Happy Birthday Abe!

Americans Upgrade Lincoln to Best President  

Analysis By Dalia Sussman, ABCNEWS.com

Feb. 21 Heres a birthday gift for Honest Abe Lincoln: Americans rate him as the nations greatest president, up from a second-place tie a dozen years ago.

Lincoln barely edges out John F. Kennedy in Americans estimation as the top president on this President's Day holiday. In a 1988 poll Kennedy led, while Lincoln tied with Franklin Delano Roosevelt for No. 2.

Roosevelt has now slipped to third place; Harry Truman took a bigger hit, dropping from fourth place in 1988 to tenth today. Ouch.

These rankings are hardly unanimous. Women, blacks, middle-income Americans and those aged 35 to 64 pick Kennedy as their number one, while people over the age of 65 favor FDR.

Politics comes into it, too, with Democrats surprise! choosing Democratic presidents Kennedy and FDR as their top two, and Republicans surprise again! choosing Republican presidents Lincoln and Reagan.

Where does the current commander-in-chief rank? Bill Clinton placed sixth, just behind Washington and Reagan, thanks to a nice boost from blacks, who honor him with a second-place ranking.

Some well-known presidents finished fairly low on the list just three percent picked Thomas Jefferson, for instance. And some less prominent ones received votes: Those named by at least a few respondents (out of more than 1,000) included William Taft, James Polk and James Buchanan, who's mainly noted for his failure to stem the nation's descent into civil war.

Methodology

This ABC News.com survey was conducted by telephone Feb. 16-20, 2000, among a random national sample of 1,012 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Fieldwork by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

Who do you think was the greatest American president?

*Ford, Hoover, Quincy Adams, Wilson, Jackson, Taft, McKinley, Buchanan, Madison, Polk <0.5%