Clinton Third Most Popular President
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Pejman has a few good paragraphs on the latest poll showing Clinton to be the third most popular president (along with W.).
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Actually, the poll suggests that Clinton is the third "greatest" president, not the third most popular. I believe that there is quite a difference between the two.
[T]the third "greatest" president?
One month following 9/11, the pollster John Zogby (here) that asked the question, "Who would you rather have sitting in the White House during this time of crisis, George W. Bush or Bill Clinton?"
The result of "Bush 72%, Clinton 20%" was telling, I thought. Still dazed and hurting in the aftermath of the attacks, the American people seemed to put the sleazy Clinton years in proper perspective.
Alas, this Gallup poll (especially among the young) seems to debunk all that. Clinton now enjoys, according to Gallup, greater status than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt. This ought to bode extremely well for Clintons party, the Democrats, as the presidential campaign season shifts into high gear. Among the "young" that is.
p.s. Do the "young" vote, in America today? In any meaningful numbers, that is?
Mr. Little is right; theres a world of difference between greatness and popularity. But when the general public is asked to pick the "greatest" president, it tells us more about that presidents popularity at any given time than it does about any objective value of "greatness."