Gallup Poll: Honest Abe, JFK Among Greatest U.S. Presidents

Gallup News Service ^ | 5/16/03 | Joseph Carroll

[Savage Beast]

BUSH

LINCOLN

JEFFERSON

WASHINGTON

grant harding
johnson
carter
clinton

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Lets not forget to credit Kennedy with Vietnam and Bay of Pigs which remain historic lowpoints for the strength of American Forces.

[nopardons]

And the Unions ( STEEL ) had him and the nation on the ropes. The tax cut helped, but the business cycles were upset by the vast numbers of stikes, whilst JFK was president.

[Tall_Texan]

A number of observations:

1) Wonder how the results would skew if you told them JFK f*cked a TEENAGED intern while president. Note: this poll was taken before that revelation.

2) Every president since WWII is mentioned *except* LBJ. Why?

3) Lincoln's popularity can be condensed into the four-word phrase every grade shcool kid has learned "Lincoln freed the slaves". No president, not even Washington, has their identitiy sewn into such a tidy and magnanimous phrase. It would be rare to find someone who credits Lincoln with his role in conducting the Civil War or the torturous demands on his personal life while in Washington, etc. This four-word cliche is all most remember about him.

4) Somebody find the 2% of Republicans that believe Clinton was the greatest president and quickly remove them from the gene pool PLEASE! How could they possibly be Republicans and make such a claim? Conversely, you know the Democrats are already stealing raw data to locate the 3% of their affiliated members that feel that way about Reagan. I'm sure if they find them, they'll be shuttled off to concentration camps or, at the very least, have their AM radios taken away.

5) I wouldn't equate the slide of various presidents (particularly Republicans) without first factoring in the impact of George W. Bush. That 11% percent came from somewhere and it is mostly from Reagan, Bush's father and Nixon.

6) Excusing the timing of Reagan's popularity in 2001 seems specious since he would have his birthday at the same time every year - and its not like he's brought out in public to celebrate them. No, I think it has to do with the Clinton Fatigue our country felt at the time, as well as uncertainty on what sort of president Bush43 would become. America wanted a president to make them proud again and Reagan was the best recent example.

7) If I had been polled I would have answered Reagan each time, even today, while admitting to some areas where he fell short, he did so much to revive his party, his country, and that country's place in the world that I shudder to think what we'd be like today had he lost in 1980 and 1984.

[rmmcdaniell]

The truth ( FACTS ) concerning his presidency have been oblitterated/hidden.

Aaach!! another freeper is starting to adopt f.christian's writing style.

[nopardons]

HUNH ?

No,I certainly am not.

[Jean S]

Please don't go there. Don't ruin my perfectly good thead with old feuds.

[Tall_Texan]

BTW does this mean we are going to have to suffer thru the 40th anniversary of the magic bullet?

Yes, because Kennedy is the Elvis of presidents - bigger dead than he ever was alive. And secondly, because there's still no consensus on who shot him so the murder mystery endures. Interesting, isn't it, that the heavy-handed rush to judgement meant to stifle any doubt as to who was the murderer has been turned on its head into creating the most enduring murder mystery of all time. Ask 20 people and you might get 20 different theories.

[Tall_Texan]

And, for you stat hounds, notice how Truman's support is equally strong among Republicans as Democrats and even higher among Independents. Oh if Truman had only come out in favor of abortion, he might score better with the 'Rats.

While I'd have trouble classifying Truman as "great", I admire what he had to go through as the Accidental President - Hiroshima, the Marshall Plan, Korea, etc. He had a lot of chances to do terrible harm to our country and managed to sidestep most of them.

[The Other Harry]

I'm becoming convinced that I live in a country full of morons. I can't believe what a see in polls at times.

Yes indeed. I think the main thing this polls goes to show is how ingorant out population has become.

That's unfortunate.

[MarkDel]

JeanS and Eveyone Else,

This poll is ridiculous. If you want to see a more scientifi poll conducted recently by C-Span, check out the link below. This is a poll of C-Span viewers, but also on that site are other polls of historians broken down on a number of issues.

http://www.americanpresidents.org/survey/viewer/overall.asp

[libertylover]

I think the answers are a result of the respondent’s educations. Kennedy and Lincoln are the most mentioned in public school history classes.

To be thought of as a "great president" by large numbers of peoples requires that the president in question be in office at a time when the nation itself is in great peril, and of course we have to come through it OK, as we've always done. Thus Lincoln (Civil War), Roosevelt (WWII), and Kennedy (Cuban missile crises) are always near the tops of these lists.

[MarkDel]

Savage Beast,

That's a pretty good list you put together there, Here's My Top 10 and Bottom 10

The Best 10 Presidents
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Ronald Reagan
4. Franklin Roosevelt
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. George W. Bush
7. Theodore Roosevelt
8. Richard Nixon
9. Andrew Jackson
10. Harry Truman
Honorable Mention to James Madison, who was only a decent President, but his writings in the Federalist Papers are perhaps the definitive work in poltical theory.

WORST 10 Presidents
1. Jimmy Carter
2. Jimmy Carter
3. Jimmy Carter
4. Jimmy Carter
5. Jimmy Carter
6. Lyndon Johnson
7. Bill Clinton
8. Herbert Hoover
9. Warren Harding
10. Franklin Pierce

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I'm becoming convinced that I live in a country full of morons. I cant believe what a see in polls at times.

I read/heard recently that 95% of the folks called to participate in telephone polls hang up or don't participate. The majority of the 5% who partake in political polls are either lonely morons happy to be talking to anybody, or partisan activists from either the left or right. It then boils down to sampling - which side had more participants, the left or right.

It's pretty clear this poll tilted left BIGTIME.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

...Eleanor Clift used the word "sweet" to describe JFK's recently discovered affair...

I wonder if Ms Clift would consider it "sweet" if her 19-year old daughter was "polled" by her employer.

[William McKinley]

This poll was rigged.

[faithincowboys]

Don't you think that people like Jayson Blair come up with these results? They find what they want irrespective of data. I can't believe that more people cited Bill Clinton than Reagan. I am sure that there are so many people (Democrats included) who have contempt for Scumbubba.

This is Barabara Streisand if I've ever seen it.

[WarrenC]

That's why this poll says a lot more about the respondents than maybe we wanted to know. Funny how the Democrats love JFK, but his ideas about tax cuts and strong defense would have leave any current candidate with no chance of winning his party's nomination.

[snooker]

" ... I can't believe G. Washington scored so low. "

who is George Washington?

results == survey population. Survey morons, get moronic results.