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Gallup poll: Reagan greatest president ever

P

PokerGuy

Lifer
I guess there is a little glimmer of hope for the country yet. According to the gallup poll Reagan was the best president ever.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/146183/Americans-Say-Reagan-Greatest-President.aspx

WTF is up with idiots putting Obummer and W on that list??? Those two should get a fine for being anywhere even remotely close to that list.

Obviously there's a recency effect, with 4 of the top 10 being recent (1980 to present) presidents, but Obummer and W... best presidents ever!? By what conceivable measure could you put either one of them in that category?

My top 5 list:

  1. Lincoln
  2. Washington
  3. Roosevelt (Teddy, not FD)
  4. Reagan
  5. Thomas Jefferson
 
PokerGuy said:
I guess there is a little glimmer of hope for the country yet. According to the gallup poll Reagan was the best president ever.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/146183/Americans-Say-Reagan-Greatest-President.aspx

WTF is up with idiots putting Obummer and W on that list??? Those two should get a fine for being anywhere even remotely close to that list.

Obviously there's a recency effect, with 4 of the top 10 being recent (1980 to present) presidents, but Obummer and W... best presidents ever!? By what conceivable measure could you put either one of them in that category?

My top 5 list:

  1. Lincoln
  2. Washington
  3. Roosevelt (Teddy, not FD)
  4. Reagan
  5. Thomas Jefferson
Click to expand...

Probably the same standards that would put Reagan on the list.....PR.
 
The only thing this poll shows, is that people have very short memories and little to no knowledge of history.
 
Not even sure how Regan would make the top 10.

How the fuck would he get 90% more votes than Washington?

What, exactly, did Reagan do?
 
Nobody ever said popularity was any less irrational fickle then love. Considering how many people get divorced or even kill their lovers I'd say being a mediocre president is a pretty good deal.
 
You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time.

That's good enough for Reagan.
 
khon said:
The only thing this poll shows, is that people have very short memories and little to no knowledge of history.
Click to expand...

If someone asks you who the greatest NFL running back of all time was, would you be more likely to say "Barry Sanders" or "Red Grange"? People tend to identify the things they remember or have experienced over those taught by history.
 
I love Reagan, but his beating out Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR (who managed to keep the USSR and the UK in the war although the nation was overwhelmingly isolationist and thereby probably saved the free world from National Socialism) is just wrong. Reagan cut taxes, set back the ever-increasing power of the federal government, and won the Cold War - good things, but hardly top five ranking.
 
werepossum said:
I love Reagan, but his beating out Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR (who managed to keep the USSR and the UK in the war although the nation was overwhelmingly isolationist and thereby probably saved the free world from National Socialism) is just wrong. Reagan cut taxes, set back the ever-increasing power of the federal government, and won the Cold War - good things, but hardly top five ranking.
Click to expand...

He didn't completely cut taxes, he increased the federal government, increased debt/spend, and didn't end the cold war. The cold war was ending no matter what, Russia was crumbling within.

This is the kind of historical and logical idiocy that puts him in the top 10.
 
LegendKiller said:
He didn't completely cut taxes, he increased the federal government, increased debt/spend, and didn't end the cold war. The cold war was ending no matter what, Russia was crumbling within.

This is the kind of historical and logical idiocy that puts him in the top 10.
Click to expand...
"The Cold War was ending anyway, Russia was crumbling from within" is pure progressive drivel and historical revisionism. Under Carter the USA agreed to cuts that put the USSR solidly ahead of US power, at a level that the USSR could afford to maintain. Had we continued with Carter's idea of diplomacy and world balance, the USSR would likely still be in existence today. Had you been alive at the time you would know that Democrats at the time were decrying Reagan and claiming he was going to destroy the world because the free world could never match the Soviet top-down command economy in military production.

Come to think of it, Democrats today are claiming pretty much the same thing, that Republicans and capitalism are destroying the world (through catastrophic anthropogenic global warming) and that American must adopt a top-down command economy to save it. The more things change . . .
 
LegendKiller said:
The cold war was ending no matter what, Russia was crumbling within.
Click to expand...

It was crumbling from within because of the pressure put on them by Reagan. They might have ultimately still crumbled without Reagan, but it might have taken another decade or two.

Reagan had his faults, but he certainly had accomplishments on his resume, unlike more recent presidents like W, Bummer and Slick Willie.
 
classy said:
Clinton is the best President in the last 50 years, hands down.
Click to expand...
Clinton single-handedly turned Red China into the world dominating force it is today. Although other than that and his shameful personal conduct he was a good President, that one thing overshadows his whole Presidency and relegates him to bottom 5 status.
 
PokerGuy said:
It was crumbling from within because of the pressure put on them by Reagan. They might have ultimately still crumbled without Reagan, but it might have taken another decade or two.

Reagan had his faults, but he certainly had accomplishments on his resume, unlike more recent presidents like W, Bummer and Slick Willie.
Click to expand...

Reagan had nothing to do with the pressure. As historians began to examine the country they realize that internally the country had rotted. Food production levels were all lies and the Sovs were covering up imports. They simply couldn't get yields high enough, mainly because the plots were too small and the distribution system to inefficient. This held true with everything.

This resulted in their spending their hard currency on food rather than infrastructure improvements and advancements in technology. This was compounded by the problem of Afghanistan. While you may be able to credit Reagan for that, as we all know, that was more Charley Wilson than anybody else.

Politically speaking the system of political officers was already failing as was the Politburo and the power of the heads of state before Gorby.

It wouldn't have taken 1-2 decades.
 
werepossum said:
Clinton single-handedly turned Red China into the world dominating force it is today. Although other than that and his shameful personal conduct he was a good President, that one thing overshadows his whole Presidency and relegates him to bottom 5 status.
Click to expand...

Point to exactly what caused that.
 
Lol more Reagan fantasies. I do think he played a part in ending the cold war but the small govt. Bs is just fantasy. He exploded the debt and allowed hundreds of marines to die in Beirut with no response.

Maybe I could see Clinton up there but only because of the divided congress that kept him in check. I can't fully credit him for that.
 
Obama shouldn't be on the list simply as he's still in office. Cheney's sockpuppet has absolutely no business whatsoever being on the list - that's almost as stupid as Iran Contra boy somehow coming out on top. Wow, Reagan fantasy is just disturbing no matter how many times I see it.

Makes me wonder if any of the 1015 people interviewed were even alive in the earlier 80s.
 
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LegendKiller said:
He didn't completely cut taxes, he increased the federal government, increased debt/spend, and didn't end the cold war. The cold war was ending no matter what, Russia was crumbling within.

This is the kind of historical and logical idiocy that puts him in the top 10.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
06_01_04_Remembering_Reagan.jpg
 
Phokus said:
He's like patient zero of the 'deficits don't matter' ideology of the GOP, all at the same time they praise him for small government ideals.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is the epitome of what is wrong with the GOP. They vote with their ears instead of their eyes.
 
LegendKiller said:
He didn't completely cut taxes, he increased the federal government, increased debt/spend, and didn't end the cold war. The cold war was ending no matter what, Russia was crumbling within.

This is the kind of historical and logical idiocy that puts him in the top 10.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Reagan RAISED taxes significantly 11 times, including the two biggest peacetime tax increases ever in 1982 and 1984. Yet, people remember him solely as a tax cutter - ignoring the times he pretty much cancelled out his tax cuts with later tax hikes. It is the disconnect between reality and fantasy that keeps him popular. Same goes with Democratic presidents, but this thread is about Reagan.

The president before Reagan (Carter) approved budgets that averaged 20.8% of GDP. The president after Reagan (Bush) approved budgets that averaged 21.9% of GDP. What about Reagan? 22.3% of GDP. He also spent far more as a percent of GDP than Ford or Clinton, it wasn't a fluke. In his "limited government" role, Reagan increased the number of IRS workers to its all-time high. So much for fiscal control, another trait often attributed to Reagan.

The Soviet Union was essentially in crumbles before Reagan was even in office. Reagan was the cherry on top of the cake, but he certainly didn't bake the cake. The Polish strikes at the Lenin Shipyards were on August 14, 1980 - a few months before Reagan. Solidarity started Sept 1980 - again before Reagan. The Czech Charter 77 was four years before Reagan. The Afghan war to get out of the Soviet Union started in 1979, yep before Reagan.
 
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