These Rasmussen favorability ratings of all the US presidents are kind of interesting. First off, it's interesting the number of people who won't ever give an uninformed rating of some of the 19th century presidents. The "not sure" ratings of 7 presidents exceed 50% (Tyler being the most unknown at 74%). Secondly, it's interesting that if the American people think they know a president, they like him. Out of all the presidents who were rated by 90% or more of the respondents, only 2 received favorability ratings under 55% (George W. Bush at 41 and Richard Nixon at 32).
And of course I used the phrase "people think they know" because I'm convinced that a lot of these ratings are based on much more on national/historical pride and associations than facts about the presidents and their presidencies. It's startling that John "Alien & Sedition Acts" Adams and James "War of 1812" Madison have such low unfavorables, and I presume that's because most of their favorability stems from an association with one or two acts they did long before they became president.
Anyway, some national history poll numbers to ponder if you aren't going out and doing something else patriotic today.
Posted by armand at July 4, 2007 03:49 PM | TrackBack | Posted to History | Politics