President's Day and Ratings

C-Span polled 65 historians and professional observers of the presidency to rank president's accoring to 10 leadership attributes. The culmination rankings put Abraham Lincoln at the top, where he retained his 2000 ranking, George Washington in second, where he moved up, Franklin Roosevelt in third, Theodore Roosevelt fourth, Harry Truman fifth, JFK in sixth, a jump of two places, Thomas Jefferson at seventh, Dwight Eisenhower eight, Woodrow Wilson, ninth, losing three ranks, Ronald Reagan 10th, Lyndon johnson 11th and James K. Polk at 12.

Big gainers this year are U.S. Grant, who moved up 10 places into 23rd and Bill Clinton who moved from 21st to 15. Richard Nixon lost two places and now sits just above James Garfield.

The most successful President was really Jame K. Polk, who had a written to-do list when he came into office, completed it and didn't run again. Historians have always praised his dairies as the most detailed and frank of all the Presidents.

The worst President to date still is James Buchanan. W starts his legacy tour at number 36, just above the immortal Millard Fillmore. Between W and the bottom include my paternal grandmother's favorite President, Warren G. Harding. "His mistress was such a lovely person and he was so dapper",Millie used to say. As a blogger on Dailykos wrote, William Henry Harrison was robbed with his 39th rating.. Filling out the loser table is Franklin Pierce, who was immortalized in a campaign bio written by his Bowdoin classmate National Hawthorne. Hawthorne tried to make a virtue out of Franklin's inability to make a decision. And second to last is Andrew Johnson, who showed up drunk to Lincoln's second inaugural.