Some two and a half years ago I wrote my list of the best and worst Presidents of all time, ranking them from #1 to #41 (I only counted Grover Cleveland once and George W. Bush was still president).

In 2010, with me four and a half years wiser by my own estimations, this list needs a good updating. I’m still no expert (Who really knows where to put Zachary Taylor?) but have a few criteria you might find interesting.

Here are some of the boosts or downgrades I gave to many Presidents which might help you clarify why I put who where:

Limited government Presidents – George Washington, the only President not to belong to a political party, gets boosted to #1 over Abraham Lincoln thanks to this. William Henry Harrison, who died shortly after his inauguration, gets a boost because he did less damage many other Presidents.

Wartime boosts and downgrades – if you helped America win an important war, then you get a boost. If it weren’t for his leadership during World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt would easily be the President on the absolute bottom of the list. LBJ takes his place both because of his domestic policies and the disaster that was Vietnam.

Space Age and technology boost – JFK is the biggest recipient of the Space Age boost because he was the most decisive Space Age leader we’ve had – followed by Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, whose visionary embracing of missile defense has made him almost like a prophet.

Reductions for Presidents who expanded government – Teddy Roosevelt sinks like a stone on this list and Woodrow Wilson is also downgraded from the previous list.

Infrastructure boost – The interstate highway system (Ike) and Panama Canal (Teddy) help provide a small boost.

What are some of the notable changes to this list? Observe:

• George Washington (#1) supplants Abraham Lincoln (#2) at the top of the list.
• Warren G. Harding (#14) gets a large boost for resisting the temptation to intervene with the economy during a recession.
• Teddy Roosevelt (#25) drops from #4 to the bottom half thanks to his economy-meddling. Woodrow Wilson (#16) drops to the bottom ten thanks to helping secure the creation of the Federal Reserve.
• George W. Bush (#30) enters the fray. He is mostly boosted by his dedication to the sanctity of human life and his excellent choices for the Supreme Court. He is downgraded for his contribution to government intervention into the economy that helped set the stage for massive government spending and a Democratic uprising in 2008, his authoritative/bureaucratic approach to homeland security.
• Herbert Hoover (#40 ) moves to the bottom five, as his disastrous early-Depression Presidency and intervention into the economy helped set the stage for the New Deal.
• Bill Clinton (#24) moves up.
• LBJ (#42) stays at the bottom.

Without any further ado, here is the Presidential Ranking 2.0 list:

1. George Washington (previous position: 2)
2. Abraham Lincoln (previous position: 1)
3. Thomas Jefferson (previous position: 3)
4. Ronald Reagan (previous position: 5)
5. James Monroe (previous position: 7)
6. James K. Polk (previous position: 6)
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower (previous position: 9)
8. John F. Kennedy (previous position: eight) – (it made a sunglasses smiley face when I typed in an 8 and a closing parenthesis)
9. Andrew Jackson (previous position: 10)
10. James Madison (previous position: 12)
11. John Adams (previous position: 11)
12. William McKinley (previous position: 14)
13. John Quincy Adams (previous position: 15)
14. Warren G. Harding (previous position: 39)
15. Harry S. Truman (previous position: 13)
16. Calvin Coolidge (previous position: 17)
17. William Henry Harrison (previous position: 22)
18. Grover Cleveland (previous position: 18)
19. William Howard Taft (previous position: 19)
20. Martin Van Buren (previous position: 20)
21. George H. W. Bush (previous position: 21)
22. James A. Garfield (previous position: 23)
23. Zachary Taylor (previous position: 24)
24. Bill Clinton (previous position: 31)
25. Teddy Roosevelt (previous position: 4)
26. Rutherford B. Hayes (previous position: 26)
27. Gerald Ford (previous position: 28)
28. Andrew Johnson (previous position: 27)
29. Chester A. Arthur (previous position: 29)
30. George W. Bush (previous position: none)
31. Franklin D. Roosevelt (previous position: 25)
32. Richard Nixon (previous position: 30)
33. Benjamin Harrison (previous position: 33)
34. John Tyler (previous position: 34)
35. Millard Fillmore (previous position: 35)
36. Jimmy Carter (previous position: 37)
37. Woodrow Wilson (previous position: 16)
38. Ulysses S. Grant (previous position: 36)
39. Franklin Pierce (previous position: 38)
40. Herbert Hoover (previous position: 32)
41. James Buchanan (previous position: 40)
42. Lyndon B. Johnson (previous position: 41)