As we approach Election Day, the hope is we get a good president. Doesn’t have to be great. Good would be good enough. Best would, really, be too much to hope for.

      But looking back, through our lifetimes, which of our presidents was good? Who was, in fact, the best one we’ve had these 70 or so years?

     Here at Writing About Our Generation, where neither of us is a historian nor political scientist, we nevertheless decided to take a stab at ranking all the presidents of our lifetimes, from worst to best, and to explain why we think they earned that ranking.

      Agree? Disagree? There is, of course, plenty of room for disagreement, so we’ll let you know, in parentheses, how our choices fared in the most recent rankings of all presidents—not just the ones in our lifetimes—by the American Political Science Association.

     Here then are, in reverse order, our—admittedly liberal view—of the best (and consequently, also worst) presidents of our lifetimes:

14. Donald Trump (APSA #45)

      He didn’t do as much damage as he could’ve, but what he did was more than enough—an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power; the weaponization of the government against perceived political enemies; the demonization of immigrants; the incompetence and denigration of the highest office in the land; and perhaps worst of all, the many extra thousands who died because of incompetent, often deliberate mismanagement of a pandemic.

      There’s a reason the political scientists ranked the 45th president No. 45.

13. George W. Bush (APSA #32)

      James Dobbins, the first U.S. envoy to post-Taliban Afghanistan, calls the invasion of Iraq under W “probably the worst single decision in American foreign policy since 1776.”

      Whatever else he did during his eight years was overshadowed by Bush’s decision to use a flimsy (and ultimately false) case that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda and possessed weapons of mass destruction. Then, against the advice of most of our allies and in defiance of world opinion, W invaded.

      It is not clear how many Iraqis were killed in Bush’s war, but the number was at least in the six figures. Nearly 15,000 American military and U.S. contractors were killed, and the economic cost of the wars that followed 9/11 was more than $6 trillion. We’re still living with the fallout.

12. Richard Nixon (APSA #35)

      He did open the door to China, he did create the Environmental Protection Agency and he ended the draft. However, as a presidential candidate, Nixon sabotaged the Paris peace talks trying to end the war in Vietnam, then, as president, continued the war and expanded it calamitously into Cambodia. More than 28,000 Americans—nearly half the total who perished in the conflict—died in southeast Asia on his watch.

      Furthermore, Nixon is the only president to ever resign in disgrace, and although he insisted otherwise, he was indeed a crook. (And yet, in what is obviously an indictment of our leadership over the last 70 years, he only ranks third-worst on our list.)

11. Gerald Ford (APSA #27)

      An accidental president, Ford is probably most remembered for saying, when he assumed the presidency, that "Our long national nightmare is over.” Then he proceeded to extend the nightmare a month later when the new president pardoned Nixon.

      In addition, Ford presided over rising unemployment, soaring inflation and the energy crisis, He cut taxes and limited government spending in the hopes of fighting unemployment. That didn’t work either.

10. John F. Kennedy (APSA #10)

      He may be ranked more highly by the professionals because the reverie of Camelot-on-the-Potomac may still be enchanting. But Kennedy's too-short time in office was marked by increasing Cold War tensions, including the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion and the scary Cuban Missile Crisis, which, at least, young JFK wiggled out of peacefully.

     Meanwhile, Kennedy increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18, leading to a significant escalation of the American role in what became a decade-long war.

      On the plus side, he did establish the Peace Corps, which transformed many lives, particularly those of idealistic young Americans who signed up. And Kennedy promised, in a Cold War response to Soviet achievements in space, to land an American on the moon within the decade—which we ultimately accomplished.

      But while he also made bold proposals for civil-rights legislation, health care for the elderly and more, he didn’t live to see any of the proposals come to fruition.

9. Bill Clinton (APSA #12)

      The U.S. did enjoy low unemployment and inflation rates under Clinton’s presidency, as well as high home ownership, low crime rates and even a budget surplus.

      But he—and Hillary Clinton—failed to pass universal healthcare coverage, and, as he tacked to the right, what Bill did pass was mostly retrograde. His welfare reform was—still is—a disaster. And Clinton’s truly harmful crime bill, which included harsher sentencing requirements, accelerated over-incarceration, the growth of spending on prisons and significantly harmed many communities, particularly poor communities of color.

      And oh, yes, his presidency was marked by a vulgar scandal and his impeachment. 

8. Ronald Reagan (APSA #16)

      Whether we like it or not, Reagan was a transformational president.

      His relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev set the stage for a peaceful resolution of the Cold War. That’s pretty big.

      But he allowed the recession that had bedeviled Carter at the end of his term to continue, producing six months with unemployment rates of 10 percent and above. Eventually, though, Reagan presided over a vastly improved economy. There was record peacetime economic growth during Reagan’s presidency.

      However, under his watch, inequality soared, beginning an unfortunate climb that continues today, as Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich mostly failed to trickle-down. Reagan crushed the nation’s labor movement, which greatly exacerbated that income inequality. During his presidency, the national debt, the federal deficit and the trade deficit significantly increased.

      And then there was Iran-Contra.  

      Nevertheless, Reagan’s political legacy was significant. He steered the Republican Party to the right. And the Democratic Party followed—and became far more “centrist” for decades. One thing left and right can agree on: Reagan’s presidency was consequential.

7. Jimmy Carter (APSA #22)

      We’re ranking him this high despite the consensus that Carter’s was a failed presidency, that he was overwhelmed by events beyond his control. And some of that consensus is obviously accurate. 

      He made some of the epic challenges he faced—the energy crisis, inflation, high unemployment, declining value of the dollar, Soviet aggression, Iran—worse by micro-managing. His administration’s attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages was an embarrassing failure. Rather than rallying the American spirit to meet all those challenges, he talked about our “malaise” and the public’s crisis of confidence.

      But Carter brokered an unlikely deal in the Middle East, establishing peace between Israel and Egypt. He made human rights and morality a major component of our foreign policy. He appointed more women and attorneys of color to the federal bench than all the earlier presidents combined.

     Would any other president have done better under the circumstances Carter faced?

6. George H.W. Bush (APSA #19)

      After running a particularly ugly election campaign, he led the United States through a period of geopolitical transition, which is why we’re ranking him this high. Bush’s measured responses helped avoid chaos, as he refused to declare victory during the collapse of the Soviet empire. He also was able to form a broad, diverse coalition for the first Persian Gulf War—which was short and successful.

      Domestically, he was constrained by Reagan’s large budget deficit, limited federal revenue to fund programs and a general cautiousness. Nevertheless, both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments were passed on his watch.

5. Barack Obama (APSA #7)

      Obama was clearly a historic president. It is hard to imagine anyone better suited to break the most visible of racial barriers in this country with its despicable racial history. And it’s probably fair to say that most of the readers of this website liked him more than any of our other presidents.

      But Obama presided over a somewhat less than historic presidency.

      There was the Iran nuclear pact and the Paris Climate Agreement, but they were short-lived, as Trump withdrew the United States from both. After the Great Recession, Obama’s administration under-stimulated the economy. And the president seemed at times reluctant to do the political gladhanding that might have enabled him to get more through a recalcitrant Congress.

      So, what’s was left? He brought dignity, intelligence, soaring rhetoric and graciousness to the office. But only one major legislative achievement—the Affordable Care Act. At least it was a big one. It’s surely not (thanks to that recalcitrant Congress) perfect, but over time has become even more important and successful.  

4. Harry Truman (APSA #6)

     OK, almost all of us can barely remember the Truman presidency. But he set the course for American foreign policy for the next thirty years or so by recognizing in the aftermath of World War II the threat posed by the Soviet Union.

      Truman responded to the challenge by constructing an American-led series of alliances that still exist today, with commitments to Israel and South Korea still hallmarks of U.S. policy.

      At home, Truman oversaw the conversion of the America’s war economy to one that focused more on consumer production. And with most competing economies in ruins, the U.S economy soared.

      Truman extended FDR’s legacy by enlarging Social Security. Maybe most important, he desegregated the military, banned discrimination in the civil service and spoke out publicly on civil rights.  

3. Dwight Eisenhower (APSA #8)

      Ike was the perfect caretaker for the somnambulant 1950s. He presided like a gentle grandfather as America experienced phenomenal post-war growth and became today’s modern state. 

      He also negotiated an armistice in the Korean War only six months after taking office and refrained from leading the country into another war, in Indochina in 1954. For the rest of his presidency, peace prevailed, even if at times Cold War tensions were high.

      He supported the construction of the Interstate Highway System, warned against the military-industrial complex and resisted demands for huge increases in military spending.

     Although Ike did occasionally use his bully pulpit to speak out in favor of civil rights, his gradualist approach didn’t do much to advance the cause.  And his unwillingness to publicly confront Sen. Joe McCarthy directly allowed the foaming-at-the-mouth senator to continue to lie and ruin lives.

2. Joe Biden (APSA #14)

      It is just one term—which is maybe a good thing—and he hasn’t been a great communicator of his accomplishments (a key asset for a president) during that time. And we may be suffering from recency bias here. But consider the accomplishments:

      Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the (oddly named) biggest climate bill in history, which also lowered prescription drug prices and made major investments in American clean energy jobs and manufacturing.

      He passed the Infrastructure Law, to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, public transit and high-speed broadband internet.

      He signed the American Rescue Plan, which gave citizens cash to cope with the pandemic downturn, and helped get the U.S. economy moving faster than most others.

      He passed the CHIPS Act, designed to position the U.S. to outcompete China in producing semiconductors and other advanced tech.

      He rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. He rallied the world in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion.

      Over the first three-plus years of his term, the economy added 14.8 million jobs, more than any president in history over the same period and with unemployment below 4 percent for the longest stretch since the 1960s.

      And perhaps most important, he helped a traumatized nation recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic and the extraordinary chaos and divisiveness of the Trump years.

      The question now is: did he help enough?

1. Lyndon Johnson (APSA #9)

      OK, we know this is a controversial choice, a hard-to-defend ranking for a president so reviled by so many of us during his presidency.

      But ranking the presidents of our lifetime is sort of a process of elimination. And we’ve eliminated all the others by now and none of them escaped unscathed.

      So, yeah, the war in Vietnam. All the people futilely killed, the lying, the rage in the streets, all the harm to our image, the quagmire.

      And yet: Other than FDR, has there ever been a modern presidency with more significant and transformative legislative accomplishments? Here’s a partial list of what was passed under LBJ’s leadership:

      The Clean Air Act; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which created Medicare and Medicaid; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

      Johnson’s “War on Poverty” established several programs, such as food stamps, designed to aid the impoverished. He also presided over major increases in federal funding for education and the end of a period of restrictive immigration laws.

      Yes, Johnson’s presidency was indelibly marred by the Vietnam War, though at the end of LBJ’s presidency peace talks with North Vietnam were underway in Paris—talks historians now believe were sabotaged by the Nixon campaign. Moreover, every American presidency of our lifetime has been marred by something or other.

      We, particularly of our generation, can’t forget—or forgive—what happened in Vietnam. But we also need to realize that the efforts to begin giving African Americans full civil rights and to begin to reduce shameful and recalcitrant poverty in America may have been important enough to outweigh all those deaths in the name of anti-Communism.