Poll Update

Thanks to everyone who has voted in the best President poll so far. As of this post and time Bill Clinton has a significant lead followed by Ronald Reagan. Of course the voting sample is not statistically significant at this point, at least between the front runners. Why Bill Clinton?

Perhaps his attempts at addressing social reform left their mark, and the economy certainly thrived during his administration despite the ultimate market crash partly relating to the Internet/dotcom bubble popping. This may show that citizens will forgive personal and moral indiscretions far quicker than they will domestic or foreign policy gaffs of significant magnitude a la Bush. Bill could also play a pretty mean saxophone. Many Canadians also seemed to have an affinity for Clinton and vice versa, but I'm not sure what that means in the final analysis (personally my favorite President is Jimmy Carter because I think he was and is a great person, although I would confess to some ignorance regarding how well he rated as the Chief). I plan to keep the poll (in the prior post) open for at least a few more weeks to see if the early trends continue, and to establish more valid results. Of course the results might be different if the votes were restricted to U.S. internet addresses. Keep the votes coming in as I think the results might lead to some good discussions.

The following excerpt is from a discussion about a presentation called "Personality traits of U.S. Presidents" by Stephen J Rubenzer et al.

"It may come as no surprise that the research shows that most modern presidents are clearly extraverts. However, the data indicates that the early presidents scored below average on this factor. Does that mean that presidents are becoming more extraverted, or that the entire population has become more extraverted? The researchers say their data can't answer that question, but "given the increasing role of the media in presidential elections, the more plausible explanation is that the change is limited to the presidents and not the general population."

What makes a good President?