--- title: Americans Say Barack Obama Best President of Their Lifetimes description: A plurality of Americans named Barack Obama the best president of their lifetimes. canonical: https://time.com/5336305/barack-obamas-best-president-survey/ author: Abigail Simon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-11T21:18:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:49:15.993Z article:section: Politics og:title: Americans Say Barack Obama Was Best President of Their Lifetimes og:description: Followed by Clinton, Reagan and Trump. og:url: https://time.com/5336305/barack-obamas-best-president-survey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2049cc5e27f95037/698689a7cd6848b8080940a2/29_p011610ps-0259.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Pete Souza's Portrait of a Presidency og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Say Barack Obama Was Best President of Their Lifetimes twitter:description: Followed by Clinton, Reagan and Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2049cc5e27f95037/698689a7cd6848b8080940a2/29_p011610ps-0259.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans Say Barack Obama Was Best President of Their Lifetimes > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Abigail Simon](https://time.com/author/abigail-simon/) ## Abigail Simon Jul 11, 2018 9:18 PM UTC  “President Obama had called on the two former Presidents to help with the situation in Haiti. During their public remarks in the Rose Garden, Jan. 16, 2010, President Clinton had said about President Bush, ‘I’ve already figured out how I can get him to do some things that he didn’t sign on for.’ Later, back in the Oval, President Bush is jokingly asking President Clinton what were those things he had in mind.” “President Obama had called on the two former Presidents to help with the situation in Haiti. During their public remarks in the Rose Garden, Jan. 16, 2010, President Clinton had said about President Bush, ‘I’ve already figured out how I can get him to do some things that he didn’t sign on for.’ Later, back in the Oval, President Bush is jokingly asking President Clinton what were those things he had in mind.” Pete Souza/The White House by [Abigail Simon](https://time.com/author/abigail-simon/) ## Abigail Simon Jul 11, 2018 9:18 PM UTC A plurality of Americans named Barack Obama the best president of their lifetimes. In a survey by the [Pew Research Center](http://www.people-press.org/2018/07/11/obama-tops-publics-list-of-best-president-in-their-lifetime-followed-by-clinton-reagan/), 44% named Obama the best or second-best president of their lifetimes, followed by 33% who named Bill Clinton and 32% who named Ronald Reagan. Respondents mentioned Donald Trump only 19% of the time, putting him in fourth place. Notably, that was roughly equivalent to Obama’s figure at a similar point in his presidency — in a similar survey in 2011, Obama was listed as the first or second choice by 20% of Americans. In the survey, conducted from June 5 to 12, 2,002 adults were asked in an open-ended question, “Which president has done the best job during your lifetime?” They were asked to name both their first and second choices. Both presidents Bush fell lower on the list. George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were named the best or second-best by 14% and 10% of Americans, respectively. Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt are named by less than 5% of respondents. In general, the age of respondents was highly correlated with their responses. A majority of millenials mentioned Obama at 62% — a higher number than any other generation. Reagan, on the other hand, was the most common answer among the Baby Boomer and Silent generations. The comparatively higher popularity of recent presidents is likely due to changing demographics, since the question asked respondents for presidents during their lifetimes. For example, only about a tenth of adults named John F. Kennedy — but that number is around a quarter for those who were alive to see his presidency. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5336305/barack-obamas-best-president-survey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5336305/barack-obamas-best-president-survey/"},"headline":"Americans Say Barack Obama Was Best President of Their Lifetimes","datePublished":"2018-07-11T21:18:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:49:15.993Z","description":"A plurality of Americans named Barack Obama the best president of their lifetimes.","url":"https://time.com/5336305/barack-obamas-best-president-survey/","keywords":["Barack Obama","Ronald Reagan","Polling","Donald Trump","lyndon johnson","Franklin Roosevelt","Gerald Ford"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2049cc5e27f95037/698689a7cd6848b8080940a2/29_p011610ps-0259.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Simon","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-simon/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2049cc5e27f95037/698689a7cd6848b8080940a2/29_p011610ps-0259.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pete Souza's Portrait of a Presidency","caption":"“President Obama had called on the two former Presidents to help with the situation in Haiti. 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