A Gallop Poll in May of this year asked, “Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?” This had a result which illustrates the desperate need for history in education in both honesty and accuracy in media.
The winner was Abraham Lincoln, with 15 percent of the vote – while George Washington came in 7th with only 7 percent.
While there was greatness in Lincoln, his own written references to the Father of Our Country would surely suggest that, if alive, Abraham Lincoln would have vehemently repudiated this top ranking in favor of Washington. For without the spectacular courage and magnificent bearing of Gen. Washington there would be no United States.
Washington’s presiding over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia very probably kept the 13 free, sovereign and independent states from Balkanizing.
He was also the only president ever elected unanimously, with all electoral votes- twice.
In this poll’s second place was that undeniable charmer, John F. Kennedy, who, had he not been assassinated, might very well have been defeated for reelection.
Arnold Beichman, in a Weekly Standard article headlined “The President As Priapist,” cites historian Michael R. Beschloss’ “The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev,” as reporting that at Camp David, following the humbling 1961 Bay of Pigs misadventure, President Kennedy held a private meeting with his predecessor. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower listened to the explanations of why the invasion of Cuba had failed. He then upbraided President Kennedy in barracks language for not supplying the essential air cover and concluded with this rather contentious guideline:
“I believe there is only one thing to do when you go into this kind of thing: it must be a success.”
Beschloss also noted that after Khrushchev pulled his Soviet missiles out of Cuba, this was done only in exchange for JFK’s pledge not to invade Cuba, as well as the unilateral removal of U.S. missile bases in Turkey – to which Adm. George Anderson told Kennedy, “We have been had!” while Gen. Curtis LeMay pounded the table and declared, “It’s the greatest defeat in our history, Mr. President!”
For the only elected president who has ever been impeached to be No. 3 in this Gallop Poll of great presidents ratings is a further catastrophe in view of Clinton getting more votes than three of four presidents on Mt. Rushmore, Washington (7 percent), Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt (less than 5 percent).
At the White House daily news briefing on May 28 I asked Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer:
QUESTION: Ari, WorldNet Daily has reported the State Department’s approval of a request from our U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte for $600,000 to remodel and expand the kitchen in his Waldorf-Astoria hotel residence in New York. And since foreign policy is run by the president who is commendably, strongly opposed to government waste, my question is, could you tell us what the president thinks of this $600,000 kitchen remodeling, and why Negroponte has a private residence in the Waldorf? Rather than suggesting that the president doesn’t care by your just bucking this question to Foggy Bottom. (Laughter.) I have one follow-up.
MR. FLEISCHER: Why don’t you ask the follow-up first?
QUESTION: Well, will you get back to this?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don’t know. (Laughter.) No, Lester, I have no idea about the facts of what you just cited, whether that’s true or not true, what circumstances may or may not got into this, so I’m not going to comment on something that I haven’t heard about.
QUESTION: The Gallup Poll has just reported that on the question … “Who do you regard as the greatest United States President,” Bill Clinton is tied with President Bush for third, at 11 percent, receiving more votes than three of the four presidents on Mt. Rushmore, and more votes than President Reagan. And my question: Does the president, as the nation’s chief law enforcer, still believe it was wise and just to tolerate the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York not even giving a report on the 3-year-old criminal investigation of President Clinton’s pardongate?
MR. FLEISCHER: Lester, that is one of the most bizarre bank shots I have ever heard. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Has there been any report? He was charged; it’s a criminal investigation, pardongate.
MR. FLEISCHER: The President is looking forwards, not backwards, and I would highly recommend that to you, as well.
QUESTION: He’s just going to just drop it? It’s just been dropped, right?
MR. FLEISCHER: If you’re asking judicial questions, you know the appropriate people to ask.
Repeated calls to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Department of Justice in Washington have evoked similar no-comments about the 3-year-old criminal investigation of President Clinton, which has apparently been put in the inactive pile.
