10 Greatest Presidents of All Time

I recently put together a quick and crude list of the 10 Greatest Presidents in this nation's history. While reading it is important to note that this is a "greatest" list and not a "best" list. Impact and influence need to be highly weighted. So even if you think that FDR or Regan (the two seemingly most polarizing historical presidents currently) weren't good for the country, you should not discount how much they changed the game for extended periods of time. My example for how that works is that I think Bill Clinton was a better, more effective President than Ronald Regan. However, he did not become synonymous with a political shift or movement as Regan did. Therefore, in a ranking of the best presidents of all time, I'd have Clinton above Regan but for this list of the greatest I feel Regan trumps Clinton.

Enough rambling on best vs. greatest. Here is my humble attempt to put together my list of the 10 Greatest Presidents in U.S. History:

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Franklin Roosevelt
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Andrew Jackson
6. Ronald Regan
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. James Polk
9. Bill Clinton
10. Harry Truman


Since I rarely get any push back on 8 of the 10 I include, I don't want to get into long explanations on what makes them so great. You all can do that on your own. However, two that I have listed are questioned quite frequently so I feel the need to explain. Those two are James Polk and Bill Clinton.


8. James K. Polk

In my opinion, the most overlooked and under rated of all our Presidents. The guy went into office claiming 4 major goals and accomplished each one in his first term. He was so successful that he voluntarily declined to run for reelection simply because he brought the country exactly where he wanted it within the 4 years of his first term.

1. Establish independent treasury system
2. "Acquire" aka steal the south west and Cali from Mexico
3. Settle the Canadian border dispute with Great Britain aka claim sole ownership of the Oregon territories south of the 54th degree 40 minute parallel
4. Lower the Tariff

All done within his first term. He gets overlooked simply because he wasn't a founding father, wasn't a "political movement" type leader (The early 1900s Progressives associated closely with Teddy Roosevelt or Regan's Conservatives) nor did he reside over an incredibly challenging time for the U.S. (ex. Civil War, Great Depression). But his accomplishments and proficiency during his run make him one of the greatest of all time to me.


9. Bill Clinton

The more arguable of the two in my opinion. I certainly may be jumping the gun on Clinton by placing him as high as I have. My thoughts on Clinton are that he was an extremely successful president even though his philosophy didn't fit in with his era. He was a liberal President in a conservative era and managed to become widely held in high regards by most besides the wing nuts on the right and a smaller portion of wing nuts on the left.

Clinton laid the seeds to finally ending Conservative rule/dominance. He was finally a Democrat who began to realize that policies and ideas that were successful and popular in the 50s and 60s no longer were. He can almost be completely credited for adjusting the Democratic party to a new era and laying the foundation for the shift in this country's political zeitgeist to the left.

I will readily admit, that 9 is the absolute highest rank that Clinton can ever achieve on any reasonable list. 50 years from now, he will either be #9 or lower. If the political cycle repeats like I think it will, it will be Obama who will be synonymous with the great political shift and the start of a new era that is really the marker of greatness. If anyone noticed, the top 6 on my list are all Presidents that have that distinction.

Now, I should clarify further to make it easier to understand what I mean. To have a constant definition of conservatism throughout different eras, I really do think that what Michael Lind described as "Jeffersonian backlash to Hamiltonian nation building" is as fundamental as it gets. That refers to desire to cut back the influence and power of the federal government. In very general terms, they favor small government, small business, and older ways of life socially. The specific policy details are driven by the era but the foundation for the core beliefs remains the same. (To read further on this, I refer you to Micheal Lind's article, "Obama and the Dawn of the Fourth Republic" here, http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/11/07/fourth_republic/print.html)

When I say that Clinton helped lay the foundation for the end of the conservative era, I really refer to his successful modernization of liberal ideology and the Democratic party. I frequently reference and make fun of the fact that today's conservative Republicans seem think it's 1980. Well, before Clinton's 3rd way or New Democrat or whatever you want to call it, liberals and Democrats were still operating as if it were 1940. Clinton couldn't end the era himself, but the electorate's memory of his success certainly helped when a true Hamiltonian nation builder came around in the person of Barack Obama. Is that enough to mention him as a top 10? I'm not entirely sure. But I'll couple that with the general success of the nation under his command and go out on a limb.