No one knew which party IKE belonged to until he announced his intention to run for the presidency as a Republican. Truman had previously tried to get IKE to run as a Democrat. For me, IKE was an American president, not a Republican nor a Democratic president. He governed as such. He usually had the support of those from both parties.

I didn’t mean IKE was a conservative, just he set my ideal and standards of what a president should be and how they should govern. Not one beholding to a political party, but to all of America. IKE had the stature and appeal that he didn’t have to rely on a party apparatus or kowtow or bend to either party. IKE averaged 70% overall job approval for his first term and 61% for his second. He averaged 90% from Republicans, 53% from Democrats, 70% from Independents for his entire presidency.

Since Gallup began keeping track of presidential approval rating in 1945, there’s never been another president who had an above 50% job approval from the opposite party than Eisenhower. None came close. It’s like that old political TV ad, everyone likes IKE.


It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.