What’s the population of fools in the United States?

In contrast to our 16th President, according to our current President: “You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.”

This is a fine policy if, that is, there are enough people that you can fool all of the time. I don’t know what that number is. Fortunately, PollingReport.com has the answer:

A Quinnipiac University Poll asked registered voters nationwide, “Thinking about the United States presidents we have had since World War II which one would you consider the best president?”

28% – Ronald Reagan
25% – Bill Clinton
18% – John Kennedy
7% – Harry Truman
5% – Jimmy Carter
5% – Dwight Eisenhower
3% – George W. Bush
2% – George H. W. Bush
1% – Gerald Ford
1% – Lyndon Johnson
1% – Richard Nixon
4% – No opinion

I would have thought it was higher, but there you have it, 3% of America is fooled all the time.

“Which of these eleven presidents we have had since World War II would you consider the worst president?”

34% – George W. Bush
17% – Richard Nixon
16% – Bill Clinton
13% – Jimmy Carter
4% – Lyndon Johnson
3% – George H. W. Bush
3% – Ronald Reagan
2% – Gerald Ford
1% – John Kennedy
1% – Harry Truman
0% – Dwight Eisenhower
5% – No opinion

When you’re twice as bad as Nixon, that’s pretty bad.

4 thoughts on “What’s the population of fools in the United States?

  1. Why is Lyndon Johnson getting such a bad rap? Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t the best President of that time period . . . but Carter is rated higher? Makes no sense. Further, the poll is somewhat inconsistent since Carter is the 5th best president, but the Fourht worst. You would think the lists would be inverses of each other.

  2. I wouldn’t say that Johnson is getting a bad rap. No, he’s not high on the best list, but he’s also not receiving many votes on the worst list (4%). I also don’t think it’s necessarily true that the lists should be opposites. A polarizing figure like Clinton will score high on both lists. Similarly, if you can’t remember anything a guy accomplished, e.g. Ford, then he’s likely to be at the bottom of both lists. There’s a risk-reward lesson in there somewhere. I’m mildly surprized that Reagan didn’t end up toward the top of the worst list.

  3. How the heck is JFK below Ford on the worst President list? I mean Ford no one really remembers, but JFK is such an icon you would think he would kicked further up on the “worst” list.

  4. Under normal circumstances, I think you would be right. But people aren’t going to say that a guy who got killed on the job was the worst. Oh, and didn’t Ford pardon Nixon? That might be worth a few votes, apparently more than Bay of Pigs.

    How about Eisenhower though? He’s got a 0% on the worst list, and 5% on the best list. How appropriate was the “I like Ike” slogan? The second part that didn’t make it on the buttons was “… but I don’t love him.”

Leave a Reply to Jer Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *