Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Kennedy and Reagan Lead Overrated List

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin Delano Roosevelt lead the pack by a comfortable margin.

February 13, 2015 at 9:25 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Sitting pretty.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

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Just in time for the Washington’s Birthday holiday, two political scientists are ready to release the results of a Presidential Greatness survey of presidency scholars (full release Monday), and I got a sneak peak.

I really like the survey, conducted by Justin Vaughn of Boise State University and Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston. I like that they asked about skills, specifically, legislative, diplomatic and military abilities. That’s a good approach for political scientists to take.