Americans rank Barack Obama as best president of their lifetimes: Poll

[applegrove]

Americans rank Barack Obama as best president of their lifetimes: Poll

By Adia Robinson at ABC News

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/americans-rank-barack-obama-best-president-lifetimes-poll/story%3fid=56545031

"SNIP......


A new Pew Research Center poll says more Americans rank former President Barack Obama higher than any other when asked which president has done the best job in their lifetimes.

Obama was named the best or second best president by 44 percent of Americans in the survey that came out Wednesday. Thirty-one percent ranked him as the best president in their lifetimes.

President Donald Trump comes in fourth after President Bill Clinton and President Ronald Reagan, with 19 percent of Americans ranking him as the best or second best in their lifetimes.

While 19 percent might seem low, 20 percent of Americans ranked Obama as the best or second best president in 2011, at a similar point in his first term and the last time Pew conducted this poll.

....SNIP"

[LakeArenal]

1. And some of us have lived through a lot of them.

All the Obamas are the best first family.

[crazytown]

5. Best in my lifetime?

Last edited Fri Jul 12, 2019, 09:16 PM - Edit history (1)

JFK - I don't remember him, but that would be John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The other's have dark marks against them that can't be overlooked

LBJ - Vietnam
Carter - Anti Inflation economics, culminating in appointing Volcker to the Fed and 19% interest rates,
WJC - Numerous small and not so small injurious compromises, most notably DOMA and the repeal of Glass Steagall.
Obama - Failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the most ruinous financial fraud since the 1920's - and that made the bailouts radioactive. W's Justice department prosecuted Worldcom, & Enron. Too Big to Jail ushered in the 2010 midterm disaster.

[shanny]

6. true, although when we examine the record

the bar seems pretty low

[crazytown]

7. Unfortunately, the Administrations that come to mind are the worst:

W - Iraq, Trump. Administrations deserve credit for what they didn't do ... the what if disasters. JFK resisted a unamimous recommendation by the Joint Chiefs to invade Cuba during the missile crisis. they thought there might me eight nukes on the island - there were sixty.

[Woodycall]

16. Reagan did not prosecute Enron

Enron failed in the early 2000s.

[crazytown]

18. (oops)

No, you are correct - that was W's justice department. They prosecuted "Kenny Boy", a big donor and personal friend of W. I've fixed my reply. Thank you.

[wasupaloopa]

27. Well I guess there isn't a perfect president

Truman was born when I was born.

[crazytown]

30. I favor JFK

because if Nixon had won, we probably would not be around to talk about it.

[NNadir]

31. You obviously don't remember JFK.

I do.

When I was a child, I went to school one morning thinking, with all the other people at my bus stop that I was going to be vaporized in the afternoon.

He was the worst Democratic President of my lifetime.

By the way, just curious, are you a Republican? You seem to hold Democratic Presidents responsible for events put in place by Republicans.

I agree with most of the American people as described in the OP. Barack Obama was, by far, the best President of my cognizant lifetime.

[hedda_foil]

39. Your childhood terrors do not reflect the reality of JACk's presidency.

[Thekaspervote]

2. Wasn't polled... ha! but yes the best in my lifetime

[Scurrilous]

3. K&R

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Absolutely the best...compared to the absolutely worse so called president ever (rump)...nt

[Andy823]

8. I totally agree with this poll! nt

[LisaM]

10. You agree that Reagan and Trump were better than Bill Clinton?

I have to say in my personal experience (and improvement in quality of life), Clinton was the best in my lifetime. I liked the 90s. My life improved immeasurably and has pretty much plateaued ever since.

[Andy823]

24. I agree

That president Obama was the best president of my lifetime. I liked most of the 90's, and I liked Clinton, but I like Obama better.

[LisaM]

37. Got it.

I know Obama had a lot of stuff to fix. But the Clinton years were better to me. It's funny, because in the 1992 primaries, he was pretty low on my list at the start. I even volunteered on someone else's campaign! (Harkin).

[TheBlackAdder]

9. There's an Obama sandwich: Obama placed between two pieces of shitty white bread.

.



.

[Buckeyeblue]

11. Bill Clinton was a better politician but Barack Obama was a better president

Next would be Carter. And then Nixon through the second Bush are all equally bad...

[yaesu]

12. As far as getting stuff done I would have to say LBJ was the best president in my lifetime

JFK probably would have been if the CIA plant Oswald didn't shoot him. There was the Vietnam war which cost him points but we still had several wars going under Obama so I didn't figure that in.

[BlueStater]

13. Trump is the fourth best?

What the fuck?

[applegrove]

14. I know. I almost did not post the poll when i saw that.

[BlueStater]

15. I guess it depends on when you were born.

For people born between 1993 and 2001, there's literally been only four presidents in their lifetimes so Trump couldn't do worse than fourth.

Other than that though, there's no excuse for that motherfucker ranking so high.

[applegrove]

17. That makes sense.

[Polybius]

35. I'd rank W worse

I can't stand him. He's certain responsible for many more deaths (so far).

[AdamGG]

19. The 22nd amendment sucks

I can see if you don't want a President to gain too much power through incumbency, where they should be required to take a term off, so no 3 terms in a row. But, if you've taken a term off and after seeing you and your replacement, the voters decide that they want you back, that shouldn't be prohibited.

Why eliminate someone who has proven experience in the job, who the voters have been able to assess and decide that after a forced absence, they want them back? People think there was a precedent set by George Washington that two terms should be the limit. But, Washington might not have done that on principle. He died two years after he left office; he probably didn't feel physically up to a third term.

[applegrove]

20. FDR died in his fourth term in office. After that they said two terms is enough.

[AdamGG]

22. I know the history, doesn't mean it should be prohibited

FDR had barely begun his 4th term when he died. He was very ill when campaigning for the 4th term, but was trying to see WWII through to the end.

But, my point is that that has no bearing on whether Barack Obama would be an appropriate candidate for President now.

[applegrove]

25. But what if Trump wanted to stay for 4 or 5 terms and he was convincing

to not just 43% of the populatiin but 55%? Or if a Hitler came along. Remember 1/3 of germans watched another third of germans kill another third. There was nothing special about being german that made them more prone to genocide. They are finding the mass graves of jews all over eastern europe. Seems nazis got the locals to help them kill the jews in their village and the locals felt complicite enough, though no doubt they were afraid of the nazis, that they never told authorities after the war of the mass graves. After these war time adults died off, their children, who knew where the mass graves were, started to tell authorities in the last decade. And this happened again and again in village after village in eastern europe. Point is humans are quite capable of horrible things and they can also coordinate. Genocide is a very human thing. So if some genocidal psychopath gets elected are you not happy that you don't have to wait for them to die to end their cult? All you have to say is "your time is up. Two terms that is it". Likely to make them behave better too.

[AdamGG]

28. I said I thought the limit should be 2 CONSECUTIVE TERMS

So, if Dump managed to get elected in 2020, he would be prohibited from running in 2024 and couldn't run again until 2028. He'd be full on senile or Big Mac heart attack by then.

[Lonestarblue]

21. In terms of accomplishment, Johnson was the best.

Kennedy was the president who sent US advisors and, later, troops into South Vietnam. Johnson inherited the problem, and he made some bad decisions about it, but he also accomplished a lot during his administration, including civil rights laws and the Voting Rights Act. He is responsible for the Head Start program and numerous other education programs.

Here’s an interesting list of acts passed during his administration (from the LBJ Library). Prior to going to the LBJ LIbrary, I had not realized how much good legislation he got passed.

http://www.lbjlibrary.org/lyndon-baines-johnson/perspectives-and-essays/seeing-is-believing-the-enduring-legacy-of-lyndon-johnson

[AdamGG]

23. LBJ increased US troop presence in Vietnam from 24,000 to 820,000

Yeah, he did lots of good Great Society/Civil Rights stuff, but you're minimizing his role in massively escalating Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed while LBJ was President, on what could have been a completely phony incident.

The President had huge discretion in the scope of our involvement. There's no knowing what JFK would have done if he had lived. But, he refused to invade Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis even though the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all of the military were leaning on him to do it. That's one of the best things a President has ever done. He sought out other advice, reached a back door settlement with the Soviets where we agreed to remove our missiles from Turkey, and avoided World War III.

[JI7]

26. "of their lifetime" , so recent presidents are likely to get more support

since many who lived through earlier presidents are no longer living.

[Polybius]

34. And if they polled a 20 year old, their only choices would be Clinton, W, Obama and Trump

They probably wouldn't even count Clinton, since they were 1 when he left office.

[GulfCoast66]

29. Obama is the best I can remember.

But Johnson’s accomplishment live longer.

I well know and understand why many DU members from that era will never have fond feelings for Johnson. But I don’t have those emotional memories only a mother that gets her healthcare covered. And I grew up when civil rights were no longer questioned, unlike by some now!

Had Johnson walked away from Vietnam he would be held in FDR territory. And he knew it before he died. But he didn’t. Can’t erase that.

[Demovictory9]

32. ..

[Polybius]

33. W did even worse than Trump

Good.

[Takket]

36. i was born on 1978........... my rankings.......

best to worst (obviously)

Obama
Clinton
Carter
Bush Sr.
Bush Jr.
Reagan
drumpf

I think putting Jr. above Reagan might raise some eyebrows and i think the sum total of Jr's accomplishments were WORSE, BUT, I see reagan as the person that "set in motion" the right wing's efforts to destroy the middle class, convert the USA to an oligarchy, and eliminate any sort of bipartisanship in DC

everything that has followed........... was a result of Reagan's true vision, behind the folksy smiles and speeches

[Celerity]

38. my list is short and a horridly mixed bag

The Good

1 Obama (was only living in the US full-time for a part of his final term, wish I had a time machine)
2 Clinton (barely remember him at the time, I was 4 in 2000, and not in the US after I was 2)

The Bad

3 Bush the Lesser (Not in the US at all other than holidays)

The Ugly Nightmare

4 Rump the Raper (I cannot imagine a worse one in my lifetime going forward, if there is, the country is FUCKED)