Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle wave to the crowd as they board an Air Force jet to depart Andrews Air Force base in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Jan. 20. | AP Photo Survey: Historians rank Obama 12th best president

Historians have ranked Barack Obama the 12th best president of all time, the highest rated since President Ronald Reagan, in a new C-SPAN survey released Friday.

Less than a month after exiting the White House, Obama received high marks from presidential historians for his pursuit of "equal justice for all" and for his commanding "moral authority," ranking third and seventh among all former presidents in each respective category. The 44th president also cracked a top 10 ranking for his "economic management" and public persuasion.


The former president's tenure earned its lowest marks for the relationship between the presidency and Congress, with bitter partisanship often stagnating the effectiveness between the two and Obama seeing his Democratic majority slip in both the House of Representatives and the Senate during his eight years in office.

Historians, however, remained mixed on whether Obama's standing so soon after leaving office was higher or lower than expected.

"Although 12th is a respectable overall ranking, one would have thought that former President Obama’s favorable rating when he left office would have translated into a higher ranking in this presidential survey," said Edna Greene Medford, a Howard University professor and member of C-SPAN's historical advisory board.

Others, though, felt the former president's performance fresh out of office was remarkable.

"That Obama came in at number 12 his first time out is quite impressive," Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University professor and C-SPAN adviser, said in a press release.

The final verdict on Obama's legacy may still take time to truly assess, though, as historical views are admittedly likely to season as time passes.

"Of course, historians prefer to view the past from a distance, and only time will reveal his legacy," said Medford of Obama.

The survey, the third of its kind and first since 2009, when Obama succeeded President George W. Bush, also saw an uptick for the 43rd president.

"The survey is surprisingly good news for George W. Bush, who shot up a few notches," said Brinkley of Bush, who rose from the 36th spot to the 33rd. Bush, like Obama, earned his highest mark for his pursuit of equal justice, but came in at only 19th. Bush's worst metrics were for international relations, with the drawn-out military conflict in the Middle East likely weighing him down.

Unchanged in the rankings were the top three standings, occupied by former Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, respectively.

"Once again the Big Three are Lincoln, Washington and FDR - as it should be," said Brinkley.

Former President Bill Clinton, meanwhile, slightly behind Obama at 15th, receiving extremely high marks for his handling of the economy, which ranked third all-time, but a lowly 39th ranking for his moral authority, with scandals plaguing the latter end of his presidency.

According to historian Richard Norton Smith, the gold standard for presidents remains those holding office between 1933 and 1969, with numerous snagging top scores.

"Five presidents from this era each rank in the top ten which tells you something about the criteria that historians tend to use," said Smith. "It reinforces Franklin Roosevelt's claim to be not only the first modern president but the man who, in reinventing the office, also established the criteria by which we judge our leaders."

Here are the full rankings:

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. George Washington

3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

4. Teddy Roosevelt

5. Dwight Eisenhower

6. Harry Truman

7. Thomas Jefferson

8. John F. Kennedy

9. Ronald Reagan

10. Lyndon Johnson

11. Woodrow Wilson

12. Barack Obama

13. James Monroe

14. James Polk

15. Bill Clinton

16. William McKinley

17. James Madison

18. Andrew Jackson

19. John Adams

20. George H.W. Bush

21. John Q. Adams

22. Ulysses Grant

23. Grover Cleveland

24. William Taft

25. Gerald Ford

26. Jimmy Carter

27. Calvin Coolidge

28. Richard Nixon

29. James Garfield

30. Benjamin Harrison

31. Zachary Taylor

32. Rutherford Hayes

33. George W. Bush

34. Martin Van Buren

35. Chester Arthur

36. Herbert Hoover

37. Millard Fillmore

38. William Harrison

39. John Tyler

40. Warren Harding

41. Franklin Pierce

42. Andrew Johnson

43. James Buchanan