US presidential rankings (32 to 22)

The Carter administration was dominated by a series of foreign policy disappointments including the surrender of the Panama Canal, the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

He struggled to assert his authority and his presidency was often referred to as “his accidency”. He managed to survive the first ever attempt to impeach a President after an unpopular veto and went on to annex Texas and then bring Florida into the Union.

The President sits low on our list after managing to alienate all sides of the political spectrum with unpopular anti-trust and tariff legislation during his term in office. His bid for re-election was the least successful ever as he secured just eight electoral votes and finished third behind Woodrow Wilson and Roosevelt, who was standing for the Progressive Party.

Harrison implemented an unpopular, high tariff on goods imported into the US, raising prices while the American economy was suffering. At the same time, the President was signing substantial appropriation bills to increase spending on the navy, subsidised shipping and federal improvements.

A military man with no prior experience in public office, Taylor died after 16 months in the White House. Much of that short period in power was spent debating the future of slavery in the newly expanded United States. He was a Southern slave-owner but argued that slavery should not be allowed to spread.

he finally brought an end to the period of post-civil war Reconstruction by abruptly withdrawing federal troops from the southern states and allowing the former Confederate states to rule themselves.

he refused to intervene on behalf of struggling farmers and was slow to react to the Great Mississippi Flood. In foreign affairs, he passed the largely ineffectual Kellogg-Briand Pact, which called for signatories to renounce war.

His period in office coincided with a US recession and inflation rates of up to seven per cent, which left him with a large budgetary deficit and little room for manoeuvre. He vetoed 39 appropriation bills passed by Congress in his first 14 months to try and keep the economy afloat

His gentle approach to southern leaders and veto of civil rights legislation lost him the support of the Republican Party in Congress and he spent much of his presidency battling two attempts to impeach him.

Clinton was the first Democrat to be re-elected President since Franklin Roosevelt. He successfully passed progressive legislation, including the right to take unpaid leave during pregnancy or illness and an increase in the minimum wage but he failed with other proposals such as his medical reforms.

A non-partisan President who attempted to improve the image of Washington officials by introducing an independent civil service commission, restricting political influence over official appointments and reducing tariff rates.