by Frank James
It's one of those dinner table or barstool questions you might hear someone ask. If you could, which president would you bring back to lead us through our troublesome times?
Gallup asked a representative group of Americans that question and learned that most people would want to see Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan back in the Oval Office, with Camelot slightly edging out Morning in America by a statistically insignificant 23 percent to 22 percent, respectively, of respondents.
Bill Clinton was a distant third at 13 percent.
The president considered by many scholars the greatest, Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we celebrate today, got a mere 10 percent approval. What a way to repay the man who saved the union. What more does a president have to do?
Meanwhile Franklin D. Roosevelt, who merely proved adept at managing the country through only its worst economic crisis, the Great Depression, and its largest and most complicated military endeavor, the massive two-front war known as World War II, received a paltry eight percent.
One interesting way of looking at this survey would be not as a contest between Kennedy versus Reagan but as a contest between the two presidential candidates most running on their legacies, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.
Looked at that way, the survey could be said to show the near equal pulls on the American psyche of those two iconic presidencies. Given that, whichever modern candidate is best able to channel the earlier president the best could arguably gain the advantage.
Gallup sliced and diced the results by party affiliation and found this:
Republicans are unambiguous about whom they would restore to office if they could. Reagan wins an outright majority (51%) of their votes.
Two of Republicans' top five choices are Democrats: Kennedy, at 12% (roughly tied with Abraham Lincoln for second place), and Franklin Roosevelt, in fifth place with 4%.
The other name in the Republicans' top five is George Washington, in fourth place with 6%.
It's good to see Washington getting a shout-out from six percent of those surveyed, being that we are also celebrating his birthday today.
When Gallup looked at Democrats, they found this:
Democrats are less settled on one particular president as their hypothetical choice to return to the Oval Office. The most popular ex-president for the job is Kennedy, mentioned by 34%. However, Clinton ranks a fairly close second, with 24%. Roosevelt is favored for the position by 12% of Democrats.
Seven percent of Democrats would bring back the symbolic father of the Republican Party -- Lincoln -- as president, while 4% would restore Democratic Party founder Thomas Jefferson.
It's curious that four percent of Democrats chose Jefferson whose anti-Federalist, small government views would seem to make him more of a natural fit for Republicans than Democrats.
It's also strange that Theodore Roosevelt didn't do better (he only got three percent) since he was the great Trustbuster who broke up the giant business combinations, was perhaps the first environmentalist president and also projected American power in a way that ushered in the American Century. He's also been getting very decent press in the past two decades.
Unsurprisingly, the Bushes, father and son, didn't fare well. Former President George H.W. Bush and President Bush both clocked in at one percent. But maybe history will be kinder, who knows?
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Comments
What? No Bush? Clinton #3?
That must burn the rabid rights' buns.
Posted by: bill r. | February 18, 2008 10:21 AM
I can't believe Zachary Taylor was left off the list! :)
Posted by: Steve S | February 18, 2008 10:38 AM
I think what the small numbers show is rather that the voters aren't yearning for any one person. Today's problems are different, and resurrecting Lincoln wouldn't help--he just wouldn't be up to speed.
Kennedy and Reagan both offered a positive vision at a time when voters were rattled or tired and wanted to be proud to be Americans again. (The space race and ask not what you can do for one, it's morning in America for the other.) I do think we are at such a point again--the Bush White House hasn't led us to a point where we feel prouder to be Americans than we did 8 years ago, and people would like to vote for someone who can recapture that optimism. It isn't a 37-point platform, but if you listen to the many invocations of Reagan and Kennedy in this election, don't discount the desire to vote for someone who makes you feel good about the country. A nation feeling better about itself, when tied to real reasons for that feeling such as a less bonehead foreign policy, could be a very powerful motivator in this election. In a way that "I want to return to the 60s/90s/80s and do them over" does not capture in the slightest.
Posted by: dal | February 18, 2008 11:03 AM
bill r.,
Ain't that the truth.
Dubya couldn't get re-elected if the only place he ran was at a Bush family reunion.
Posted by: Doug Zook | February 18, 2008 11:10 AM
What? No Millard Fillmore? Those old WHIGS never get any respect.
Posted by: Steve34 | February 18, 2008 11:35 AM
JFK?
What in the world did that guy do besides the Bay of Pigs disaster and consequently the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Posted by: Earl, Chicago | February 18, 2008 12:36 PM
Earl... good point.
JFK was a martyr, an attractive martyr. they are pretty near always popular whether they deserve it or not.
Posted by: Steve S | February 18, 2008 12:52 PM
Considering maybe 20% of Americans think we fought against the British in WWII, this poll may be meaningless.
Posted by: C.Morris | February 18, 2008 12:54 PM
This poll IS meaningless. George Clooney, Kayne West, 50 cent would place in this poll if you stuck them on the list. A perspective of history is not a strong suit among your average voter. Sean Hannity AND Jay Leno have proven that many times over.
Posted by: B. V. Scott | February 18, 2008 1:03 PM
morris.,
We did fight the England! Learn some histery!
Posted by: Bushman | February 18, 2008 2:29 PM
two points:
First, presidents that people actually remember will do better on this type of poll than presidents who died before people living today were born. Honest Abe never stood a chance.
Second, I'm old enough to remember the Kennedy presidency. (I was in college when he was shot.) He wasn't thought of as a terribly successful president when he was in office; Earl above has already pointed out the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and Vietnam was looming on the horizon. When he was shot, though, he immediately became St. Jack. The best move he ever made to assure his legacy was to get assassinated.
Posted by: Dave | February 18, 2008 2:32 PM
The fact that Bill Clinton got more votes among Dems then FDR proves that the american people know nothing of our history. The last few posts were right, this is a idiotic poll.
Posted by: S F | February 18, 2008 2:36 PM
Still amazing so many people don't see that Reagan was one of the absolute worst presidents ever. It goes to show how ignorant people in this country have become.
Posted by: RomanB | February 18, 2008 3:40 PM
I hope, Bushman, that your post was tongue-in-cheek.
Posted by: Dave | February 18, 2008 3:58 PM
Hey... why ain't I up there? heh heh
Posted by: Anonymous | February 18, 2008 4:06 PM
Bill Clinton's 13 percent had to come from the subscription list to Hustler Magazine.
Posted by: Danforth | February 18, 2008 4:34 PM
You can't miss me that much, I mean the country is as messed up as I left it: massive debt, endless deficits, rotten economy, rich getting richer poor getting poorer, terrorists more powerful than ever.
Posted by: Ronald Reagan | February 18, 2008 4:51 PM
The two similarities between JFK -they looked our major advisory right in eye and won and they both practiced supply-side economics.
JFK would probably be a Republican or would have been booted by the "Move-on" wing of the democratic party.
Posted by: Terry | February 18, 2008 6:57 PM
You can't miss me that much, I mean the country is as messed up as I left it: massive debt, endless deficits, rotten economy, rich getting richer poor getting poorer, terrorists more powerful than ever.
Posted by: Ronald Reagan | February 18, 2008 4:51 PM
Quit taking credit for my achievements!
Posted by: George Bush | February 18, 2008 7:39 PM
Bushman,
Just what are you??
'A fool, wrapped in stupidity, shrouded in ignorance?'
I note you are a big 'joe' and John D. fan.
Posted by: C.Morris | February 18, 2008 9:09 PM
Actually, both JFK and Reagan united the country and spread positive thinking for the future (aka hope).
So I'd say Obama wins twice, and Clinton's nowhere in sight. Unless you count the 13% for his two-fer husband.
Posted by: Tom J | February 18, 2008 10:52 PM
My vote would have gone to Grover Cleveland. He fought for - and succeed in – lowering taxes and tariffs, and making government smaller and more accountable. He handed out cabinet positions and other appointments based on competence rather than party service. He was hated by Tammany Hall, probably because he was extremely honest and transparent in all of his public dealings. He was called “the last honest politician.” Strangest of all, he was a Democrat. What a rare bird he was indeed.
Posted by: John W. | February 18, 2008 11:29 PM
And, John W., you've got to hand it to a guy who served two terms, but lost an election in between. Apparently, he was the first candidate to REALLY convince the American people that they were better off four years earlier.
Posted by: JB | February 19, 2008 3:23 PM
Tom J - a thing different than JFK and Reagan vs Obama is the former two had a plan to empower the American people while Obama steals the American people's economic freedom.
Posted by: Terry | February 19, 2008 11:12 PM
Truth is Lincoln real debates regarding abolition were with Fredrick Douglass and not Stephen A.Will the real Lincoln – Douglass Debate please sta...
Posted by: rawdawgbuffalo | February 20, 2008 1:31 AM