Who are the top 10 presidents?

>>> past presidents are still influential in today's politics. just yesterday at the clinton global initiative , both candidates appeared with former president bill clinton . you often hear president obama talking about lincoln, mitt romney talking about ronald reagan , and now " newsweek " is out with a list of the ten best presidents since 1900 . sir harold evans who is author of the fabulous, "the american century " has a tribute. it's a ploesh to have you here.

>> thank you, madam.

>> you gaekted together ten distinguished historians. what was the criteria?

>> the criteria was what kind of active presidents were they. it's very interesting. the historians, all -- every single one of them chose franklin roosevelt as number one.

>> why?

>> best president since theodore roosevelt in the beginning of the century. if you ask them why he did that, he was active and effective, those two things. and he had a sense of america's ideal of itself. so they took those criteria. they didn't know what the others were doing. they all voted and it's interesting the top three --

>> so it wasn't a big sitting around the table and discussing this.

>> no, no. it was all in isolation. they locked them in a room with an ice pack and 5,000 volumes of their own works and said, come up with --

>> that doesn't sound like fun.

>> all of them, they pretty much agreed on lyndon johnson as one, two, three. the bottom, nonetheless, in this select ten tharksd ronald reagan and barack obama . now, chris --

>> let me talk about ronald reagan because it is fascinating that when you're out on the campaign trail, it doesn't matter if you're democrat or rupp, a lot of people invoke ronald reagan . i'm going to play a clip of some of those recent sound bites .

>> president after his recession. we created over a million jobs in a month.

>> what ronald reagan was calling for then was the same thing we're calling for now, a return to basic fairness and responsibility.

>> they obviously must know something. not only did historians like him but a lot of americans loved ronald reagan .

>> you're quite right, chris. as well as the historians poll, they're all discontintinguished authors, the pollsters went out and asks the people a. what did the people say. who did they put?

>> ronald reagan .

>> ronald reagan .

>> number one.

>> who did they put number two?

>> i'm going have to cheat. bill clinton . isn't that interesting.

>> number three. franklin roosevelt . so as far as barack obama , by the way, barack obama scored mid left in both polls.

>> interesting. i mean maybe not for people today because he obviously is very popular certainly with democrats, but for historians to choose a living president.

>> they chose him as number ten of the 20. they put him at the bottom of the list just below ronald reagan . but it is interesting. the popular people put him in the middle of achievements. it was one of the top ten in the country, so they excluded george w. bush . to my regret they excluded george herbert walker bush who i personally thing they deserved more credit than they got. the popular vote excluded woodrow wilson . woodrow wilson charted american history for the next years.

>> what do you make of the breakdown if you look at the list that's used democratic. out of ten, only three are republicans.

>> yeah. i mean the people, four were republicans, but wi biand large you have to look at who the republicans are. you've about got warren harding who was always drunk and making love in a closet. corrupt. you've got herbert hoover , decent made who made a screw -up on the depression. and calvin coolidge . he gave his wife a present, a bag of socks. 53 socks, darned the holes in them. that was the kind of imagination calvin cool lilk had. then you have george -- and in the poll, i have to say i don't think " newsweek " would mind this coming out, but i was told that among the worst presidents they chose the worst presidents . there were two. republicans. warren harding of the drunking whiskey party and george w. bush .

>> really. from the historians.

>> that's from the historians.

>> what else can you tell us that " newsweek " might not want us to know?

>> i don't know. my lips o sealed. it's an incredibly interesting poll because if you go back -- if you go back, you get washington, jefferson. true, washington was the greatest man in american history , but to do from theodore res velt the inspired idea of " newsweek 's", i thought, and i thought the historians -- the individual rankings are being published in the " newsweek " ipad of what they all voted. and it's fascinating. now, dan kevers actually weighted them all.

>> it is fascinating. people can find it either on their news stands or ipad. sir harold evans . what a pleasure to have you on the program. come back, will you?