Grading the presidents

[dude1394]

Quite an interesting post at Polipundit and others grading the last 5 presidents. I haven't gone through all of the links but here is polipundits take. Interesting and I'm pretty much in agreement here. It STILL pains me that that I help subject Jimmah Carter on the world. World please accept my abject apologies. I am sorry...I'll never make that mistake again.

The thing that is most interesting to me is how conservatives who idolize Renaldous Maximus (as they should) don't seem to really have objectively looked at real data comparing Dubya and criticise him for things that Renaldous was guilty of. Pretty good stuff all in all.

http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=12737#more-12737

Saturday, March 25th, 2006
Grading By Reagan – My Report Card

Gay Patriot opened a forum to discuss how President George W. Bush should be compared to Ronald W. Reagan, arguably the greatest Republican President in the past century, if not one of the greatest of all American Presidents. I was honored to be asked to comment as a member of a panel of “Reagan Scholars”, to “adjust” the grades handed out by Gay Patriot and to respond to the comments from the readers. This column is my considered opinion, which will be added to those from Bridget Johnson and Sondra K onMOnday for the final grade.

I have thought about this matter for a few days, and the first thing I would say, is that we have to establish a standard by which to rate Bush. I do not think it would be appropriate to use Reagan as the absolute, because for all my admiration and respect for President Reagan, he was human and therefore made his share of errors and had his own limitations. So, I have chosen to compare five Presidents here to what I call the “Reagan Ideal”; that is, how well each of the past five Presidents has done (or appears to have done, since Bush’s work is still in progress) in performance of the ideals exemplified by Ronald Reagan. It is fairly accepted as consensus that Reagan’s Presidency was the most successful in memory of any President in our generation, and so his ideals would appear to be the most salient in comparing performance. As a rule of thumb, the default for a President is “C”, that being the average grade in common use. If a President has done some damage to the country or his office in that category, then a lower grade would be used, although an “F” would not necessarily mean the President was completely incompetent or mendacious. If a President has done some service beyond the norm in a category, then a higher grade would be used, though even an “A+” would not necessarily mean perfection. While a bit more complex, matching up grades on the Reagan Ideal for not only Dubya, but his father, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Reagan himself helps demonstrate not only a proper comparison between the modern Presidents, but also demonstrate how some Presidents have had to recover from the damage done by a predecessor. With that in mind, I turn my attention to the nine selected categories:

Vision/Optimism (A- from Gay Patriot)
Communicating That Vision (D+/C- from Gay Patriot)
National Security (A- from Gay Patriot)
Foreign Policy (A- from Gay Patriot)
Free Trade (B/B+ from Gay Patriot)
Domestic Spending/Size of Government (D+ from Gay Patriot)
Federalism (D from Gay Patriot)
Judicial Appointments (A- from Gay Patriot)
Leadership/Tenacity (A- from Gay Patriot)
Overall Grade (B/B+ from Gay Patriot)

First, Vision/Optimism. Here is how the last five Presidents fared in my scoring:

Carter: D
Reagan: A+
GHW Bush: B
Clinton: C-
GW Bush: A-

Here’s how I got there. Carter got the lowest grade, for basically giving up on America’s mission in the world. He tried to make Diplomacy a bigger part of the process, I will give him that, but he downgraded the military, and refused to support his commitments when pressed. Clinton tried to sell America’s place in the world like a Marketing campaign, but he too had no stomach for the tough road. The elder Bush did what was necessary, and his vision of a post-Cold War world was important in crafting some signal treaties and agreements with Russia, China, and other important countries, but he did not see far enough. Dubya and Reagan are true visionaries, men who not only faced their challenges squarely, but who also established programs and doctrines to set a wise course for the future.

Communicating That Vision. Here is how the last five Presidents fared in my scoring:

Carter: D
Reagan: A+
GHW Bush: B
Clinton: A
GW Bush: A-

Again, Carter is at the bottom. Partly, it’s because trying to persuade a nation to adopt a despondent policy, as Carter did in his “Malaise” speech, is poor strategy to begin with but also, Carter consistently failed to demonstrate any sort of plan for restoring America to greatness. On the other end is Reagan, whose delivery in speeches was perfect, legendary. Next comes Clinton, whose true gift was the common touch, the ability to speak in terms the average man and woman would recognize and accept. Some people may be surprised I grade Dubya so high, but for all the apparent clumsiness of his elocution, it should be observed that when the stakes matter, he gets results. The last three elections, the Congressional vote on invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and on tax relief, the President is effective in his communications, as evidenced where it counts most – the results. Too many people are influenced by poor poll numbers, which are not only invalid in many cases due to the way they are constructed, but also miss the fact that the polls have never demonstrated the actual success of failure of a doctrine or initiative.. ....much more at the link..

[pocketaces]

GW A-?? I give you an "F" for that one....

[Dtownsfinest]

@any of the Bush's getting over a D.

[chumdawg]

I wouldn't come anywhere close to giving Clinton an "A" on communicating his vision. His second inaugural address was an incoherent piece of drek, and it is widely regarded as among the worst inaugural addresses in modern times. It tried to say everything but actually said nothing. Let's build a bridge to the 21st century! Yes! Let's get started on that bridge right now!!

[Drbio]

Reagan was the best President. Simply the best. I have a good feeling that GWBush will one day be appreciated (way in the future) as a strong, reliable President.

[sixeightmkw]

Originally Posted by Drbio

Reagan was the best President. Simply the best. I have a good feeling that GWBush will one day be appreciated (way in the future) as a strong, reliable President.

Your Simply the Best, Better than All the Rest

I broke out in song when I read this.

[Drbio]

I inspire people. It's what I do.

[sixeightmkw]

when I first read this title of the thread, I thought it said grabing the presidents. That would be pretty sick.

[orangedays]

mods are running a tight ship.

[Mavdog]

the worst pres? carter, with GHW Bush running a close second. give carter a D, GHW Bush a C-.

it's too early to really evaluate GW Bush, but at this point in time imo he is right ahead of his dad. B- and sliding into a solid C. poor fiscal leadership, poor domestic leadership, and the jury is out on his foreign policy initiatives. he gets positive marks for his pursuit of terrorism, unfortunately for him iraq isn't a part of that success.

reagan was a mixed bag. he did a ton of good after the failures of carter and ghw bush in getting the public feeling positive. however, his fiscal policies were horrific and the iran contra affair was a huge blemish. B

clinton was a good leader, and good communicator, and his fiscal policies brought a sharp positive turn from the reagan/bush years. he had a few mistakes on foreign policy and there was the whole monica thing. B

not an A in this group imo.

[dalmations202]

Carter C-
Reagan A-
GH Bush B-
Clinton D-
GW Bush B+

<edit> I guess I should go back to my life like most here seem to have.

Johnson B
Nixon B- (Watergate, and waiting till the second term to bring home the boys lowered it for me)
Ford B

[capitalcity]

FDR B+
Truman B+
Eisenhower A
JFK B-
LBJ B
Nixon A-
Ford B-
Carter C
Reagan A+
Bush 41 B+
Clinton B
W A-

[u2sarajevo]

JFK B-
LBJ B
Nixon B-
Ford C
Carter F
Reagan A+
Bush 41 B
Clinton A- (which pains me because of the stain on the Oval Office he left - pun intended)
W B+

[Mavdog]

you guys are giving a higher grade to GHW Bush than I would consider justified. why? are there any acheivements of his administration that I'm perhaps missing?

[dude1394]

Cajones

[u2sarajevo]

Originally Posted by Mavdog

you guys are giving a higher grade to GHW Bush than I would consider justified. why? are there any acheivements of his administration that I'm perhaps missing?

I don't know. Maybe you don't value the same acheivements we do.

Taking no crap from enemies, and not backing down when the pressure is on gets a pretty big nod in my book. Solidifying this Countries resolve after being attacked by a faceless enemy was a huge accomplishment in my book also.

And despite the fact that the intelligence was wrong, he removed a tyrrant from power and freed a Country that was being oppressed. That gets a big nod in my book too.

Thanks for making me think about this, because I am tempted to raise my original grade now.