APL Pre-Season: Divisions and Overview

Over on Polipundit, we've been discussing the Presidents of the United States for the last few days, and it occurs to me that any comparison between Presidents must include the relevant dates the Presidents had to operate, including the make-up of the Congress and Supreme Court that President had to deal with. That is, a fair evaluation of all the Presidents could best be done, by a series of one-to-one comparisons, in each term timeline. With 42 men having served so far, that works out to 82 contests for each President (41 comparisons in his own time, 41 in the other President's times), or 1,722 contests. To make that more fun and less droll, I am matching up the Presidents in a sports-style format, and calling the American Presidents League, or APL.

For each President, I am drawing up characteristic values and noting the party intensity for each Congress, and noting the Supreme Court's attitude by the major cases they handled at a time. For now, here are the six divisions (7 Presidents each):


CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE

Revolution Division
G Washington
T Jefferson
A Jackson
J Monroe
J Adams
J Madison
JQ Adams

Constitution Division
J Polk
M Van Buren
J Tyler
Z Taylor
M Fillmore
F Pierce
W Harrison

Reconstruction Division
A Lincoln
U Grant
R Hayes
C Arthurs
J Buchanan
A Johnson
J Garfield


FEDERAL CONFERENCE

Manifest Division
T Roosevelt
G Cleveland
W McKinley
W Wilson
B Harrison
W Taft
W Harding


Domination Division
F Roosevelt
C Coolidge
D Eisenhower
H Truman
J Kennedy
H Hoover
L Johnson

Leadership Division
R Reagan
GW Bush
G Ford
GHW Bush
W Clinton
J Carter
R Nixon

Based on the preferences expressed by Polipundit readers, here are the Pre-Season Top 12:

1. G Washington
2. A Lincoln
3. R Reagan
4. T Jefferson
5. A Jackson
6. GW Bush
7. T Roosevelt
8. F Roosevelt
9. J Polk
10. J Monroe
11. C Coolidge
12. J Adams

If the APL is a waste of time for you, just ignore those posts which reference the season's progress. But if you like to compare Presidents, this might be fun.