The newly-released Presidential Historians Survey by C-SPAN ranks Barack Obama as the 12th best president in the history of the U.S., placing him right behind Woodrow Wilson and ahead of James Monroe.
Historians who took part in the survey-- 91 of them, to be exact-- were asked to grade the presidents on ten different levels, ranging from economic management to international relations. After all the scores were tallied, the top three spots went to Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D.
Eisenhower rounding out the top five.
As for Barack Obama, his score of 668 places him outside the top ten, behind Harry Truman (737 points), Thomas Jefferson (727), John F. Kennedy (722), Ronald Reagan (691), Lyndon Johnson (686) and Woodrow Wilson (683).
Obama's relationship with Congress worse than president who served just one month in office
Obama's failure to crack the top ten was due to his low marks for his relationship with the Congress. In this category, historians ranked him 39th, right behind William Henry Harrison, whose presidential term of one month is the shortest term of any president.
Obama also failed to make the grade when it came to international relations. Historians ranked him 24th in this category, where he beats Gerald Ford by less than one point.
Barack Obama did, however, score high points when it came to the "equal justice for all" category, with historians ranking him the third best president in U.S. history in this department, behind Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson.
Obama earned mediocre scores in most categories
Historians also ranked Obama 24th best in international relations, 19th best in administrative skills, 15th best in crisis leadership, 12th best in vision/setting an agenda 10th in public persuasion, 8th in economic management, 7th in moral authority and 15th in performance within the context of the times.
According to the C-SPAN survey, the dubious distinction for the worst president in U.S. history goes to James Buchanan, who also held that title in 2000 and 2009 surveys.
