Obama. Want to get your reaction. Who is your favorite president . Tell us why. 202 7488001, if republicans. 202 7488000, democrats. 202 7488001 independent colors. You could also share your comments on facebook. Good monday morning to you. Thank you for being here with us on this president s day holiday. We talked about this yesterday with three leading historians survey. Ed conduct this this is the third time that cspan has conducted the survey. The first in 2000 and the second in 2009 and now, our third president ial historian survey. Number one, no surprise, Abraham Lincoln. Followed by George Washington. Franklin d. Roosevelt is number three. Teddy roosevelt is number four. Followed by eisenhower, jefferson, kennedy, reagan and johnson. Different point of view. We want to hear your calls and comments. Yesterday, explaining the methodology. Who was involved and why the historians came up with these. Guest we chose the 10 categories that we thought were the most important to use in assessing president ial leadership. Each category was worth 100 points. So we ranked them from one to 10 with one being the least effective with 10 being the most. And the total score could come to 1000 points. Host how many historians and biographers did we reach out to . Over 150, i believe. 91 responded. Which is a good return on our effort, i think. Part of our panel yesterday, that conversation is now on our website. She was explaining the methodology explaining the president ial survey and all of the details and categories. The details are available on our website at cspan. Org. George washington he kept the country together during the fledgling years of the democracy o. I like [indiscernible] because of all his [indiscernible] he lost seven political races. He was a failed lawyer. Hishe constantly plotted rise. Debates. Now, the seven 1860 Republican Convention in chicago, no one expected him to be a candidate. [indiscernible] when how him and his Coopers Union on the way to new hampshire. And this president [indiscernible] william seward, his onetime rival, he was just a leader. Host we are getting a little bit of feedback. But we do have the essence of what you are saying. Thank you for weighing in. Today has an editorial this morning and donald trump chaos crowns the first month of our 45th president. An early donald Trump Supporters said trump was elected by hardworking americans who wanted to fix the dysfunction and he hasertaken put the world on notice. Special interests will no longer factoryt the expense of small, Truck Drivers and business owners. Someone else said the only one who walked the talk was jimmy carter. Lets go to gary from georgia on the independent line. Your favorite president and why . Caller barack obama. He is only president we have ever had to knows what it feels like to be discriminated against. Therefore, he wouldnt discriminate against anybody else. He tried to please all the andle with Health Insurance stuff like that. He tried to help the poor. Thank you. From our twitter page my favorite is eisenhower, he made the wealthy pay their fair share and gave a super infrastructure that is in disrepair. We now go to the democrat line. Caller i can only speak on the president that presided over me and my lifetime and that was barack obama. Most of that has to do with the respect that he had shown. He got quite a bit done and he didnt get very much help from the republicans. And carter, i liked carter. It has a lot to do with respect. And the demeanor they show. George bush, the first george bush. He carried himself in a very respectful way. And i think that carried a long way with the people. Im sure history will show that a lot of the other president s may have gotten a lot more done. But i think respect and class goes a long way with the people, the way you carry yourself in office. Host i am checking twitter feeds. Here are a few. Towards washington set an example to the nation with term limits and the transfer of power by not running for another term. From steve fdr is a winner in my category. From paul reagan was my favorite, he brought hope and pride back to americans. Arthur he is easily forgotten. Not really, but i thought id give him a shout out since he is so easily forgotten. We are talking that your favorite president , and why. First in the hearts of this country. George washington. I cant understand why lincoln is up there. More human lives lost in this was at the helm. Most people dont realize but the succession of the during acy occurred time when he was president elect. He was elected by 33 states and was inaugurated by 27. , i would haveera to say that my favorite Hillary Clinton oh, im sorry, shes not president. Host an obituary this morning charles barkley. He was a reporter who set up john f. Kennedy and jaclyn on Jacqueline Bouvier on a blind date. Was from 1960, december of. 960 he was a longtime reporter and columnist. Go to joe joining us from massachusetts. Good morning. Call cogood morning comrade citizen. Jimmy carter is my favorite president. Was because hen had every reason to go to war against iran and we chose not to. And ali hostages came back alive. The second reason is that he was the best president s that this country had ever seen. Jimmy carter and his ex presidency that is also available on our website. April came out more than a decade ago. Post, am the washington look at the third president , Thomas Jefferson at monticello making room at loss room at last for sally hemmings. In 1941, the caretaker of monticello turned that into a restroom. The floor tiles and bathroom stalls covered over the story of the enslaved woman who was owned by jefferson and had a longterm relationship with him. Was a scandalent during his life. Many historians now with the third president of United States was the father of her six children. Thomas jefferson is in the rankings. Good morning, welcome to the program. Caller my favorite president during my time is president barack obama. He stayed the course. He was involved in all the issues that we had a hand. And he was the commander in chief. For all the people. He kept grace. How to keep this world safe and secure and that is what he did. And with class and grace. He stayed focus on how to run this country. He did just that in the face of total opposition, where everyone tried to deny him. And to have to plow through that. The majority of the tea party are people that caused obamacare right now. So what we need to do is look at what is going on and keep things in place that will help all people. Host thank you. More comments. My favorite presidency was roosevelt because he change the presidency and the country and created the Great America that we know. Theodore roosevelt vibrant, energetic leader he is the path of reform to bring out the u. S. Best. Obama was ranked 12th. That is as the best president ever. Barack obama was whisked to a very good table at the club of former president s. Obamas 12 ranking only a month after leaving office is the best for any president since reagan. Historians gave barack obama high marks for pursuing equality, managing the economy, public persuasion. Below average in handling international relations. He placed above james monro and james polk. Led by lincoln and washington. The bottom spots include James Buchanan. From go to jean joining us jackson. Your favorite president and why . Call coeisenhower. He took credit for the interstate system but that was started in 1945. And he extended the cold war by 25 years with the plane incident. He is responsible for what is going on in korea now because he gave the founder of north korea everything he wanted in 1953. Nt goals to his way through both terms with the recession. That is my opinion. Thanks. Of real clearor politics has written an essay that you can find on the Orange County register website. It is called the president ial ratings rocket. It said that in the darkest hour, cspan rose to its rescue. More humility around the chattering crowds. Liberal elites confidently assured anyone who would listen that george w. Bush was the worst president in history. Into donald month trumps term, these historical critics would give anything to have george w. Bush back in office. There is no system of assessment. Differences of opinions flow out of personal experiences, prejudiced and preferences. Find the full essay on the Orange County register website. A is his father wrote biography on reagan. Anthony joins us on the independent line. Good morning, welcome. Yesterdays episode was fascinating. I actually have downloaded so i could have record of that. You know, i think it is a lesson to this very polarized nation. There were 90 experts plus. That may be 3000 years of experience in study and analyzing president s. Was a bittice, there of a movement up for truman. A bit of a fall for woodrow wilson. That for the most part, it is pretty stable. And i guess it is a comment more for people who listen to your experts how could 90 come out and say obama is the 12thranked president after this short amount of time and yet you have so many people on the right who would say he is the worst president in all of history. Am i going to believe them or do i believe the 3000 years of historians . Its like if you have a toothache. Do you go to an auto mechanic or the dentist . So for the people who take one side or the other, i think they should just take some time and look at the list and maybe read a book or two or three on every one of the president s that have been listed even in the top 20. And they may get a better why areive on who and they ranked where they are. Host can use down the line . I want to get your reaction to something. This is from the American Spectator, a professor of political science. He actually because they did in the survey. And he wrote the following on their website. I have been getting emails from colleagues asking about a survey whoresidential voters determined that barack obama is the 12 best president in the history of the u. S. Putting him up near the top of our president s. I too was mystified. Few sources do their job like cspan. Cspan is unrivaled for its ability to simply place a camera and a room and let reality speak for itself. The nauseating surveys of the 1980s and 1990s that were measurements of the liberalism that is the academy of liberal political scientists professing their liberalism by their liberal rankings of president s. Cspan has endeavored to provide the invaluable corrective. That was from the American Spectator. I just want to get your reaction. Caller if i understood what he endorsing ore is taking the same position i am. Like ronaldsomebody reagan, who came out in his first year and in the first of valuation in 2000 and he was 11th. He has moved a couple of notches up. So a conservative president by any standard. And now he is ranked in the top 10. We see republican and democrat president s in the top 10 and top 20. So again, i think you have historians with various but there are enough of them, a big enough when i look at the list, i say yes, that seems fairly reasonable. I cant go down the list and pick. Saying the guy who is 25th should be 20th or the person who is 25th should be 30th. There were like 12 or 10 different measurements . So i think it was a fascinating show. And i think that listeners on both sides of the aisle should really Pay Attention to that. Look at how the list was built. You cannot be the worst comedent in the world and out as number 12 according to historians with 3000 years of experience. It doesnt make common sense. You forthony, thank that call. Again, the full criteria and who participated is all on her website at cspan. Org. If you are listening on cspan about theare talking president ial historian survey. You can call in with comments at 202 7488001, republicans. 202 7488000, democrats. Find us on facebook or send us a tweet. More from Yesterdays Program with a historian who teaches at right university, the author of a number of books on carter and roosevelt. Guest president s day that it has nothing to do with the president but every time polls come out, it spurs a national debate. The fact that Andrew Jackson was taken off the 20 bill last year and the fact that donald trump embraced jacksonian economic , and moving Andrew Jacksons portrait into the white house, does that is something to do with the decline in jacksons reputation . Are making anrs antitrump vote by ripping jackson down a few notches . We dont know the answers to all of that. We have such a wide pool of scholars that it does make for an interesting conversation. Was alliam Henry Harrison president of one month and then he died of pneumonia so you dont want to be ruling him but he had a negative presidency and you see that with James Buchanan , who was there at the very end because of in action. Host code that was a historian who joined us yesterday. One of three historians. We spent 90 minutes with them and again you can watch their comments on our site. The l. A. Times. The defense secretary general mattis is in baghdad to meet with troops remaining in the country and to make it clear that the u. S. Is not there for we have a story on that at the l. A. Times. Com. And commenting on our survey. Placing barack obama just below woodrow wilson. The third survey by cspan which began pulling experts. Obama scored particularly high on the categories of justice. Coming in third behind lincoln. But he ranked fifth from the bottom on issues of relations with congress. Ongo to sharon from michigan the democrats line. Thank you for waiting. Thatr i would like to say 47thd trump is now the president of our United States. Always say that the Americans Still havent settled the civil war by Abraham Lincoln. That is all i have to say. I enjoy cspan. Think god for cspan. Host thank you for tuning in. We go to don in pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller how are you doing this morning . I think everybody should give donald trump a chance. He didnt even start yet. He has the media after him. I think itimes is disgraceful. People have to give them a chance. Host thank you. Reporting on the new cspan survey, the headline says better than the munro doctrine. Next, a call from virginia with brad. Good morning. Call cothe morning. I want to go more obscure. I want to say james k. Polk. And i say that because as a teacher and fairfax county, i like to talk to my kids about how these one term president s dont get the credit they deserve. And it was like to call him the best president nobody who has ever heard of and he did so much. Oregon territory. One of the first president s to get into the lowering the trade tariffs that were controversial at the time. So i would go with him as one of the obscure that good ones. Host now from san jose, california on the democrats line. Who is your pick . Call cothank you for taking my call. Host absolutely. Cohead. Him wisdom, aves and my feareart, president is the father of the constitution. James madison. Ao said if tiring he of person comes to this land it will be a foreign enemy. Host the Washington Post is reporting on the debate that lawmakers will take up when lawmakers return. Plan for thed the Affordable Care act will be unveiled next week. Fast, one of trumps primary goals is to repeal the and house care act republicans are Briefing Members but there is no consensus yet on what the plan will ultimately contain. More details are available online. Thefrom manchester on democrats line. Who is the pick for the top president . Caller i dont have a favorite president. But i like gerald r ford. He did two things for this country. All, he was not elected. The only president we had that was never elected. Would never vote for a republican. At least, i never have so far. But gerald ford did two things. First of all, people at the nixon business to rest. I was livid. I wanted to hogtie him for war crimes. But ford put that business to an end and that was absolutely necessary. The next thing he did was when the north vietnamese came rolling down highway one and two saigon, he gave it up. The idea of dying for somebodys personal honor just doesnt get it with me. So gerald ford did both of those things. And im proud of him. That is all i have to say. You are right, he is the only nonelected president serving 2. 5 years. Smith isrd norton working on an extensive biography on Richard Nixon and came out with a book a few years ago on rockefeller. And he joined us yesterday to talk about the survey and what it means and his own thoughts. Heres part of the conversation. Test copeople want to know, who is your favorite president . Tell them it depends on which side of the bed i out of that morning. Question is,etter who is the most consequential president . I find them all interesting. Their personalities and the events and interactions of the character. Wilsonwoodrow fascinating. You know, why approach ideologically . Host that was part of the conversation yesterday with three historians. We had more than 90 historians participating. Post. Com ny joining reporters yesterday in defending the news media against trumps claim that the media is the enemy of the american people. Ator john mccain politicians and media heavyweights blasting the president s tweet in which he demonized much of the mainstream media. Including john kasich who told cnn that the press is vital and plays an important part in our democracy. We do carry all five sunday shows on cspan. John in missouri. Caller thank you for taking my call, i have been trying for a while. The best president i have had bit i think a reagan was probably one of the best. I have reservations for a few who were there before. Especially mr. Carter. And then we had mr. Obama. To what no comparison reagan stepped into when we had the iran crisis there with people who were held there for 400 days. And we all knew that when the election came, and reagan ended up being president that the situation was going to end. And they didnt give him enough credit. The president of the United States, tr