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A
new poll of leading presidential scholars ranks Barack Obama as the
15th best president of the United States, just below Bill Clinton but
ahead of Ronald Reagan.

The Siena College poll, which surveyed 238 presidential scholars at
U.S. colleges and universities, asked scholars to rate the nation’s 43
chief executives on 20 attributes ranging from legislative
accomplishments to integrity and imagination.

In the overall ranking, Obama rated two places below Clinton, who was
13th best, and three better than Reagan, who is ranked as the 18th
best.

Franklin D. Roosevelt again earned the top spot, as he has every time
since the poll was first conducted in 1982. He and the Mount Rushmore
presidents — Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson — have consistently been the top five presidents in
the poll’s findings.

Obama’s 15th ranking is slightly higher than other presidents who have
taken office since the poll started nearly 30 years ago. Most start out
at about number 20, said Siena statistics professor and poll director
Douglas Lonnstrom.

“[Obama’s] doing a little better, but he’s generally in the same ballpark,” he said.

While he ranked high on traits like imagination (6th), communication
ability (7th) and intelligence (8th), Obama rated poorly ratings on
background (32nd), which was composed of traits like family, education
and experience.

Lonnstrom said the main factor that gives a president a top-five or
top-10 ranking is his accomplishments — and an all-around high ranking
in most categories.

FDR, for example, ranks in the top 10 for every category except integrity, he said.

“The experts really are looking for consistency, a president who is looking good across most of these categories,” he said.

Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, was ranked at number 23 in 2002 —
the last time Siena’s presidential expert poll was conducted — but has
since dropped to number 39, qualifying him as one of the five worst
presidents. Bush came in at number 42 — second to last — on issues such
as handling the U.S. economy, foreign policy accomplishments and
intelligence. (Warren G. Harding was rated the least intelligent
president).

Bush joins Harding, Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce,
all of whom have consistently ranked as the worst presidents since the
poll started, in the bottom five.