The most durable presidential campaign slogan of the 19th century was Abraham Lincoln’s, in his 1864 reelection. “Don’t swap horses in midstream” was also used by his successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1944 to argue against changing commanders in chief while a war was ongoing.
Everyone remembers the foundation of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”—but, of course, those words didn’t take hold in the election until Reagan uttered them at his sole debate with President Carter a week before the election. This fundamental question has become a one-sentence summary of how Reagan won by 10 points. With peace and prosperity dominating the landscape four years later, Reagan got an even larger landslide with a magnificent feel-good ad declaring “It’s Morning Again in America.”
2011년 갤럽 여론조사에서 미국인이 생각하는 가장 위대한 대통령으로 레이건이 19%를 득표하며 1위를 기록하였다. 2위는 14%를 기록한 링컨이었다.
