Below Average--An important senator and key figure with Jackson in transforming Jefferson's Republican Party into the Democratic Party.

Below Average--Though Roosevelt felt he had abandoned his policies, Taft actually broke up more monopolies than did Teddy. Not as bad a president as some have imagined.

Below Average--Actually helped pave the way for the financial recovery in the nineties by reversing many of Reagan's disastrous economic policies, but was overall a weak leader.

Below Average--Cannon inflates Reagan's achievements and minimizes how much harm his policies caused, but this is still currently the best biography on Reagan.

Below Average--Though admirable in many ways, Grant's administration was plagued with scandals,and he never seemed to master the office.

Below Average--A mediocre president who is famed for being one of the most stylish dressers ever to hold the office.

Below Average--Sobel shares the tendency of many presidential biographers of trying to make him better than he was.

Bad--A very solid biography of a pretty dull president. One of many weak presidents between Jackson and Lincoln.

Bad--The wrong man at the wrong time. His impeachment, like Clinton's, was completely driven by partisan interests.

Bad--This new biography attempts to rehabilitate him to a degree, but given his timidity in facing the crises leading to the Civil War this is difficult.

Bad--The most regressive president in American history, Bush has on every conceivable issue attempted to undo the achievements of the past and return us to a utopian past that never existed.

Bad--Our worst president because his every decision made the tensions preceding the Civil War worse, and refused to intervene when several states seceded following Lincoln's election.

No Rank-- Harrison's lies that he won Tippecanoe when he clearly lost and that he was born in a log cabin when he wasn't don't give much confidence that he would have been a good president.