Gallup: Americans rate Reagan, Clinton best of recent presidents

Presidents Day -- or Washington’s Birthday, if you prefer -- is a time to celebrate all of America’s past commanders in chief. Among the nation’s most recent leaders, two are celebrated far more than others: Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

That’s the finding of Gallup, at least, which recently asked Americans to judge how the last eight presidents will go down in history.

Sixty-nine percent said Reagan would go down as “outstanding” or “above average,” compared to just 10% who said “below average” or “poor.” Clinton was rated favorably by 60% of those surveyed, a 10-point improvement from the last time Gallup asked the question in early 2009. Twelve percent rated him negatively, down from 20% three years ago.

No other president came close to those two in terms of positive ratings. Just under four-in-10 said President Obama will be viewed positively, while slightly fewer thought he’d ultimately get a negative rating.

Richard Nixon received the worst score of the group, with 55% rating him as below average or poor. George W. Bush also fared poorly, with 47% giving him a negative grade. That’s down, though, from 59% who said that just before he left office.

Gerald Ford, the only unelected leader of the bunch, got the highest number of votes for being “average” -- 54%. Forty-four percent felt the same about George H.W. Bush.

Gallup found, predictably, that Democratic voters tended to think more highly of Democratic presidents, and the same for Republican voters of Republican presidents. Still, even 47% of Democrats said Reagan would be viewed positively, which is 16 percentage points better than what Democrats thought of Jimmy Carter.