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Jewish World Review Feb. 28, 2000 / 22 Adar I, 5760

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Grading the American presidents


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- HERE'S A GREAT RIDDLE with which to trick your friends: "What five presidents are not buried in the United States?"

Before giving you the answer, I ask you to look at the new survey of historians. Conducted by C-Span (the network that shows Congress in action), the poll asked the professionals to rate our 41 presidents according to their effectiveness.

The top of the list contained few surprises. The four faces on Mt. Rushmore are chiseled in our national memory. The historians ranked Abraham Lincoln in first place, Franklin Roosevelt in second, George Washington in third, Theodore Roosevelt in fourth.

Thomas Jefferson, who finished seventh, is the only missing face from Mount Rushmore. The historians bumped him for FDR, who was not yet inaugurated when the grand South Dakota sculpture was undertaken.

Let's talk about a more recent quintet of presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton.

Except for Reagan, who finished 11th on the new list, all ranked in the range of 20th through 25th. Bush was 21st, Clinton 22nd, Carter 23rd, Ford 24th, Nixon 25th.

How does it feel to be one of those guys? They've just received their grade in history. If they're like the rest of us they can only wonder what small achievement might have taken them past a whole pack of their close competitors.

This is especially true for the current president who has enough months left in office to think about his tightly calibrated ranking in history but probably not enough time left to change it.

Clinton ranked fifth in economic management, fifth in pursuing equal justice, 11th in public persuasion, 20th in crisis management, 21st in international relations; 21st in administrative skills, 22nd in vision and agenda-setting.

The ranking the historians gave him in "moral authority" must be especially troubling. Of the 41 presidents, he finished 41st, dead last.

How does that feel to the man working on his legacy in the Oval Office, this president who has hired a top-paid staffer, Sydney Blumenthal, to tend to that specific task?

Who are the five American presidents not buried in the United States? Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and most of all, Bill Clinton. He's not even out the door yet.



JWR contributor Chris Matthews is the author of Hardball. and hosts a CNBC show of the same name. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

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