The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62901 Message #1418148
Posted By: Amos
22-Feb-05 - 08:59 PM
Thread Name: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
Ya want shocking signs of our dumbing down, consider the following, also from the IP List. I have added some bold and italics to emphasize certain aspects:
The red-blue divide widens:
For those who missed it, yesterday's Washington Post reported that in a
recent poll, registered Republicans indicated that they would support
George W. Bush for president in a race with George Washington, by a
margin of 62% to 28%. Democrats and Independents favored Washington,
however, by margins of 85-10 and 64-27, respectively, and the overall
margin was Washington 55, Bush 36. (No breakdown by state, though, so
the electoral college results may be in doubt.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38575-2005Feb19.html
You'd think Washington would have gotten credit from Republicans for
being from a red state, but perhaps not: 13% of respondents in the poll
thought he lived in Gettysburg. Also, some Republicans may not know
about Washington's military service: the number of respondents who
didn't know he commanded American forces to victory in the Revolution
exceeded the number who did, so Bush's Air National Guard service may be
giving him an edge among those who think a military background is
important.
The Post also reported that a recent Gallup poll on "greatest
presidents" had the public ranking Reagan first (!!!), Clinton second
(!!!), with Lincoln third, followed by FDR, JFK, George W. Bush, George
Washington, Carter, Truman, T. Roosevelt, Jefferson, GHW Bush,
Eisenhower, and Nixon.
Interestingly, the polling organization that handicapped the
Bush-Washington race also did a greatest presidents poll, with the
following rankings resulting: Lincoln, Reagan, FDR, JFK, Clinton, and
G.W. Bush, followed by Washington. Although the ranking of the top 5
differed from Gallup's, the poll was consistent in showing Bush 6th and
Washington 7th.
By contrast, historians consistently rank the top three presidents (in
varying order) as Lincoln, Washington, and FDR. Reagan is moving up in
the standings, but not yet near the top.