"The Greatest Prez?"

Tomorrow being Presidents' Day, Gallop has released a poll of whom Americans consider their greatest ever president. I don't think this has much meaning, since the choices seem heavily related to (1) recent term (name recognition) and (2) party affiliation (shown in analysis of the data but not apparent in the simple results.

A much more meaningful rating would be from a poll of historians of the presidency, who would use more objective measures of effectiveness. But, for what this one is worth, here are the results, from Gallop Poll:

Reagan 19%
Lincoln 14%
Clinton 13%
Kennedy 11%
Washington 10%
F. Roosevelt 8%
Obama 5%
T. Roosevelt 3%
Truman 3%
G.W.Bush 2%
Jefferson 2%
Carter 1%
Eisenhauer 1%
G.H.W.Bush 1%
Jackson >1%
L. Johnson >1%
Nixon >1%

Dubyah and Jefferson equal? Or, rather, perhaps W. is where he should be and Jefferson is way under-rated, probably due to lack of historical knowledge in the people.