A new Gallup Poll finds that Ronald Reagan is the greatest President.
Ahead of Presidents Day 2011, Americans are most likely to say Ronald Reagan was the nation’s greatest president — slightly ahead of Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Reagan, Lincoln, or John F. Kennedy has been at the top of this “greatest president” list each time this question has been asked in eight surveys over the last 12 years.
Strange Lincoln – Obama Coincidences
1. Lincoln was elected in 1860, Obama was elected in 2008, nearly 150 years later.
2. Lincoln eliminated involuntary servitude. Obama eliminated private sector jobs.
3. Lincoln and Obama were both married to ugly wives who went crazy.
4. Each man’s wife gained over forty pounds while living at the White House.
5. Lincoln was hit in the head from behind. Obama hid his head up his behind.
6. Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater. Obama shot up while riding in a Lincoln made by Ford.
7. Both men had vice-presidents who were illiterate Democrat senators.
8. Andrew Johnson nearly lived to the age of 67. Joe Biden nearly had an IQ of 67.
9. Lincoln was born in KENtucky, Obama was born in KENya – before both moved to Illinois.
10. LincOln and Obama each had a single letter “O” in their last name.
11. Andrew Johnson had no middle name. Joseph Robinette Biden had a silly one.
12. JOHN W. BOOTH and BILL C. AYERS each has 10 letters.
13. A Kennedy told Lincoln to take care of his health. Ted Kennedy told Obama to pass health care.
14. Lincoln and Obama were both more feminine than Hillary Clinton.
15. Lincoln was placed on the penny. Obama was not quite worth a penny.
16. Lincoln was not a Muslim. Obama was not an admitted Muslim.
17. Neither Lincoln nor Obama ever wrote a book.
18. Lincoln suffered from major depression. Obama caused a major depression.
19. Lincoln and Obama were both the first President with a beard.
20. Abraham Lincoln had no middle name. You’re not allowed to say Barack Obama’s middle name.
Once upon a time, the people of the United States elected a relatively obscure man, with little or no Federal government experience, as president. Although many nasty things were said about him, he had considerable charm, his opponent was a comparative nonentity, and the public had become fed up with the previous president and his party. In fact, the new president’s party had already gained control of Congress a couple of years before.
At first, the new president and his party enacted a great deal of legislation that reflected the party’s political philosophy. Eventually, however, the president fell out of popular favor because of diplomatic and military failures abroad, economic hardships at home, rumors of scandals about the conduct of the White House staff, and corruption within the president’s party. These difficulties enabled the opposing party to gain control of Congress, where they fought the president on virtually every issue.
At this point, the beleaguered president began to compromise with the opposition. This led the extremists in his own party to denounce him as a turncoat while the opposing party claimed he was a dangerous usurper of power. In consequence, his popularity plummeted, political candidates within his own party began to distance themselves from him, and he became virtually ineffectual by the time his term ended.
Parts of this story fit several of our past presidents but the overall pattern seems to fit the tenure of George W. Bush. It also looks like it’s going to fit Barack Obama’s career like a glove. A major difference is that Bush’s image deteriorated because of constant and vicious attacks by the liberal mainstream media while Obama’s image decayed in spite of the best efforts of MSM to protect him. Also, it took Bush over four years to fall out of favor with the public while Obama has managed to do it in less than two. But the biggest difference is that, throughout his rise and fall, Bush managed to remain a gentleman while Obama has sunk to the level of a spiteful adolescent, giving an ugly new meaning to the biblical phrase “and a little child shall lead them.”
Hell thats nothing, he’s just getting started! Didn’t he just ask for another 50 Billion?
In the first 19 months of the Obama administration, the federal debt held by the public increased by $2.5260 trillion, which is more than the cumulative total of the national debt held by the public that was amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.
The U.S. Treasury Department divides the federal debt into two categories. One is “debt held by the public,” which includes U.S. government securities owned by individuals, corporations, state or local governments, foreign governments and other entities outside the federal government itself. The other is “intragovernmental” debt, which includes I.O.U.s the federal government gives to itself when, for example, the Treasury borrows money out of the Social Security “trust fund” to pay for expenses other than Social Security.
At the end of fiscal year 1989, which ended eight months after President Reagan left office, the total federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That means all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan had accumulated only that much publicly held debt on behalf of American taxpayers. That is $335.3 billion less than the $2.5260 trillion that was added to the federal debt held by the public just between Jan. 20, 2009, when President Obama was inaugurated, and Aug. 20, 2010, the 19-month anniversary of Obama’s inauguration.
By contrast, President Reagan was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 1981 and left office eight years later on Jan. 20, 1989. At the end of fiscal 1980, four months before Reagan was inaugurated, the federal debt held by the public was $711.9 billion, according to CBO. At the end of fiscal 1989, eight months after Reagan left office, the federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion. That means that in the nine-fiscal-year period of 1980-89–which included all of Reagan’s eight years in office–the federal debt held by the public increased $1.4788 trillion. That is in excess of a trillion dollars less than the $2.5260 increase in the debt held by the public during Obama’s first 19 months.
When President Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, the total federal debt held by the public stood at 6.3073 trillion, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. As of Aug. 20, 2010, after the first nineteen months of President Obama’s 48-month term, the total federal debt held by the public had grown to a total of $8.8333 trillion, an increase of $2.5260 trillion.
In just the last four months (May through August), according to the CBO, the Obama administration has run cumulative deficits of $464 billion, more than the $458 billion deficit the Bush administration ran through the entirety of fiscal 2008.
The CBO predicted this week that the annual budget deficit for fiscal 2010, which ends on the last day of this month, will exceed $1.3 trillion.
The first two fiscal years in which Obama has served will see the two biggest federal deficits as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product since the end of World War II.
“CBO currently estimates that the deficit for 2010 will be about $70 billion below last year’s total but will still exceed $1.3 trillion,” said the CBO’s monthly budget review for September, which was released yesterday. “Relative to the size of the economy, this year’s deficit is expected to be the second-largest shortfall in the past 65 years: At 9.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), that deficit will be exceeded only by last year’s deficit of 9.9 percent of GDP.”