Thread: Political scientists rank Trump last, Lincoln first in presidential greatness survey

Political scientists rank Trump last, Lincoln first in presidential greatness survey

By Andrew Dunn
Updated 5:04 PM ET, Mon February 19, 2018

Washington (CNN) Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan enjoyed upward bumps in their greatness rankings, while President Donald Trump was ranked historically low, according to a presidential "greatness" survey released Monday.

The 2018 Presidents and Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey, released Monday, was based on 170 usable responses from current and former members of the American Political Science Association's presidents and executive politics section.

The survey asked the presidential experts to use a 0-100 scale "for overall greatness," with zero being failure, 50 being average and 100 being great. Roughly 57% of the respondents were Democrats, 13% were Republicans and 27% were independents (3% selected "Other").

Overall, Trump came in dead last. The seven greatest presidents, according to respondents, remained unchanged from the same survey's results in 2014, the previous time it was taken. In order, they were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Harry S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.

Trump did not fare well even when parsing the results by party and ideology. He ranked 40th out of 44 among Republicans and conservatives.

Self-identified Republicans and conservatives also ranked Washington above Lincoln as the all-time greatest president.
Among all those surveyed, another commander-in-chief who struggled in his rank: Bill Clinton, who fell to 13th best after being ranked eighth in 2014.

Obama came in eighth, up 10 spots from 18th in 2014. George W. Bush moved up five spots, from 35th to 30th. Reagan also moved into the top 10, ranking ninth. In 2014, he was at 11.

Political science professors Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Boise State University authored and published the survey.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/19/polit...vey/index.html

I bet these are the same people who thought Hillary was winning on November 8, 2016!!

Funny!

Trump ranks as worst president in poll of scholars

By Blair Guild CBS News
February 19, 2018, 3:29 PM
Last Updated Feb 19, 2018 3:47 PM EST

President Trump came in last place in an expert ranking of "presidential greatness," according to the 2018 Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey released by Boise State University Monday.

The survey was conducted among 170 current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, which is a group of scholars dedicated to studying the American presidency.

These experts were asked to rank each president on a scale from zero (worst) to 100 (best) based on their overall performance in office. With this, Mr. Trump came in last place with an average score of 12.34.

Even among Republican respondents, Mr. Trump still ranked extremely low, earning the 40th spot for presidential greatness. These Republicans labeled James Buchanan -- whose presidency saw the secession of seven states before the Civil War -- as the all-time worst and George Washington as the best.

Coming in first place is Abraham Lincoln, who scored an average of 95.03 between both Democrats and Republicans surveyed. The top seven presidents have remained the same since the poll was last conducted in 2014: Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In this round of questioning, former president Barack Obama moved up in the rankings to 8th best president, whereas in 2014 he came in at 18th. Scholars identifying as Republican, however, ranked Obama 16th. Ronald Reagan, who also moved up from his previous ranking, trails behind Obama in 9th place.

Bearing in mind that this was Mr. Trump's first year in office, the survey takers asked respondents to grade him on an A-F scale on these subjects: his presidency overall, legislative accomplishments, foreign policy leadership, embodying institutional norms, and communicating with the public. Overall, scholars gave him failing grades -- three Fs and two Ds. He scored highest on communicating with the public and lowest on embodying institutional norms. Self-identifying Republicans graded him higher -- three Ds and two Cs -- the higher marks were in communicating with the public and foreign policy leadership.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-r...l-of-scholars/

Now they're calling them "scholars". LOL!!

It was the "scholars" who defended slavery. It was ordinary Americans who knew by instinct that slavery was wrong and it had to go!!

Thank God it's ordinary Americans in the majority of our states who elect our Presidents, as much as our "scholars" wish otherwise. Thank you Founding Fathers!!