February 22, 2005

It's Not That People Are Stupid

They are just poorly informed and lack any decent historical perspective:

A new Gallup Poll, released today, finds that Ronald Reagan is now the people's choice for America's greatest president ever. Bill Clinton comes in second.

While this finding may suggest that many Americans favor only recent presidents, it does represent a strong rise for Reagan since his recent passing. The previous Gallup survey on this subject placed Reagan behind co-leaders Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

In another interesting finding, Gallup found that mothers don't want their babies to grow up to be cowboys -- or presidents. Men by a 52%-46% margin said they would like their son or daughter to “grow up to be president," but women say no by 67% to 29%.

In this new poll on greatest president, Reagan drew 20% support, followed by Clinton with 15%, Lincoln with 14%, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and JFK with 12% each.

Republicans rate Reagan over Lincoln 42% to 14%, while Democrats put Clinton far in the lead over FDR. Independents favor Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy.

By age group, Clinton is favored by the youngest (18-29), Reagan by the 30-49 group, Kennedy by the 50-64 baby boomers, and FDR by the elderly.

If you want to beat up Big Media over something, this is a much better target than most of what they've been taking heat over the last six months. I recall being frustrated and incredulous with the daily "What Does Bill Clinton Think About Today's News" mode of operation Big Media was in while he was president, as though he was some sort of oracle who knew so much better than all of us little people. I will note that there is still some of this going on today, although the frequency and intensity is much lower since Big Media really doesn't put much stock in what President George W. Bush thinks anyway.

Posted by Charles Austin at February 22, 2005 06:17 PM
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