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Lincoln did a very credible job of winning the American Civil War. He did face something of a learning curve, but at least was both smart enough not to micromanange, and smart enough to learn from his mistakes. He would likely done at least as well winning the peace if not for his premature end. With only a bit over four years in power, though, I'll have to place my vote elsewhere.

Victoria, whose state was the most successful of the time, can claim little credit for it. She was only slightly more than a figurehead - though performed that role very well indeed.

Wilhelm I exercised much more executive power than did Victoria, if not quite as much as Lincoln. His reign was an outstanding success for Prussia and, had his son not died early (or his grandson not been such a fool), the German Empire would have done even better than it did. Bismarck may have done the leg work, but if he hadn't had WIlhelm's approval, he'd have been replaced - as he was by Wilhelm II.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's reign ended rather badly with a defeat in Mexico followed a few years later by a disasterous war with Prussia and the German states.

Alexander did well, for a Tsar, but I think that Wilhelm's acheivement in creating Germany from a collection of little states outshines anything Alexander did. It may even be that their relative acheivments are perpetuated today. Germany still exists as a unifed state, and a free and prosperous one at that, while the Russian Empire collapsed and finally broke apart, and is mostly not properous and, in places, not very free today.

Of course, ALexander did have the more difficult task, and the Hohenzollern's only lasted about a year longer than the Romanoffs. Wilhelm's namesake grandson proved to be nearly as destructive to his country as his imperial cousin was to Russia.

Of course, a better question might be what would have happened if one could switch them around. Would Kaiser Louis-Napoleon have permitted Bismarck to do his job without interference? Could Tsar Abraham have brought a functioning liberal democratic constitutional monarchy to Russia? Could either President Wiliam Hohenzollern or President Victoria Saxe-Coburg have acted as their own Prime Minister during a vicious Civil War? I get the feeling Alexander II might have done well in any of those jobs.