Gallup Poll: Honest Abe, JFK Among Greatest U.S. Presidents

Gallup News Service ^ | 5/16/03 | Joseph Carroll

[Jean S]

PRINCETON, NJ -- An Unfinished Life, historian Robert Dallek's new book about the life of President John F. Kennedy, was released this week. The book, among other things, illustrates the gravity of Kennedy's medical problems, describes an alleged affair with a White House intern, and speculates about how Kennedy would have handled the Vietnam War. The publication of this new Kennedy biography raises the question of where Kennedy ranks in the eyes of Americans.

Lincoln, Kennedy Have Slight Edge on Greatest U.S. President This Year

An April CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll asked Americans: "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?"

Abraham Lincoln gets the most mentions from Americans at 15%, but not by a significant margin over the second-place finisher, Kennedy (13%). Two recent presidents, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, as well as the current president, are all mentioned by 10% or more of the public. Other presidents earning mentions from more than 5% of the public include Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Washington.

Gallup has asked this question four times since 1999, and over that period, Lincoln and Kennedy have typically rated near the top of the list. In 1999, Lincoln had a six-percentage-point lead over Washington, Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton. Kennedy led the pack the next year, with a small four-percentage-point lead over Lincoln. Polling in 2001 and 2003 has found no clear-cut victor among the presidents mentioned, but Lincoln and Kennedy still appear near the top of the list. Reagan, with 18%, actually had the most mentions in 2001, probably due in part to the fact that the poll was conducted around celebrations of his 90^th birthday.

Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?

	Apr 5-6, 2003	Feb 9-11, 2001	Feb 14-15, 2000	Feb 1999
	%	%	%	%
Abraham Lincoln	15	14	18	18
John Kennedy	13	16	22	12
Bill Clinton	11	9	5	12
George W. Bush	11	--	--	--
Ronald Reagan	10	18	11	12
Franklin Roosevelt	9	6	12	9
George Washington	7	5	5	12
Harry Truman	4	6	3	4
Jimmy Carter	3	4	3	3
Theodore Roosevelt	2	2	3	3
George Bush (the elder)	2	3	3	5
Thomas Jefferson	2	1	3	2
Dwight Eisenhower	1	1	3	2
Richard Nixon	1	1	2	2
Other	2	5	3	1
None	1	2	*	1
No opinion	6	7	4	2
2000-2001 questions asked of half sample.

Republicans, Democrats Vary Substantially on Greatest U.S. President

The latest polling finds dramatic (but not necessarily surprising) differences between the Republicans' and Democrats' choices for the greatest president in history. Three Democratic presidents -- Kennedy (25%), Clinton (21%), and Franklin Roosevelt (13%) -- are Democrats' most frequent choices as the greatest president. Lincoln is the only Republican president identified by a large number of Democrats, with 9% saying he is the greatest president.

Among Republicans in this poll, 23% mention the current president. Lincoln is mentioned by 20%, 18% mention Reagan, and 9% mention Washington. No more than 3% of Republicans nominate any Democratic president as the greatest of all time.

Independents have a more mixed view, with Lincoln, Kennedy, Clinton, and Franklin Roosevelt each getting between 11% and 16% of the votes.

	Republicans	Independents	Democrats
	%	%	%
Abraham Lincoln	20	16	9
John Kennedy	3	13	25
Bill Clinton	2	12	21
George W. Bush	23	6	3
Ronald Reagan	18	8	3
Franklin Roosevelt	3	11	13
George Washington	9	8	4
Harry Truman	3	5	3
Jimmy Carter	1	3	6
Theodore Roosevelt	2	3	2
George H.W. Bush	3	2	*
Thomas Jefferson	1	2	2
Dwight Eisenhower	2	1	*
Richard Nixon	2	1	--

Age Impacts Vote for Greatest President in U.S. History

There are interesting and significant differences in choice of greatest U.S. president by age. Americans tend to select a leader from the formative years of their generation. The only exceptions, once again, are Washington and Lincoln, who rank fairly high among people in all age groups despite the fact that both served long before any person living today was born.

Clinton is far and away the most likely to be selected as the greatest president among 18- to 29-year-olds; nearly 3 in 10 respondents in this age group mention him. Younger Americans are at least three times more likely than any other age group to cite Clinton as the best president. Lincoln and the current President Bush each get 10% of the mentions from people in the 18- to 29-year-old age group, getting only about one-third of the mentions Clinton does among younger Americans.

Americans aged 30 to 49 are essentially divided in their opinions on the greatest president, but Reagan, who was in office when these people were mainly in their teens, 20s, and 30s, is more likely to be mentioned by this age group than any others. Lincoln, Kennedy, and Reagan are essentially tied, with just about one in six mentioning them. Twelve percent mention the current president.

One in five Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 mention Kennedy as the greatest president, significantly more than in any other age group. Those in this age bracket also hold Lincoln in high regard.

For Americans aged 65 and older, Franklin Roosevelt and Lincoln are essentially tied as the greatest U.S. president, named by 19% and 17%, respectively. Also scoring high among this age group are the current President Bush, Harry Truman, and Kennedy.

	18- to 29- year-olds	30- to 49- year-olds	50- to 64- year-olds	65 and older
	%	%	%	%
Abraham Lincoln	10	16	17	17
John Kennedy	7	14	21	10
Bill Clinton	29	8	8	6
George W. Bush	10	12	9	12
Ronald Reagan	7	14	8	8
Franklin Roosevelt	4	6	10	19
George Washington	8	6	8	5
Harry Truman	2	2	4	10
Jimmy Carter	2	4	3	1
Theodore Roosevelt	5	2	3	1
George H.W. Bush	3	3	*	*
Thomas Jefferson	1	2	2	*
Dwight Eisenhower	1	1	1	1
Richard Nixon	--	2	*	1

Higher Educated Americans Pick Lincoln as Greatest U.S. President

"Honest Abe" is the top choice as the greatest U.S. president among Americans with college degrees or postgraduate education. Roughly one in five adults with degrees in higher education pick Lincoln as the greatest president, while fewer Americans with only some college or a high school diploma or less mention Lincoln.

No other president comes close to Lincoln among adults with a college degree or postgraduate education. Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, and Kennedy trail Lincoln, each mentioned by roughly 1 in 10 Americans at these levels of education.

Those with some college or a high school diploma or less show no consensus as to the greatest president.

	Post- graduate education	College graduate only	Some college education	High school diploma or less
	%	%	%	%
Abraham Lincoln	20	21	13	13
John Kennedy	11	12	13	15
Bill Clinton	5	6	13	14
George W. Bush	5	8	9	16
Ronald Reagan	12	8	12	10
Franklin Roosevelt	12	11	7	8
George Washington	7	8	8	5
Harry Truman	4	4	4	3
Jimmy Carter	3	4	3	2
Theodore Roosevelt	2	2	4	2
George H.W. Bush	2	3	2	2
Thomas Jefferson	5	4	1	*
Dwight Eisenhower	*	2	1	1
Richard Nixon	1	--	2	1

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,009 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted April 5-6, 2003. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95%confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

MarkDel: Good list... but remove FDR (replace with Polk). Elevate W (so far) to just below Reagan. Remove Nixon -- besides his lying and criminal coverup [I've been apologizing for him for 30 years], his price controls and other big government activities merely propogated LBJ's awful War On Poverty.

I like your WORST list... Giving Jimmy Carter the top 5 spots is appropriate: Bill Clinton and LBJ should say a prayer to JC every night, thanking him for his service. And put Harding above Herbert Hoover -- Harding and Clinton are soul-mates and should be linked throughout history on a list like yours.

[WarrenC]

In a recent Ben Stein's Diary in The American Spectator, Stein includes the following parenthetical phrase in a reference to JFK's first inaugural address: (and only inaugural owing to Kruschev and Castro's cruel decision to assassinate him--see Edward Jay Epstein's astounding book, Legend) Are you familiar wtih this book? I hadn't heard of it.

[PISANO]

The only reason that George Washington scores so low is that HISTORY is no longer taught in public schools. He was the first and the best IMHO. He could have been KING or stayed in office until he died. He had a monumental task and like our PRESIDENT of today was more than up to the challange.

[Savage Beast]

I agree with the top and bottom 10, Mark, though I might place them in slightly different orders, with one exception--I'd scratch Franklin Roosevelt. Great minds think alike!

[Tall_Texan]

see Edward Jay Epstein's astounding book, Legend) Are you familiar wtih this book? I hadn't heard of it.

I'm familiar with Epstein, not with this book. Epstein is another one of a handful of authors that has made a livelihood off JFK and his death.

What makes the JFK Murder Mystery so appealing is that there are so many high profile suspects with plausible motives to kill Kennedy and plausible ties to Lee Harvey Oswald (even though some seek to exonerate Oswald altogether as just the wrong man at the wrong place - a view I find unsupportable by the facts).

Key suspects and their plausible connections (in no particular order):

* LBJ(hatred for JFK, ambition) Killing done in Texas, his Limo not shot at.
* Mafia(crackdown on mob,Joe Kennedy's election help)LHO has very vague mob ties but Ruby had very definite mob ties
* Russia(cold war,missile crisis)LHO had spent time in Russia as an alleged defector.
* Cuba(cold war,Bay of Pigs)LHO attempted to defect to Cuba after returning from Russia.
* Pentagon(Vietnam)LHO was a Marine, trained as a marksman.
* CIA(Vietnam,other world conflicts)Many believe LHO's defection was actually CIA-orchestrated spying.
* FBI(partner/rival of CIA)LHO had several contacts with FBI leading up to assassination.
* Castro's enemies in U.S.(Bay of Pigs)LHO spent time with paramilitary groups dreaming of overthrowing Castro. Many of these saw JFK as traitor for failing to provide military cover for Bay of Pigs invasion which failed.
* "Right Wing"(JFK's liberalism)Connection to LHO quite unclear but Dallas was a hotbed of conservative groups hostile to JFK.
* "Big Oil"(JFK's liberalism)Often blamed in the same breath as "right wing".
* Richard Nixon(revenge for 1960)Just happened to be in Dallas that weekend.

Then, of course, you get to those who believe LHO dreamed this all up and carried it out himself for the personal notoriety and as revenge against a society that he had great disdain for and was, in his mind, shunned by.

Hollywood could never concoct such a character as Lee Harvey Oswald. We'll probably never know with certainty who carried this out which is why the JFK Assassination is always going to have a disproportionate attention placed on it throughout history. It's a drama that has something for everyone (murder, sinister characters, martyrs, sex, innocent or not-so-innocent bystanders - all set on the world's biggest stage). It was also the central moment that awoke America from the post-WWII slumber of absolute trust in government. From the JFK Assassination to Vietnam to Watergate in ten years America (and the media) changed from a trusting people to a distrusting people.

[mass55th]

I'd like to know just what JFK did to warrant being rated one of the greatest Presidents by the Demoncrats. I wonder if they know that Abe was a Republican. Probably not, since 66% of them can't identify any of the present Demoncratic Presidential contenders.

[codercpc]

I'd like to know just what JFK did to warrant being rated one of the greatest Presidents by the Demoncrats

Simple, he got shot. America tends to make martyrs out of everyday people. I truly believe that had he not been shot, he and the rest of the "Kennedy Dynasty" would be in the dust bin of history. Had Teddy not been a Kennedy, and had his brothers (plural) not been shot, he would probably be in jail.

[Shooter 2.5]

My favorite quote, which I'm probably going to butcher, was by someone who said, "If all the people who hated the Kennedys was at Dealy Plaza that day, It would have sounded like Omaha Beach on D-Day".

[MississippiMan]

We live in a country where opinion is dictated by what is essentially brainwashing. It begins in kindergarten through the education system and continues to the grave through the mainstream media. There is no other explanation for results like this. People have been told for decades how great Kennedy was. Therefore he is. Sickening, eh?

MM

[mass55th]

I agree with you totally.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Of course I'm sure the results leave out the third or so of Americans who were unable to name ANY president.

What would have been really fun would have been to include some non-Presidential "ringers" in the list and see how the ratings ended up. For example, would "Joshua Bartlett" have done better than Clinton, I wonder?

[Verginius Rufus]

Actually, we have had a President King Jr.--Leslie King, Jr., better known by his name after he was adopted by his stepfather, Gerald R. Ford. Somehow he was overlooked in this polling.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Well, my list would be slightly different:

The Best 10 Presidents
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Theodore Roosevelt
3. George Washington
4. Ronald Reagan
5. Franklin Roosevelt
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower
7. Andrew Jackson
8. James K Polk
9. Thomas Jefferson
10. Calvin Coolidge

WORST 10 Presidents
1. Bill Clinton
2. Jimmy Carter
3. Lyndon Johnson
4. Richard Nixon (started out great but ended badly)
5. Herbert Hoover
6. Warren Harding
7. James Buchanan
8. William Taft
9. Franklin Pierce
10. Martin Van Buren

[Verginius Rufus]

I think you are being unfair to Harding to liken him to Clinton. Harding was in over his head and made some bad appointments, men who betrayed his trust in them...but he does not seem to have been personally crooked and he seems to have lacked Clinton's relentless dishonesty, viciousness and meanspiritedness. If he had lived longer, I really doubt Harding would have engaged in perjury, intimidation of witnesses, and the rest of the Clintonesque repertoire in order to thwart the investigation of the Teapot Dome scandal.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

If it had just been LHO, I would be quite prepared to dismiss all the various conspiracy theories as nonsense. The moment Jack Ruby came into the picture and killed LHO, all of that changed irrevocably.

My favorite hypothesis remains that the Ruskies are somehow involved, and there was (inconclusive) evidence known to the Warren Commission, but it was decided that to make this publicly known would have probably ended with WWIII. It is not inconceivable that Nikta Khruschev's ouster was one consequence, as a secret ultimatum might have been delivered to the USSR demanding this as one of several conditions for our keeping this thing secret.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Simple, he got shot. America tends to make martyrs out of everyday people.

Then maybe by that logic James Garfield should be our greatest president, as he got shot before he had a chance to screw up anything at all!

[x]

I'd like to know just what JFK did to warrant being rated one of the greatest Presidents by the Demoncrats.

It's the movie star angle -- young and good looking and famous for being famous. What did his son do to become so famous in his own day? It's the same created aura that makes people care about Jennifer Anniston or Julia Roberts or Russell Crowe or someone called "Colin Farrell." Kennedy's popularity is an example of the hidden monarchism that lurks beneath the surface of mass society.

Plus, Kennedy's a figure on whom people can pin the leftist hopes of their youth. In Europe, it's the radicalism of 1968 that performs the same function. Democrats who "believe in government" need to have someone in government to believe in and attach their hopes to. So a mystique grows up. Curiously, even some people who were old -- or not yet born -- during Kennedy's lifetime do this.

[Paulus Invictus]

A much more believable poll, but JFK does not belong anywhere but near the bottom with the Felon. When was the CSPAN poll done? If it was after the Iraq war, I would imagine GWB would rank much higher. CSPAN, By the way, tends to be far more liberal than conservative, in my view, so this poll is interesting.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Just goes to show how out of step I am with the rest of country. My favorite presidents? First, George Washington. Second, James K. Polk. Third? Grover Cleveland. Yes, Grover Cleveland.

[baseballfanjm]

K0 how smart the American public is. I bet a lot of people don't even know who Washington and Jefferson are. They'd be my choices. This is a pointless poll, but they do it every year. People go with who they know. I mean, it seems that people choose Lincoln and Kennedy as kneejerk choices, since they don't know anyone else and those two are popular and were assassinated.