Salon.com > Robert Dallek http://www.salon.com Fri, 24 May 2013 01:55:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Why do we admire a president who did so little? http://www.salon.com/2011/01/20/jfk_dallek_anniversary/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/20/jfk_dallek_anniversary/#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/01/20/jfk_dallek_anniversary Every year since 1990, the Gallup poll has asked Americans to assess all the presidents since John F. Kennedy. And every year, Kennedy comes out on top. In the most recent survey measuring the popularity of the nine presidents since JFK, 85 percent said they approved of Kennedy’s leadership; Ronald Reagan was second with a 74 percent rating. Predictably, Richard Nixon came last with only 29 percent; even George W. Bush, who rivaled Nixon for the dubious distinction of least popular, commanded 47 percent approval. And poor Lyndon Johnson, who did more to change the country for the better with his civil rights, Medicare and aid to education laws than any president since Franklin Roosevelt but who remains burdened by Vietnam, stood just ahead of Bush with 49 percent.

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