For President’s Day 2024, the Presidential Greatness Project asked a list of “presidential experts” to rank all past and present American presidents — and the final list reveals a lot about what these “experts” really value. Glenn, Pat, and Stu review the list, which predictably ranked Abraham Lincoln 1st. But the list quickly devolves into a celebration of progressive presidents who expanded the federal government’s powers: “Everyone they like wanted a dictatorship,” Glenn says. And of course, the “experts” weren’t big fans of Donald Trump …
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Well, the presidential greatness ratings and rankings are finally in.
Yes. Yes. The -- the president and executive politics section of the American political of science association, which is the foremost organization of Social Security science experts in presidential politics, as well as super, super smart scholars, who are much more smart than you are, tummy.
They published a peer-reviewed academic research in key-related scholarly journals and academic presses, and 525 respondents were invited to participate.
Here we have, the best presidents ranked in order.
PAT: 525 were asked. I think 100 --
GLENN: Fifty-four.
PAT: 154, actually.
GLENN: Usable responses were received. In other words, there were some that --
STU: They used all of those.
GLENN: All right. So number one, Abraham Lincoln.
Don't think we can argue with that. He's in the top five.
STU: Yeah. Top five.
PAT: For sure. This has I don't know if I would put him one.
GLENN: Who would you put as one?
STU: Probably Washington.
GLENN: I would too.
STU: That's not a knock on Lincoln.
PAT: No.
GLENN: But Washington was the one who demonstrated how to use power. How to get rid of power. How to go home.
STU: Set the tone.
GLENN: The two terms thing is all because of him.
He is -- he is -- but he is a reluctant president, just like Michelle Obama.
Okay. So they have --
STU: Still? Where they still have -- number one is Lincoln. Number two is Franklin Roosevelt.
PAT: This is unbelievable. Stop it.
STU: It's completely --
PAT: FDR is one of the absolute worse. He's bottom five. Bottom five for sure.
GLENN: Well, if you'll notice the pattern here as we go on. The pattern is, the scholar seems to love those who you can't get past. You can't get past Lincoln. You can't get past Washington. You can't throw them into the dustbin. But they want to. They want to.
PAT: They want to.
GLENN: And so if you look at the pattern of everyone that doesn't make sense, it's because they fundamentally changed our systems.
PAT: Uh-huh, where FDR fundamentally changed. We were this close to a dictatorship.
Mussolini said he's cut from our cloth. Hitler said, he's cut from our cloth. He's going for this great state, so FDR.
So then number three is Washington.
Under FDR --
STU: That's -- that's insanity.
PAT: Madness.
GLENN: By the way, FDR, huge racist. Huge racist.
Did not invite, what's his name? The runner?
Jesse Owens. Didn't invite him.
Only metal winner, not invited. The biggest. And most important -- wasn't invited.
STU: Of all time.
GLENN: Let's see. So Washington. Then Theodore Roosevelt. Another progressive.
PAT: Come on. Jeez.
STU: Like Theodore Roosevelt. Does not even belong anywhere close to the top of this list.
PAT: No.
STU: You mentioned this a million times. Obviously, the man started the Progressive Party.
Of course they love him. But still --
GLENN: Massive eugenist.
STU: You can say he did incredible things in his life, but as a person. Yeah.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. But what did he do?
What did he do as president? What is he most famous for doing as president?
STU: He was -- well, he really like, continued what -- what Wilson was doing, who is coming up soon in the countdown. But continued that move. In a way to -- to make progressivism the -- the homespun philosophy.
GLENN: But as a president. As a president, he's responsible for the national parks.
He's -- he's responsible --
STU: Why is that seen as some big accomplishment?
Hey, we fenced off a bunch of grass!
What a -- remember the Ken burns documentary. The slogan for that documentary was America's greatest accomplishment. What are you talking about?
The guy put a bunch of -- what?
Fences around grass where animals can stay.
PAT: Well, there's gates too, so you can pay to get ahead. Don't forget about that.
STU: Wow. What a thing. What a thing.
I mean, how many medical innovations have we created? We've saved the world how many times?
Well, gosh. Well, they put those park benches out there.
That was really a good thing that America did. Hey, look, picnic tables!
GLENN: Again, look at the two.
We have Lincoln and Washington. We understand. Okay?
Roosevelt and Roosevelt, they're both progressives. They're both progressives.
PAT: Really bad.
GLENN: They're all about state power.
STU: Yes.
GLENN: Then Jefferson.
Another one you got to go, well, okay.
You wrote the Declaration of Independence. I think this is kind of a big deal. Then Truman.
STU: Again, we should point out. All these people are saying, oh, well, we have to throw them in.
Are also the people that I guarantee, some of these historians. If you look at their Twitter tedious. Would be advocating for the tearing down of their statues.
PAT: Oh, for sure.
STU: Like I guarantee you, 2020, go back and look at their George Floyd feeds at the time, as they were encouraging Washington and Jefferson. The statues to come down.
GLENN: Washington, Jefferson. And Lincoln.
STU: And Lincoln is maybe the hardest argument to make on that one. But still.
GLENN: They wanted to bring it down in Washington, DC.
STU: Ben Franklin, they wanted to bring down his statues.
PAT: Harry Truman is a surprise too. Since he dropped the bomb on Japan.
GLENN: Not only, he's the guy that said yes to Israel.
PAT: Yeah, right.
GLENN: So, I mean, I'm shocked at him.
Then number seven, Obama.
PAT: That's incredible. Nine places since last time.
STU: Just stupid, just stupid.
PAT: It's asinine.
GLENN: You know why?
Michelle Obama for president. Who is losing a thousand dollars?
STU: Stop trying to take my money. I just want a push.
That's all I want. Is a push.
We need Gavin Newsom or somebody, to be the nominee. So I don't have to pay a thousand dollars.
Then Eisenhower. Now, Eisenhower oversaw the building of the industrial military complex.
PAT: Yeah. But he bashed it, at the end.
STU: That one speech.
GLENN: He said, we just built it. You will have to deal with this. Be afraid.
PAT: I put this thing together for you, that you will have to deal with the rest of America's existence.
But look out for it! Because it's really powerful and bad.
GLENN: Right. So look what we have. We have Obama, built giant government. Eisenhower, giant government. Then number nine, LB Johnson.
PAT: This is incredible. That might be the biggest abomination of them all. Number nine. A top ten president.
STU: He is legitimately, within the conversation, for the worst president of all time.
PAT: No question.
STU: It's in the conversation.
Now, you might say Woodrow Wilson. And I probably will lean that way. But if you want to come up with -- we need to do -- we need to get all the Blaze people to give us the top five presidents of all time.
Because LBJ, to me, is on that list. If he's not number one worst of all time, he's in the top two or thee.
GLENN: It's Wilson. I'm not going to rank them. Wilson is number one in all of them.
STU: Of course.
GLENN: It's Wilson. Obama. LBJ.
STU: Biden. Where Biden -- Biden might be number one or two now.
PAT: Yeah. For sure.
GLENN: It's Jackson. Andrew Jackson.
STU: I would put Carter in the conversation for that.
GLENN: Carter. But Carter is almost like a hapless dupe compared to these guys.
STU: But still! That's really bad.
GLENN: He started the Department of Education. So he built the -- look at -- everyone they like, wanted a dictatorship.
All of them!
They didn't call it that. But that's what they wanted. They built this Deep State. Then Kennedy is at number ten.
He's up four, which I find interesting.
Because Kennedy is probably the only one that couldn't -- wouldn't be allowed in the Democratic Party now. All the ones we just mentioned, they would still love.
Kennedy, no way.
Kennedy wanted to break up the military industrial complex. Kennedy cut taxes like nobody's business!
I mean, he was practically Ronald Reagan in comparison.
Then -- then James Madison comes in after Truman, Eisenhower, Obama, Johnson.
PAT: LBJ.
Come on. Come on.
GLENN: James Madison.
PAT: Yeah. The guy who wrote the US Constitution.
Let's put him 11th.
STU: Behind a guy who created a bunch of programs that are completely bankrupting us.
PAT: Yes.
STU: Like we are all aware as to why we are going to soon be spending a trillion dollars a year, in just interest, but LBJ.
Ah, yeah, the good thing, the redeeming quality, he was an incredible racist. And he was a drunk driver. Let's put him number nine.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Number nine.
Then after Madison. Then comes Bill Clinton.
Then comes John Adams.
STU: Clinton. Wait.
GLENN: Then comes Biden. This has so we have -- accused rapist. Followed by -- and Biden at 14, is -- look, I don't know.
PAT: So outrageous.
STU: The Barack Obama thing is so expected. It didn't surprise me at all, right?
GLENN: You do have to say. There is -- there is, at this point, with historians.
There is, you know, kind of a magic around him. Because he was America's second black president.
STU: Right. Ahead of the first black president.
GLENN: Yeah. It's weird.
STU: But you kind of understand.
The reason you see bias in these things is always big. Like Biden being there is not all that shocking because of its recency bias.
Obama, I'm expecting.
And the end of this, of course, everyone already knows is Trump last.
Which is also probably one of the recency bias. Right? Once the next president gets in that is a Republican, they will all say, he's even worse than Trump.
We all know that will happen on these lists.
But it's like, the -- the Obama thing.
Okay. First black president. Like, they got their Obamacare. There are things they know they will like. What on earth argument is there, with Joe Biden. With a 37 percent approval rating, to be the 14th greatest president of all time?
GLENN: You're not going to.
STU: It's absurd.
GLENN: The rest of the list is not going to improve your mood.
By the way, tomorrow, I will have a poll ready. With all the presidents.
And you just rank them. Okay? If you don't know who they are.
Because like Polk. I don't know. What did Polk do?
PAT: Mexican-American war.
GLENN: Okay. So he's bad.
STU: By the way, it's also Tuesday. This would be James K. Polk Tuesdays, just pointing that out.
GLENN: Hayes. Rutherford B. Hayes. What did he do?
PAT: All kinds of things.
STU: Are you guys into Chester B. Arthur?
GLENN: Yeah, there are some -- we will cut the list down. Okay?
PAT: Just eliminating Chester A. Arthur.
GLENN: No. I'll leave them all in there for judges. Like, I don't know.
PAT: Is he a Republican or Democrat? Whatever.
STU: Seems best five worse. Best five worse.
GLENN: I like to see top ten. Bottom ten. Okay. We'll do that.