Washington, Lincoln Most Popular Presidents: Nixon, Bush Least Popular

Rasmussen ^ | 7/4/07

[finnman69]

Six American Presidents are viewed favorably by at least 80% of all Americans. Those esteemed six are led by the first President George Washington. The Father of our Country is viewed favorably by 94% of Americans. The sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln, is the second most popular. The man who gave us the Gettysburg Address is viewed favorably by 92% (see Presidential favorable ratings).

The next four are Thomas Jefferson (89%), Teddy Roosevelt (84%), Franklin D. Roosevelt (81%), and John F. Kennedy (80%).

Five other Presidents are viewed favorably by at least 70% of Americans today—John Adams (74%), James Madison (73%), Ronald Reagan (72%), Dwight Eisenhower (72%), and Harry Truman (70%). It’s worth noting that the nation’s first four Presidents—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison—all continue to earn rave reviews in the twenty-first century.

The highest unfavorable rating for any President is earned by Richard Nixon. Sixty percent (60%) of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the only President to resign from office. Thirty-two percent (32%) have a favorable opinion of the man who famously went to China.

Close on Nixon’s heels for most unpopular is the current President, George W. Bush. Fifty-nine percent (59%) have an unfavorable opinion of him. Lyndon Johnson (42%), Bill Clinton (41%), and the first President Bush (41%) are the only other Presidents viewed unfavorably by at least 40% of Americans.

[finnman69]

full poll here, note Reagan is up at a 72% approval rating. Slick Willie has a 55% fav 41% unfav, Hamas loving Peanut Farmer has a 57% fav 34% unfav. Pres Bush is doing terribly.

Presidential Favorables

	President	Favorable	Unfavorable	Very Favorable	Somewhat Favorable	Somewhat Unfavorable	Very Unfavorable	Not Sure
Washington, George	94%	2%	69%	25%	2%	0%	4%
Lincoln, Abraham	92%	4%	66%	26%	3%	1%	4%
Jefferson, Thomas	89%	4%	51%	38%	4%	0%	7%
Roosevelt, Teddy	84%	8%	44%	40%	5%	3%	8%
Roosevelt, Franklin D.	81%	12%	40%	41%	8%	4%	7%
Kennedy, John F.	80%	13%	43%	37%	11%	2%	6%
Adams, John	74%	9%	30%	44%	8%	1%	16%
Madison, James	73%	8%	30%	43%	6%	2%	19%
Reagan, Ronald	72%	22%	41%	31%	14%	8%	5%
Eisenhower, Dwight	72%	15%	32%	40%	12%	3%	13%
Truman, Harry S.	70%	14%	32%	38%	11%	3%	16%
Jackson, Andrew	69%	14%	20%	49%	12%	2%	16%
Ford, Gerald	62%	26%	16%	46%	22%	4%	11%
Adams, John Quincy	59%	7%	27%	32%	5%	2%	34%
Grant, Ulysses S.	58%	24%	22%	36%	16%	8%	18%
Carter, Jimmy	57%	34%	20%	37%	12%	22%	8%
Taft, William	57%	15%	27%	30%	12%	3%	28%
Bush, George H.W.	57%	41%	22%	35%	23%	18%	2%
Wilson, Woodrow	56%	19%	16%	40%	14%	5%	25%
Clinton, Bill	55%	41%	29%	26%	18%	23%	4%
Monroe. James	49%	10%	20%	29%	6%	4%	41%
Hoover, Herbert	48%	34%	9%	39%	24%	10%	18%
Johnson, Lyndon B.	45%	42%	6%	39%	29%	13%	14%
Johnson, Andrew	45%	26%	10%	35%	17%	9%	30%
Arthur, Chester A.	43%	17%	20%	23%	14%	3%	40%
Garfield, James A.	42%	16%	14%	28%	13%	3%	32%
McKinley, William	42%	24%	7%	35%	20%	40%	35%
Bush, George W.	41%	59%	21%	20%	19%	40%	0%
Cleveland, Grover	40%	26%	9%	31%	22%	4%	34%
Coolidge, Calvin	38%	31%	8%	30%	23%	8%	31%
Hayes, Rutherford B.	38%	19%	13%	25%	13%	6%	43%
Nixon, Richard	32%	60%	9%	23%	35%	25%	7%
Harrison, Benjamin	30%	35%	6%	24%	25%	10%	35%
Harding, Warren G.	29%	33%	6%	23%	24%	9%	38%
Buchanan, James	28%	32%	5%	23%	22%	10%	40%
Polk, James	27%	21%	7%	20%	15%	6%	52%
Taylor, Zachary	26%	18%	6%	20%	14%	4%	55%
Van Buren, Martin	23%	19%	3%	20%	13%	6%	58%
Harrison, William H.	21%	16%	2%	19%	12%	4%	63%
Pierce, Franklin	17%	25%	3%	14%	18%	7%	59%
Fillmore, Millard	17%	25%	3%	14%	18%	7%	56%
Tyler, John	9%	15%	0%	9%	11%	4%	74%

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This is a Barf Alert of biblical proportions.

[Weeedley]

Must be a yankee survey. Down here in the South Lincoln is held in as much favor as King George.

[quantim]

Carter will eventually sink to the bottom as his supporters eventually die off.

[Clintonfatigued]

Slick Willie’s positive rating is delporable. The Press has done this nation a disservice.

Also belonging on The Worst list are Warren Harding, Ulysses Grant, Jimmy Carter, and especially Lyndon Johnson.

[John Leland 1789]

When the birthday holidays got all messed up, I thought that Martin L. King, Jr. was the most popular president in our history.

[kjo]

The real disservice done by the liberal press is the high rating John Kennedy ended up with. A womanizer, drug addict, and mafia tool, JFK was “removed” from power by high individuals in the CIA and incoming Johnson administration. They simply felt they had no other choice.

Not that the MSM is much interested.

[reg45]

Dear southerners: We will NEVER forgive you for Carter and Clinton.

[silentreignofheroes]

Got that right,,

[bannie]

;-)

It AAAAAAALL depends on who you ask.

[silentreignofheroes]

Don’t blame us ,,yall voted them in..

[ontap]

Well we supplied them, but you northerners elected them!!LOL

[finnman69]

Carter's high ranking is an indication that this poll hit up a lot of younger people who have no idea how bad Carter really was.

[reg45]

Oh! Add Lyndon Johnson to that list.

[ontap]

He was picked by JFK! We can’t be held responsible!!

[reg45]

I for one, have NEVER voted for a Democrat.

My greatest disappointment was being too young to vote for Goldwater.

[SolidWood]

What a retarded headline... Bill Clinton has fare just as bad as GWB, yet it’s OF COURSE Nixon and Bush in the headline.

[masadaman]

Could not agree more. I suggest that 90% of Americans would have serious difficulty just naming 10 former Presidents let alone rating them.

The biggest laugher of all is poor old Tippecanoe (William Henry Harrison) who served only 41 days, catching pneumonia at his inaugural and never really serving at all. He was rated near the bottom even though he did nothing good or bad. In my book, that is a mark of greatness a la John Calvin Coolidge.

[upsdriver]

George W. Bush will be viewed more favorably down the road. I am pretty confident that history will be kinder to him than his fellow countrymen have been.

In the same vein, while history may not view Clinton too negatively, they won’t be able to say much positive about him. He accomplished nothing worth noting. And he has all the sleazy activities, though barely reported on at the time, that are available for the historians to study and report on.

[Cicero]

Yes, Kennedy was one of our worst presidents, for many reasons. I would add the Bay of Pigs and the assassination of Diem to your short list. But the Camelot myth was so effective, it may never wear off completely.

As for President Bush, current numbers are probably affected by conservative disillusion as well as liberal hatred. Give it another year and it may look quite different, if the amnesty disaster is allowed to fade away without yet another attempt to revive it.