From ABC News
Americans rank Barack Obama as best president of their lifetimes: Poll
A new
Pew Research Center poll says more Americans rank former President
Barack Obama higher than any other when asked which president has done the best job in their lifetimes.
Obama was named the best or second best president by 44 percent of Americans in the survey that came out Wednesday. Thirty-one percent ranked him as the best president in their lifetimes.
President
Donald Trump comes in fourth after President
Bill Clinton and President Ronald Reagan, with 19 percent of Americans ranking him as the best or second best in their lifetimes.
While 19 percent might seem low, 20 percent of Americans ranked Obama as the best or second best president in 2011, at a similar point in his first term and the last time Pew conducted this poll.
COMMENT:-
Naturally, since the pollsters didn't ask every single American (especially you) what there opinion was the results are completely invalid.
Right?
PS - An interesting analysis of the data has suggested that the increase in Mr. Trump's popularity amongst Republicans could potentially be due to the fact that Republicans who formerly supported Mr. Trump and who no longer do so are not "self-identifying" as Republicans right now.
How that would work is:
- Assume that there are 200 people 50% of whom "self-identify" as "X" and of those 100 60 support "Y". That means that "Y" has the support of 60% of those who "self-identify" as "X".
- Now assume that there are 200 people 40% of whom "self-identify" as "X" and of those 80 60 support "Y". That means that "Y" has the support of 75% of those who "self-identify" as "X".
- That means that the support for "Y" amongst those who "self-identify" as "X" has increased - even though there has been no actual change in the support for "Y" when you consider the entire 200 people.
In other articles Mr. Trump is loudly proclaiming that his support amongst Republicans is the highest that any President has ever had (aside from the fact that that simply isn't true) the question is "Is Mr. Trump merely the same sized frog in a smaller pond?".
PPS - The linked poll has some reasonably interesting demographic breakdowns of the data for those who are interested in doing more than skimming the surface.