The 10 richest presidents

  Despite populist rhetoric, poor men don't become president--unless they become prosperous first. Here's our ranking of the 10 richest.
    Don't believe all that born-in-a-log-cabin hype. Only four United States presidents actually started out that way, Abraham Lincoln being the most famous. By the time the other three, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and James A. Garfield, entered the nation's highest office, they shared one trait with its other 40 occupants: All had achieved a certain measure of financial prosperity. 
    Despite two centuries of campaign rhetoric touting identification with the common man, the simple fact is that no truly poor individual ever has become president of the United States.
    Can anyone grow up to be president? If history is a judge, not unless they first amass sufficient financial wherewithal to withstand often income-less political races. (Sarah Palin runs for president she'll need that $10 million Forbes estimates she has earned in book advances and speaking fees over the past year.)
    Like citizens themselves, some presidents have been richer than others as they exercised their weighty responsibilities. Who were the flushest?
    For our money, George Washington wins hands down. In the largely tax-free environment that characterized colonial America, he was considered one of its richest residents, a product of his shrewd business sense, a marriage to a wealthy widower and several inheritances. He benefited from an older brother's marriage into a powerful family, while early work as a surveyor helped give him a keen understanding of land.
    Most of the wealthiest presidents came from distinguished families and had the benefit of inheritance, trust funds or access to family money besides whatever they accumulated on their own. Think the two Roosevelts, Theodore and Franklin. Only a handful of the wealthier presidents could be said to be self-made. Lyndon B. Johnson started out with humble origins but had achieved sufficient economic means from his Texas broadcast holdings by the time he reached the White House. 
    More recent U.S. presidents have been far from the poorhouse but, in our judgment, were not among the top 10 while in office. The two George Bushes, for example, grew up in privilege, attending Ivy League colleges and later benefiting from their own entrepreneurial efforts before entering elected politics. The elder Bush founded and sold an oil company while the younger Bush profited from the sale of the Texas Rangers, which he co-owned. 
    Bill Clinton and Barack Obama started out poor and were raised in broken families with little access to wealth from family or other sources. But Obama entered the Oval Office in 2009 having collected royalties from two well-received books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope. His lawyer wife, Michelle, had been a high-paid hospital executive. Their 2006 tax return showed a gross income of $1 million. For 2009 their gross income was $5.6 million, with most of that coming from book royalties. (The $1.4 million Obama was awarded along with the Nobel Peace Prize was donated to charity and, under a special tax provision, wasn't included in the Obamas' 2009 gross income.)
    Prior to winning the presidency, Clinton had been the long-time Arkansas governor and his wife, Hilary Rodham Clinton, a partner in the state's largest law firm. After leaving office in 2001, Clinton reaped millions yearly from book royalties and lecture fees; he probably has never been richer than he is now. 
    Despite Clinton's rewarding post-presidency, rich presidents have sometimes encountered financial problems after their service. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, for instance, fell from financial grace and died awash in debts.
     for our No. 1, George Washington, he died as he lived--rich. His Mount Vernon plantation grew to 6,500 acres, and he had other acreage in Virginia and what became West Virginia. Washington ran farms, started businesses and owned lots of slaves.
    Indeed, in their 1996 book, The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates--A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther ranked Washington 59th, ahead of later-day moguls like J. Paul Getty, Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen and Ronald Perelman. The authors' ranking methodology used estimated net worth as a percent of the gross national product at the time.
    Our pick for No. 2: Herbert Hoover. Nearly two decades before taking office in 1929, he was earning $2.5 million a year in today's dollars from the mining business. It allowed him to serve as president without pocketing a salary.
    The pre-presidential Thomas Jefferson gets our bronze. Due primarily to inheritance, he was considered one of the richest in his native Virginia. It was after he left office that his income was not commensurate with his spending.
    While some rankings put John F. Kennedy higher than fourth, we think not. Most of the family wealth resided with his tycoon father, Joseph P. Kennedy. Joe and his wife, Rose, outlived JFK, who thus did not receive an inheritance. 
    Our evaluations take into account a number of factors, some of them admittedly subjective, including opinions of historians. To help adjust for two centuries of inflation and even deflation, we also look at a president's worth compared to the economy of his day.