{"168151":{"#nid":"168151","#data":{"type":"news","title":"If It Really is All About the Economy, Which Presidents Have Performed Best?","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDuring presidential campaigns, it\u2019s not unusual to hear candidates say they will focus on strengthening the nation\u2019s economy. But once in the White House, which presidents have truly delivered on that promise?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen it comes to shoring up the nation\u2019s economy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, and Rutherford B. Hayes top the list, while William Henry Harrison, Herbert Hoover, and Martin Van Buren rank at the bottom, according to a new study by the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe first-of-its-kind study analyzed up to 220 years of data to estimate an economic \u201cgrade point average\u201d for presidents who served from 1789 until 2009.\u0026nbsp; The research, conducted by\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Mark Zachary Taylor\u003C\/strong\u003E, assistant professor in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;Sam Nunn School of International Affairs\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EIvan Allen College\u003C\/strong\u003E, appears in the October edition of\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;P.S. Political Science \u0026amp; Politics\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn Taylor\u2019s report card, William McKinley and Millard Filmore round out the top five, and founding fathers George Washington and John Adams are still on the honor roll with a grade of A-. Notable presidents like Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy rank slightly lower in the A-\/B+range. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan are the best-rated recent presidents earning a grade of B.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost existing presidential ranking systems tend to be clouded by partisan bias, subjective judgments and other aspect of presidential performance, Taylor said. This economic ranking system is based on objective, statistical data and is meant to be a serious way to gauge presidential economic performance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPut simply, if \u2018It\u2019s the economy, stupid,\u2019 then we need to make stronger efforts to properly judge economic performance and to assign credit and blame where they are most deserved,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThese rankings are meant to constitute a scientific step in this direction.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaylor analyzed up to 220 years of data from the Measuring Worth Project at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He then graded the presidents individually using the traditional A-F (4-0 point) scale based on how well each performed in eight economic areas. Taylor used multiple and competing statistical measurements, ranking algorithms and time lags to ensure the data was unbiased. No historical or ethical judgments were used to adjust the findings.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaylor\u2019s objective approach yielded some surprises, such as the high ranking of presidents who traditionally have been poorly regarded like Harding, Hayes, and Fillmore. Also some national heroes \u2013 Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson \u2013 receive D\u0027s for poor economic performance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt makes sense when you dig into the history,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIn the case of Lincoln, to fight a war, you have to print money and go into debt. That\u2019s bad for the economy in the long run, but sometimes there are more important things than the economy, such as staying together as one nation.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaylor also found correlations between the characteristics of presidents and their economic performance. For example, presidents who have been good for the U.S. economy tend to belong to pro-business political parties, work with a Congress in which only one house is dominated by their same party, serve during wartime and were raised in middle-class environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPresidents with below average economic performance often belong to parties that are relatively pro-farmer, pro-laborer, or pro-consumer. They tend to enter a single-party federal government in which one congressional house flipped parties, and they typically were raised in lower-class environments, the research shows.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInterestingly, presidential economic performance did not correlate with the person\u2019s pre-political career, birth order, historical \u201cgreatness,\u201d or whether he was a \u201cdark horse\u201d versus a well-vetted president, Taylor said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaylor cautions that these findings refer to the past performance of a group and cannot be applied to the 2012 election to predict whether Republican nominee Mitt Romney or U.S. President Barack Obama would be better for the economy. The study also did not include President Obama\u2019s first term because it is not completed and the data will not be available until 2015, Taylor said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat the research does suggest is that a president can affect the economy, even though the executive branch may appear on paper to have a limited role.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt is tempting to dismiss these rankings as the product of dumb luck: getting elected at the top or bottom of the business cycle,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cRandomness surely plays some role in these rankings but presidents also bear responsibility for making their own luck.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Study Rates U.S. Presidents"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDuring presidential campaigns, it\u2019s not unusual to hear candidates say they will focus on strengthening the nation\u2019s economy. But once in the White House, which presidents have truly delivered on that promise?\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27167","created_gmt":"2012-11-02 17:00:56","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:13:06","author":"Rebecca Keane","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-11-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-11-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"166921":{"id":"166921","type":"image","title":"Mark Zachary Taylor","body":null,"created":"1449178954","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:42:34","changed":"1475894806","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:46","alt":"Mark Zachary Taylor","file":{"fid":"195609","name":"taylor_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/taylor__1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/taylor__1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3415817,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/taylor__1.jpg?itok=MA3bAIol"}}},"media_ids":["166921"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/US\/2012\/11\/05\/Presidents-graded-on-economy-FDR-tops\/UPI-30381352158948\/#ixzz2BRWVlF22","title":"Presidents Graded, UPI"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.rttnews.com\/1997243\/economic-ranking-of-u-s-presidents-and-the-first-rank-goes-to.aspx?type=ts","title":"Economic Ranking of Presidents, RTT"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.futurity.org\/society-culture\/fdrs-economic-policy-top-of-class\/#comments","title":"FDR\u0027s Policy Top of Class, Futurity"}],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"45401","name":"2012 Presidential Election"},{"id":"290","name":"Economy"},{"id":"48991","name":"Mark Zachary Taylor"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane \u0026nbsp;404-894-1720\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}