A survey about President Obama’s legacy shows Americans think he was an above-average president, but generally not outstanding.
A Pew Research Center survey found that 46 percent of Americans think of Obama as an above-average president or better. President Clinton got 44 percent.
About 18 percent of Americans think of Obama as an “outstanding” president, just barely the highest number for the last five presidents.
Compare Obama’s numbers with President Reagan’s: About 58 percent of Americans think of Reagan as an above-average president or better. One in four Americans think of Reagan as average, while only 14 percent think of him as a below-average president.
That’s interesting, because Obama often spoke highly of Reagan and made it sound like he wanted to be just as celebrated as Reagan is, both by the country as a whole and by their respective parties. “I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not,” Obama once said.
Every Republican presidential candidate wants to be the next Reagan. Will future Democratic candidates want to be the next Obama?
Right now, Obama seems to come up short in that regard, both nationwide and with his own party. About 93 percent of Republicans approve of Reagan, while only 88 percent of Democrats approve of Obama. Obama is still more well-liked in his own party than Clinton, who gets 85 percent approval from Democrats.
In terms of bipartisan support, no one gets more than Reagan, who’s viewed favorably by 38 percent of Democrats. Obama is only viewed favorably by 15 percent of Republicans.
Roughly one in four Americans think of Obama as an average president, while another one in four think of him as below average.
About 49 percent of Americans think Obama’s accomplishments will outweigh his failures, while 44 percent say the opposite.
Even though he wasn’t re-elected, President George H.W. Bush has a better legacy than his son President George W. Bush. About 58 percent of Americans think of the younger Bush as a below-average president or worse, while only 12 percent say the same about the elder Bush. About half of Americans think of the elder Bush as an average president.
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
