or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 07, 2004
Ronald Reagan: Slightly More Popular Than Nixon
My favorite part of the Reagan Death Frenzy is this sentence from CBS News: "Mr. Reagan was viewed as a popular president."
Ah -- journalism at its finest. It doesn't matter whether Ronald Reagan was ACTUALLY popular. The important thing is that he "was viewed" as popular, whatever that means. Likewise, the important thing is that Iraq "was viewed" as having biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. Apparently that's just as bad as ACTUALLY having them. Don't spoil things by bringing reality into it.
Also, finding out whether Reagan was actually popular would have involved work for CBS. Lots of work. I know, because it took me fifteen whole seconds to find this on the Gallup website:
As you can see, Reagan was very popular indeed, coming in an impressive sixth out of the last ten presidents. Moreover, he was a stunning four percentage points more popular than Nixon, a man often "viewed as" one of History's greatest assholes.
Posted at June 7, 2004 10:26 AM | TrackBackI've always viewed people who give sincere answers to pollsters as a self-selecting pool of chumps. All they're doing is feeding a monstrous database that will be used to sell them asshole presidents, abusive policies, the horrible deaths of people just like them and quadruple bladed razors.
"Cabbage" is a much better response to the pollsters' false dichotomies and insanely out of touch political questions than the standard "yes" or "no".
And after all they do, the pollsters and pseudo-journalists wonder why I destroy their luggage in airports -- right in front of them, while leering and licking my lips. They should thank me for my gentle remonstrations and avuncular kindness.
Posted by: Harry at June 7, 2004 02:29 PMI'm no fan of Reagan, but your selective reading of the Gallup page is shameless bias. The Gallup page you cite clearly states that Reagan was one of the most liked presidents of all time, regardless of job approval ratings.
Posted by: Solomon at June 9, 2004 11:20 AMJonathan, I think most readers of that Gallup link, which is subtitled "Reagan’s image improved substantially in the years after he left office," would agree that the article was not satirizing his popularity as you do. Especially not with paragraphs such as this:
"Last November, Gallup asked the public -- in an open-ended format -- whom they regarded as the greatest U.S. president. Reagan placed third on the list, behind only Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Reagan has consistently placed in the top five since the question was first asked in 1999, and actually topped the list in a 2001 poll conducted around the celebration of his 90th birthday."
"A Tiny Revolution" skews the purpose and meaning of that article purposefully and shamelessly. But a reading of the original Gallup article, which I encourage everyone to do, quickly shows that so I'll just shut up now.
Posted by: Solomon at June 10, 2004 12:50 PM
