Felzenberg GS ’78 rates presidents using six criteria

In the lecture, titled “What Makes for Greatness in a President,” Felzenberg noted that, as the legacies of almost all the presidents remain stagnant over time, there is a need for a more investigative evaluation of each man’s merit.

“Let the political scientists into the act,” he said, explaining the need for a more rational rating system. “Political science loves process.”

Felzenberg’s book “The Leaders We Deserved (And a Few We Didn’t): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game” includes a comprehensive ranking of all the U.S. presidents.

In his lecture, he explained the six criteria he uses to rate each president. Character, vision and confidence are what Felzenberg calls the “internal” values of a president, while stance on economic policy, national security and “preserving [of] the state of liberty” are also evaluated.

Felzenberg explained that the last criterion relates to the country’s unique origin.

“We are the only nation founded on an idea,” he said. “This powerful view has spread to the four corners of the world; some presidents expanded it, and some presidents restricted it.”

The criterion of liberty, though, proved controversial during the question-and-answer session after the talk, when an audience member questioned its validity given that “liberty” may be defined in many ways.

Felzenberg replied that “the southern view of liberty was the right to enslave others; that was their freedom to own human beings.”

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“Having a discussion with Thomas Jefferson about gay marriage wouldn’t make any sense,” he added. “He wouldn’t have any idea of what I was talking about.”

Removing this last condition of liberty to facilitate a more objective evaluation is not possible, Felzenberg said.

“Why not take it out, so you can do pure analysis?” he said. “You can’t take it out because it affects so many people. This nation was based on a government giving people rights.”

Though Felzenberg’s ratings are done retrospectively, and his anecdotes were all of past presidents, talk of the current presidential election figured into the lecture with references to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen John McCain (R-Ariz.)’s own admiration of former presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, respectively.

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The current election came up again when an audience member asked how much a candidate’s level of experience factored into his performance as president, a popular question this campaign season.

Felzenberg offered a historical example, noting that “[Abraham] Lincoln was the least experienced of presidents … but was the leader of his party for eight years.”

He added that in past elections, such as Richard Nixon versus John Kennedy and Al Gore versus George W. Bush, Americans proved that they “have never examined definitively” the experience of a candidate.

“I do think it’s a mistake to look at just policy experience,” Felzenberg said. “I think there’s an understanding of human psychology [that is important]. I think Lincoln had the best understanding of human psychology of all the presidents.”

The lecture was sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.