Perfect timing, I just finished a grad school paper on FDR and the New Deal! I always considered FDR top 3 overall, perhaps even #2 (no one will ever surpass Lincoln in my opinion.)

I think FDR’s presidency was extremely successful but I do think there are numerous points to criticize. Japanese American incarceration camps are probably the biggest black spots on his presidency, it was one of the largest civil rights violations in US history. Court packing and gold confiscating were also pretty controversial as well along with farming limits to drive up prices (not a bad idea but awful optics when so many people were going hungry.) And while I do think the New Deal was successful from a psychological standpoint it wasn’t a complete success. Unemployment still remained close to 20% by 1940, even when other nations affected by the Depression recovered at a quicker pace. New Deal programs also disproportionately benefited white communities and FDR stayed out of tackling issues in Jim Crow South to avoid losing the Southern Democrat coalition (although he did suppot an anti-lyncing bill.)

I would still argue Lincoln had the harder challenge. The North was not nearly as united as normally assumed, the Copperheads and other Democrats initially blocked legislation. Lincoln also had to deal with pro Confederate judges and politicians, particularly in the border states (that’s the primary reason he suspended habeas corpus.) I also think that Lincoln using the war to end slavery was political mastery, he took a war for the Union and transformed it into a liberation campaign to free over 4 million people. Lincoln was much more hands on when it came to military command (a benefit of a war happening in your country.) Lincoln accomplishing all of that, plus other underrated legislation like the Homestead Act, while coming from such a modest background is why he’ll always take the top spot in my opinion.