I think, if you were to judge more fairly, you would ask, how many presidents have left the country satisfied with them? What has the judgment of the country been on those presidents?
If you ask that, JFK comes out far ahead- he's been enshrined as a demiGod, followed by Reagan (who was also pedestalled in the same way as JFK, though to a lesser extent, and both of them (imo) had more the benefits of luck and history (in their historical impact)- than they were truly great leaders), and then Clinton. The counry was NOT happy with Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Or Bush 2 (though we'll just have to wait and see how unhappy people truly are when he leaves office, and how far his star falls when the justice of history falls upon him.)
Using this metric of consumer satisfaction gets you further, imo. |
