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Monday, February 21, 2011

Presidents day

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Today is presidents day and no one seems to be celebrating.  The subject hasn't even been mentioned on our on line forum.  I guess when we started lumping all the president's on one day instead of just honoring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; the interests has fallen off.  My wife said the banks were open but the post office was closed.  I have to admit when I work for the state, I looked forward to having George Washington and Abraham lincoln's birthday off but I never celebrated.  It was honored in my childhood but I don't remember any details. Some people think it's a good day to sell mattresses but I do remember buying a a pick up truck on a "president's day sale."


Here a Gullup poll of favorite pesidents.
PRINCETON, NJ -- Ahead of Presidents Day 2011, Americans are most likely to say Ronald Reagan was the nation's greatest president -- slightly ahead of Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Reagan, Lincoln, or John F. Kennedy has been at the top of this "greatest president" list each time this question has been asked in eight surveys over the last 12 year.
The old presidents were forgotten because 19% chose Reagan,14% Lincoln,13% Clinton,11% Kennedy,10% George Washington,8% FDR,5% Barack Obama,2% for George W. Bush & Thomas Jefferson.


http://tinyurl.com/4jlcgtv


This is a more significant poll of historians.
The Siena College Research Institute has asked 238 presidential scholars to rank presidents five times since 1982. This year was a polling year. Franklin Roosevelt came in first, Barack Obama at 15th, George W. Bush at 40th, and Andrew Johnson dead last.


The scholars rank each president on 20 different characteristics before arriving at the overall scores. Here's a look at some of the characteristics the historians were asked to rank and which presidents they thought exemplified them best.
I have the full list on my iPad but I was unable to do that for this blog...Maybe tomorrow I will email it from my iPad to desktop unless someone provides the link.

17 comments:

Rebecca said...

It was almost business as usual around here. My oldest went off to college classes, I pushed the kids along with their school, and my daughter has a volleyball game. At one point my husband said something about how it sure was nice to be off AND to be getting holiday pay. I don't know when it snapped that it was President's Day. =X

OOOOOOPS

Edith Ann said...

I did my part to stimulate the economy. I went Austin and bought a car.

I remember my ex-father-in-law always planted potatoes between the two President's Birthdays.

And the classrooms always had a silhouette of the Presidents on the 'February' bulletin board. Lincoln on the left, Washington on the right. With hearts and doilies. On pink paper. Who designed this???

When I worked for the state, I also just liked the three day weekend.

Kyle said...

It's an absolute travesty that Thomas Jefferson polls equal with George W. Bush.

For shame!

Mike said...

Kyle

That was only 2% but you're right what are we teaching our kids if some think that George W. Bush is equivalent to Thomas Jefferson... You Gotta be kidding.

There was some vindication because historians rank George W Bush a notch are two above dead last.

Mike said...

Aha,Rebecca you are a home school teacher and President's Day was not part of the curriculum?...:-)

Mike said...

Edith Ann
Shame ,shame you bought a car in AUSTIN!..Whatever happened to buying local?

I bought my Japanese car in Corpus Christi because of price and availability....:-)

Edith Ann said...

After trading with a certain local dealer since roughly 1975, I was told by the sales manager that they had no use for my 2009 car that I bought from them just 20 months ago. If I had been told then, "Don't even think about bringing this car back to trade at any time..., I probably would have not bought there then.

The sales manager in Austin, however, feels very differently.

Mike said...

Edith Ann

I've always had this car rule, I will purchase in Victoria if they are within $600 of an offer from out of town.

I had never dealt with a Toyota dealer, but this was gonna be my last major purchase, so I did about three months of weekend window shopping around town. The Toyota Prius had a MPG sticker on the windshield that stated 60 mpg, so we got a salesman to let us drive it. We went into the dealership asking for the best package and our preferred color. We knew about the six month waiting period but a couple weeks went by and we started getting anxious. The Houston dealers could not guarantee our selection but had several we could look at.The Corpus Christi salesman practically guaranteed the car, package, and color.We went to Champions where the salesman took us to the back lot, where six package 5 Toyota Prius were ready for sale..They all had "sold" on the windshield to keep other dealerships from getting their excess. Victoria didn't even try to get me the car I wanted ,even thou I left a $500 earnest check. They gave me back my $500 but the other day I paid $365 for the installation of a light beam...Maybe not..:-)

Oh,what a coincidence the salesman went to computer and offered to give the exact trade-in amount as Victoria...lol

Rebecca said...

Shame on me. =P

If it makes any difference, we do eat on placemats that have all the presidential mugs. One ends at Bush 2 and one ends with Obama.

Mike said...

Ugh,who gets the Bush II mug?..:-)

You have to be the most down the middle person.

Edith Ann said...

If the local dealer had been within even $1000.00, I would have bought locally. As it was, he was $4600.00 lower than the ginormous dealership in Austin where I got the very best service. Took three hours to seal the deal, but we got there. They have to go get the car in another location, but I pick it up Friday.

Be watching for the **new car** with paper tags cruising the neighborhood soon! I'll drive with the windows down so you can smell the leather...8^)

Rebecca said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rebecca said...

Speaking of neighborhoods and how I'm always happiest where I've BEEN, I looked at a house today! It's a repo and I probably won't be able to make a bid because we will be in Dallas until Sunday for the state homeschool basketball tournament.

Mike said...

Rebecca

Good luck at the state homeschool basketball tournament.

Perhaps you can make a bid via text msg and if ernest is required use PalPal...Maybe not.

Rebecca said...

I found out that bids don't start until I get back, but it's already 100,000 less than what the value of the house would be (if it didn't have foundation problems). I would have to bid 40,000 under THAT to make it worth my while. Which means, I can't afford it. D=

Mike said...

Rebecca

Have fun & be safe

Kyle said...

Rebecca,

Why are you still looking in Victoria? Get out woman!

;-)