A recent Quinnipiac University poll has been generating quite a bit of comment among political observers. The poll, conducted June 24-30 among 1,446 registered voters, evaluated the public’s opinion on all U.S. presidents since World War II.
The result that generated all the publicity was the public giving Barack Obama another award, although this time it is richly deserved. He was rated the worst president since 1945. Now think of the cast of characters that comprised that list. There is Richard Nixon, who resigned his office in disgrace facing impeachment.
Yet the public rated Obama more than twice as bad as Nixon: 33 percent for Obama and 13 percent for Nixon.
Then there is Jimmy "Abandon All Hope" Carter, the president who tried to let the nation down easy and then after he left office spent all his time condemning Israel and cozying up to various dictators. It could be that pathetic doesn’t generate the emotion that aggressive incompetence does, since Obama was rated four times as bad as Carter.
Even George W. Bush, the media’s favorite punching bag and the man Obama has been criticizing nonstop for seven or eight years, is a full five points behind Obama in the terrible sweepstakes.
But enough with the negativity.
What I want to focus on is the man the American public thought was the best president since the war. And I’m proud to say 35 percent of Americans choose my father, Ronald Reagan, as the best president, which is almost 2 to 1 over the second-place finisher.
This is a remarkable achievement. Particularly if you remember the media climate at the time. The mainstream media had no conservative competition. There was no Fox, no Rush, and no Drudge. There was simply no alternative to the left/liberal media axis. And the media was uniformly and vehemently opposed to my father.
Much of the criticism of George W. Bush was just a rehash of the venom the media poured on Ronald Reagan. Yet through it all he was upbeat and convinced of the basic goodness of the United States and its citizens.
There is more than a little irony in the fact that the more experience the public has with Barack Obama the worse his reputation becomes. While on the other hand, the longer people have to consider the record of Ronald Reagan, the more they miss him.
Me, too.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.