Barry Bradford Featured On NBC

“How do Presidential legacies change over time?”

That was the intriguing question the superb NBC reporter Ethan Sacks asked me for a story about President’s Day.

Click here to read the article!

I was happy to offer a historian’s point of view to NBC on this interesting question. Historians vary in their estimations of how to rank the Presidents. But most agree that you have to give it time. Trying to evaluate a Presidency while it is ongoing is ludicrous, from a historical point of view.

Consider the Presidency of Barack Obama. His signature achievement was the passage of the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. Was it a great idea, a fair idea or a poor idea? The answer is that we cannot be sure yet! I can point you to statistics that show it was a fantastic help for many working-class families in the USA. I can also show you statistics that indicate that it harmed parts of the economy. It will take years to evaluate it properly. Thus, ranking President Obama is not possible in any meaningful way.

President Eisenhower’s reputation and ranking have steadily grown in the years since he left office. The building of the Interstate Highway System proved to have many widespread and positive impacts on the American economy. Most of those impacts took years to reveal themselves to a close analysis. Presidents like Cleveland, Grant, and Truman have likewise seen their legacy burnished by a more in-depth understanding of their actions.

When you read a ranking of the best and worst Presidents, take with a grain of salt the ranking of any President after Nixon. Time and distance reveal much to historians!