Posted on 12/31/2008 7:38:11 AM PST by presidio9
Deal triumphs over the patriarch of the 1980s “government is the problem,” according to a new Rasmussen poll.
By a margin of 45-40 with 15 percent undecided, poll respondents selected Franklin Delano Roosevelt as better than Ronald Reagan. Predictably, the two commanders-in-chief won high marks from those on their ideological spectrum, with 76 percent of liberals favoring Roosevelt and 68 percent of conservatives preferring Reagan.
But it’s with moderate, women and African-American voters where the poll gets interesting. Centrists back FDR over Reagan 56 percent to 26 percent, while black voters overwhelmingly support him by a 2-to-1 margin. Women favored Roosevelt by 15 percentage points.
As fewer voters align with a specific political school of thought and women and minorities become more politically engaged, future candidates could do well to emulate the big thinking of the New Deal, focusing on a collapsing economy and multiple foreign wars rather than political pandering and ideology.
It probably also doesn’t hurt that the poll was conducted as Americans watched foreclosures loom, unemployment soar and Wall Street melt down. Maybe in the midst of an economic crisis, free markets without regulatory watch-dogging doesn’t seem like such a great idea after all.
Corresponds with the Demobama victory... they can’t get enough of socialist busybodies who sell out to communists.
This is because conservatives fail to teach.
Socialists have no such problem.
When conservatives bother to try and evangelize their message this will change. Until then, what did you expect?
(I guess Wendy polled the same people who voted for ZerO)
Sadly, this is a sign of the times. Americans want Uncle Sam to give them what they want and make “the rich” pay for it. We want to be children and have our parent, the government, take care of us, rather than Reagan-style individuals.
The pendulum swings back and forth, once people see under Obama, that Government isn’t the solution, it will swing back.
one explanation, out country has turned to Socialism
How sad and ironic that the unintended consequences of the 15th and 19th amendments might end up being our nation's ultimate destruction.
Are you kidding me? So 32 percent of conservatives prefer FDR?
Something stinks here.
Unfortunately, under President Bush, even though he spent like a Keynsian, with predictable results, people perceive he was conservative, and that we are in dire straits because of Reagan-like conservative policies.
Makes no sense...
Something stinks here.
I agree with you. Sounds a bit like "32% of Muslims prefer Jesus." Unfortunately, what it makes me think is that at least half of the people who vote in this country are so stupid, that are unable to make any concrete distinction between liberalism and conservatism. We need a poll quiz.
Poll it must be true NOT
I think you can get a poll to say just about anything, dependent on who you ask and how you phrase the questions.
Reagan was without doubt the greatst President of the 20th century.
This cycle the voters voted for “Uncle Sugar”. You have an entire generation of voters who have no memory of the 70’s that swept Reagan in.
Also an entire class of voters now that believe government is there to wipe their behinds and see to their needs. In other words a new class of voters that has basically given up on taking care of themselves.
I would give Warren Harding a high ranking. He was the only president of the century to substantially reduce the size of the federal government, and he successfully fought a depression and turned the economy around.
Harding and his successor Coolidge were also the last presidents to view themselves as chief magistrates, in the Jeffersonian tradition, with limited, enumerated powers. After 1928, the president essentially became an elected king.
FDR: Decade long depression, world war, millions of people killed by facism and millions more killed or enslaved by Communism, rampant lynchings of blacks in the south.
Reagan: End of double digit inflation and unemployment rates, prosperity and growth, mostly peaceful except for an arms race which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, national holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr.
Good grief! How stupid can people be?
Right, because Reagan had no collapsed economy to focus on, plus he had all those foreign wars going on. Instead we should pattern ourselves on Roosevelt, who had no foreign wars.
/unneccessary sarcasm tag
...rather than political pandering and ideology.
Also, per Liberal Fascism, fascism typically presents itself as non-ideological or post-ideological.
Bush gave conservatism a bad name. I can’t wait for 2010.
Are you kidding me? So 32 percent of conservatives prefer FDR?
Something stinks here.
They're painting with a broad brush. I'm sure they call McCain and GW conservatives (and both would probably raise their hands for FDR).
I agree with you. FDR presided over the most cataclysmic war of the last century. He is mentioned FAR more than Reagan and hence the familiarity. Throw in a flaming liberal media and there you have it.
And don't forget, forced imprisonment of innocent Japanese citizens.
FDR had a pro-Communist VP who saw Stalin’s gulags firsthand and said nothing.
Ronald Reagan helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
No comparison.
How utterly stupid this story is - the title makes it sound as though FDR has recently done something great to change Americans’ minds.
Whenever I find myself engaged in this sort of discussion, I am always suprised how quick Conservatives are to bring up Jefferson. His status as a president is mostly bolstered by his earlier work as a patriot, and writer of the DOI. His major accomplishment as president was the Louisiana Purchase. Monroe had to basically pin Jefferson to the floor for permission to speak to Napolean about the deal. Then, when the deal was completed, Jefferson immediately levied taxes against his new citizens who had never voted (ie: taxation without representation). This is not to say that Jefferson was a bad president (or even that you suggested he was a good one). Just that it ticks me off that he is always overrated on these lists. I'd rank Reagan above Jefferson.
FDR was a socialist who extended the Great Depression. He was a horrible President.
naaah
another poll skewed- so what else is new
For those of us in our 70’s, the pendulum swings far to slowly. We were counting on Bush to push the pendulum right a whole bunch more than he did.
Socialists do teach. They lay the groundwork in their worldview and restrict critical thinking. This way they induce people to accept their ideology
They also indoctrinate when those people are ready.
If conservatives taught history and logic, socialism would gain no traction. Now socialism, once a fringe, is almost the majority.
And what makes idiots that answer the phone capable of such a decision.
Undecided? BS. They didn’t know who Roosevelt was.
And on what grounds do they base their claim. How ‘bout you phrase the question: During their presidency who was better at the 50 yard dash?
You see...its all in the way the question is posed.
The world war was not FDR’s fault.
And in a related “poll”, respondents by a wide margin named Obama as the greatest President of the third Millennium....
You saw that November 4th,2008.
“This is because conservatives fail to teach.
Socialists have no such problem.”
I would use the word “indoctrinate” rather than “teach”.
I saw some Civil War movie off and on awhile back- “Riding with the Devil” or something, just saw bits and pieces. I think it was about Cantrell’s (sp?) Raiders which I think was after the war had ended??
ANYWAY - in one scene the younger guys with the Raiders are eating dinner with an older Southern Gentleman that is leaving the fight and moving to Texas. He tells the young raiders something like:
“The Northerners built a school, and they teach the children what to think, and to think like them. We’ve lost because we don’t try to tell others how to think.”
One young raider ready to lash out scowls “You tryin’ to say what we’re fightin’ for ain’t worth it?”
“No - we’ve already lost what we are fighting for.”
It went something like that anyway. A defeatist attitude I guess from the older gentleman, but accurate for the Civil War era. I hope it is not accurate for our times, but I fear it is.
The longer I live, the more I understand my Dad was right about FDR being a sleezebag. He used to recite a poem to me about FDR called "Rejected". I'll see if I can find it and post it.
Its all in how you package it and sadly the packaging and sales department belongs to the Liberal Media.
Wendy, you ignorant, misguided journalist. Read a book.
If you think there has been no regulatory watch-dogging lately, ask yourself how and why it is that outfits like Enron, WorldComm, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, et al, no longer exist?
And while you're at it, ask yourself why it is that people like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters, et al, are viewed as the arbiters of fiscal responsibility when it is they who ignored the warnings of the looming mortgage crisis when they were in position to do something about it?
Begone, loser. I can't take it no more.
Don’t get me wrong—My post was about Harding, and I never said that Jefferson is my favorite president. However, I, like many conservatives would prefer a presidency with limited powers based on the principles that Jefferson articulated and personified as opposed to the elected kings that we have today.
Not long ago, Laura Ingraham interviewed Conrad Black, who wrote a hagiography of FDR, and she was positively gushing in her admiration for Dr. New Deal.
However, I do admire FDR for one accomplishment--the Manhattan Project.
Uninformed/govt educated Pollee: What parties are they affiliated with?
Poll Taker: Roosevelt - Democrat; Reagan - Republican.
Uninformed/govt educated pollee: I pick Roosevelt.
It’s important to note this Norris lady doesn’t bother to mention how many people were actually polled. Most Americans can’t even name the 9 Supreme Court Justices today, and I’m supposed to believe that a majority of living Americans have even the remotest clue as to what FDR accomplished and thrust upon America during his Presidency, nearly 75 Years Ago? Yeah, Right. Mmm Hmmm.
No he doesn't.
Let’s see: A president who presided over and prolonged twelve years of depression, the last four of which were spent in a world war, vs. a president who caused a 25-year economic boom and won the Cold War. Such an easy choice! Depression and war beats prosperity and peace hands down!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.