After looking at all the presidents, how did Barack Obama do in the C-SPAN survey of historians? Here is the continuation of my answer for each category (continued from part 7), along with my own opinion of their view:
ADMINISTRATIVE SKILLS
The historians ranked Obama as 19th best president in administrative skills. It is difficult to argue with this assessment, as there is a large bridge of mediocre presidents between the top and the bottom. It would be splitting hairs to move Obama higher or lower.
RELATIONS WITH CONGRESS
Obama gets dropped all the way to 39th place by the historians, and it is hard to disagree. After Obama used the Democratic majority Congress to ram through Obamacare on partisan lines, this allowed the Republicans to claim the House in the 2010 midterms, and then the Senate in the 2012 election, basically putting a huge roadblock to anything else Obama wanted to get done.
VISION / SETTING AN AGENDA
Obama was ranked 12th in the survey. I won't question his "vision", but for setting an agenda, he was horrible. Dodd-Frank and Obamacare were his only successful examples of vision and setting the agenda, and Dodd-Frank was another giveaway to an already troubled financial sector (by adding more regulation, he just gave too-big-to-fail banks more protection from competition from below). He struggled everywhere else, when he wasn't outright failing.
For one example, I would rate Calvin Coolidge above Obama. Admittedly, Coolidge wasn't flashy with his vision, but he clearly had a minimalist vision towards government, which he laid out and ran.
PURSUED EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL
Showing up constitutes "pursuing equal justice for all"? Just because Obama has melanin in his skin doesn't make him a justice crusader. But the historians say he is, putting him at 3rd place.
The black community suffered under Obama, whose push for Obamacare precluded him from being effective at anything else during his tenure. Obama's Wall Street bailout saved the rich at the expense of average and poor Americans. His regulatory bonanza only served to place unfunded mandates on America, sucking yet more life out of the economy.
One can argue that Obamacare's requirement for health insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions was a form of pursuing equal justice for all, and I will give him that. But he accomplished that at the political expense of so much else that it becomes questionable how worthwhile it was.
He may deserve a high rating, but not nearly as high as he got. John F. Kennedy most certainly did more for the civil rights movement than even Obama's election did. I would even rate Calvin Coolidge (at 29th) above Obama, as Coolidge proposed federal anti-lynching legislation at a time when it was immensely unpopular.
PERFORMANCE WITHIN CONTEXT OF TIMES
The C-SPAN survey ranked Obama at 15th, and I think there were a few presidents beneath him who did significantly better, namely Bill Clinton (17th), Calvin Coolidge (26th), and Warren Harding (40th).
OVERALL
In summary, the C-SPAN survey put Obama as the 12th best president. that is quite generous. While I would rate FDR (3rd) and Woodrow Wilson (11th) lower, mainly for the immense damage both of them caused, I would also rate the following presidents higher than Obama:
ADMINISTRATIVE SKILLS
The historians ranked Obama as 19th best president in administrative skills. It is difficult to argue with this assessment, as there is a large bridge of mediocre presidents between the top and the bottom. It would be splitting hairs to move Obama higher or lower.
RELATIONS WITH CONGRESS
Obama gets dropped all the way to 39th place by the historians, and it is hard to disagree. After Obama used the Democratic majority Congress to ram through Obamacare on partisan lines, this allowed the Republicans to claim the House in the 2010 midterms, and then the Senate in the 2012 election, basically putting a huge roadblock to anything else Obama wanted to get done.
VISION / SETTING AN AGENDA
Obama was ranked 12th in the survey. I won't question his "vision", but for setting an agenda, he was horrible. Dodd-Frank and Obamacare were his only successful examples of vision and setting the agenda, and Dodd-Frank was another giveaway to an already troubled financial sector (by adding more regulation, he just gave too-big-to-fail banks more protection from competition from below). He struggled everywhere else, when he wasn't outright failing.
For one example, I would rate Calvin Coolidge above Obama. Admittedly, Coolidge wasn't flashy with his vision, but he clearly had a minimalist vision towards government, which he laid out and ran.
PURSUED EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL
Showing up constitutes "pursuing equal justice for all"? Just because Obama has melanin in his skin doesn't make him a justice crusader. But the historians say he is, putting him at 3rd place.
The black community suffered under Obama, whose push for Obamacare precluded him from being effective at anything else during his tenure. Obama's Wall Street bailout saved the rich at the expense of average and poor Americans. His regulatory bonanza only served to place unfunded mandates on America, sucking yet more life out of the economy.
One can argue that Obamacare's requirement for health insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions was a form of pursuing equal justice for all, and I will give him that. But he accomplished that at the political expense of so much else that it becomes questionable how worthwhile it was.
He may deserve a high rating, but not nearly as high as he got. John F. Kennedy most certainly did more for the civil rights movement than even Obama's election did. I would even rate Calvin Coolidge (at 29th) above Obama, as Coolidge proposed federal anti-lynching legislation at a time when it was immensely unpopular.
PERFORMANCE WITHIN CONTEXT OF TIMES
The C-SPAN survey ranked Obama at 15th, and I think there were a few presidents beneath him who did significantly better, namely Bill Clinton (17th), Calvin Coolidge (26th), and Warren Harding (40th).
OVERALL
In summary, the C-SPAN survey put Obama as the 12th best president. that is quite generous. While I would rate FDR (3rd) and Woodrow Wilson (11th) lower, mainly for the immense damage both of them caused, I would also rate the following presidents higher than Obama:
- James Polk (14th)
- Bill Clinton (15th)
- Grover Cleveland (23rd)
- Calvin Coolidge (27th)
- Warren Harding (40th)
Aside from the obviously progressive/socialist bias of the historians polled, this also points to another flaw in the survey, which is the equal ranking of all the criteria in determining overall rankings. For example, if an economy is well-managed, it can only help in most of the other categories.
Also, does success in one or more categories equate to a "good" president overall? Not necessarily. FDR was good at multiple categories, and was a successful president by most measures. Yet, the damage he did to the country is immeasurable. He turned America into a modern welfare state.
Obama's rankings are an example of why history is best judged from an objective distance. Even then, historians are the product of their times.
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