The Most Under-Rated US Presidents

If the race to be considered the Most Over-Rated President in American history was won at a canter by Ronald Wilson Reagan, there was a much keener contest to earn the title Most Under-Rated president. No fewer than 36 of the 42 men to have held the post received votes in this ballot.

As before, ballots were scored on a 3,2,1 points system (three for most under-rated etc). If no order of preference was specified, each nominee was awarded 2 points. The results are given thus: total number of points collected, followed, in brackets, by each man's ranking in the Wall Street Journal's 2005 survey of historians.

THE MOST UNDER-RATED PRESIDENTS

1. 49 (8) Dwight Eisenhower
2. 44 (34) Jimmy Carter
3. 42 (9) James Polk
4. 39 (18) Lyndon B Johnson
5. 37 (23) Calvin Coolidge
6. 36 (32) Richard Nixon
7. 26 (21) George HW Bush
8. 21 (29) Ulysses S Grant
9. 17 (39) Warren Harding
10. 16 (12) Grover Cleveland

Others:11. 15 (7) Harry Truman, 12. 13 (13) John Adams, 13. 11 (25) John Quincey Adams, 14. 10 (6) Ronald Reagan, 14. 10 (19) George W Bush, 16. 9 (26) Chester Arthur, 16. 9 (11) Woodrow Wilson, 16. 9 (28) Gerald Ford, 19. 8 (3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 19. 8 (16) James Monroe, 21. 7 (2) Abraham Lincoln, 21. 7 (4) Thomas Jefferson, 23. 6 (1) George Washington, 23. 6  (17) James Madison, 25. 5 (37) Andrew Johnson, 26. 4. (N/A*) William H Harrison , 26. 4 (15) John F Kennedy, 26. 4 (20) William Howard Taft, 29. 3 (14) William McKinley, 29. 3 (33) Zachary Taylor, 29. 3  (35) John Tyler, 29. 3 (10) Andrew Jackson, 29. 3 (22) Bill Clinton, 34. 2 (5) Theodore Roosevelt, 35. 1 (27) Martin Van Buren, 35. 1 (N/A*) James Garfield.

*=not included in the 2005 WSJ survey.

Subtracting a Presidents' ranking in this poll from their place in the WSJ survey provides an alternative measurement of under-ratedness. The resulting number then, obviously, represents the divergence between our findings and those of the professionals. The higher the number, the more under-rated the President. By this ranking system the most over-looked Chief Executives are:

1. Jimmy Carter 32
2. Warren Harding 30
3. Richard Nixon 26
4. Ulysses S Grant 21
5. Calvin Coolidge 18

James Polk's new rating of 6 (9-3!) then means that by this measurement he's also actually one of the less under-rated under-rated Presidents. Equally, Eisenhower's score of 7 suggests he's actually rather less under-rated than voters think he is.

My favourite verdict, however, was delivered upon William H Harrison of whom one voter said, "If only more Presidents could have followed his example."

Other notes: non-Americans were especially likely to consider LBJ under-rated, while Nixon and Carter each drew notable levels of bipartisan reappraisal.

Once again, many thanks to all who participated.

Comments

[mdl]

I'm stunned that Hayes did not receive a single vote. If I had remembered to participate, I'd have made him my #2. (#1 would of course be Harding, who should have won this in a landslide.)