Video: Survey names Buchanan worst U.S. president

updated 2/16/2009 12:37:44 AM ET 2009-02-16T05:37:44

Presidential rankings according to 65 historians and professional observers of the presidency surveyed by the cable channel C-SPAN. Participants ranked each president by 10 leadership attributes.

President: 2009 rank, 2000 rank

Abraham Lincoln: 1, 1

George Washington: 2, 3

Franklin D. Roosevelt: 3, 2

Theodore Roosevelt: 4, 4

Harry S. Truman: 5, 5

John F. Kennedy: 6, 8

Thomas Jefferson: 7, 7

Dwight D. Eisenhower: 8, 9

Woodrow Wilson: 9, 6

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Ronald Reagan: 10, 11

Lyndon B. Johnson: 11, 10

James K. Polk: 12, 12

Andrew Jackson: 13, 13

James Monroe: 14, 14

Bill Clinton: 15, 21

William McKinley: 16, 15

John Adams: 17, 16

George H.W. Bush: 18, 20

John Quincy Adams: 19, 19

James Madison: 20, 18

Grover Cleveland: 21, 17

Gerald R. Ford: 22, 23

Ulysses S. Grant: 23, 33

William Howard Taft: 24, 24

Jimmy Carter: 25, 22

Calvin Coolidge: 26, 27

Richard M. Nixon: 27, 25

James A. Garfield: 28, 29

Video: Lincoln's legacy impacts President Obama Zachary Taylor: 29, 28

Benjamin Harrison: 30, 31

Martin Van Buren: 31, 30

Chester A. Arthur: 32, 32

Rutherford B. Hayes: 33, 26

Herbert Hoover: 34, 34

John Tyler: 35, 36

George W. Bush: 36, NA

Millard Fillmore: 37, 35

Warren G. Harding: 38, 38

William Henry Harrison: 39, 37

Franklin D. Pierce: 40, 39

Andrew Johnson: 41, 40

James Buchanan: 42, 41

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