(CNSNews.com) - Americans would like to see incoming President Barack Obama use Ronald Reagan as a role model.
When given the choice of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, JFK, Dwight Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan – registered voters overwhelmingly said they want the new Democratic president to emulate the late conservative Republican president, who held office in the 1980’s.
“Reagan was the overwhelming favorite among Republican voters," said Ron Faucheaux, president of Clarus Research Group, the nonpartisan Washington, D.C., company that conducted the poll.
"He received 59 percent as the president GOP voters want Obama to emulate. Nobody else came close."
But Reagan got the highest support of any president overall, regardless of party affiliation, at 26 percent -- followed by Franklin D. Roosevelt at 18 percent. JFK was third (17 percent) and Abraham Lincoln fourth (13 percent.)
Faucheaux sees the pick as something of a surprise.
“The media has generally been focusing on Lincoln, I think, as an historic parallel, and to some extent on Roosevelt and Kennedy,” Faucheaux told CNSNews.com. “In many ways, historically, Roosevelt is probably the most accurate parallel, in terms of the economy and electing a president offering change, hope and new confidence to try recover some very difficult economic problems.”
But Peter Schram, director of the Ashbrook Center for Public Policy at Ashland University, wasn’t at all surprised that Americans would choose The Gipper.
“Of the recent presidents, I think the one that has been most successful in the public imagination has been Ronald Reagan,” Schram told CNSNews.com. “I think that is probably historically accurate as well.
“He stood for certain things with a kind of clarity and seemed to – and in fact, did – carry on an eight-year long administration with those principles in mind.”
Schram said Americans genuinely liked Ronald Reagan.
“He seemed to speak his mind, and act with some judgment, but always keeping his principles in mind somehow – he didn’t float away or become 'pragmatic' or something like that,” the conservative scholar added.
Professor Paul Kengor of Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., said Reagan is still extraordinarily popular in many quarters – so much so, many GOP committees have started holding Reagan Day dinners in February, alongside the annual Lincoln Day fundraisers.
Reagan’s popularity goes far beyond the Republican tent, however, Kengor told CNSNews.com.
“People on the far left – and I emphasize ‘far’ left – who are critical of Reagan, don’t realize how extreme they are,” Kengor said. “The vast majority of Americans like Reagan – and a very large majority of that adores Reagan.
Kengor, author of “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” said Reagan was the top choice of an AOL online survey on Greatest American of All Time.
“This wasn’t ‘Who’s the greatest president?’ This was, ‘Who’s the greatest American?’ Ronald Reagan won.”
Reagan was an extremely effective president, Kengor said.
“He was widely credited with having won the Cold War – and having done so peacefully,” Kengor added. “He predicted Communism would end up on the ash-heap of history. He pursued precisely that objective, and the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 near the end of his presidency.’
Faucheaux, meanwhile, said he thinks the voters’ pick has everything to do with what voters hope to see out of Obama.
‘I think what its saying is that the American people are looking for someone as president who can provide confidence, someone who can provide a sense of change and leadership, and someone who is a great communicator,” Faucheaux added.
Interestingly, several presidents fared poorly in the survey. Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson received 4 and 3 percent support, respectively. Cold War Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower also received 4 and 3 percent among all voters. Theodore Roosevelt, a progressive Republican, captured 4 percent; Democrat Andy Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, received 1 percent.
Schram, however, isn’t surprised that Washington was near the bottom of the list.
“Washington is a god-like figure,” he said. “Nobody patterns himself after Washington. Washington and Lincoln are problems, because they are incomparable.
“Obama is at a disadvantage but, bless his soul for this, he is paying homage to Lincoln -- which I think is a great thing, for all kinds of reasons -- partly because he wants to revivify the things for which Lincoln stood in a more fundamental way; partly because there is some kind of ironic debt he owes to Lincoln as a black man.”
The nationwide telephone survey was conducted Jan. 13-18, among a random, representative sample of 1,000 registered voters.