Anti-Climacus

OVERRATED/UNDERRATED PRESIDENTS:

Unlike Megan McArdle and Ross Douthat, I think presidents who are not rated, but should be, would qualify as 'underrated,' so I'll feel free to include them.

Underrated:
Chester A. Arthur--for civil service reform, if nothing else

Calvin Coolidge--for being distinctly less corrupt than any of the presidents in the 50 years or so before him, also for being generally awesome (he may have better anecdotes than any 20th-century president)

Gerald Ford--total homer choice, I know--Eagle Scout, went to Michigan. Bad on economic policy, which is a minus, and lost to Carter, also bad. But there's a lot to be said for stability and a lack of ambition, especially in a difficult moment, and he strikes me as a man who did not mind receding when it was time, more than can be said for some others.


Overrated:
Ronald Reagan--I didn't come around to conservatism until, oh, five years ago, so I come from the perspective of an outsider. I really don't get the fuss. He doesn't have a lot of signal policy accomplishments, and the ones he does have are of dubious value (expansion of government spending) or multiple causation (the end of the Cold War). Unified a Republican coalition, which after him went on to... something? Welfare reform was good, I guess. Maybe someone can explain this to me.

Jimmy Carter--will take care of this by himself soon enough.