CNN Poll: JFK tops presidential rankings for last 50 years

CNN ^ | 11/22/2103

[SeekAndFind]

A CNN/ORC International survey released Friday indicates that 90% of all Americans approve of how Kennedy handled his job as President. No other President of the last half century even comes close.

Second place belongs to Ronald Reagan, with a 78% retrospective approval rating, followed by Bill Clinton with 74%. Richard Nixon, Kennedy's 1960 rival and the only president ever forced to resign, is at the bottom with only 31% approving of his track record from 1969 to 1974. Only George W. Bush, with a 42% retrospective approval rating, is also under 50%.

"History has generally been kind to ex-presidents, but none more so than Kennedy. His approval rating in November of 1963 was 58%. In the 1990s, that number rose to 78% and rose even further in later years," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

[Clump]

He put Byron White on the SCOTUS.
He and Rehnquist were the only two dissenters in Roe.
All the other Nixon appointees voted for Roe.
White stayed true to the end and in my opinion was one of the better Justices in the last 50 years.
That’s the only thing Kennedy did that stands out in my mind long term.

[21twelve]

I remember my old man once in disgust saying something about Kennedy. And then FDR in the next sentence.

“Dad! How can you say that? Kennedy was assassinated! And FDR won the war!”

My dad didn't say anything. (He was a WWII vet so knew about FDR, etc.) He hardly talked about politics or social conditions or whatever. I'm thinking now he wanted to “protect” me from the grownup world and just let me be a kid.

Years later I realized where the hatred of FDR and the Kennedys came from.

[Viennacon]

I had forgotten about the SCOTUS. When did White leave?

[slumber1]

do you think kennedy would have involved us as deeply in viet nam as johnson

There is no reason to think Kennedy would have done anything substantially different than Johnson did in Viet Nam. He had already increased our involvement from a few hundred advisers to over 16,000 troops He was facing accusations of being soft on communism. After the Cuban missile crisis it is highly unlikely that he would have backed down in Viet Nam.

[21twelve]

Apparently nowadays it doesn't even take great hair!

[DoughtyOne]

Reagan in Second place at 78% is good.  This isn't a special time for him rememberance, so hanging in there is great considering this is the 50% anniversary of Kennedy's deat.  That has to bump him up.  Most polls don't show him this popular.

Bill Clinton 74%?  And yet the guy that is reportedly worse than him did nothing compared to what he was guilty of.  Nixon has been pounded inceasantly by Leftists, the media, educators, and even people on the right who fail to grasp the fact that if Nixon would have been a Democrat, the issues associated with him wouldn't even have surfaced.

Nixon is at the bottom.  Bush is at 42%.  I don't think much of him.  I can think of reasons for it to be lower.  I also understand he was better that the ass-hat we have now.  The Republic would be better off if neither of them had served as president.  Not saying the Dem opponents would have been better, but some of the Republican ones would have been better in the primary/caucus rounds.

One wonders what you would have to do to be considered a national failure, by Democrats if you were a Democrat president.

Instances of what amounts to treason
Appointments of members of a terrorist organization to be your advisors
Sending arms to terrorist organizations
Sending large sums of money to terrorist organizations
Aiding terrorists operations on the ground in foreign nations
Making comments about domestic criminal trials while they are ongoing
Lying continuously
Hiding your personal documents so nobody can verify your status

Appointing incompetants that break the laws of our nation...

This is the kind of regime that twenty years from now, nobody will admit to having supported.

[jwalsh07]

Proof positive that American is doomed.

[JaguarXKE]

When will he be canonized a saint?

[nascarnation]

True, it didn’t work for Kerry, LOL.

[DoughtyOne]

McNamara is the one I obsess over. Combined with Johnson, the two of them are probably responsible for at least... well, a lot of the men we lost.

The war should have been fought to win. We should have devastated the north in short order. We played patti-cake instead.

Nixon had the right idea with bombing the north. He could have finally won the thing if Congress had quite interfering.

[a fool in paradise]

Time to tell the millennials that Ronald Reagan was also shot while President.

[Texan5]

That may sound nice, but this is a senseless survey-I’m pretty sure that most of us were not old enough to vote or be concerned about politics during the Kennedy years...

[caver]

Total BS

[a fool in paradise]

Voted for by the same culture that selects its favorite rap stars based on how many times they “got shot” or “went to jail”.

[Ditter]

I wonder what his rating would be if he had not been killed.

[cuban leaf]

And James Dean was the greatest teen idol and Marilyn Monroe was the hottest pinup girl. And Elvis was the King.

There is something to be said for dying in your prime.

[Texan5]

From everything I’ve ever heard and read, he might have managed a win in Viet Nam, but some sex scandal would likely have trashed him-he wasn’t as subtle as Clinton...

[God luvs America]

LOL- look at the poll; Jimmy Carter gets a 60% approval rating!!! LMFAO- shows the validity of this crap contest...

[okie01]

McNamara is the one I obsess over. Combined with Johnson, the two of them are probably responsible for at least... well, a lot of the men we lost.

May I suggest

Dereliction of Duty by H.R. McMaster.

It was a cathartic read. After every twenty pages, I would swear, throw the book against a wall...and spend a half-hour walking around the block...walking off my rage.

But, in the end, I ended up understanding what really happened...and who was responsible. And, mostly, it was Johnson and MacNamara...aided and abetted by a host of arrogant academics who were totally ignorant of reality.

[Wuli]

and why not

Liberals have sold him; he is (the myths about him) are what they made him