A new Harris Poll of presidential rankings is fascinating, especially when viewed along side a new and somewhat similar Gallup Poll. It finds Americans believe Ronald Reagan was the best President since World War II (ahead of Franklin D. Roosevelt) and Richard Nixon the worst:
Twenty-five percent of Americans rank Reagan as the best president in a survey conducted by The Harris Poll. Franklin Roosevelt was ranked second-best with 19 percent of the vote.
On the flip-side, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were neck-and-neck for the “Worst president since World War II” title. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said Bush was at the bottom of the pack, followed closely by Barack Obama with 22 percent of the vote.
A listing:
Best President Since World War Two:
* Ronald Reagan, 25 percent
* Franklin Roosevelt, 19 percent
* John Kennedy, 15 percent
* Bill Clinton, 12 percent
* Dwight Eisenhower, 4 percent
* Harry Truman, 4 percent
* Barack Obama, 4 percent
* George W. Bush, 2 percent
* Jimmy Carter, 2 percent
* Lyndon Johnson, 1 percent
* George H.W. Bush, 1 percent
* Richard Nixon, 1 percent
* Gerald Ford, 1 percent
* Not Sure, 10 percentWorst President Since World War Two:
* George W. Bush, 27 percent
* Barack Obama, 22 percent
* Richard Nixon, 12 percent
* Bill Clinton, 5 percent
* Jimmy Carter, 5 percent
* Ronald Reagan, 4 percent
* George H.W. Bush, 4 percent
* Lyndon Johnson, 2 percent
* John F. Kennedy, 2 percent
* Harry Truman, 2 percent
* Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1 percent
* Gerald Ford, 1 percent
* Dwight Eisenhower, 4 percent
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.