Scientific polling did not yet exist in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first two years as president, but it is beyond question that his approval was enormous. During Lyndon Baines Johnson's first year-plus in office, his approval rating averaged an astonishing 74.2 percent. At the end of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.'s second year in office, his approval ratings hover in the mid-40s. It would seem laughable, then, to categorize him as being on their level. FDR is almost always counted among the greatest American presidents. LBJ is not, but likely would be had he not sunk the nation into a pointless, no-win war in Southeast Asia.
Yet a strong case can be made that JRB has, to this point, proven to be a great president, worthy of mention alongside those two.
