ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608270047
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARJORIE CONNELLY THE NEW YORK TIMES
Why make do with just Bill Clinton and Bob Dole? If Americans could pick a president, any president, which one would they choose to run the country today?
John F. Kennedy, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll. Kennedy was the choice of 28 percent of the people questioned last month, more than twice as many as voted for the second most popular choice, Ronald Reagan, who received 13 percent.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Abraham Lincoln were in a three-way tie for third place, each with 8 percent.
Kennedy's win is no fluke. The last time the poll posed the question, in March 1980, Kennedy was also No. 1, with 26 percent. Way back then, when Ronald Reagan was still running for the Republican nomination, Truman placed second with 16 percent, followed by Franklin Roosevelt with 13 percent.
What makes these presidents stand out? ``Leadership'' seemed to be the key ingredient mentioned in interviews conducted after the poll.
Michael Gibbs, a 40-year-old disabled veteran from El Cento, Calif., thought Franklin Roosevelt should be running the country today.
``I don't think either of today's candidates would be able to handle the crises that Roosevelt was able to stand up to,'' Gibbs said. He added that Roosevelt ``cared about people,'' where politicians these days ``have lost touch with the people.''
Kennedy was ``for the poor people, while today everyone seems to be more for the rich,'' said Jane Boyd, a 38-year-old homemaker in Brooklyn, who remembers his assassination.
But why were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt - featured players on Mount Rushmore - all but ignored? (None of them garnered more than 2 percent.)
Perhaps because Americans are not the greatest students of history. Presidential reputations often rise in proportion to their appearances on television. So Lincoln's recent third-place showing may be partly a result of ``The Civil War,'' Ken Burns' hugely popular PBS series.
And the laudatory features on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after her death certainly showed her husband's presidency in a golden light.
Lynn Wells, a 23-year-old nurse from Cleveland, Texas, selected Kennedy, and the Camelot White House: ``He and Jackie were the perfect presidential family. The first lady was respected, not put down all the time like Mrs. Clinton.''
Some, like John Gattuso, a 68-year-old tailor from Hillburn, N.Y., could tap into memory. Gattuso called Truman a ``man of conviction,'' and, referring to the famous ``the buck stops here'' sign on the president's desk, said, ``That kind of responsibility is lacking these days.'' In any event, Truman's star has risen since the end of his presidency, when his approval rating was only 31 percent.
Truman placed well among people 65 and older - he was chosen by 19 percent of them - though their favorite was Franklin Roosevelt, with 22 percent.
Reagan was the second most popular president among the 979 adults interviewed nationwide in the poll, at 13 percent. He was the first president Laurie Thompson voted for, and she wishes he were back in the Oval Office. ``He was real leader, took charge and made decisions,'' said the 31-year-old secretary from Upper St. Clair, Pa.
There is a strong partisan element in people's preferences. Of those who said they were Republicans, Reagan was the favorite, with 27 percent of their support, Kennedy came in second with 15 percent and George Bush placed third with 11 percent.
But among Democrats, Kennedy received 43 percent. Franklin Roosevelt followed with 13 percent and Truman, in third place, received 7 percent. Reagan was selected by only 3 percent of Democrats.
Even factoring in the poll's margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, Republicans were much more admiring of Democratic presidents than Democrats were of Republican ones.
But some people just had a special bond to their pick from the past. Sandi Lincoln, a 52-year-old research secretary and caterer in Dundee, Mich., said Abraham Lincoln ``was strong enough to act on what he believed and actually do something about it.''
No doubt she would still have chosen the 16th president to come back as the 43rd even if her husband's family wasn't related to him.
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