And we care....why?

As the years have gone on, one fact of life I've learned is to not confuse education and intelligence. Again, many of the most intelligent, well read, capable and knowledgeable people I've met are high school graduates, or have an associates or bachelor's degree. Many a moron I've met has the term doctorate behind their name.

Now a friend put this on his Twitter page, and it's interesting.

Donald Trump ranked worst president in US history by nearly 200 political scientists

Nearly 200 of America's top political scientists have voted Donald Trump the worst president in US history.

According to the 2018 Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey, Mr Trump ranks even lower than disgraced President Richard Nixon – even among conservatives. Abraham Lincoln, unsurprisingly, takes the top prize. Mr Nixon sits at 33.

The study, conducted every four years, surveys social science researchers from the American Political Science Association’s section on presidents and executive politics. It asks the experts to rank each president’s greatness on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being great, 50 being average, and 0 being a total failure.

Mr Trump averaged a score of 12.34, bumping James Buchanan – the president who saw the US descend into the Civil War – out of the bottom spot. The result comes just months after Trump finished his first year in office as the most unpopular president in modern history...

First, seeing this is Yahoo News, let's just take it with a chunk of salt. Also, they don't list how they came up with the numbers. To be a bit more accurate, I would recommend Rating the Presidents. Granted, it came out in 1997, hopefully to be updated in the future. But they actually explain how they rank the presidents, and they went to an effort to be balanced. A total of 98 professors, half of which ID themselves as liberal, half as conservatives, using a one to five ranking in certain areas (Foreign policy, taxation, budget discipline, etc). Read it and you can judge their opinion. But I think this says it all.

...Mr Trump was accompanied in the bottom five by Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Harrison, and Mr Buchanan.

Researchers Brandon Rottinghaus, of the University of Houston, and Justin Vaughn, of Boise State University, said they surveyed 170 political science experts for the study. Of those experts, 57.2 per cent identified as Democrats, 12.7 per cent as Republicans, and 27.1 per cent as independents...

Almost 60% openly call themselves Democrats, plus almost one-third call themselves "independents." Again, my experience over the years, a lot of people who call themselves "independents" are actually Democrats, or at least left of center, but don't want to call themselves that. Understandable, I would not want to call myself that either. But 12.7% of the surveyed people call themselves Republicans. Is this really a reflection of the American population. I don't think so.

Per Gallop, as of last month, the numbers are 31% Republican, 29% Democrat, and 39% independent. The survey is worthless.

Mark Twain said it well, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." Here is a classic example.