In my case, the pool of Presidents during my lifetime consists of the following, in chronological order: Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Bush Barack Obama...
In my case, the pool of Presidents during my lifetime consists of the following, in chronological order:
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
I don't think the US has had a good Republican President since Eisenhower, since the GOP's Southern Strategy turned the "Party of Lincoln" into the Party of Jefferson Davis. That leaves me with Carter, Clinton, and Obama.
Carter seems to have done more good after his one term as President than he managed to do while in office, and deserves nothing but respect for that.
However, Clinton was a scumbag Dixiecrat who bent over backwards to appease Congressional Republicans who despised him despite his concessions to their reactionary agenda. Obama was a Wall Street-approved corporate Democrat whose biggest idea, the ACA, was a sweetheart deal for the health insurance industry that originated in the bowels of the Heritage Foundation and originally implemented in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney, but don't expect any Republicans to admit that. And he was happy to allow the use of drones to kill American citizens without due process if they were accused of working with Islamic terrorists on foreign soil.
I'm not surprised Obama topped this poll. He might have been the best of a bad lot. My pick would have been Carter, though.
I find it somewhat interesting that while Obama is by far and away more popular among millenials, Trump is also picked as first choice by more millennials than any other generation. The simple...
I find it somewhat interesting that while Obama is by far and away more popular among millenials, Trump is also picked as first choice by more millennials than any other generation. The simple explanation would probably be that young people are more likely to to pick presidents in recent memory, since they don't have as large of a pool of popular presidents to pick from. It could also be possible that Trump's inflammatory brand of politics resonates more with young conservatives. Or maybe both!
Yeah, I'd agree to that. For example, I'm 19, and my only choices are Bill Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. I don't remember Clinton at all since I was a baby, so it's really only Bush, Obama, and...
Yeah, I'd agree to that. For example, I'm 19, and my only choices are Bill Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. I don't remember Clinton at all since I was a baby, so it's really only Bush, Obama, and Trump. Bush is unpopular to nearly everyone, and even people who liked him don't seem to want to admit to it, so for people around my age, most people are going to be forced to pick either Obama or Trump, and since Trump is a brand new president, people who are on the fence or perhaps not engaged in politics might be picking him since it's a new name.
Still a little strange though, given Trump's rock bottom approval among young people, and his much higher rate with the elderly, I'd have expected most baby boomers to be pretty enthusiastic about picking Trump...
Just because some (many?) Baby Boomers think Trump is the best choice of the options available now, that doesn't necessarily mean they they think he's the best President they've ever had. If you...
given Trump's [...] much higher rate with the elderly, I'd have expected most baby boomers to be pretty enthusiastic about picking Trump...
Just because some (many?) Baby Boomers think Trump is the best choice of the options available now, that doesn't necessarily mean they they think he's the best President they've ever had.
If you ask in a poll "Who would you like to see as President?" people only have a few current options to consider: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and possibly some outsiders like Ben Carson or Oprah Winfrey. But they have to be current possibilities to become President. It's not like anyone would answer "I would like to see Ronald Reagan as President" - dead people can't really serve as President.
However, if you ask people who's the best President they've ever seen in their lives, the options open up more - and people like Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy are in the running against Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Donald Trump, love him or loathe him, has a big disadvantage in a poll like this: he's only been President for a year and a half. Compare that to Ronald Reagan's and Barack Obama's eight years each. They had more opportunity to get things done than he's had so far. Therefore, they have an advantage over Presidents who served only one term, as well as over a President who hasn't served even half a term yet.
Which is almost unfortunate. I'd like to see FDR or Dwight Eisenhower back in office, 22nd Amendment be damned. Hell, bring back JFK and let him finish out his term.
It's not like anyone would answer "I would like to see Ronald Reagan as President" - dead people can't really serve as President.
Which is almost unfortunate. I'd like to see FDR or Dwight Eisenhower back in office, 22nd Amendment be damned. Hell, bring back JFK and let him finish out his term.
... and more Gen X-ers. This highlights a major flaw in this sort of survey: the longer ago a President served, the less chance he has of topping a list like this, just because people living...
Millennials widely view Obama as one of the best Presidents; more Boomers and Silents name Reagan more than other Presidents.
... and more Gen X-ers.
This highlights a major flaw in this sort of survey: the longer ago a President served, the less chance he has of topping a list like this, just because people living during his term as President are more likely to have died.
Looking at that chart broken up by generation, I'd be more inclined to say that Reagan was, over all, the most popular President. Everyone who's old enough to remember his term picked him as their top choice. The only generation to make another choice were Millennials.
They still chose Obama as their preferred President: 62% of preferences in a field of 6 choices is quite an overwhelming majority. Let's not delude ourselves that they really do like Reagan, when...
Even for millennials, Reagan is still decently well known and seen in a generally positive light.
They still chose Obama as their preferred President: 62% of preferences in a field of 6 choices is quite an overwhelming majority. Let's not delude ourselves that they really do like Reagan, when they placed him fourth in that field of six choices.
Clinton? You mean the president that sent men armed with MP5s to deport a Cuban boy? By that logic, Trump is the lord of all presidents... Boy have times changed!
Clinton? You mean the president that sent men armed with MP5s to deport a Cuban boy?
By that logic, Trump is the lord of all presidents...
It's genuinely puzzling that so many people still claim that Obama was the best president, yet can't think of anything other than "Obama Care" as an accomplishment.
It's genuinely puzzling that so many people still claim that Obama was the best president, yet can't think of anything other than "Obama Care" as an accomplishment.
There are tons of things you can name; he greatly expanded environmental protections, he helped to enact many positive policies for lgbt people (for example, by ordering schools to prevent...
There are tons of things you can name; he greatly expanded environmental protections, he helped to enact many positive policies for lgbt people (for example, by ordering schools to prevent bullying, and offering support in the Obgerfeller case), he saved the US from the brink of a great depression and worked with Congress to pass laws to prevent another meltdown, he severely weakened for-profit prisons, and he restored the US's international reputation in the eyes of many in Europe who soured during the Bush years.
As for his controversial policies, especially regarding the right to privacy and the practices of the NSA, many of these egregious polices started under Bush with the PATRIOT act, and Trump if anything seems to have embraced them; so when you've got a president who's greatest accomplishments are unique from the presidents before and after him, while his criticisms are shared with them, I at least think it makes a lot of sense why he stands above them in popularity. Lastly, like Reagan, he's also pretty charismatic; Bill Clinton was kind of boring, George Bush was prone to making frequent embarrassing mistakes, and Trump is... well, yeah. Reagan's charisma is a large reason why he's remembered fondly, and I think Obama benefits from his own too.
Dude, Obama increased what Bush had started. He also ran on a platform to protect whistleblowers, then did a 180 when elected and when the hardest after whistleblowers. He also stood behind...
Dude, Obama increased what Bush had started. He also ran on a platform to protect whistleblowers, then did a 180 when elected and when the hardest after whistleblowers. He also stood behind droning innocent children in Pakistan.
This really sums it up though. If Obama's continuation bothers you, you're likely to be much more pissed off by the man who originally started this bullshit, and since Trump is continuing it with...
Dude, Obama increased what Bush had started.
This really sums it up though. If Obama's continuation bothers you, you're likely to be much more pissed off by the man who originally started this bullshit, and since Trump is continuing it with no course of change, it balances out. If drone strikes (or human rights in general) bother you, then the massive invasion and subsequent chaos caused by Bush is likely to bother you much more, and Trump's family separations and travel bans against refugees, on top of continuing the drone strikes, are likely to place him above Obama as well, I'd think.
How would past wrongdoings matter? Or even future, his actions are his alone. After he got into office I was deeply disappointed in how he handled matters. Often when Obama is criticized there...
How would past wrongdoings matter? Or even future, his actions are his alone. After he got into office I was deeply disappointed in how he handled matters. Often when Obama is criticized there comes: What about Bush? What about Trump? How does that matter? What about looking at the facts instead.
We're comparing/ranking presidents here. That's literally the topic of this thread after all... So what bush, obama, and trump did/do is very relevant...
We're comparing/ranking presidents here. That's literally the topic of this thread after all... So what bush, obama, and trump did/do is very relevant...
Providing affordable healthcare to people is kind of a huge deal. In 2004, the CBC ran a Greatest Canadian contest nationwide. It was a pretty big deal at the time. Check out who #1 is. I bet most...
yet can't think of anything other than "Obama Care" as an accomplishment.
Providing affordable healthcare to people is kind of a huge deal. In 2004, the CBC ran a Greatest Canadian contest nationwide. It was a pretty big deal at the time. Check out who #1 is. I bet most people, even in Canada today, haven't actually heard his name before but as soon as people read what he was responsible for... well, off to #1.
Maybe that's enough. Maybe making healthcare accessible to more people is enough to make a President popular. Here in Australia, an equivalent quiz would probably reveal Prime Minister Bob Hawke...
yet can't think of anything other than "Obama Care" as an accomplishment.
Maybe that's enough. Maybe making healthcare accessible to more people is enough to make a President popular.
Here in Australia, an equivalent quiz would probably reveal Prime Minister Bob Hawke (1983-1991) as people's most preferred Prime Minister: he had record high approval ratings during his term, and the gloss never really rubbed off (and, even though we've had a longer-serving PM since then, that PM was more divisive than Hawke).
It may not be a coincidence that Bob Hawke is also the Prime Minister who delivered universal healthcare in Australia (among his other achievements).
For sure, I can see how that would influence opinion. Who doesn't want to have the piece of mind that their healthcare is going to be taken care of if the shit hits the fan for them. (I certainly...
For sure, I can see how that would influence opinion. Who doesn't want to have the piece of mind that their healthcare is going to be taken care of if the shit hits the fan for them. (I certainly would...)
I just don't want some of the darker things Obama did to get buried while highlighting something like healthcare. Obama made it legal to detain American citizens without due process. He expanded the drone program which has been responsible for countless deaths of innocent families in the middle east. The US debt continued to increase at breakneck speed with Obama in office, which was one thing he campaigned against. Doesn't matter which side of the fence you sit on, these things aren't exactly good. It just concerns me that someone so loved can be responsible for things like this. And whats even more concerning is that many times when you attempt to bring these point to the surface, you are immediately labeled something nasty by fan boy Democrats that once dinged George W Bush for doing the exact same thing. I hope you can at least appreciate that perspective, even if you don't fully agree :)
But every President did both good and bad things. I'm sure the right people could point out Reagan's failings as President as well. The point is whether the good outweighs the bad - and, it seems,...
But every President did both good and bad things. I'm sure the right people could point out Reagan's failings as President as well.
The point is whether the good outweighs the bad - and, it seems, for many people, the good Obama did outweighs the bad.
I seriously believe that his charm and charisma is a huge factor, his administration was one of the most aggressive against whistleblowers and journalists, if not the most. He ran on a platform of...
I seriously believe that his charm and charisma is a huge factor, his administration was one of the most aggressive against whistleblowers and journalists, if not the most. He ran on a platform of change and peace, but he ended up just keeping the war machine going.
IDK, I find the "in your lifetime" qualifier one that makes the question useless. I have a longer memory for presidents than the one I've lived through and I somewhat resent having to choose...
IDK, I find the "in your lifetime" qualifier one that makes the question useless. I have a longer memory for presidents than the one I've lived through and I somewhat resent having to choose between the best presidents since HW.
So yeah, if I were forced to choose between HW, Clinton (each of whom I either don't remember or barely remember), Bush, Obama, and Trump, Obama's an easy winner. He was an intellectual in a society that seems ready to jump down their throats to tell them how shitty they are at being people. He wasn't actively an asshole to people without cause. He tried to treat people with respect and didn't bother lording around his manhood like he had something to prove. He was an incrementalist tasked with trying to make tiny changes in a government that only focuses on and rewards big changes, and is most known a healthcare bill that was demonized for ending the world that was in itself largely a package of small changes to the current system not a complete rewrite of it. And all the while, he had people who would question whether he was really qualified to be president because he looked black and was born in Hawaii (let's be real, that's the actual reason the birthers exist).
No other president of the five I listed had the challenges Obama had and endured them with anywhere near as much grace. He is a role model of a president. W was a good guy but too reliant on assholes. The rest were actually assholes.
In my case, the pool of Presidents during my lifetime consists of the following, in chronological order:
I don't think the US has had a good Republican President since Eisenhower, since the GOP's Southern Strategy turned the "Party of Lincoln" into the Party of Jefferson Davis. That leaves me with Carter, Clinton, and Obama.
Carter seems to have done more good after his one term as President than he managed to do while in office, and deserves nothing but respect for that.
However, Clinton was a scumbag Dixiecrat who bent over backwards to appease Congressional Republicans who despised him despite his concessions to their reactionary agenda. Obama was a Wall Street-approved corporate Democrat whose biggest idea, the ACA, was a sweetheart deal for the health insurance industry that originated in the bowels of the Heritage Foundation and originally implemented in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney, but don't expect any Republicans to admit that. And he was happy to allow the use of drones to kill American citizens without due process if they were accused of working with Islamic terrorists on foreign soil.
I'm not surprised Obama topped this poll. He might have been the best of a bad lot. My pick would have been Carter, though.
I find it somewhat interesting that while Obama is by far and away more popular among millenials, Trump is also picked as first choice by more millennials than any other generation. The simple explanation would probably be that young people are more likely to to pick presidents in recent memory, since they don't have as large of a pool of popular presidents to pick from. It could also be possible that Trump's inflammatory brand of politics resonates more with young conservatives. Or maybe both!
Yeah, I'd agree to that. For example, I'm 19, and my only choices are Bill Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. I don't remember Clinton at all since I was a baby, so it's really only Bush, Obama, and Trump. Bush is unpopular to nearly everyone, and even people who liked him don't seem to want to admit to it, so for people around my age, most people are going to be forced to pick either Obama or Trump, and since Trump is a brand new president, people who are on the fence or perhaps not engaged in politics might be picking him since it's a new name.
Still a little strange though, given Trump's rock bottom approval among young people, and his much higher rate with the elderly, I'd have expected most baby boomers to be pretty enthusiastic about picking Trump...
Just because some (many?) Baby Boomers think Trump is the best choice of the options available now, that doesn't necessarily mean they they think he's the best President they've ever had.
If you ask in a poll "Who would you like to see as President?" people only have a few current options to consider: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and possibly some outsiders like Ben Carson or Oprah Winfrey. But they have to be current possibilities to become President. It's not like anyone would answer "I would like to see Ronald Reagan as President" - dead people can't really serve as President.
However, if you ask people who's the best President they've ever seen in their lives, the options open up more - and people like Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy are in the running against Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Donald Trump, love him or loathe him, has a big disadvantage in a poll like this: he's only been President for a year and a half. Compare that to Ronald Reagan's and Barack Obama's eight years each. They had more opportunity to get things done than he's had so far. Therefore, they have an advantage over Presidents who served only one term, as well as over a President who hasn't served even half a term yet.
Which is almost unfortunate. I'd like to see FDR or Dwight Eisenhower back in office, 22nd Amendment be damned. Hell, bring back JFK and let him finish out his term.
... and more Gen X-ers.
This highlights a major flaw in this sort of survey: the longer ago a President served, the less chance he has of topping a list like this, just because people living during his term as President are more likely to have died.
Looking at that chart broken up by generation, I'd be more inclined to say that Reagan was, over all, the most popular President. Everyone who's old enough to remember his term picked him as their top choice. The only generation to make another choice were Millennials.
The headline is therefore a bit misleading.
Even for millennials, Reagan is still decently well known and seen in a generally positive light. The generational point is spot on though.
They still chose Obama as their preferred President: 62% of preferences in a field of 6 choices is quite an overwhelming majority. Let's not delude ourselves that they really do like Reagan, when they placed him fourth in that field of six choices.
In my lifetime?
Is your list ordered by preference?
By who I consider the "best". So I suppose that is preference.
Clinton? You mean the president that sent men armed with MP5s to deport a Cuban boy?
By that logic, Trump is the lord of all presidents...
Boy have times changed!
It's genuinely puzzling that so many people still claim that Obama was the best president, yet can't think of anything other than "Obama Care" as an accomplishment.
There are tons of things you can name; he greatly expanded environmental protections, he helped to enact many positive policies for lgbt people (for example, by ordering schools to prevent bullying, and offering support in the Obgerfeller case), he saved the US from the brink of a great depression and worked with Congress to pass laws to prevent another meltdown, he severely weakened for-profit prisons, and he restored the US's international reputation in the eyes of many in Europe who soured during the Bush years.
As for his controversial policies, especially regarding the right to privacy and the practices of the NSA, many of these egregious polices started under Bush with the PATRIOT act, and Trump if anything seems to have embraced them; so when you've got a president who's greatest accomplishments are unique from the presidents before and after him, while his criticisms are shared with them, I at least think it makes a lot of sense why he stands above them in popularity. Lastly, like Reagan, he's also pretty charismatic; Bill Clinton was kind of boring, George Bush was prone to making frequent embarrassing mistakes, and Trump is... well, yeah. Reagan's charisma is a large reason why he's remembered fondly, and I think Obama benefits from his own too.
Dude, Obama increased what Bush had started. He also ran on a platform to protect whistleblowers, then did a 180 when elected and when the hardest after whistleblowers. He also stood behind droning innocent children in Pakistan.
This really sums it up though. If Obama's continuation bothers you, you're likely to be much more pissed off by the man who originally started this bullshit, and since Trump is continuing it with no course of change, it balances out. If drone strikes (or human rights in general) bother you, then the massive invasion and subsequent chaos caused by Bush is likely to bother you much more, and Trump's family separations and travel bans against refugees, on top of continuing the drone strikes, are likely to place him above Obama as well, I'd think.
How would past wrongdoings matter? Or even future, his actions are his alone. After he got into office I was deeply disappointed in how he handled matters. Often when Obama is criticized there comes: What about Bush? What about Trump? How does that matter? What about looking at the facts instead.
We're comparing/ranking presidents here. That's literally the topic of this thread after all... So what bush, obama, and trump did/do is very relevant...
Isn't Pakistan where OBL was hiding?
Providing affordable healthcare to people is kind of a huge deal. In 2004, the CBC ran a Greatest Canadian contest nationwide. It was a pretty big deal at the time. Check out who #1 is. I bet most people, even in Canada today, haven't actually heard his name before but as soon as people read what he was responsible for... well, off to #1.
Maybe that's enough. Maybe making healthcare accessible to more people is enough to make a President popular.
Here in Australia, an equivalent quiz would probably reveal Prime Minister Bob Hawke (1983-1991) as people's most preferred Prime Minister: he had record high approval ratings during his term, and the gloss never really rubbed off (and, even though we've had a longer-serving PM since then, that PM was more divisive than Hawke).
It may not be a coincidence that Bob Hawke is also the Prime Minister who delivered universal healthcare in Australia (among his other achievements).
For sure, I can see how that would influence opinion. Who doesn't want to have the piece of mind that their healthcare is going to be taken care of if the shit hits the fan for them. (I certainly would...)
I just don't want some of the darker things Obama did to get buried while highlighting something like healthcare. Obama made it legal to detain American citizens without due process. He expanded the drone program which has been responsible for countless deaths of innocent families in the middle east. The US debt continued to increase at breakneck speed with Obama in office, which was one thing he campaigned against. Doesn't matter which side of the fence you sit on, these things aren't exactly good. It just concerns me that someone so loved can be responsible for things like this. And whats even more concerning is that many times when you attempt to bring these point to the surface, you are immediately labeled something nasty by fan boy Democrats that once dinged George W Bush for doing the exact same thing. I hope you can at least appreciate that perspective, even if you don't fully agree :)
But every President did both good and bad things. I'm sure the right people could point out Reagan's failings as President as well.
The point is whether the good outweighs the bad - and, it seems, for many people, the good Obama did outweighs the bad.
I seriously believe that his charm and charisma is a huge factor, his administration was one of the most aggressive against whistleblowers and journalists, if not the most. He ran on a platform of change and peace, but he ended up just keeping the war machine going.
IDK, I find the "in your lifetime" qualifier one that makes the question useless. I have a longer memory for presidents than the one I've lived through and I somewhat resent having to choose between the best presidents since HW.
So yeah, if I were forced to choose between HW, Clinton (each of whom I either don't remember or barely remember), Bush, Obama, and Trump, Obama's an easy winner. He was an intellectual in a society that seems ready to jump down their throats to tell them how shitty they are at being people. He wasn't actively an asshole to people without cause. He tried to treat people with respect and didn't bother lording around his manhood like he had something to prove. He was an incrementalist tasked with trying to make tiny changes in a government that only focuses on and rewards big changes, and is most known a healthcare bill that was demonized for ending the world that was in itself largely a package of small changes to the current system not a complete rewrite of it. And all the while, he had people who would question whether he was really qualified to be president because he looked black and was born in Hawaii (let's be real, that's the actual reason the birthers exist).
No other president of the five I listed had the challenges Obama had and endured them with anywhere near as much grace. He is a role model of a president. W was a good guy but too reliant on assholes. The rest were actually assholes.