In terms of delivering material prosperity, Harding and Coolidge and then Ronald Reagan were the best. In 1920 America was literally in darkness and most people still lived as they had during the 19th Century. By the end of Coolidge's term, America looked very modern with the spread of electricity, cars, suburban homes, radios and there was price stability and very low unemployment. There was the stock market crash of 1929 but that did not cause the Great Depression, the intervention by the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations turned a brief recession into a prolonged depression.
In the case of Reagan, there was double digit unemployment, inflation and interest rates and gas price were soaring. He ended confiscatory taxation, understood that supply side economics is superior to Keynsian/Demand side economics (in that economic paradigm, leaders have to choose between inflation or unemployment and eventually they get both), liberalized the petroleum market (and what do you know, gas prices dropped and known reserves increased), 20 million jobs were created and he supported the Central Bank's credible move to bring inflation under control.
As far as commander and Chief in wartime is concerned, it is clearly Abraham Lincoln. Other American victories in war have been the result of American industrial might, well educated and well feed and healthy enlisted men and officers and the emergence of dynamic theater Generals and the man in the White House had little impact on the outcome. That was not the case with Lincoln, the Civil War tested him politically and he had to make many politically savvy moves to avoid utter defeat. This was the one major American war where the President was just as important as logistics, soldiers and generals.
While the North had more men and materiel, he had to develop and redevelop the political capital to invade the rebellious states, while the Confederacy could win simply by not being decimated. He had to deal with draft riots in New York. He ran a war from a Capitol city that was right next to enemy territory. He had spies operating in Maryland and other border states. He had members of his own Party as well as pro south Democrats challenging him politically. He had to conjure the Emancipation Proclamation to keep England and France from assisting the South. There truly was no better wartime president.
