Presidential Rankings #16-24

Me and C-SPAN are likely the only ones that care about presidential rankings, but that's ok. We carry on starting with #24, William Howard Taft.

24 - William Taft. Good for him. Seems like he was a good guy. He was friends with Teddy

Roosevelt and was his choice to succeed him. But then Teddy didn't like some of what he was doing and turned on him. He actually ran against him. Taft was the incumbent, but kind of embarrassingly came in third place - Wilson, Teddy, then Taft. He gained a lot of weight while he was president because he just wasn't happy in the job. He ended up happy, being named to the Supreme Court. It was the job he always really wanted. He is one of those guys that was successful in everything except as his time as president. JQ Adams and Hoover were like that as well.

23 - Grover Cleveland - I think he was a good one. He was one that had two non-consecutive terms, but in the middle term, he actually won the popular vote. If he had one the electoral vote, he would be a lot more well known, being second only FDR for time as president.

22 - Ulysses S. Grant - No, no, no. I knew this was going to happen. There was a big book written about him and I think that alone has moved him up in the rankings. He's moved up 11 spots in the last decade. Far more than any one else.

21 - John Quincy Adams - Jackson, one of our worst presidents, thought Adams beat him by cheating. So he and his peeps made sure they made his term as unsuccessful as possible. He had a lot of forward thinking ideas and didn't have a chance to do much with any of them.

20 - George H.W. Bush - Good for George. They say he was maybe the nicest guy to be president. He would have been reelected if he didn't say "Read my lips". Why did he do that anyway? Don't say stuff you might need to take back later. He could have gone with something like, "Look at my body language and see how it implies that I won't raise taxes."

19 - John Adams - Following up one of the nicest is one of the crankiest. I don't think he was mean, just cranky. He had a big book written about him too. And again, it's probably boosted his ranking.

18 - Andrew Jackson - And following him is Sponge Bob Cranky Pants. What a jerk. The Hermitage is a nice house to visit, though. It's one of the best presidential sites. I think, like Cleveland, he might have won three popular elections. On the minus side, he ruined the economy, threatened political opponents, used dirty campaign tricks, broke treaties which lead to the trail of tears, and killed people in duels.

17 - James Madison - Dolly was kind of a life of the party type and James was just the opposite. There is a reason there aren't any cupcakes named after him. I would say he's ranked a little high.

16 - William McKinley - One of the four assassinated presidents. That makes me wonder about how long its been since presidents have been assassinated. So I looked it up. From Washington to Lincoln - 78 years. Lincoln to Garfield - 16 years. Garfield to McKinley - 20 years. McKinley to Kennedy - 62 years. Its been over 55 years since the last assassination, which I guess isn't that big of a span compared with the others. With the secret service functioning as it does now, those first three probably don't happen. More interesting is that this is now the longest span of no one passing away in office. It hasn't even been close as presidents regularly live into their 90's now.

We're to the top 15. The suspense is building.