Presidents

Ultimately, how any period in time is measured has a lot to do with things outside the control of the Government.

The few times its different is when the country faces a crisis or a major war.

Take the administration of a popular president like Dwight Eisenhower.  Most people associate him much more with being the World War 2 general and while the country dealt with a lot of issues (all presidents do) I suspect most Americans couldn't name a significant accomplishment of his administration.

A president like John Kennedy is remembered by many more people because of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the fact that he was assassinated.  The second is clearly not an accomplishment.

Presidents come and go and someone like President Obama will forever stand out as the first black president, which is unlikely to be forgotten, like the fact that Kennedy was our first Catholic President.

He might also be remembered for his health care bill which may have started our move towards health care for all.  However the fate of that is still uncertain and it is still under attack.

You really can't judge the importance of a particular presidency before it is actually over and even then it might take some time.  Of course some, like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt were clearly important because of the events going on during their administration.

I didn't include Woodrow Wilson because I'm not sure most Americans would even know he was president during the first world war and besides that he didn't make much of a mark.

It remains to be seen how the current president is remembered in history, but the fact that he is in the media so much is not really a relevant factor.

Despite his ongoing propaganda about his historic achievements, as of this point nothing really stands out.  He has met with the North Korean dictator, but whether that changes anything or is even important remains to be seen.

Nixon opened the door to China, a much more significant event and it is really mostly a footnote, he has Watergate as his main legacy.

History will decide what to remember, if anything at all when time has passed.