Terrible presidents followed by better and best: Biden and Lincoln show US resilience

Every time we get a new president, C-SPAN, the cable channel devoted to televising the doings of the federal government, surveys historians, authors and others and releases an updated list of our greatest and worst presidents. 

I was honored to have been one of those asked to participate. The process involved ranking every former president – George Washington through Donald Trump – in 10 different categories. A score of one meant terrific, 10 a flop.

As usual, the top rankings were not in doubt: Abraham Lincoln, Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt finished in the top three. In fact, the top 10 remains exactly the same from 2017 except for the first-time inclusion of Barack Obama, who nudged aside Lyndon Johnson to join that elite group. 

Would Trump be the worst?

Of course, the real anticipation this time around concerned Trump. How would he fare? 

The answer: Poorly. Very poorly. But not the bottom of the barrel. Trump comes in 41st, ahead of three other mediocrities: Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and, dead last as usual, James Buchanan. They were utterly horrible, but they've been on the list for a while. Most folks want to know about Trump, the first-timer, so let's focus on him. 

Trump was astonishingly easy to grade. I gave him a “10” – as in horrible – in “Moral Authority,” “Administrative Skills” and “International Relations.” Others obviously had similar views. He finished rock bottom, the worst of the worst in the first two categories and 43rd (second-to-last) in “International Relations.” 

But I wasn't totally harsh on Trump. I put him in the bottom third – still lousy but not a total disaster – in two categories: “Public Persuasion” and “Economic Management.” He finished 32nd and 34th. 

Given how Trump used to hint of his belief that he belonged on Mount Rushmore with Lincoln (#1), Washington (#2), Theodore Roosevelt (#4) and Thomas Jefferson (#7), there’s no question that he and his followers will find his ranking among the dregs of the American presidency to be nothing more than fake news.

Voters rescue nation from bad leaders

Fake news is their term for anything that doesn’t validate what they want to hear, and-or are desperate to believe. But do they truly believe that a man who bragged about assaulting women, cheated on his third wife with a porn star (and paid her $130,000 for her silence) and more doesn’t deserve to be the absolute worst in the “Moral Authority” category?

Do they really believe a guy whose answer to protests in the streets after the George Floyd killing was to “just shoot them” (as alleged in a new book by the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender) was really a good crisis leader (he ranked 41st)? Do they really believe he “Pursued Equal Justice for All” (he ranked 40th)? Enough of this delusion.

Time and perspective could yield future changes to rankings. In recent years, Ulysses S. Grant and George W. Bush have climbed, while Woodrow Wilson and Richard M. Nixon have fallen. But it's quite unlikely that future historians will cast anything more than contemptuous judgment upon a twice-impeached, deeply immoral president whose lies helped inspire the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since 1814. 

Meanwhile, there’s a broader point, and a hopeful one I think, to make about C-SPAN’s rankings. It's interesting that many of our worst presidents (#44 Buchanan, #29 George W. Bush and #36 Herbert Hoover) were all followed by top 10 presidents (Lincoln, FDR and Obama). As I was filling out C-SPAN’s survey, it occurred to me that this speaks of American resilience. It shows that we have a powerful ability to self-correct. Over our nation’s long and stormy history, we have made some grievous mistakes with some of our leaders. And we have replaced them every time with someone better.

It is early in President Joe Biden's term, but he appears to fit that pattern. In this regard, our system still works.

Paul Brandus is the founder and White House bureau chief of West Wing Reports, a member of Paste BN's Board of Contributors, and author of four books on the White House and the presidency. Follow him on Twitter: @WestWingReport