Biden is the 14th best US president and Trump was the worst, according to survey of historians | International

If United States presidents were chosen by historians, Donald Trump would not have much chance of returning to the White House after the November 5 presidential elections. That’s what academics, historians and experts think who voted in the third edition of a survey promoted by professors Brandon Rottinghaus, of the University of Houston, and Justin S. Vaughn, of Coastal Carolina University . The survey places the current occupant of the White House, Joe Biden, in 14th place in the ranking of the 45 presidents.

Rottinghaus and Vaughn launched what they called the Presidential Greatness Project, the culmination of which is this survey of experts. Yet participation is low: 525 respondents were invited to participate and 154 usable responses were received, resulting in a response rate of 29.3%. Interviewees included current and recent members of the Section on Presidents and Executive Politics of the American Political Science Association, which is the leading organization of social science experts on presidential politics, as well as scholars who had recently published peer-reviewed research in academic magazines and press.

Historians and political scientists are asked to rate presidents from 0 to 100, where 0 is failure and 100 is greatness. Ranking results They are quite similar to those of previous surveys, published in 2015 and 2018. Abraham Lincoln once again tops the list (95.03 on average), followed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (90.83), George Washington (90. 32), Theodore Roosevelt (78.58), Thomas Jefferson (77.53), Harry Truman (75.34), Barack Obama (73.8) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (73.73). Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved from third to second place. Except for him, who was president at precisely the time the monument was carved, the other four presidents who top the list are those who appear on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Donald Trump is rated the lowest (10.92) by experts, behind James Buchanan (16.71), the president before the outbreak of the Civil War. Although those who responded to the survey have some progressive bias, there is broad consensus that Trump was a terrible leader. By partisan affiliation, Democratic and independent historians consider him the worst president, while Republicans place him in 41st place, leaving Buchanan in last place. Something similar happens in terms of the ideology of those surveyed: pundits who define themselves as progressive or moderate place him last and those who define themselves as conservative place him in 43rd place out of 45 presidents, still with Buchanan at the bottom .

Biden enters the rankings in 14th place, with 62.66 points, behind John F. Kennedy (10th) and recent Democrats Barack Obama (7th) and Bill Clinton (12th), but ahead of recent Republicans Ronald Reagan (16th) , George HW Bush (19th), George W. Bush (32nd) and Donald Trump (45th).

Biden’s good position is precisely due, in large part, to the fact that he kicked Trump out of the White House. “Biden’s most important accomplishments might be that he saved Trump’s presidency, returned to a more traditional presidential leadership style, and prepared to keep the office out of his predecessor this fall,” the report said. an article published in Los Angeles Times.

The opinion of political scientists and historians, however, is very different from that indicated by the polls of the general population that they give to Biden. the lowest approval rating for a president since Jimmy Carter. Additionally, his age (81) and mental acuity have become subjects of concern, even among supporters of his own party.

Biden and Trump are the most likely candidates for next November’s presidential elections by the two major parties. Most polls so far give Trump an advantage, both in the popular vote across the country and in decisive states. It’s unclear what role Trump’s indictments and trials might have in the campaign. So far, the trials have favored him among the Republican Party’s base, and Trump appears well-positioned to secure the primary nomination. More uncertain is the effect that seeing him in the dock or a hypothetical conviction could have, particularly among independent, moderate and undecided voters.

Republicans and conservatives consider George Washington the best president, ahead of Lincoln, favorite of Democrats, independents, progressives and moderates. There is a wide divergence of opinion based on ideology about many recent presidents (Reagan, George HW Bush, Obama, and Biden). In the case of the current president, Democrats place him in 13th place; the independents, in the 19th; and the Republicans, in 30th.

“In the first post-Trump poll, we saw a significant rebound in recent Democratic presidents, each of whom rose in the rankings, while each of recent Republican presidents fell, except for President Trump, who remained at last place in the ranking. classification”, Vaughn said in a statement released by the University of Houston.

“As scholars reassess the impact of the modern presidency from an administrative and cultural perspective, we see significant changes over time in what constitutes presidential greatness,” Rottinghaus said.

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