We miss you, Mr. President.
Posted on 12/14/2009 8:46:28 AM PST by kristinn
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States and out of office for twenty years, still has the landslide support of the American people that helped him win two historic terms in the 1980s.
An overlooked poll released last week by Public Policy Polling of over 1200 registered voters showed the Republican icon Reagan was the most popular of the five most recent presidents with 41 percent, impeached Democrat Bill Clinton was a distant second at 27 percent.
The current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama, came in third with 22 percent, thanks to a splintering of support from African-Americans. Only 64 percent named the first African-American president their favorite. Interestingly, 19 percent of African-Americans named Republican presidents their favorite (Reagan-9%, Bush 41-5%, Bush 43-5%) with Clinton being selected by 18%.
Even more distressing for Obama, he was named the second worst president by 37% of those surveyed, barely edging out George W. Bush who was named by 38%.
Nine percent of African-American voters named Obama as the worst, as did 14% of Democrats.
Reagan passed away in 2004. He is the only former president in the survey not still alive to burnish their legacy.
During the last presidential campaign, there was an argument among Republicans about whether the 'era of Reagan' was over.
The standard of Reagan was fiercely upheld by Rush Limbaugh against the likes of Newt Gingrinch:
...Newt could have just as easily said here that conservative principles don't change, that the Reagan coalition is simply looking for leadership and that we need to bring more creative policy alternatives to the table than we have in the recent past. But that's not what he said. He said, "The era of Reagan is over. ... It's the end of the Reagan era." It is not. If the Reagan era is over, if the Reagan coalition is dead, what replaced it? Could somebody tell me? Precisely nothing has replaced it, and that's why so many people are scratching their heads, why so many people are a little nervous, because there isn't any real leadership out there that causes people and inspires people to get behind it and go rah-rah and make certain things happen.
mean, is there a Gingrich coalition that has replaced the Reagan coalition? For that matter, what is the McCain coalition? If we're going to have a new era, what is the McCain era? What is the Huckabee era? What is their winning coalition? They don't have one. You know, all this sounds like Third Way kind of talk, the triangulation of the Clinton years in the nineties. But I don't know what the McCain era would be, and I don't know what the Huckabee coalition is. They don't have a coalition. They're out trying to get votes of independents and Democrats. They're pandering to moderates and independents. Folks, I just want you to think about this: What happens if either of these two guys happen to win, attracting the votes of independents, moderates, the Jell-Os, and Democrats? Does that not equal the demise of the Republican Party?
... Defending liberty takes leadership and guts. Promoting Big Government doesn't. Promoting Big Government is liberalism, and that's easy. It's one of the easiest things that you can do, to run out and simply say, "Well, government's going to fix this. I'm going to have to a plan here. My plan's going to do this, and it involves the government." If conservatism is dead, and if the Reagan era is dead, then I assume that this means the Declaration of Independence is dead as well, that the era of the Declaration has come and gone. Now, what we actually have going on now are people posing as serious thinkers (a common thread in all of this, folks) that conservatism is dead. By the way, that's what the Reagan coalition is, after all. The major elements of conservatism combined into a political movement, is what Reaganism was and of course they're now saying, "That era is gone. We need to replace it with something else." (sigh)
Well, conservatism isn't dead because it cannot be dead. Conservatism is not manmade. Conservatism is a philosophy. It's not a scheme. It's not a plan to figure out what the American people need and want, and then give it to them. That's populism! Conservatism is a philosophy based on God-given natural rights. The Declaration of Independence, is that dead? Of course not! What's dead is leadership on the Republican side, and because there is a lack of leadership of someone who the substantive understanding of liberty and the political skills to advance it, we get all this cockamamie nonsense about the death of our principles. Our principles are not dead! Our principles cannot die.
The PPP survey was released December 11th. No mention of Reagan's overwhelming popularity in the era of Obama was reported in the media.
Agree 100%.
I guess it's considered "benign neglect" to not think it's important to have some special programs for you if your face is darker than a paper bag.
Silly me - I'd just rather treat everyone based on their character and by the same set of standards.
Tea-partiers have the same complaint about both parties. The problem is that blacks and whites often blame each other instead of the cultural marxist elite trying to keep both groups down. Elitists divide and conquer the electorate by race pandering.
Conservative values appeal to blacks, but Republicans don’t. There are many many many years of brainwashing and neglect on the GOP itself that stand as a hurdle. Get past the hurdle and THEN, we can appeal to them on our own merits.
I didn’t say special programs...but at least acknowledge that they percieve them as issues.
It’s like arguing with your spouse - you might think they’re being “stupid” but you have to at least listen to their view point and acknowlege that you’ve heard it before you can make your point, otherwise you’re sleeping on the couch. (and sometimes still are...)
Obama 22%. Take the 11% black voters for obama and that leaves 11% of the rest for obama. That’s more like it.
Do you think the fact that it was a 'distressing' poll for Obama had anything to do with the fact that it was an 'overlooked' poll?
(Waxing nostalgic)...
I sure miss that guy.
I look back on the 1980’s as some of the best years of my life so far. Great times with the best friends I’ve ever had, great music, young love, a cool job, very few worries, and the future looked so bright I had to wear shades. (Yes, I know that that song is cynical, but for me it seemed true.) And to top it off, a President that instinctively did the right things and made me feel very proud of my country.
Y'know, that's a very insightful point. So long as blacks hate whitey and whites distrust blacks, there is an opportunity for the left to profit from the schism.
But...but.....RINOs think Reganism is dead.
The idiots wonder why they can't win an election. Well, DUH!
btt
sick of libs wrote: “Bush could not hold a candle to Reagan in presenting ideas to us average Joes. “Tear Down this wall” was Reagan’s. Reagan was inspiring.
With Bush we got “Bring it on” to the troublemakers in Iraq. Sounded great, till they did. Bush was depressing.”
As President, I think Reagan was the greatest. But nothing he said matched Bush’s ultimatum at the start of the second Gulf War:
“Saddam Hussein and his sons have 48 hours to leave Iraq”.
We miss you, Mr. President.
Hey I like Sarah too, but comparing her to RWR is blasphemy. Not even close.
No mention of this poll in the media. They have become such an embarrassment.
That certainly was his peak and marked the beginning of the end of any possibility that Bush would be considered a success. The first bad news was that Iraq prison scandal late 2003 and it was just the start. He went out considered a joke by most Americans. “WMDs” became the new “I did not have sex with that woman” No one jokes about Clinton anymore, thanks to GWB.
Does anyone know the best work on Ronald Reagan?
You're entitled to your opinion. Personally, I think she's Ronald Reagan in lipstick and a skirt. So does Michael Reagan.
sick of libs wrote: “He went out considered a joke by most Americans. “WMDs” became the new “I did not have sex with that woman” No one jokes about Clinton anymore, thanks to GWB.”
I sometimes feel like one of those Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender even thought the war had been over for years, but I still think that the last chapter on Saddam’s WMD program has yet to be written.
When a sarin gas shell was used in a roadside bomb in 2004, my thought was: if there is one shell, there is more than one shell.
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=26461
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.