Saturday, March 25, 2006
Grading the Presidents - a Party Game
My objective here is to introduce a party game about Grading the Presidents, courtesy of D J Drummond. Lately, I've found that many of my friends, both Republicans and Democrats, have a negative view of how well President Bush stacks up against prior Presidents - and especially against President Reagan. I hold "W" in very high regard, primarily because I believe he has demonstrated excellent vision and leadership performance in the international arena and in national security.
Usually, dinner party discussions on this topic pick (uncover?) the ground rules and criteria in an ad hoc fashion as the talks proceed. Now, D J Drimmond, of PoliPundit blog has described a set of nine criteria for Presidential ratings; averaging the nine yields an overall 'GPA' grade. Obviosly, a group could decide to weigh some criteria more heavily than others, but I don't advise that ( mostly because his example reinforces my biases above). You can read all about how to play the game on My Report Card:
"It is fairly accepted as consensus that Reagan’s Presidency was the most successful in memory of any President in our generation, and so his ideals would appear to be the most salient in comparing performance. As a rule of thumb, the default for a President is “C”, that being the average grade in common use. If a President has done some damage to the country or his office in that category, then a lower grade would be used, although an “F” would not necessarily mean the President was completely incompetent or mendacious. If a President has done some service beyond the norm in a category, then a higher grade would be used, though even an “A ” would not necessarily mean perfection. While a bit more complex, matching up grades on the Reagan Ideal for not only Dubya, but his father, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Reagan himself helps demonstrate not only a proper comparison between the modern Presidents, but also demonstrate how some Presidents have had to recover from the damage done by a predecessor. With that in mind, I turn my attention to the nine selected categories:
Vision/Optimism
Communicating That Vision
National Security
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Domestic Spending/Size of Government
Federalism
Judicial Appointments
Leadership/Tenacity
Overall Grade "
Drummond continues with a discussion of his ratings in each category, ending with this summary and challenge:
"Overall Grade . Here is how the last five Presidents fared in my scoring:
Usually, dinner party discussions on this topic pick (uncover?) the ground rules and criteria in an ad hoc fashion as the talks proceed. Now, D J Drimmond, of PoliPundit blog has described a set of nine criteria for Presidential ratings; averaging the nine yields an overall 'GPA' grade. Obviosly, a group could decide to weigh some criteria more heavily than others, but I don't advise that ( mostly because his example reinforces my biases above). You can read all about how to play the game on My Report Card:
"It is fairly accepted as consensus that Reagan’s Presidency was the most successful in memory of any President in our generation, and so his ideals would appear to be the most salient in comparing performance. As a rule of thumb, the default for a President is “C”, that being the average grade in common use. If a President has done some damage to the country or his office in that category, then a lower grade would be used, although an “F” would not necessarily mean the President was completely incompetent or mendacious. If a President has done some service beyond the norm in a category, then a higher grade would be used, though even an “A ” would not necessarily mean perfection. While a bit more complex, matching up grades on the Reagan Ideal for not only Dubya, but his father, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Reagan himself helps demonstrate not only a proper comparison between the modern Presidents, but also demonstrate how some Presidents have had to recover from the damage done by a predecessor. With that in mind, I turn my attention to the nine selected categories:
Vision/Optimism
Communicating That Vision
National Security
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Domestic Spending/Size of Government
Federalism
Judicial Appointments
Leadership/Tenacity
Overall Grade "
Drummond continues with a discussion of his ratings in each category, ending with this summary and challenge:
"Overall Grade . Here is how the last five Presidents fared in my scoring:
Carter: GPA 1.06, earns a D
Reagan: GPA 4.03, earns an A
GHW Bush: GPA 3.00, earns a B
Clinton: GPA 1.91, earns a D+
GW Bush: GPA 3.88, earns an A-
Now the fun part: your thoughts!"
