Countdown to the most popular prez

Reagan

6. Barack Obama

5. Theodore Roosevelt

4. Ronald Reagan 

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev got to know each other. They came to like each other. They compared notes on their countries and their governments. Each pointed with pride to what his system did well. Reagan praised free speech in America. “Why, anyone can walk into my office, slam his fist on the desk, and say that the president of the United States is doing a lousy job!" he said. Gorbachev wasn't impressed. “Soviet citizens can do the same thing," he said. Reagan was surprised. “Really?" he said. “Yes," said Gorbachev. “Soviet citizens can come into my office, pound the desk, and say that the president of the United States is doing a lousy job!" 

Gorbachev didn't really say that. Reagan made up the story. But it always got a laugh. It was one of dozens he liked to tell, always with the same purpose: to warm up an audience, gently score a political point, and make people think this Reagan fellow was a good guy.

It worked. Reagan won a handy victory over Jimmy Carter in 1980 and a landslide victory over Walter Mondale in 1984. His popular total of 59 percent in the latter year was one of the largest in the history of the presidency.

It came despite doubts that might have sunk another candidate. In his first debate against Mondale, Reagan stumbled badly, perhaps showing signs of the dementia he would be diagnosed with later. Pundits and television doctors opined on whether he was too old for the job.

He managed to deflect the question in the second debate. At an opportune moment he declared the age issue out of bounds, winking as he said he wouldn't use his opponent’s “youth and inexperience" against him. The audience laughed. Viewers at home sighed relief. Reagan seemed like such a nice guy. It would have been a shame if he was losing his faculties. Thankfully he wasn’t, for if he could joke about age, how serious could it be?

Reagan's likability shielded him after his reelection. In 1986 a story broke that his administration had secretly been selling weapons to Iran, in violation of American law and the administration’s own policy, and using the proceeds from the sales to finance the antigovernment contras in Nicaragua, also in violation of American law.

The Iran-contra scandal was grave—worse than Watergate, by some reckoning. A less likable man president than Reagan, a Nixon say, could easily have been impeached. But when Reagan said he didn't know what had been done in his name, public opinion gave him the benefit of the doubt. Democrats backed off, not wanting to be seen as beating up on an old man.

In fact, as Reagan's diaries later revealed, he did know about at least part of operation, the part involving the shipment of weapons to Iran. Possibly he forgot that he had approved the shipments, by the time the story surfaced. 

The popular support for Reagan was less intense than for some other popular presidents. He was liked rather than loved. The flip side of this was that nobody hated him, and few even disliked him much. Plenty of people—mostly Democrats but not all—disliked his policies. But they didn’t feel much animus toward Reagan personally. He seemed like a genial grandfather.

Some of this was an act. He had, of course, been an actor. He knew how to play a role. Not a deep, brooding role. Not a heroic role. If he had mastered those he never would have left Hollywood. But a steady, friendly role. The role of a character who knows how to tell jokes. And get votes.