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By "one term", I think they mean Presidents who served a FULL term but either declined to run again or lost re-election. That would exclude Harding, who died BEFORE completing his single term (and if we included Harding, we'd also have to include JFK... which the entire mainstream media, most Democrats, and useful idiots FReepers would immediately rank as the "best one term President", when in reality the only award he should win is 'Most Overrated President Ever'... even moreso than Obama since numerous FReepers aren't claiming Obama as a heroic conservative figure)

Going by the "full one-term" criteria, the choices are: John Adams, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hooever, William Howard Taft, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, James K. Polk, Martin van Buren, and John Quincy Adams

From that list, this site has George H.W. Bush ranked 3rd, behind Adams and Polk:

https://www.ranker.com/list/one-term-us-presidents/mel-judson

That sound pretty accurate, though was Adams REALLY that great during his actual presidency? He's more of a legendary larger-than-life historical figure for his actions during the REST of his life (especially during the revolutionary war era), than his actual actions as President from 1797-1801. His presidency is mostly remembered for me the XYZ affair and the Alien & Sedition acts. Perhaps the biggest "accomplishment" is appointing the most landmark Chief Justice of SCOTUS in history (John Marshall), but that wasn't really noticed until after his presidency.

I'd probably rank Polk #1, with George H.W. Bush a CLOSE second (most notable actions being the Gulf War coalition that was enormously successful and a huge comeback for U.S. military victories in the post-Vietnam area, and fighting tooth-and-nail to get Clarence Thomas on SCOTUS, when the RATs were trying to turn him into Bork II. I would argue Thomas is the now the most conservative justice in the post-Scalia era)

Carter, Hooever, Pierce, and Buchanan were awful presidents who thankfully did not have more time to screw up America more (with Hooever the "least bad" of the above). Pierce and Buchanan were disasters but that was a defacto two-term presidency since James Buchanan had the same idealogy and policies as Pierce, and was basically nominated by the Dems because Pierce couldn't get re-elected, so Buchanan effectively served as Pierce's second term. That leaves that clown Jimmah Carter as the biggest one-term disaster.

Finally, there's the trio of Zachary Taylor, James A. Garfield, and William Henry Harrison, all of whom served less than a year as President, so traditionally aren't ranked for their "performance" as President as none of them really had a chance to make any impact.

Taft, Harrison, Hayes, van Buren, and Quincy Adams didn't leave must impact on America during their sole term (though Quincy Adams and Taft certainly had a far greater impact in their POST-presidential career).

Taft saved the Republican party from progressivism. Were it not for his successful stand against TR in 1912 the party would have splintered and the progressives likely would have prevailed.

That raises all kinds of questions as to how the Dems would have responded, but we do know how Wilson did, which was to push further left.

Taft kept the party intact to oppose TR and Wilson. Such a shame about Hoover's betrayal and the FDR scam, but that was well beyond Taft. His son, Robert, reclaimed conservativism post-WWII and kept the party intact.

Quite a legacy, not counting his post-presidency and very influential writings and post as Chief SCOTUS.