The 12 best US presidents

The other day, we shared with you the US Press Staff assessment of the 10 worst American residents which are, in descending order: James Buchanan, 1857-61; Donald Trump, 2017-21; Andrew Jackson, 1865-69; Franklin Pierce, 1853-57; Warren G. Harding, 1921-23; William Henry Harrison, 1841; John Tyler, 1841-45; Millard Fillmore, 1850-53; Herbert Hoover, 1929-33; Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850. It's time to meet the great ones.

The 12 greatest American presidents according to the Presidential Historians Survey in descending order are: Abraham Lincoln who got a score of 897 out of 1,000 votes. He is followed by George Washington, 851; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 841; Theodore Roosevelt, 785; Dwight Eisenhower, 734; Harry Truman, 713; Thomas Jefferson, 704; John F. Kennedy, 699; Ronald Reagan, 681; Barack Obama, 664; Lyndon Johnson, 654; and James Monroe, 643.

If we proceed to number 13 to 20, the list will include Woodrow Wilson, 617; William McKinley, 612; John Adams, 609; James Madison, 604; John Quincy Adams, 603; James Polk, William Bill Clinton, Ulysses Grant, and George H.W. Bush (the father).

Abraham Lincoln consistently topped the surveys for the last 10 years or so. He was a Republican (the Republican Party today is not the same as before), and was the 16th president who stayed in the White House for only one term from 1857 to 1861 but created the greatest impact among all the 46 American presidents, from George Washington in 1789 to Joe Biden in 2020. He abolished slavery and emancipated the African-Americans from the vestiges of involuntary servitude. He delivered the famous Gettysburg Address and he was a great trial lawyer who could win impossible cases for the poor and the oppressed against the rich and the powerful.

George Washington was the first president, from April 30, 1789 up to March 4, 1797. He was a big landowner and this writer was able to visit his large estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Washington was a great general who fought against the British and won many famous battles.

He was not elected at large but by delegates representing the original American states. He was elected unanimously by the 69 members of the Electoral College, which included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and New York. North Carolina and Rhode Island did not vote because at that time, they did not ratify the Constitution yet.

There is not enough space to discuss all of the best but I single out Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only US president who was elected four times. Harry Truman was the one who ordered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese. That was only a righteous revenge for Japan's treacherous attack on Pearl Harbor. I also like John F. Kennedy, the first and one of the only two Catholic US presidents, the other being Joe Biden. I like Thomas Jefferson because he was the author of the Bill of Rights and the American Declaration of Independence. One of my favorites is Barack Obama, the first African-American to ever ascend the White House.

America is a great country and it has had many great presidents. But it also has Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, both Republicans. However, one of my favorites was also a Republican, the great communicator, Ronald Reagan. I hope I can also write about the three best presidents of the Philippines. But as of now, I do not want to open another Pandora's Box.