Adequate, Forgettable, Occasionally Regrettable

[4thofeleven]

Came across a neat little quiz of US presidents today - you've got ten minutes to type in as many president's names as you can remember. I got 34 out of 43; not bad, considering most of the 19th century presidents I remember only because of their ridiculous names... ahh, Millard Fillmore, how can anyone forget you?

I also had a nice streak going for the 20th century, getting everyone from Teddy Roosevelt to George W. Bush, except Lyndon Johnson, who I drew a complete blank on.

Once you complete the test, you can check the statistics on how other people did - obviously, the Georges (Bush and Washington) are the most well known, followed by Clinton and Lincoln. Bizarrely, only 88% of respondents got those two - I'm willing to accept at least some of those are people who accidentally clicked on the test and didn't fill any out, but considering Bush and Washington got 95%, it means that there must be a significant number of people who took a voluntary test on US presidents yet cannot name Abraham Lincoln...

Chester A. Arthur and Rutherford B. Hayes tie as least memorable US president, each being named by only 50% of respondents. For some reason I was actually able to name Hayes, possibly because ‘Rutherford’ is an amusing, and therefore memorable, first name.

 

Shame they don’t offer a quiz of Australian Prime Ministers, though I suspect I would do a lot worse on that – We’re a country that’s not exactly overflowing with memorable leadership…

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

According to my dad, one of Lyndon Johnson's campaign slogans was "All the way with LBJ." He also remembers an anti-Nixon slogan, "Lick Dick '72." Campaign slogans just aren't what they used to be!

I can't figure out how anyone raised in the US could forget Lincoln. He and Washington get, like, 95% of the time devoted to studying presidents in elementary school, with songs about them and everything. And it's not like anyone spends much time talking about Chester Arthur in the upper grades... Scary.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Huh - didn't know that "All the way with LBJ" was one of his actual campaign slogans. Here in Australia, the quote's fairly well known because our Prime Minister at the time said it during a speech in which he gave continued support for Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war... to us, it's pretty much the iconic statement that sums up the unthinking and unquestioning pro-American stance our government has taken pretty much since the end of WW2.

Lincoln's one of those basic historical figures I'd expect pretty much anyone in the western world to recognise - I'd have guessed more people would get him that Washington...

[sunnyskywalker]

I don't know for sure that it was official-official, but I think it was at least one he supported. I get the impression it was also popular with high school boys because it contained "all the way" and "BJ" in the same sentence. Sigh. And I'm sorry we exported it with all that baggage to you.