The American presidency is one of the strangest jobs in the world.
Politicians aspire to it. The media focuses obsessively on the person who holds it and those who want to win it. Millions of books and articles have been written about it. And yet, most of the people who’ve held the job really weren’t that good.
There are a few truly great presidents, some pretty good ones and a handful of complete disasters. But most can be summed up, as the Simpsons famously once did, as the “adequate, forgettable, occasionally regrettable, caretaker presidents of the U.S.A.”
There are a few truly great presidents, some pretty good ones and a handful of complete disasters.
In fairness, the presidency radically changed in the 20th century, especially as the United States became a global power, so it’s a bit hard to compare the earlier commanders in chief to the modern ones. And despite the many mediocrities, ranking the presidents is a popular pastime, one I’ve dabbled in myself. So let’s ask a slightly different question: Who are the most overrated and underrated holders of the most thankless job in American politics?
Historians generally rank Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington as the three best presidents, and it’s hard to say that any of them are overrated — though Roosevelt’s and Lincoln’s accomplishments (the former steered the country through economic calamity and world war and the latter saved the Union) were arguably more significant than Washington’s (whose greatest presidential act perhaps was relinquishing the job after two terms).
But I’ll make the case for Dwight D. Eisenhower as slightly underrated. On domestic policy, we’re still living in the shadow of his accomplishments: the national highway system, increased federal support for higher education and national investments in technology research and development. He also presided over a period of extraordinary national prosperity and growth.
On foreign policy,…
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