GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- As Americans mourn the apparent deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister in a plane crash near Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, this latest tragedy to strike one of the country's most well-known families brings forth a flood of memories. The son of President John F. Kennedy was never able to escape the limelight he was born into -- just days after his father was elected president in 1960 -- and the grainy black-and-white pictures of the young Kennedy saluting his father's casket in 1963 are among the enduring images of American history.
A Political Career Cut Short?
While John F. Kennedy Jr. never campaigned for public office, a
Gallup poll conducted last February hints at what might have been.
At that time, Kennedy was rumored to be considering a bid for New
York's Senate seat along with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Gallup interviewers asked Americans to look at both potential
candidates, and while 45% said that, if they lived in New York
state, they would vote for Mrs. Clinton, 52% said they would vote
for Kennedy. When asked to choose who would make the better
senator, Kennedy and Mrs. Clinton were rated equally by Americans.
Of course, Kennedy never entered the race, while Mrs. Clinton has
formed an exploratory committee to gauge her potential as a
candidate.
A Legacy in the Limelight
Friends and relatives say Kennedy was very much his "father's son"
-- and Gallup polls show President Kennedy was one of the most
popular leaders in American history. In a President's Day poll
conducted on February 8-9, 1999, John F. Kennedy tied George
Washington, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan when Americans were
asked to name the three greatest presidents of all time -- only
Abraham Lincoln received a higher rating. When the list of
candidates was narrowed down to just presidents who have been in
office since World War II, Kennedy surpasses all others -- 27% of
Americans rank him as the greatest president of the post-WWII era.
In 1986, a similar Gallup poll produced a similar result -- nearly
one in three Americans (32%) picked Kennedy.
Kennedy also received high marks during the three years he was in office before his assassination in 1963. Gallup records show his first-year approval ratings averaged 76% -- among the highest ever recorded. However, by the time of his assassination, his approval ratings had fallen to an average of 58% during the fourth quarter of 1963. Still, the Kennedy administration's average approval rating of 70% is the highest for any administration in Gallup records.
Kennedy's charm and legacy also allowed his brothers to ride his "coattails." In 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy was leading in the polls before he was assassinated on the night he won the California primary -- and Senator Edward Kennedy was a front-runner in the early polls during the 1976 and 1980 campaigns.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Also Popular with
Americans
Of course, it cannot be forgotten that John F. Kennedy Jr. was also
very much his mother's son as well. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took
the aura that surrounds first ladies to a new level -- one that
never dimmed after she left the White House. While first ladies
traditionally do well in Gallup's annual surveys of America's most
admired women, a September 1997 poll asking Americans about the
most admired woman of the century found Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
ranked fourth -- behind Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, and Eleanor
Roosevelt, and ahead of Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, and Nancy
Reagan.
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,054 adults, 18 years and older, conducted February 8-9, 1999. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Which three United States presidents do you regard as the greatest? (FIRST MENTION)
| 99 Feb 8-9 | |
| Abraham Lincoln | 18% |
| John Kennedy | 12 |
| George Washington | 12 |
| Bill Clinton | 12 |
| Ronald Reagan | 12 |
| Franklin Roosevelt | 9 |
| George Bush | 5 |
| Harry Truman | 4 |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 3 |
| Jimmy Carter | 3 |
| Thomas Jefferson | 2 |
| Dwight Eisenhower | 2 |
| Richard Nixon | 2 |
| Other | 1 |
| None | 1 |
| Don't know | 3 |
Suppose you lived in New York state, would you vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton for senator, or not?
| Yes | 45% |
| No | 51 |
| No opinion | 4 |
| 100% |
If you lived in New York state, would you vote for John F. Kennedy, Jr. for senator, or not?
| Yes | 52% |
| No | 42 |
| No opinion | 6 |
| 100% |
If you had to choose, who do you think would make the better senator: Hillary Rodham Clinton or John F. Kennedy, Jr.?
| Hillary Rodham Clinton | 47% |
| John F. Kennedy, Jr. | 48 |
| No opinion | 5 |
| 100% |