It’s Presidents Day – wait, no, is it? Is it Presidents, President’s, or Presidents’ Day? More importantly, is it really the best time of year to buy a new mattress? Whatever it is, today is as good a day as any to compare the last 50 years or so worth of presidents and see how they stack up. Who had more press conferences, signed the most executive orders, or spent more time on vacation? Let’s delve into the details and find the answers to all these questions – yes, even the bit about furniture shopping.
Establishing the Ground Rules
Before we compare presidents, let’s establish some ground rules for this little game. There are dozens of people to choose from with careers spanning more than two centuries – and many of them served different lengths of time and in very different times. It might be unfair to George Washington, for example – whose birthday is coming up soon, by the way – to compare him to Donald Trump when it comes to press conferences. Not just because of the difference in media technology, either – the first official presidential press conference was held by Woodrow Wilson in 1913.
To keep things simple but still have enough presidents for it to be interesting, we’ll go back as far as Jimmy Carter. Any farther, and we’ll have to account for presidents who didn’t serve at least one full term in office. So, beginning with Carter keeps our math simple, and it accounts for the last half century.
We’ll compare all of these men in four categories: Press conferences held, executive orders signed, laws enacted, and days vacationed. By the end of each section, the presidents will be ranked and a clear winner (and loser, of course) will emerge!
Clearing Up Any Presidents Day Confusion
Before we move on, though, let’s clear up the nomenclature issue. There is no federal holiday named Presidents Day, so there is no official spelling. There was almost a law that made it official, but it failed. Had it succeeded, the official day would be Presidents’ Day. Since that never happened, however, the official holiday remains Washington’s Birthday – yes, you see, that prior mention of America’s first president was what is known in the industry as foreshadowing. George Washington’s birthday, February 22, has been celebrated long enough that the man himself was alive when it began. It has been a federally recognized holiday since January 31, 1879, and with the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968, it was officially moved to the third Monday in February.
Still, Presidents (and Presidents’) Day sales took off in the 1980s, and the name – unofficial though it remains – stuck. As for which version to use, that’s a personal choice. The Associated Press style guide goes with Presidents Day. Other arbiters of style disagree. A quick trip to Google Trends shows that Presidents Day is the most popular version on the internet by far, with President’s Day slightly more popular than Presidents’, but neither really registering significantly against the top choice sans apostrophe.
Media Matters
Now, back to the contest! How often did these eight presidents engage the press? For this section, we turn to UC Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project, which has tracked presidential interactions with the media going back to the Coolidge era.
For total press conferences held, George W. Bush tops the list with 210. Behind him in descending order, it’s: Bill Clinton (193), Barack Obama (163), George H.W. Bush (142), Donald Trump (88), Jimmy Carter (59), Ronald Reagan (46), and Joe Biden bringing up the rear with just 37.
But that’s mixing one- and two-term totals; the real contest is per term. In that regard, the list looks like this: George H. W. Bush (142), Bill Clinton’s first term (133), George W. Bush’s second term (121), George W. Bush’s first (89), Donald Trump (88), Barack Obama’s second term (86), Obama’s first (77), Clinton’s second (60), Jimmy Carter (59), Joe Biden (37), ending with Ronald Reagan’s first (26) and second (20).
Ronald Regan is our loser, with just 20 press conferences in his second four years and 26 in his first. Topping our list is George H.W. Bush, whose 142 total is higher than anyone else achieved in a single term.
Presidential Action
Now let’s see who signed the most laws and executive orders. This data comes from the Federal Register and Congress.gov. When it comes to executive orders, Reagan had the most across both terms, at 381. Biden, once again, comes in last at 162. By term, however, the ranking goes: Carter (320), Trump (220), Reagan 1 (211), Clinton 1 (200), George W. Bush 1 (171), Reagan 2 (170), George H.W. Bush (166), Clinton 2 (164), Biden (162), Obama 1 (148) and 2 (129), with George W. Bush’s second term coming in last at 120. But one must wonder if Donald Trump won’t eventually top both lists. With less than a full month in office, he has already signed 65 this year!
Legislatively, nobody saw more bills become laws or get vetoed than Ronald Reagan. Across his two terms, there were 2,654 laws and 78 vetoes. But, on the per-term side, nobody beat Jimmy Carter in working with Congress – he claims 1,539 laws enacted. Following his one term, it’s: Reagan 2 (1,448), George H.W. Bush (1,276), Reagan 1 (1,206), Clinton 2 (1,008), George W. Bush 2 (943), George W. Bush 1 (887), Clinton 1 (810), Trump (787), Obama 2 (669), Biden (639), and then Obama 1 (625). While Reagan had the most total vetoes, his 78 comes out to 39 in each term. The senior Bush beats that with 46. No one else even comes close – the next highest in total vetoes across eight years is Clinton’s combined 37.
Time Out
The final category is a doozy – days vacationed. Presidents have often faced criticism for taking time off, but everyone needs a break from time to time – and leading the free world has to be a stressful job. Famously, Donald Trump roasted Barack Obama for taking too much time off – then took even more vacation days himself!
As the New York Post recently explained, Joe Biden took more vacation days than any other modern president in a single four-year term. Does that make him the winner – or the loser? Perhaps that’s a matter of perspective. In any case, it’s the only list here Biden tops, so c’mon, man, let’s give the guy a break.
Biden took a total of 577 days off work over four years. That’s 39% of his presidency. As the Post pointed out, the average American gets just 11 paid vacation days per year. It would take 52 years for the “average Joe” to rack up that much time off. But presidents are far from average, for better or for worse. George W. Bush took the most vacation days of all, but his 1,020 were spread across two terms.
In percent of time in office spent on vacation, here’s the lineup: Joe Biden (577 days, 39%), George H.W. Bush (543 days, 37%), George W. Bush (1,020 days, 35%), Donald Trump (381 days, 26%), Barack Obama (328 days, 11%), Ronald Reagan (335 days, 11%), and Jimmy Carter coming in last at just 79 days off, or 5% of his presidency.
Final Score
So, which commander-in-chief wins this Presidents Day competition? Let’s look at the final scores. Reagan, Clinton, Bush the younger, Obama, and Trump all came close to topping one list or another, but none of them quite made it when it came to per-term numbers – not in these categories, at least. The only list Biden leads in is probably the worst one, but hey, we’ll give the guy a point anyway and call him the most well rested. Coming second, George H.W. Bush gets one point for topping the media charts. He also had the most vetoes of any president in a single term, so another for a total of two.
(Getty Images)
The big winner though is – surprise, surprise – Jimmy Carter! Nobody else on our list signed more executive orders or bills into law in a single term. And with the fewest vacation days, he has to get a point for being the hardest worker.
The late Jimmy Carter, often considered the worst president in modern history, spent the most time on the job, signed the most executive orders, and saw the most laws enacted. In fact, taken in conjunction with that, one might even be tempted to give him an honorary point for coming in so close to last in media appearances, as it seems he had more important things to do. Of course, given his post-presidential history in foreign affairs and charity work, there should never have been any question about his work ethic. As an aside, Carter also lived longer than any other president, passing away at 100 years old just a couple of months ago.
Now the only question left unanswered is whether Presidents Day is truly the best time of year to buy a mattress. In a story for Good Housekeeping published just days ago, Isabella Cavallo, who tracks prices and vets deals on mattresses throughout the year, affirms that, yes, the Presidents Day sale is one of the best you’ll find.
