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George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald
Reagan | |
When Americans rate their greatest president, they
do not agree on who tops the list, but seem to rank a half-dozen chief
executives ahead of the nation's first.
George Washington tied for sixth place in one recent poll and rated
seventh in another.
"Let's face it, 'First in war, first in peace, and seventh in the
hearts of his countrymen,' doesn't sound very impressive," said Ted
Widmer, a professor of history at Washington College.
Washington has been considered the "Father of His Country" by school
children for generations.
Shortly after his death in 1799, Congress adopted the description Henry
Lee used in his eulogy of his fellow Virginian: "First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
But in a poll commissioned by Washington College for President's Day,
Americans rated Abraham Lincoln as the greatest president. A CNN-USA
Today-Gallup poll put Ronald
Reagan on top.
Many young adults have only sketchy
information about Washington, according to the college's
poll.
Asked who was the greatest president, 20 percent of those polled chose
Lincoln. Reagan was picked by 15 percent, Franklin D. Roosevelt by 12
percent, John F. Kennedy by 11 percent, Bill Clinton by 10 percent and
George W. Bush by 8 percent. Washington was picked by 6 percent.
In the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, Reagan had 20 percent, followed by
Clinton and Lincoln in the mid-teens and then Roosevelt and Kennedy at 12
percent.
The poll done for the college looked at how much the public knows about
Washington and found that 46 percent knew that Washington led the
Continental Army during the American Revolution.
The college's poll of 800 adults and the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll of
1,008 adults were taken Feb. 7-10. The college's poll had a margin of
sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, compared with 3 percentage points
for the Gallup poll.
(Agencies) |
美國人在評選最偉大的總統時，沒有在第一名的人選上達成一致，卻似乎把大約六位總統排在開國元首之前。
喬治·華盛頓在最近兩次民意測驗中分別排在第六、第七位。
“讓我們面對現實。他是‘戰爭中的第一人，和平中的第一人，美國同胞心目中的第七人’，這聽起來并不怎么樣。”華盛頓學院歷史學教授特德·威德默說。
在幾代美國小學生心中，華盛頓一直被尊為“國父”。
1799年他去世后不久，國會采用議員亨利·李對這位弗吉尼亞同鄉的贊詞來評價華盛頓：“戰爭中的第一人，和平中的第一人，美國同胞心目中的第一人。”
但是，在華盛頓學院為總統紀念日展開的民意調查中，美國人們把亞伯拉罕·林肯評為最偉大的總統。而在CNN和《今日美國》聯合舉辦的蓋洛普民意測驗中，羅納德·里根名列首位。
該大學的調查顯示，很多美國年輕人對華盛頓只有模糊的了解。
當被問到誰是最偉大的總統時，20%的投票者選擇了林肯，另有15%的投票者選擇了里根，12%選擇了富蘭克林·羅斯福，11%選擇了約翰·肯尼迪，10%選擇了比爾·克林頓，還有8%選擇了現任總統小布什。華盛頓獲得了6%的選票。
在CNN和《今日美國》聯合舉辦的蓋洛普民意測驗中，里根的得票率為20%，克林頓和林肯的得票率在16%左右，羅斯福和肯尼迪都獲得了12%的選票。
華盛頓學院所做的調查著眼于公眾對華盛頓的了解程度，結果發現只有46%的人知道華盛頓在獨立戰爭中率領“大陸軍”作戰。
2月7日至10日期間，華盛頓學院對800名成年人進行了調查，同時，CNN與《今日美國》對1008名成人進行了調查。華盛頓學院的調查的抽樣誤差不超過四個百分點，而蓋洛普民意測驗的抽樣誤差率為三個百分點。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2005-02-25 10:23