Of our leaders, I thought I would point out a few great reference books about the best and the rest. First of all, I recently got this book called
Rating the Presidents...
that comes from the same angle as most of us (the best leader since LBJ is Carter). Contains brief summaries of the administration of each and ranks them in five categories: Leadership, Accomplishments, Political Skill, Appointments, and Character. The Best President is Lincoln, worst Harding. They are actually somewhat fair, and Nixon is only 32, due to his great scores in other categories.
Another that I like: Hats in the Ring, which I often refer to. A detailed look at every presidential contest from 1796 to 1996, complete with period political cartoons (the antebellum ones are complicated!), pins, buttons, etc. The descriptions are great. "Agnew, in contrast, called Humphrey "squishy soft on communism" (and later prfessed to be unaware of the McCarthyite-Joe, not Gene-associations of the charge) and was a purveyor of ethnic insults, speaking of Polacks and calling a Nisei reporter a "fat Jap." And that's just one sentence of this great book!