Where They Stand

Who is America's greatest president? George Washington? Abraham Lincoln? FDR? Who was the worst? James Buchanan? Andrew Johnson? Warren Harding? How about Richard Nixon?

If you are thinking about your answers, then you are playing what author Robert Merry calls "the great White House rating game." And last night Merry appeared at Politics and Prose to discuss his new book Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of the Voters and Historians.

Merry says his book actually resulted from a phone call from an editor at The New York Times. The editor wanted Merry to write an article about a comment President Barack Obama had made. He said "I would rather be a really good one-term president than a medicore 2-term president." Merry said his research showed that there had never really been a good one-term president. He expanded his look to see how historians and the electorate had viewed all the U.S. presidents, research which formed the basis for his new book.

There are 6 presidents who seem to consistently fall into the truly great category. They are Washington, Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Theodore Roosevelt. Merry said the 6, whom he calls "leaders of destiny," demonstrated 3 common characteristics. They all:

• had high ratings from voters at the time they were president
• have continually held favorable ratings from historians and
• they understood their times and used that knowledge to send the country on a new course

Does Merry believe more presidents will eventually belong in that category? The answer is yes. The author believes that some day Ronald Reagan will be given that standing.

So if they are the best, who is believed to be the worst? That category appears to fluctuate much more during the years. The names most often bantered about have included Ulysses Grant, A. Johnson, Buchanan, and Nixon.

Merry said he thinks his book shows that American voters have done well in deciding who should run, and then continue to run, the country. "Americans have elected liberals. They have elected conservatives. The election of a president is largely a referendum on performance. They have been hiring and firing these guys in 4-year increments," Merry said.

In the end, there really are no absolute answers to "the great White House rating game." It's just fun to play, Merry said. "Unlike a horse race, there is no finish line so we can talk about this endlessly," he added.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Last night marked the 1st time that we witnessed C-Span filming a book talk at Politics and Prose in the year we have been coming here. The C-Span Book TV channel is to book lovers what ESPN is to sports lovers - everything books, all the time. You can check out the Book TV website by clicking here.  And if you happen to catch the show on Robert Merry, you can see me. I asked the 1st question of the evening. Hope they filmed my good side.