Lincoln bicentennial and American cluelessness

According to a new Gallup poll, Jack Kennedy and Ronald Reagan rank up with Abraham Lincoln as our country’s greatest presidents.

The reality is that JFK, like LBJ, might well have gotten involved more in Vietnam. The even greater reality is that the greatest thing Jack did for civil rights was get assassinated.

Reagan? He taught the GOP the fine art of serial lying. He had the excuse of an almost unique ability, perhaps as the adult child of an alcoholic, at practicing self-deception. Much of the modern GOP, on the other hand, knows its lying and doesn’t care.

FDR and Washington, Nos. 4 and 5, both should rank higher. So, too, should TR.