According to a C-SPAN survey, President Obama ranks number 12 in the list of best presidents of all time.

Historians rated him highly for his “moral authority” and pursuit of “equal justice for all," but gave him low marks for losing the Democratic majority in Congress and the Senate during his eight years as president. Also contributing to his lower ranking than expected was his uncompromising relationship with the GOP. As far as “public persuasion” and “economic management,” the survey scored him higher.

Some were surprised that he didn’t make the top ten. We sure are with all the sycophants running around, like C-SPAN historical advisory board member and Howard University Professor Edna Greene Medford who said, “Although 12th is a respectable overall ranking, one would have thought that former President Obama’s favorable rating when he left office would have translated into a higher ranking in this presidential survey.” 

Another professor at Rice University and a C-SPAN adviser Doublas Brinkley said 12th place “his first time out is quite impressive.”

The “Big Three” remained unchanged: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt are in the top three. George W. Bush rose from 36th to 33rd in this latest release.

Obama did beat out Bill Clinton who sits at the number 15 spot. The “gold standard for presidents remains those holding office between 1933 and 1969,” said historian Richard Norton Smith.

Here’s the full list:

1. Abraham Lincoln 
2. George Washington
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
4. Teddy Roosevelt
5. Dwight Eisenhower
6. Harry Truman
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. John F. Kennedy
9. Ronald Reagan
10. Lyndon Johnson
11. Woodrow Wilson
12. Barack Obama
13. James Monroe
14. James Polk
15. Bill Clinton
16. William McKinley
17. James Madison
18. Andrew Jackson
19. John Adams
20. George H.W. Bush
21. John Q. Adams
22. Ulysses Grant
23. Grover Cleveland
24. William Taft
25. Gerald Ford
26. Jimmy Carter
27. Calvin Coolidge 
28. Richard Nixon
29. James Garfield
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Zachary Taylor
32. Rutherford Hayes
33. George W. Bush
34. Martin Van Buren
35. Chester Arthur 
36. Herbert Hoover
37. Millard Fillmore
38. William Harrison 
39. John Tyler
40. Warren Harding
41. Franklin Pierce
42. Andrew Johnson
43. James Buchanan