Most popular president

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Who was the most popular president?

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Jimmy Carter, obviously.

No, really, it's hard to tell for those old ones, because we don't have polling data (at least not reliable data, I don't think) for their presidencies.

Also, it depends what period. GWB and GHWB were both insanely popular after their respective foreign adventures. It'd be interesting to get the top Gallup rating for each president we have data for.

If you mean the presidency as a whole, it's got to be FDR, out of the modern presidents. He had something like 70% approval ratings, right?

This is just a lame attempt to find out.

Somehow it never fails to amaze me how a president like Harding must have been insanely popular at some point.

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People were probably just happy they had a President again. They basically didn't for 18 months or so before.

Yeah, but they could have voted Democrat just as easily. Harding was the president to campaign with celebrities effectively.

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This is a tough one. The most popular Presidents, in chronological order, were: Washington, Jefferson, Monroe (Era of Good Feelings, anyone?), Jackson, McKinley, TR, Harding, Coolidge, FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton.

I'm not sure Coolidge's popularity was ever that high. Lincoln, Grant or William Harrison were quite popular in their day as well. The Bushes had approval ratings in the 90%s at some point. Most historians that I've read consider Lincoln the greatest president, but of course he was tremendously unpopular in the south.

Also Nixon and Johnson were elected and re-elected with over 60% of the popular vote, but fell from a high pedastal.
It's a tough question.

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They gained 6 senate seats and about 80 house seats (the latter would never happen today thanks to gerrymandering)

Not that. I meant his approval rating. Is this impossible to find or something?

I highly doubt that ridiculous notion had been invented yet.

Well, the Gallup poll first gained its recognition when it solely predicted a Roosevelt landslide in 1936, so idea isn't too bad.

Washington

He was elected unanimously....twice.

Look at this site's electoral information. The only way it could have been unanimous is if the other votes simply weren't counted. Which they weren't.