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1- Washington - the founder

2- Lincoln - the preserver

3- FDR - the savior

4- LBJ - the great legislator

N.B. "W" should be ranked last, if at all

This whole thing is rather silly. If one rated the presidents in segments of, say, 75 years, the choices would have some meaning, but given the problems faced by modern leaders, how does one compare the performances of John Tyler or Grover Cleveland with those of Lyndon Johnson or Ronald Reagan? Impossible.

Still, my three choices would be 1) George Washington, 2) Abraham Lincoln and 3) either one of the Roosevelts or Andrew Jackson. Any knowledge of U.S. history makes these choices pretty obvious (which, of course, means that those who came up with the 42 ratings either don't know their history or are operating from some kind of political/social bias - in God's name, how could anybody who wasn't either historically uninformed, politically biased, or just plain mentally deficient rate John F. Kennedy as one of our greatest presidents?).

Since it takes about fifty years to adequately understand, from a historical perspective, the true importance or greatness of any president, it is still impossible to properly judge any post-Kennedy president, but indications right now are that (for that period) Reagan will be in the higher echelons and Carter at rock bottom. How Mr. Obama will fare was surely the impetus for doing this presidential ratings business to begin with, but given the fact that schools are already being named in his honor and holidays proposed, it probably won't make much difference what he does; he will be, in the minds of the people who decide such things, the new JFK.

Is it appropriate to include the last couple of presidents in the rankings until more time has passed? If I had to, I'd say the two worst are Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Lincoln said about Polk's war with Mexico:
"It is a fact that the United States Army, in marching to the Rio Grande, marched into a peaceful Mexican settlement, and frightened the inhavitants away from their homes and their growing crops." Although I'm a Californian, this war sounds like another moral blemish on our Nation. I would NOT rate Polk so high.

1 Johnson
2 FDR
3 Lincoln
then maybe Madison, Adams, Quincy Adams

Even your professor here is tip-toeing around Jimmy Carter's criticisms on Israel. Has it got that bad that she had to tip-toe around the explanation of the situation!!? I think for his outspokenness he should have been raised a few slots in the list.

Lyndon Johnson gets short-shrift because of Vietnam but his determination to lift poor people up and the passing of actual civil rights laws during his administration is more laudable than any other president since Lincoln.

Most over-rated is Reagan--he may have done the Reykjavik talks, but George H.W. Bush was the one that made the end of the Cold War happen. Also, under REagan's command, there were such debacles as mining the Nicaraguan gulf, funding the contras in Nicaragua and the death squads of El Salvador, an inability to deal realistically with the AIDS crisis in the US, high unemployment, a monstrous deficit, Iran-Contra, and a heap more.

Granted LBJ courted some true jerks (understatement, yes), but at least there's some real good that came out of all his bad.

Reagan did more domestic damage to this country than the communists ever did... Reagan put Nixon's policies into effect to destabilize our government (starve the Beast)"The Conservative, Republican Agenda", and to sell the country out to the Greed Heads who know how to count but don't know how to read the writing on the walls.
We are seeing the result of that today.

'Viewing Presidents in terms of their own times' is a cop-out. An abolition of slavery movement did exist during Jefferson's time, yet he was hardly an abolitionist.

John Adams was the second president, NOT John Quincy Adams, his son, who was the sixth president.

Dear Ms. Floyd - May I assume that you are a graduate of Saint Vincent Ferrer High School? If so greetings from us old timers who remember you and congratulations on your success.
Sincerely, Peter Hayn