6 straight for Jefferson. Could have another early finish tomorrow and get started on the next round if things keep up like this.
ETA: To keep things relatively non-arbitrary, I’ll say a full day and a 10-vote lead are what it’ll take to invoke the mercy rule. So by that standard, I jumped the gun a bit this morning, but it seems reasonable going forward.
Polk.
Polk
Wow, we’re down to an elite group. I am going with my gut and say, of these:
Ike
Polk. I guess I take a broader view of a candidate’s overall life and accomplishments than the mere 4-8 (15 for FDR) window in which they were President. I realize that some out there will vehemently disagree with me on this point, but I simply can’t ignore the things Jefferson did before he was actually elected.
If I were taking their non-presidential achievements into account, I would agree with you. But then I would have argued more strongly for keeping Adams, Madison, Grant, and/or Carter around longer. We’re ranking Presidents, so I’m only looking at their achievements while in office.
Polk is next on my list.
(Side note: ladies, gents, and those for whom a collective noun is not yet in common use, I am the failure of United States education. About 5 years ago, I got the highest possible score on the AP American History test, which let me skip non-theatrical history classes in university. I majored in theatre so those I did take. I can’t tell you a thing about Polk that I haven’t relearned recently from my boyfriend or Wikipedia. This is especially sad as I’ve lived my whole life in the Oregon Territory.)
Someone tell Leiko that Oregon was granted statehood, then we’ll work on catching her up to at least WWII. 
Truman. I don’t believe he had to drop the bomb, I certainly don’t believe the second bomb was necessary. Other than fire MacArthur, I don’t know what he did that was so great.
There was the Marshall Plan. And in general choosing cold war and containment rather than hot war with the Soviet Union.
OK I’ll give him the Marshall plan. Enough to make me change my vote this round to Polk.
Jefferson.
Hey, I never said I lived in Oregon, just the territory area. Grew up in Washington (42nd state) and did university in Montana (41st state).
Since I’m one of the participants who takes entire careers into account, I don’'t want Jefferson to leave yet.
I was going to vote for Truman, but I see that the Sage of Monticello’s closest rival is Polk, so I’ll reluctantly go with the man whose nomination and subsequent election as the first “dark horse” president has been echoed by his so-far successful navigation of this game.
Truman
Polk.
(A lot of my posts in this thread are similar.)
I don’t know about vehemently disagree, but I did try to limit my votes as best I could to their presidencies. Otherwise, both Adams, Madison, Monroe, Carter, heck - Grant helped win the civil war, and Hoover was a great person pre-presidency. assuming you weren’t black.
OK, I’m going to go way off the path most traveled, and I’m going to vote for ‘Honest Abe’ Lincoln. Mostly becasue tired of seeing him without a single vote in this game.
Lincoln
Truman. While I do agree with his decision to drop the bomb(s), I don’t think he did a whole lot else.
Oh, c’mon. You just disqualified yourself. No sane person would vote for Lincoln while Jefferson, Polk and Eisenhower were still in the running!