By the Maui Curmudgeon (28th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

WOODROW WILSON: 1913-1921 ~ 28th U.S. President

A forgotten, highly intelligent, near-great president, Woodrow Wilson would never have become president without the stubbornness of Teddy Roosevelt, who wanted the presidency back so badly he left the Republican Party to run in 1912 as an independent, splitting the Republicans.

A quiet man who spent a great deal of time in academia, Wilson eventually became president of Princeton University in 1902. During his years there, he wrote some of the definitive texts on American politics, including “Congressional Government,” which chastised the Congress for its poor construction. He became one of the nation’s first political commentators, and was admired for his quick wit, his ability to explain complicated processes simply, and his unfailing sense of optimism. By 1910, he was asked to run for governor of New Jersey, he accepted and won.

Read the rest…