Here is an interesting poll.
I'd have to go with Reagan (as long as it was the pre-Alzheimers version). Not that there's much to choose from. Second place would probably be Ike.
But it's hard to take presidents out of their historical milieu and have a good idea how they'd respond. For instance, what if we'd had a Reagan with a Newt-led Republican Congress? We'll never know.
[Later afternoon update]
I just went and actually took the poll. Reagan first, Ike a distant second, with everyone else in the noise. I always get suspicious when large numbers of people agree with me. It's so rare...
Given the audience (Instapundit readers) it was pretty much a given that Reagan would win by a mile. As the first commenter says, the poll would have been more interesting if it said "Who (other than Reagan) would you rather have?"
Ike did good work on border security, but beyond that I don't know much about his administration. Hence: Reagan.
I figured with Instapundit, Reagan than Ike. I figured with Democrats, toss up between Kennedy and Clinton, though I would go Clinton first than Kennedy.
what if we'd had a Reagan with a Newt-led Republican Congress?
In that case, Hinckley wouldn't have missed.
Sometimes one does have a pretty good idea of how a president would be if taken out of their historical context, too bad they didn't have a special option for Robot Nixon (mega-mech version) ^_^
I always get suspicious when large numbers of people agree with me.
Well, they're Republicans. So these are times of deep suspicion.
Well, they're Republicans.
Glenn Reynolds (who worked on Al Gore's presidential campaign) and Instapundit readers are Republicans?
Who knew? Only the clairvoyant troll, apparently.
Glenn Reynolds (who worked on Al Gore's presidential campaign) and Instapundit readers are Republicans?
Most Instapundit readers are Republicans, that's right. Reynolds himself is somewhere between a RIABN and a straight Republican ever since 9/11. He went to CPAC. (By the way, you'd find lots of people to flabbergast you with agreement if you went to CPAC.) He also didn't vote for Gore, he voted for Harry Browne, who at least in that period gave a distinctly conservative tinge to his Libertarian profile. So Reynolds' support for Gore is basically a RIABN fig leaf. Which is his prerogative if he feels that he needs one, but, yawn.