C-Span conducted a Presidential Historians Survey 2021. They judged Presidents based on the following criteria: 1. Public Persuasion, 2. Crisis Leadership, 3. Economic Management, 4. Moral Authority, 5. International Relations, 6. Administrative Skills, 7. Relations with Congress, 8. Vision, 9. Pursued Equal Justice for All, and 10. Performance within Context of Times.
My list is a small re-shuffling of the list. I am a huge admirer of FDR who pulled the U.S. from a depression, a world war and initiated a variety of badly needed social programs. My recent readings of books regarding the Truman presidency has moved him up from my previous lists.
Donald Trump is listed in the bottom four of the survey only ahead of James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce. On my list, he would be our worst President just based on his actions of 1/6/2021.
| C-span Presidential Historians | Eric Amateur Historian |
| 1. Abraham Lincoln | 1. Abraham Lincoln |
| 2. George Washington | 2. Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| 3. Franklin D. Roosevelt | 3. George Washington |
| 4. Theodore Roosevelt | 4. Harry Truman |
| 5. Dwight Eisenhower | 5. Thomas Jefferson |
| 6. Harry Truman | 6. Theodore Roosevelt |
| 7. Thomas Jefferson | 7. John F. Kennedy |
| 8. John F. Kennedy | 8. Barack Obama |
| 9. Ronald Reagan | 9. Dwight Eisenhower |
| 10. Barack Obama | 10. Ronald Reagan |
