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The Spectacle Blog
Just in time for President’s Day, Gallup is out with a new survey finding that a plurality of Americans identify Ronald Reagan as the greatest U.S. president. While I’m happy to see the Gipper get his due, looking at the list, something else disturbs me:
If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that there are only 17 presidents identified by name — yet the list also includes 11 of the 12 most recent presidents. Bill Clinton is just a hair behind Abe Lincoln, and bests George Washington (as does JFK). In just two years in office, as many people identified Barack Obama as the greatest as did Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson combined. Jimmy Carter even gets a nod. Poor Gerald Ford stands as the odd man out in terms of modern presidents.
Yet the overall pattern suggests that unfortunately, many Americans lack knowledge of their own history, and tend to simply name the presidents they’ve heard of.
View all comments (47) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/21/poor-gerald-ford
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Lifeofthemind | 2.21.11 @ 12:58PM
For political elections I prefer first past the post. For web polls a rank order to accumulate points is best. If the poll had said "Here is a list of all the US Presidents in random order please list your top 20 from #1 as the best on down" it would have given a more valid result. Gerald Ford may have been the sanest man ever to serve as President. He had a generally excellent Cabinet. It spoke to his self confidence that he was not afraid of talent.
kingsmill| 2.21.11 @ 1:33PM
Taking a poll to determine human greatness is absurd.
Red Phillips | 2.21.11 @ 2:10PM
Abraham Lincoln is by far the greatest President ever, if your criteria for greatness is who most effectively DESTROYED THE REPUBLIC. FDR is a distant second.
Derek Leaberry| 2.22.11 @ 11:25AM
American children are indoctrinated to believe Lincoln a great president by the Dewey schools. Yet Lincoln is truly a scoundrel with 600,000 dead men on his blood stained hands and a republic wrecked.
Bo| 2.21.11 @ 2:41PM
I wonder if any of the "other" were people who weren't even a president.
john dubose| 2.21.11 @ 3:58PM
All this poll shows is that most people do not know squat about the history of our country.
Several of the presidents were great in their own way in their own time. But for me one of the GREATEST acts of all time was the decision of president Washington to walk away at the height of his power. He set an example that held up until a much lesser man Rosevelt ( in hubris ) held on too long.
J.C.Eaton| 2.21.11 @ 4:35PM
Hear, Hear John.
jharp| 2.21.11 @ 4:34PM
Good grief Americans are stupid.
Ronald Reagan would have been teabagged out of the republican party today.
KDW| 2.21.11 @ 8:46PM
Reagan would have been teabagged out of the
Republican Party? Really? Why? Please give
specific reasons - try to show you have some idea
of what you are talking about.
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 12:37PM
Glad to oblige you, KDW.
Here you go.
"Reagan raised taxes on Social Security. He negotiated with terrorists, sending — over and over again — arms to Iran in exchange for hostages. By contrast Jimmy Carter didn’t give an inch to the Iranians.
Reagan gave amnesty to people who were breaking the law and living in the country illegally. He said, “Forget about it. Stay here forever.” He cut and ran from Lebanon. How many hundreds of Marines were killed.
In summary Reagan was tax raiser, an amnesty giver, a cut-and-runner, and he negotiated with terrorists."
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 3:53PM
It must be killing you that Ronald Reagan was just voted NUMBER ONE GREATEST PRESIDENT in history in the latest Gallup poll. I love it.
Only an idiot like you would disagree. lol
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 4:09PM
Not at all.
It doesn't affect me the slightest bit.
I just kick a kick out of pointing out to you dumbasses that your hero Reagan would be run out of the GOP by the teabaggers.
He granted amnesty to millions of illegals.
And you don't have a problem with that?
God you people are stupid.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 5:25PM
That was 30 years ago, moron; what's your excuse for wanting to do it again?
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 5:28PM
"That was 30 years ago, moron"
Ahh. Now I get it.
Anything that happened 30 years ago doesn't count.
God you people are stupid.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 5:38PM
It didn't work then so why do you fascist idiots want to do it again? Talk about stupid.
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 6:06PM
"It didn't work then"
But it made Reagan the bestest President ever!
God you people are stupid.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 9:16PM
You're obviously brain damaged. Reagan's been voted bestest President ever because he won the Cold War and saved the economy. Dumb fascist.
Cpm| 2.22.11 @ 10:25PM
It didn't make Reagan the best ever. Erasing the stain of Jimmy Carter is what did it.
Jamie| 2.22.11 @ 11:46PM
I still remember Carter's stench; what an ahole.
Occam's Tool| 2.22.11 @ 3:51AM
Why? You mentioned below what an idiot he was, and you think Tea Partiers are idiots. I like to think of people like you, jharp (and Clint), as Terrorist Catamites. (Tea Bagger deserves a good return)
martin j smith| 2.21.11 @ 4:44PM
Bill Clinton 13% --13 % of what ?--stupid people -=stupid poll.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 3:54PM
Yeah, stupid people like the moronic harpy.
Richard Baker| 2.21.11 @ 5:12PM
Being from Virginia, I'm amazed that George Washington isn't first on every list/poll. Without his resolute and honest nature there wouldn't BE a country for the lefties to screw up. Bill (BJ) Clinton above Washington? Really?
Glen H| 2.21.11 @ 6:16PM
Somehow, I find it comforting that George W. Bush beats Jimmy Carter by 2 to 1 (literally 2% - 1%).
Bob K.| 2.21.11 @ 7:42PM
Another good reason to ignore pollsters and their polls.
Occam's Tool| 2.21.11 @ 8:29PM
Washington, Lincoln, Reagan, FDR. 1-4. First Pres, Civil war, Cold war/ Carter economy, WWII. Next question.
jharp| 2.21.11 @ 10:32PM
You're an idiot.
"Reagan raised taxes on Social Security. He negotiated with terrorists, sending — over and over again — arms to Iran in exchange for hostages. By contrast Jimmy Carter didn’t give an inch to the Iranians.
Reagan gave amnesty to people who were breaking the law and living in the country illegally. He said, “Forget about it. Stay here forever.” He cut and ran from Lebanon. How many hundreds of Marines were killed.
In summary Reagan was tax raiser, an amnesty giver, a cut-and-runner, and he negotiated with terrorists."
And you rank him in the top 4?
God you people are stupid.
God| 2.22.11 @ 12:38AM
jharp was a mistake --
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 3:56PM
Yes, we know.
Occam's Tool| 2.22.11 @ 3:48AM
Carter didn't do anything useful to the Iranians. On the other hand, Reagan had the Iranians bleeding themselves out on Iraqi soil.
Reagan dramatically lowered taxes. Taxes at the end of the Reagan term were lower than at any period before FDR.
Reagan was focused on beating the Soviets. He did drop the ball on the border, but he had bigger fish to fry.
Without Reagan, the Cold War would have gone on much longer. he finished a war that Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter were unable to do.
(By the way, Carter backstabbed our ally the Shah, and believed the Russians were our friends at one point.Don't compare Reagan and Carter in steadiness of purpose. Sheesh.)
Major 44 year war ended because of Reagan. Top 4.
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 11:33AM
"Major 44 year war ended because of Reagan."
And Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter had nothing to do ending it, right? And the fact that not one shot was fired kinda sorta makes it not a war.
"Top 4."
Yep. You are one of the top 4 dumbasses who post here. Congrats.
Occam's Tool| 2.22.11 @ 2:08PM
Not one shot fired between our countries. Plenty of murdered Kulaks, etc.
I can't help that your mind is to mine as that of an amoeba, Jharp. Carter had nothing to do with ending it, Truman's lack of preparedness cost us 50,000 casualties in Korea, LBJ set us back decades, Nixon was mildly helpful and harmful, Ike maintained a balance.
But Reagan won. You sir, are not the biggest dumbass who posts here. That would be Clint. You are number 2, which is fitting in multiple ways.
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 2:57PM
"But Reagan won."
What in the hell are you talking about?
Reagan won nothing.
And he did grant amnesty to a few million illegal aliens.
And today's republican party would teabag him right out of of the party. He would be what they call a RINO.
God you people are stupid.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 4:28PM
You're defending the incompetent, cowardly peanut farmer, Jimmuh Carter who was chased off by a 'killer rabbit' and WE'RE stupid? Obviously you're suffering mental malaise from too much teabagging, harpy.
Reagan ended the Cold War without firing a shot and was responsible for unprecedented economic growth in our country--and is now OUR NUMBER ONE GREATEST PRESIDENT as proven by the latest Gallup poll. Bitterness is unattractive, harpy.
I bet you're just lovin' the unfolding events in Wisconsin, too. Yeehaw!
We're going to take the Senate in 2012, and maybe even the Presidency. The Bamster will be another one-term loser just like Jimmuh. Face it, you're a party of liars, cheats and thieves--fascists all.
The American people have rejected you and your destructive policies, and the clean up is just beginning!
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 4:37PM
"You're defending the incompetent, cowardly peanut farmer, Jimmuh Carter who was chased off by a 'killer rabbit' and WE'RE stupid?"
No. I was not defending Jimmy Carter. And I did not defend Jimmy Carter.
And yes. You people are stupid.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 5:27PM
We're going to bust your fascist butts in 2012.
Love it.
jharp| 2.22.11 @ 5:30PM
"We're going to bust your fascist butts in 2012."
And you'll still be an idiot.
And clearly you have no idea of what a fascist even is.
God you people are stupid.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 5:41PM
The Nazis were the National Socialist Party of Germany, moron. You're a big government collectivist, we're not.
You're a stupid Fascist.
Cpm| 2.22.11 @ 10:29PM
Not one shot was fired? Korea, Vietnam, proxy wars in africa, asia, south america, asian subcontinent. Little bullets so we didn't have to use the big ones.
Jamie| 2.22.11 @ 11:49PM
I didn't know Ronald Reagan was our President during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Talk about rewriting history.
bee bop| 2.22.11 @ 8:38AM
----AS it now comes to light that McKinley, and
MOST certainly, GARFIELD (check it out!)
were killed by the
bankster-collectivist cabal ---and that even HARDING, a fierce opponent of the illegal FED
---was probably poisoned.
--How to see FORD?
Our first POST American President,
shrewdly ushered in, with a Rockefeller at his side,
during the begining of the 'long designed' Globalist
hand-off to the awesomely genocidal, eager-to-please drone hub that is RED China...
CUFFS| 2.22.11 @ 9:22AM
How useless is this poll?
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 4:32PM
I agree, it's disgusting that Clinton, Obama and JFK were even listed near Washington, Lincoln and Reagan.
somnolence| 2.22.11 @ 11:35AM
James K. Polk and Warren G. Harding deserve to be in the top ten of U.S. Presidents.
Occam's Tool| 2.22.11 @ 2:08PM
Not Harding, but certainl;y Polk. Kept ALL his promises in 1 term, then died so as not to burden us.
somnolence| 2.22.11 @ 11:38AM
The influence of Doris Kearns Goodwin and Ruth Bader Ginsberg reeks of wreck and carries over into the results of this Gallup Poll.
Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 4:34PM
Wasn't Kearns Goodwin accused of plagiarism?