Ranked by C-SPAN: UW professor Margaret O’Mara opens up about the importance of presidents

www.dailyuw.com - RSS Results in news,news/* of type article C-SPAN’s 2017 presidential rankings are out, and UW history professor Margaret O’Mara has a lot to say.O’Mara was first approached by C-SPAN to partake in the rankings, which drew upon 10 criteria ranging from “public persuasion,” to “moral authority,” to “performance within the context of his times.” In total, 91 historians, journalists, and other presidential observers from around the country agreed to participate.“I’ve just been a loud mouth I guess,” O’Mara said when asked why she was chosen. “I’ve written and spoken a lot about the presidency and politics.”
Now in their third cycle, the presidential rankings give valuable insight into politics today.“I think who is president matters a lot, particularly in the 20th century it gets to be a much more powerful job,” O’Mara said. “We’re so fascinated by presidents, not just because they have fascinating stories, but because they have an impact.” The survey, with its broad range of criteria, was more than just a ranking on face value. O’Mara emphasized non-partisanship and the historical perspective as key factors in determining where each president fell.“An important thing to recognize about this survey is that it wasn’t a popularity contest, or it wasn’t a vote on ‘Oh! These policies were good or bad,’” O’Mara said. “It’s the way that historians approach the history of the presidency: We aren’t there to fight for one side or another, but to think about how effective the president was in implementing his agenda.”So who won and who lost? Barack Obama came out at number 12.“His was a historical presidency because he was the first African-American president,” O’Mara said. “But he also entered into a time of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. On the foreign and domestic front, there were actions taken that affected ...


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