ABE THE BEST, W NOT THE WORST: C-SPAN asked a gaggle of historians to rank the 42 presidents in a variety of categories (ranging from best facial hair to hottest wife...wait a second...what's that?...oh, I guess the categories were things like crisis leadership and relations with Congress) and the results show that we needn't take a wrecking ball to Mt. Rushmore anytime soon.
The top five (Abe, George, FDR, Teddy, and Truman) were unchanged from C-Span's last survey in 2000. The biggest dropper among the elite presidents was Woodrow Wilson, who tumbled from No. 6 to No. 9. Bill Clinton was among the biggest gainers, going from No. 21 to No. 15 largely on the strength of his Economic Management ranking, but the biggest mover of all was good old U.S. Grant, who catapulted to the No. 23 spot, 10 points higher than he ranked in 2000.
As for the poll's newcomer, W, he was sandwiched at No. 36, right between John Tyler and Millard Fillmore. Particularly damaging to Bush's ranking, were his scores on Economic Management (No. 40, just beating out Hoover) and International Relations (No. 41, just above William Henry Harrison, he of the one-month presidency).
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