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Missing Warren G. Harding

Mainstream rankings of American presidents always frustrate me. Like this one from US News and World Reports which ranks the 10 worst and includes some other rankings of the best Presidents, scholars don't seem to base their decisions on human freedom, rather who did the most to centralize power in the Executive Branch.

Into this debate steps Lew Rockwell with his excellent defense of Warren Harding (2nd on the US News worst list). Martin Van Buren is another President who does not get high marks from historians, but who freedom-oriented historians have given high marks.

If centralizing Executive power is the matrix preferred by historians, then George W. Bush might be considered one of the best Presidents in this nation's history. After all, FDR makes Bush look like a piker as far as abrogating the Constitution is concerned, yet historians love him.

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