Presidential scholars flunk the rankings test

Just 18 months into his presidency 238 presidential scholars assembled by Siena College Research Institute rank Obama the 15th best president, three slots higher than Ronald Reagan and two above John Adams.

This says nothing about the quality of presidents and everything about the state of “scholars.”

The scholars ranked Obama seventh in communication ability, eighth in intelligence, sixth in imagination and fifth in leadership. They also ranked him 14th in executive appointments for crying out loud.

They ranked Reagan 36th in intelligence. At least Thomas Jefferson ranked first in intelligence.

On handling the economy they ludicrously ranked Obama 17th and Reagan 21st.

Craig Shirley was one those scholars, but has a different view from the collective.

“The fact that FDR and other ‘progressive’ presidents score so high surely indicates a certain level of bias in the historians chosen and surveyed,” he says. “Empirical data demonstrates that FDR never solved the Great Depression and indeed, probably exacerbated it with his New Deal policies; however he does deserve all the credit for winning WW II. On the other hand, after America was attacked on December 7th, any president who had not responded just as forcefully would have been impeached.”

They ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt as first in handling the economy.

As for ranking Obama above Reagan, Shirley seethes, “But objectively, how does one really put Obama ahead of Reagan, who unlike FDR, solved his economic calamity in two years (and in the process, tamed the high inflation, high interest rates and created 19 million jobs in the private sector) and, oh by way, won the Cold War.”

As an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily scarily points out about the scholars: “These people are teaching our kids.”