0.093 . 0.2
  14. Lyndon B. Johnson . 18 . 0.693 . 0.093 . 0.227
  15. Barack Obama . 5 . 0.667 . 0.11 . 0.242
  16. James Madison . 20 . 0.65 . 0.21 . 0.345
  17. James Monroe . 20 . 0.646 . 0.095 . 0.424
  18. Bill Clinton . 14 . 0.605 . 0.174 . 0.438
  19. William McKinley . 20 . 0.578 . 0.108 . 0.321
  20. John Quincy Adams . 20 . 0.566 . 0.1 . 0.258
  21. Grover Cleveland . 20 . 0.551 . 0.169 . 0.285
  22. William Howard Taft . 20 . 0.5 . 0.06 . 0.163
  23. George H. W. Bush . 15 . 0.5 . 0.09 . 0.378
  24. Martin Van Buren . 20 . 0.45 . 0.142 . 0.3
  25. Jimmy Carter . 18 . 0.405 . 0.157 . 0.41
  26. Rutherford B. Hayes . 20 . 0.4 . 0.139 . 0.351
  27. Gerald Ford . 18 . 0.364 . 0.096 . 0.263
  28. Chester A. Arthur . 20 . 0.334 . 0.115 . 0.239
  29. James A. Garfield . 12 . 0.317 . 0.112 . 0.161
  30. Calvin Coolidge . 20 . 0.305 . 0.168 . 0.311
  31. Richard Nixon . 18 . 0.299 . 0.18 . 0.421
  32. Benjamin Harrison . 20 . 0.281 . 0.066 . 0.372
  33. Herbert Hoover . 20 . 0.266 . 0.146 . 0.31
  34. Zachary Taylor . 20 . 0.238 . 0.091 . 0.183
  35. George W. Bush . 9 . 0.238 . 0.136 . 0.443
  36. Ulysses S. Grant . 20 . 0.177 . 0.282 . 0.506
  37. John Tyler . 20 . 0.165 . 0.051 . 0.173
  38. Millard Fillmore . 20 . 0.143 . 0.045 . 0.113
  39. William Henry Harrison . 12 . 0.124 . 0.055 . 0.295
  40. Franklin Pierce . 20 . 0.072 . 0.05 . 0.117
  41. Andrew Johnson . 20 . 0.049 . 0.069 . 0.357
  42. Warren G. Harding . 20 . 0.025 . 0.051 . 0.116
  43. James Buchanan . 20 . 0.024 . 0.051 . 0.107
  44. Donald Trump . 2 . 0.023 . 0.047 . 0.047
Click to expand...

I thought that it was a pretty good list. I'd put Washington first because he did the single most important thing in our history: gave up power when he was offered to be the king. Then Lincoln at number two, because he did the second most important thing: kept the country together while eliminating our worst sin, slavery. I mean just imagine Trump in either one of these scenarios!!?
 
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