Just ahead of Monday's President's day, a USA Today/Gallup polled 1,015 adults from February 2-5, 2011 to determine who was the preferred President. Each poll participant was at least age 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., and selected randomly.
Presidents Day in the U.S. is celebrated on the third Monday of February each year and officially commemorates the February 22 birthday of George Washington, the first president.
The greatest president question is open ended, according to the report. That means respondents are asked to name their choice at that moment.
The organization has asked the same question over the past eight years.
George WashingtonIBTimesJohn F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Kennedy was the only Catholic and Irish-American president.Among the most enduring statements of his Presidency was one line in his inaugural address to the nation: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”Significant events which took place during his short tenure included the unsuccessful action by CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade Southern Cuba, known as the Bay of Pigs incident; the Cuban Missile Crisis, which involved an attempt by the Soviet Union to establish a nuclear base in Cuba; the building of the Berlin Wall which separated Communist East Germany and Democratic West Germany; the competition between the United States and Soviet Union to explore space, known as the Space Race; the African American Civil Rights Movement, which sought to increase political, economic, and racial equality and reduce oppression by white Americans against African Americans; and the opening stages of the Vietnam War.IBTimesBill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States, from 1993 to 200. Significant events which took place during his years in office include signing into law the North American Free Trade Agreement, bring the U.S. budget into a surplus by the end of his tenure; Being impeached and eventually acquitted for perjury and obstruction of justice by Congressional Republicans in relation to a scandal involving a White House intern.IBTimesAbraham Lincoln served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 to his assassination in 1865. He was president during the American Civil War. During the war, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an order to free millions of U.S. slaves, and later promoted the passage of the 13th Amendment to the constitution abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude, except as criminal punishment.IBTimesRonald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. As President he urged economic policies that would reduce regulation and taxation of businesses, known as supply side macroeconomics, or, as it is often to bu opponents, “Reagonomics.” An unsuccessful assassination attempt to place a few months after his first term in office took place, but he survived. In his second term, he had a large role in helping end the Cold War with the Soviet Union, whom he famously called the “evil empire,” and supported anti-Communist movements worldwide. IBTimes
