This week NBC News reported that a C-SPAN poll of 91 historians ranked Obama as the 12th best president of the United States. Obama makes the top 15 on this list, with presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, FDR, and George Washington ranking ahead of him and James K. Polk, James Monroe, and Bill Clinton behind him.

The list is compiled based on a multitude of factors including “moral authority,” “equal justice,” “international relations,” and “crisis leadership.” Obama did well in many of these categories with notable high points in “moral authority,” “economic management,” and “equal justice;” a category where he was ranked third behind Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Obama has long been a champion of equal rights, especially women's rights. Time Magazine reported in April of 2012 that Obama both dedicated a museum to women's rights and recognized contemporary women’s issues, such as the lack of women in corporate boardrooms, Congress, and even the Oval Office. He said, “I want them to be astonished that there was ever a time when women earned less than men for doing the same work. I want them to be astonished that there was ever a time when women were vastly outnumbered in the boardroom or in Congress, that there was ever a time when a woman had never sat in the Oval Office.”

Obama also started to dismantle some of the damages done by the War on Drugs. In September of 2016, Salon reported that Obama “commuted the sentences of 111 federal inmates, including 35 serving life sentences.”

While Obama was by no means a perfect president, the survey acknowledges that ranking him low on issues such as, “relations with Congress” and “international relations,” however, he did many great things for America and I think this poll is important in remembering his legacy.