I found this list , where historians rank all American Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. Washington, America's first President, is the second best U.S. President ever, according to that list. Abraham Lincoln, unsurprisingly, is voted number one, the best ever.

[Linked Image]

Number 43 George W. Bush is not number 43 on the list, which only features 42 names anyway. (Why? Oh, but wasn't there a President who died so soon after his inauguration that maybe the historians decided not to include him?) The man at number 42 is James Buchanan. Poor guy.

[Linked Image]

But if George W. Bush is not number 42, he is pretty far down on the list anyway.

Bill Clinton at number 15 has moved ahead six places since the last ranking in 2000, and John F. Kennedy has advanced from number 8 to number 6. Ronald Reagan at number 10 has squeezed into the top ten list by moving ahead slightly, and George H.W. Bush at number 18 and even Gerald Ford at number 22 have also advanced. But Jimmy Carter at number 25 has slipped three places, and Richard Nixon has slipped from 25 to 27.

How meaningful or interesting is a list like this? Well, clearly the list does not represent the 'truth' about the overall performances of the Presidents of the United States. It represents the opinions of a number of historians, whose agenda, if they have one, is one I don't know.

But I thought it was interesting all the same.

Ann