Word: wirthlin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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During the 1984 campaign, Reagan's best receptions came on college campuses. A White House survey for May showed that 82% of registered voters age 24 and under approved of Reagan. Says Presidential Pollster Richard Wirthlin: "This is an age cohort that has known only two Presidents." The binary vision of the young: in their memories, Carter meant failure, Reagan means success...
...Wirthlin found that David Stockman, the bitter diarist who claims in his new book that the Reagan revolution failed, may be all wet. Americans feel Reagan's successes in reducing taxes and increasing opportunities are sound enough to rate as a revolution--or at least as a job very well done...
...public perception of the Reagan record has benefited all levels of government, according to Wirthlin. Americans once again have faith that our public institutions can cope with problems. National confidence is where it was in 1972, before Watergate shattered people's trust. These may be the first data indicating clearly that we have at last put that tragedy behind...
...Wirthlin's encouraging figures are, of course, ephemeral, subject to devastation by almost any crisis. His real message goes beyond the mere data. "The President plays better offense than defense," says the pollster. "He has to keep going. Sometimes the changes he proposes are not as important as the fact that he takes action. He cannot expect that all the winds will continue to blow...
That is not a hard prescription for Ronald Reagan. To keep moving is his nature. Furthermore, his standing with the public is bolstered by a mighty reserve: Nancy. A special Wirthlin reading on the personal appeal of the big power players, which he dubs the "thermometer rating," with temperatures from 1 to 100, shows the President at 66, Nancy at 65. The nearest Cabinet officer is way down at a chilly...