The first major ranking of American presidents to include Barack Obama has come out, and whaddaya know, he's #15. Okay, sure! That's not a bad spot to be very prematurely ranked. But where does your favorite president (Nixon? Coolidge?) rank?

Here's the full list of this Siena College research institute poll of 200+ presidential historians. They appear to be liberal, these academics.

F. Roosevelt 1
T. Roosevelt 2
Lincoln 3
Washington 4
Jefferson 5
Madison 6
Monroe 7
Wilson 8
Truman 9
Eisenhower 10
Kennedy 11
Polk 12
Clinton 13
Jackson 14
Obama 15
L.B. Johnson 16
J. Adams 17
Reagan 18
J.Q. Adams 19
Cleveland 20
McKinley 21
G.H. Bush 22
Van Buren 23
Taft 24
Arthur 25
Grant 26
Garfield 27
Ford 28
Coolidge 29
Nixon 30
Hayes 31
Carter 32
Taylor 33
B. Harrison 34
W.H. Harrison 35
Hoover 36
Tyler 37
Fillmore 38
G.W. Bush 39
Pierce 40
Harding 41
Buchanan 42
A. Johnson 43

Okay...

  • There is simply no reason for Abraham Lincoln to not be ranked #1, so you can already tell that there's something wrong with the formula. The United States was a fragile nerds' experiment before Lincoln. The man had to make the three or four most difficult presidential decisions ever during his short time in office. He made the correct ones and stuck with them. Abraham Lincoln was so awesome it's insane.
  • George W. Bush at 39? Also seems kind of premature. This whole poll is premature. Does anyone actually *know* how good a president Millard Fillmore was? C'mon.
  • Ha ha ha, Ronald Reagan is three spots behind Barack Obama, five behind Bill Clinton. You will hear about this in the conservative blogosphere.
  • You know who was a pretty cool dude was Dwight Eisenhower. He should be #7 or #8 or something. Woodrow Wilson? Meh.
  • James Madison was a hobbit. This is not a list of Best Shire Presidents.

You all can take the discussion from here.