... into George Walker Bush (despite what all you Democrats and Republicans think, we Libertarians don't see a tinker's damn worth of difference between the two), how will history treat Bill Clinton? Better than Paul Sax will, I'd say, but not all that well if current historians are right.

Here's what a group of historians think, as related in the book "Rating the Presidents" by William J. Ridings, Jr., and Stuart McIver (this book was published in 1997, so Clinton's rating might be different today).

Some patterns are striking. Most of the top ten are those who were in office during or were generals in the great wars of the country's history (Lincoln, FDR, Washington, Wilson, Eisenhower and Madison) or who had to deal with the aftermath (Truman). Only Jefferson, Teddy R. and Jackson made the top ten without "benefit" of a major war.

The presidents between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln have long been thought to be mostly policital hacks and historians appear to agree. Of that group, only James Knox Polk ranks higher than 21st (Polk, little known to current Americans, is a highly regarded 11th overall and 8th in accomplishments/crisis management). The rest of the group is Van Buren 21st, WH Harrison 35th (he was at a disadvantage, of course, spending his entire 30 days in office in the hospital dying), Tyler 34th, Taylor 29th, Fillmore 36th, Pierce 37th and Buchanan 40th (ahead of only the Shadow of Blooming Grove).

The presidency between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt more or less returned to moribundity (is that a word?). That group includes none rated higher than 16th (Cleveland, he of two unconnected terms) and two of the bottom four (Grant 38th and Andrew Johnson 39th). The others are Hayes 25th, Garfield 30th, Arthur 28th, Benjamin Harrison 31st and McKinley 17th.

At the moment, we are in the midst (or with luck, nearing the end) of another run of presidential mediocrity. Of the presidents since Lyndon Johnson (12th overall despite a miserable 37th in character and integrity), only Jimmy Carter ranks in the top half of all presidents (19th and 5th in character and integrity). The others: Nixon 32nd (and dead last in character and integrity), Ford 27th, Reagan 26th (despite being rated 9th in political skills), George H. W. Bush 22nd and Clinton 23rd.

Everyone who disagrees with any of these evaluations, please don't yell at me, I didn't write them, I'm just passing them on. Though I do find them interesting and, in some respects, amusing. ----- jim o\-S