Mellman: Rating the presidents

Anti-intellectualism is one of the leitmotifs of our present circumstance.

We have no use for experts, no time for careful thought, no patience for sifting evidence and no interest in nuance.

While we have not yet adopted Mao’s practice of sentencing thinking people to re-education camps in the wilderness, our president has begun to emulate the Chinese dictator by labeling some as “enemies” of the people.

With that in mind, and since we’re all still winding down from our bacchanalian celebrations of Presidents Day, I thought it might be interesting to compare the public’s evaluations of our presidents to those of C-SPAN’s panel of some 90 presidential historians.

In fairness, it should be noted that not all the members of C-SPAN’s panel are in fact historians. The group includes political scientists, journalists and other observers, along with distinguished political historians.

In their collective view, one president stands above the rest: Abraham Lincoln is the only chief executive to score over 900 points in their system. Ending slavery and holding the Union together — albeit by force of arms — are unparalleled accomplishments.

Three other presidents occupy a second tier, each scoring over 800 point. They are George Washington and the distant cousins Roosevelt — Franklin D. and Theodore.

Washington’s place of honor is no doubt cemented by being first to occupy the office, but also by defining it and playing by constitutional rules. Though, given his popularity and their newness, he could easily have flouted them.

FDR guided the country out of depression and the Allies to victory over Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.

Though an icon of modern liberalism, FDR’s accomplishments have been recognized by conservative historians as well. He’s regularly ranked in the top three by surveys of academics that include equal numbers from both ideological groupings, and even in surveys of conservative scholars.

Theodore Roosevelt defined progressivism as a Republican, back when Republicans were permitted to be progressive.

Rather than embrace corruption, he waged a relentless campaign to extirpate it from his administration and from government more broadly.

Promising fairness for ordinary people, he broke up trusts, regulated the railroads, and ensured pure food and drugs while establishing myriad new national parks, forests, and monuments and digging the Panama Canal.

At the other end of the spectrum, the C-SPAN scholars accorded five men the indignity of ranking below William Henry Harrison, who became ill at his inauguration and died 31 days into his term.

Among more recent occupants of the White House, Barack Obama ranked 11th, tucked between Lyndon B. Johnson and James Monroe.

John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan came in just below Thomas Jefferson and just above LBJ.

How does the public see their presidents? Somewhat differently.

Unlike historians, few remember the contributions of earlier presidents. Indeed, the two most recent polls confined themselves to soliciting opinions about presidents after World War II.

In January, Quinnipiac found 30 percent rating Reagan the finest since the war, with Obama just below, at 29 percent; C-SPAN’s scholars ranked them 9th and 11th, respectively.

Just this week, a Morning Consult survey also put Reagan on top with the public and Obama at No. 2.

Kennedy came in just behind Obama with the public, though the historians put Kennedy — as well as Truman, Reagan and Johnson — ahead of Obama.

Recency appears to affect the public far more than it does historians.

In fact, historians seem to prefer distance. In 2000, Dwight Eisenhower ranked ninth, but 17 years later, he has risen in historical esteem to No. 5, just behind Lincoln, Washington and the Roosevelts. So, over time, Obama too may move up the ladder.

Oh, and Donald Trump? He’s already considered the worst post-WWII president by the public, followed closely by Obama.

Partisanship lives with the public, even if scholars can sometimes put it aside.

But who cares what academics think? 

Mellman is president of The Mellman Group and has helped elect 30 U.S. senators, 12 governors and dozens of House members. Mellman served as pollster to Senate Democratic leaders for over 20 years.