In another thread, we've discussed what the qualifications for the presidency should be. I'd suggest that another way to look at this is to figure out which presidents we think were good, and then try to figure out where they stood on various qualifications, when they took office. That should give us some sense of what qualifications were critical and what qualifications just don't matter.

So, who do you think are the greatest presidents in history? Here are my rankings of the top ten:

1) FDR
2) Truman
3) Adams
4) Lincoln
5) Theodore Roosevelt
6) LBJ
7) Washington
8) Clinton
9) Wilson
10) Jefferson

I'd be interested in seeing other people's lists, or hearing other people's thoughts on what common qualifications there were among my top ten, which perhaps we should apply in choosing the next president.

Well, I part with you on the order as follows and here's why;

1) FDR
2) Lincoln - saw us through a very unpopular and divisive war (race and draft riots in the north belie the mythology that it was a wildly popular war)
3) Theodore Roosevelt - gave us income tax as a way to avoid our own Russian style revolution and was key to conservation in the USA3) Adams
3) Truman
5) Carter - He was right about energy and knew the worth of diplomacy while carrying a big stick
6) LBJ
7) Washington
8) Clinton
9) Adams 10) Jefferson

I have a top 3 list, probably similar to most folks: Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. All three presided over eras in our history where the nation could have self destructed and all three borught us through it. The others certainly have their merits but I would not consider them to be among the truly great presidents.

1) FDR No dispute there.

2) Lincoln - I like Lincoln, but I've had a tendency to rate him lower ever since hearing a pretty convincing thought experiment once. Imagine that, instead of the Civil War happening, Lincoln had found a compromise that would contain slavery and then allow it to be phased out gradually over the course of a decade. Would Lincoln be rated higher or lower? He should be rated much higher, for having accomplished the same thing with vastly less bloodshed and destruction. But we tend to give extra credit for those who presided over parts of history that make entertaining stories, and civil war is highly entertaining. So, I mark Lincoln down just a bit for the fact his greatness is almost entirely linked to his handling of a war that might theoretically have been avoidable. FDR, too, is remembered as a wartime president, but much of his greatness had to do with his peacetime leadership, in the New Deal.

3) Theodore Roosevelt - I'd rank him higher, but something about his egotism makes it hard for me to do that.

3) Adams - I rank him quite high, too.

3) Truman -- With him, I give him the lion's share of the credit for the overall peace of the second half of the 20th century and the ultimate triumph of democracy over Soviet communism. His policy of containing communism without provoking it (for example, defending South Korea without provoking China into a full-scale war), ending up being the "secret sauce" of American ascendence. Combine that with the Marshall Plan (which set the global economy up for spectacular growth), the UN (which helped to defuse many humanitarian and global politcial crises), and strong social policies (such as the integration of the armed forces), and it's pretty impressive.

5) Carter - I think he may be the most underrated President ever, but that's not enough to get him into my top 10. His time was just too rough, economically, and he set the nation up for the rise of Reaganism, which was disastrous. I also think his big accomplishment in foreign policy (Camp David) is somewhat offset by helping to set us up for future problems with Iran and Afghanistan.

6) LBJ - I could rank him really high or really low, depending on whether I was thinking about social policy or foreign policy.

7) Washington - I think a lot of his decisions as president were poor, but he was really important in setting up so many traditions, and in establishing the notion of limited presidential powers, that I give him a free pass on most of his decisions.

8) Clinton - He's sort of the flip side of Lincoln. He gets rated lower than he otherwise would because his era doesn't make for that much entertaining history. There was no great war, nor any huge crisis for America to overcome. Yet good leadership might make it possible to deal with potential problems before they become crises. Maybe in some alternate universe Clinton lost in 1992 and we got another Great Depression under Bush, or neocons provoked the Russians to the point that Zhironovsky would have succeeded in taking power and we would have gotten a war. It seems unfair to penalize Clinton just because eight years of peace and prosperity don't make as good of reading as battles and disasters.

9) Adams - I score him high because he helped keep America out of war, at a time when it was vulnerable enough that a war may have ended the whole experiment when it had hardly begun.

10) Jefferson -- I give him credit, but only grudgingly, since I see his vision of America as regressive. HIs agrarian utopia just wasn't where the country's future lay.

1) FDR
2) Truman
3) Adams
4) Lincoln
5) Theodore Roosevelt
6) LBJ
7) Washington
8) Clinton
9) Wilson
10) Jefferson

My list

1) FDR-Without Question

2) Truman- For having the Courage to end the war.

3) Theodore Roosevelt- The Trustbuster.He cleaned up a lot

4) Clinton-He cleaned up the mess left by Reagan and Bush 41.

5) Washington-He rebuilt the Country

6) LBJ- For completing what Kennedy started.

7) Lincoln- I do agree,he could have averted the war,but too many States rights prevented him.

Since the 70's,

1) Reagan - whose economic policies have NEVER been rescinded. :)

2) Bush 43 - who extended Reaganomics, and removed Saddam.

3) Bush 41 - for removing Saddam from Kuwait.

4) Gerald Ford - for healing America.

5) Bill Clinton - for helping Republicans pass Nafta and welfare reform, and for enabling Republicans to become the majority party for the first time in decades, and giving us Hillary. :)

I forgot to give Clinton his credit for Bush 43's election, like Hillary is helping McCain. :)