Ronald Reagan 45%Bill Clinton 13%
Franklin D Roosevelt 10%
John F Kennedy 8%
Richard Nixon 6%
Lyndon Johnson 5%
Harry Truman 4%
George W Bush 4%
Dwight Eisenhower 2%
Jimmy Carter 2%
George Bush Snr 1%
Gerald Ford 0.3%
Monday, April 17, 2006
Poll: Ronald Reagan Greatest President Since FDR
A week ago I launched a poll to see who you think is the greatest US President since the days of FDR. Like 45% of the 300 people who voted, I plumped for Ronald Reagan. What I'd love to know is the thought process of the 2% of people who voted for Jimmy Carter...
Ronald Reagan 45%
Bill Clinton 13%
Franklin D Roosevelt 10%
John F Kennedy 8%
Richard Nixon 6%
Lyndon Johnson 5%
Harry Truman 4%
George W Bush 4%
Dwight Eisenhower 2%
Jimmy Carter 2%
George Bush Snr 1%
Gerald Ford 0.3%
Ronald Reagan 45%Bill Clinton 13%
Franklin D Roosevelt 10%
John F Kennedy 8%
Richard Nixon 6%
Lyndon Johnson 5%
Harry Truman 4%
George W Bush 4%
Dwight Eisenhower 2%
Jimmy Carter 2%
George Bush Snr 1%
Gerald Ford 0.3%
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3 comments:
Carter was an interesting President who was well ahead of his time on environmental issues. He is also unique in having a richly deserved Nobel Prize to his name having spent his time since leaving office working on numerous international peace processes. Most Presidents prefer to spend their declining years playing golf and making money. Like Callaghan in the UK he was partly (and I stress partly) unfortunate in being in office at a poor time economically and when the intellectual tide was in the other direction politically - leaders can only do a certain amount about either of those circumstances.
I wasn't one who voted for him but can see the rationale for the centre-left inclined. Of the other choices, Clinton had serious personality flaws, LBJ failed appallingly over Vietnam and Kennedy is more icon than President. Truman was very much of a different era with different values - not altogether a criticism but there it is.
Reagan? Come on, surely not. He was an ad-man in a suit, you don't really believe that he had anything much to do with making policy, surely?
Didn't he also preside over the only presidential term which has seen the World Court condemn the US for international terrorism?
Nice. Still, he kept taxes low, eh?
It's not the 2% who think Jimmy was the greatest pres that worries me. It's the 13 who think Slick Willie was. Regardless of wherther you think he was a good president or not, what were the great landmarks of his presidency?
Did he insire the nation to return to greatness after a series of dullard nonentities (Reagan, Rooseveld and Kennedy)? No.
He got caught cheating on his wife and lying about it. He ordered a military strike on Iraq to create "a good day for burying bad news" (the cruise missile attack on the morning the Lewinsky story broke). And he (along with our own Dear Leader) launched a preemptive and possibly illegal invasion of another country without UN sanction(remember Serbia).
Some people may approve of Clinton, I obviously don't, but I do think that by no stretch of the imagination can anyone call him "great" let alone "greatest".
RM
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