Should the President and elected officals with the power to send our sons and daughters to war be required to have served in the military?

Carter was a schlub, but I disagree that he didn't serve in a Combat position. Submarines during the Cold War were on the pointy end of the spear, making combat patrols all the time. If the balloon went up, they were on the front lines. That's the thing about the Navy: the only difference between peacetime and wartime is "weapons free" status.

The Constitution states in Article II that the President will be CIC.
I am a proponent for not changing the Constitution. It sounds like your main gripe is our President and his perceived lack of military experience.

I think the military leaders (Chief of Staff, Secretary for each service, Secretary of Defense) need to talk more and advise the President. Now whether the President heeds that advice is out of our hands but does not warrant changing our constitution and government.

Secretaries are assistants, akin to an XO. They do not have command authority.

You'll notice that those ranked highest are the Presidents who most expanded federal power. Obviously, those polled identify strongly with centralized power, rather than individual liberty. If we judged the Presidents on their adherence to the limited government promised by the Constitution, the results would be quite different.

The problem is that anyone you poll, including me, has his own agenda. There is truth and then there is myth. Lincoln, who constantly polls in the top 3, was the greatest Constitutional criminal of them all. His Gettysburg Address, in its first sentence, redefines American history by saying that 1776 founded a new nation, when in fact, all it founded was an alliance among 13 new independent nations. He effectively blockaded Charleston, forcing South Carolina into war, then used war status to suspend habeas corpus, jail his political opponents (including locking them away on the new Alcatraz prison island), conducting unrestricted warfare against southern civilian populations, drafting soldiers for the first time extraconstitutionally by executive order, printing unbacked paper money, seizing property without warrant or due process, taxing income...the list goes on. He had no authority to free slaves ANYWHERE (unless he owned them), yet is praised for his propaghandistic Emancipation Proclamation, which had no force of law. In fact, he was among our most bigoted Presidents. Yet, empires have to have their heroes, so the Lincoln myth emerged. You'll notice, too, that the poll results you show give Jefferson low scores for "handling the US economy", which is NOT a Federally-enumerated power under the Constitution.

Some trivia regarding the above:

FDR had a profile. Taft wouldn't make tape. Cleveland outsourced his service to another fellow. Harding died in office and had an ice field named after him in Alaska as a result. John Quincey Adams was blind as a bat but was not equipped with echo location - not the guy you want blithering about with NODS. Papa Adams was the fellow who proposed the creation of a Continental Army and was the one who nominated Washington to command it, so he earns a pass.

Wasn't John Adams a Quaker, and by definition a conscientous objector?

In all 30 have served in the Military, 24 served in combat and 1 was a CMH winner, 2 ever promoted to 5 Star General.

LTC Paul Labrador - No, John Adams wasn't a Quaker, he was a Congregationalist, and, later, a Unitarian. The only President who claimed to be a Quaker was Richard Nixon, or perhaps he claimed only his mother to be a Quaker. Most Quakers are pacificists, but not all. Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC, was a Quaker, but also the most decorated US serviceman until Audie Murphy.