It was an ordinary day. Going back through my stories for the past few weeks until I found what I was looking for after I reread my story from January 24. Story told about the first photograph ever taken at a Presidential Inauguration. But, what I was more interested in was the end of the story when I told about the possibility of President James Buchanan from my home town of Lancaster moving up in "The Worst President In History" category. Reason I went lookin for the story was because I just happened to read another story written by Lancaster's "The Scribbler" in the January 31 Sunday Newspaper. The story was titled "When are presidents ranked? And who decides that?" Seems that someone might have been reading my mind or perhaps reading my blog story. The person who wrote to "The Scribbler" asked: How long does it take after a president is out of office for placement in the list of presidents from the best to the worst? Who makes that decision? "The Scribbler," aka Jack Brubaker, gave a rather interesting answer that I will condense a bit to let you know how he felt about the ranking system. The president doesn't need to be out of office to be ranked. There were two organizations who ranked presidents in 2018. President Donald Trump was ranked at that time. Jack found that Lincoln, Washington and Franklin D Roosevelt ranked in the top three spots while Lancaster's James Buchanan ranked 43rd - next to worst - by both organizations. Trump was down there with him. Now, this was in 2018. Exactly who ranked the presidents? One organization was The American Political Science Association who surveyed 200 political scientists. They placed President Trump in 44th, or last place. Once again, this was in 2018. The other organization, Siena College in Loudonville, had 157 Presidential Scholars who ranked Trump 42nd, just above Buchanan and Andrew Johnson. Now, I have lived in Lancaster all my life and this is the first time in those 76 years that I have had the chance to say that Lancaster's only President of the United States, James Buchanan, was not picked as the worst President in the history of the United States. Now, I know that it does take time to fully evaluate presidents and it could be that President Trump may rise in the standings. Dwight D. Eisenhower once ranked lower than he has in recent years. Same with Ulysses S. Grant. So, how do they decide who goes where in the rankings? And...who actually makes the final decision? The decisions are usually made by historians, who should know what they are talking about, since they have been studying Presidents forever. At times they may get some advice from journalists. Ranking of the Presidents began in 1948 when Arthur Schlesinger Jr. conducted the nation's first formal presidential poll of 55 fellow historians. Lincoln, Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt came out 1,2 and 3. The worst president in their poll was Warren G. Harding with Grant, Pierce and Buchanan falling in line just ahead of him. It is highly doubtful that Buchanan will change his ranking after 73 years, but the 2018 poll does suggest he is being given a run for his money by a new competitor. May take the start of today's Presidential impeachment trial to change the minds of those who determine the standings. We'll just have to wait and see. Hang in there James! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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