ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702240104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: WALTER R. MEARS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLIC OPINION SURVEYS make it clear that politics has become a somewhat disreputable pursuit.
As the adage has it, any American child can grow up to be president. As the polls have it, most of their parents wouldn't want them to.
Almost any other job, in or out of politics, gets a higher rating. It wasn't quite 2-to-1 for carpenter over president, but it was close.
Public opinion surveys, writes Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute, ``suggest that the highest office in the land is not highly desired,'' at least by parents thinking about careers for their children.
Candidates are another matter; there's never a short list of applicants when the job is open. But they've already grown up to try to be president, and besides, they're already professional politicians.
``The deeply rooted belief that politics is a somewhat disreputable pursuit'' is one of the reasons Bowman cites for parental distaste.
She tracks polls back to 1945 in which overwhelming majorities of people said it wasn't the kind of work they would want their sons, and later their sons or daughters, to do for a living.
In 1995, only about one-third endorsed a political career for a daughter or son. As for politics in general, so for the presidency in particular: Most people just say no.
That attitude has been hardening, according to Bowman's research, published in the journal The Public Perspective.
In an Associated Press-Media General poll in 1988, 41 percent said they would like their child to grow up to be president, 46 percent said not.
Four years later, nearly six out of 10 in an ABC News-Washington Post poll were against the idea.
In two polls conducted in 1996, more than 60 percent said they would not want their child running for president. One poll, by Princeton Survey Research Associates, checked out other callings, and the only career to score lower than president was movie star.
Doctor, lawyer, major, governor, minister, college president, athlete and carpenter all were widely preferred over president.
Those pursuits don't draw the kind of scrutiny, scandal inquiries, embarrassing personal revelations and unceasing pressures that go with the presidency. The image is tarnished, Bowman suggests, and there seems to be less reverence for the office.
That's certainly true with President Clinton, facing a docket of troubles.
But when people are asked what living person they most admire, the president's name often leads the list, perhaps because it is the best known. Clinton came in first in 1996, although it took only 12 percent to do so.
There are other indicators of slumping esteem for the office. In a new poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, 80 percent said they have less respect for the presidency than in the past.
People also tend to reserve their respect for past presidents. In two recently published surveys of historians, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt were classified as the greatest of presidents. The three most recent presidents, George Bush, Clinton and Ronald Reagan, were rated on the lower side of average.
In a Citadel Press book rating the 42 presidents, Bush was ranked 22nd, Clinton 23rd and Reagan 26th.
Clinton's job approval rating is high, in the 60 percent range in the most recent surveys.
Yet in the Marist Institute poll, when people were asked their least favorite presidents, only Richard Nixon was named more often than Clinton.
In that rating, 32 percent said Nixon was their least favorite president, 25 percent said Clinton. They also were Nos.1 and 2 on the least list in a similar survey a year before.
Lee Miringoff, director of the institute at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said the differing ratings are a matter of context - one of the man in the job now, the other placing him among all presidents.
In the Marist poll, John F. Kennedy was named by 21 percent as their favorite president, Lincoln by 20 percent, Reagan by 13 percent. Reagan also ranked fourth on the least favorite list.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Washington, Reagan, Clintonby CNB