Gallup: “Americans Say Reagan Is the Greatest U.S. President”

http://www.gallup.com/poll/146183/Americans-Say-Reagan-Greatest-President.aspx ^

[ilgipper]

I was in college then, and most people I know dislike him greatly. That said, across all people, especially younger people of that time, I think most people associate his term with good times, and thus he gets positive ratings. Many associate the same with the 80s, which is likely why Reagan scores so high.

I put Reagan near the top with Washington and other major figures in history that helped establish and protect our limited government system, and I put Clinton pretty far down the list...not at the very bottom because he was a competent political mind and smart enough to maintain strong monetary policy and to with the GOP on a number of key issues from 1995 to the end of his term to help the economy and - more importantly to him - to help himself. His character flaws and terrible foreign policy push him into the lower half for sure. Clinton was a Democrat of the Reagan era - a southern democrat who ran as a moderate, shifted far left in office, and changed course dramatically after getting slapped down in 1994. He was a scoundrel, but he was not incompetent like Carter, Obama and others further back in history.