15 - Bill Clinton - Pretty good of a guy that got impeached. George Stephanopolous (?) wrote a book about him. The last line was something like - "A very good president, that could have been a better man." That's probably fair.
14 - James K. Polk - Pretty high, but maybe even should have gone higher. Jefferson gets too much credit for the Louisiana Purchase. But Polk added pretty much everything else - The American Southwest and the Oregon Territory. He got Oregon by crafty negotiation and the Southwest by just saying "mine" and taking it. The kind of thing a three year old might do. Hey, a win is a win. He did other good things. He was one of our hardest working president. In fact, he probably worked himself to death. He died not long after leaving office. That was in a time when presidents didn't work that hard, like taking the summer's off. He probably belongs in the top 10.
13 - James Monroe - He was president during what was known as "The Era of Good Feelings". What was the last time the US had any period of time that might be remotely called "The Era of Good Feelings"? I feel like it's been a while.
12 - Barak Obama - Nope. Way too soon. How about Obamacare? It may be great and it may put such a strain on the economy that it collapses. It's just too soon to know.
11 - Woodrow Wilson - Woodrow tried to enact a bunch of changes and the Republicans united to block him. A preview of later things to come. He could have gotten his League of Nations through if he hadn't been so black and white about it. Speaking of black and white, he seems to have been fairly racist. Served two terms, but a lot of one of them was as an invalid. He might be ranked too high.
10 - Lyndon Johnson - Kind of a jerk with people. He lied about Vietnam. I think his Great Society set some precedents have haven't been helpful. But he and Polk and Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson all have done pretty well in the rankings because the all did a lot of stuff, even though a great deal of it wasn't that good.
9 - Ronald Reagan - A delightful guy and a great speaker. Seemed to be a little more of a king than a president, though. Gorbechev wanted to get rid of nuclear weapons, but Reagan wouldn't because he wanted Russia to accept his Star Wars plan. It was unworkable then. It's 30 years or so later and we still don't know how to do it. Reagan missed a good opportunity. He's a touch high.
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