What if you could pick a president to order?
Let’s make a condition at the beginning that the election in 2024 will be between real people and not some abstractly drawn ideal.
So, according to a TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, Americans in the U.S. expressed preferences about the qualities they like and dislike about the president. All of these can have pointers and red flags for those who are actually running or thinking about it.
David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk Center for Policy Studies, said the job posting might look like this: “What I want is a governor between the ages of 51 and 65 who has business experience and is willing to compromise to get things done. Military experience is a bonus.”
“Unfortunately, there are currently no declared ideal candidates for the 2024 presidential election,” he said, adding that neither President Joe Biden nor former President Donald Trump fit the description. “More than 6 in 10 say they don’t want Trump or Biden to run in 2024,” the poll said.
The poll of 1,000 registered voters from Dec. 7-11 by landline and cellphone has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
How old should the president be?
The sweet spot is later middle age, the age group between 51 and 65, chosen by 50% of those surveyed. An additional 25% chose early middle age, between the ages of 35 and 50.
The findings could be a wake-up call for Trump, who announced another bid for the presidency last month. The former president will turn 78 on Inauguration Day in 2025; Only 8% said the ideal president would be between 66 and 80 years old.
It’s an even bigger caution for Biden, who has said he’s leaning toward a second term. He will be 82 at the next inauguration; Less than 1 percent chose a president over 80 years old. In other words, only four out of 1,000 respondents chose the oldest age group.
Young voters preferred young presidents. 41% of those under 35 said their ideal president would be between 35 and 50, the youngest age group eligible for the office.
Is it time for a female president?
Maybe not.
The majority of voters, 55%, said that gender is not important. That would be news to Hillary Clinton and other female candidates, who believe they face political challenges because of their sexuality.
For a significant number of Americans, the Oval Office remains a man’s world. Overall, those who expressed a preference chose a man as their ideal over a woman by a margin of 2-1, 28%-12%.
50% of Republicans said the ideal president would be a man, while a negligible 2% said it would be a woman. In contrast, Democrats chose a woman over a man 2-1, 24%-11%.
Political independents might say gender doesn’t matter. Almost two-thirds, ie 63 percent, supported this opinion.
Is there a gender gap by gender?
Among eligible voters, men 8-1 preferred a male president over women, 32%-4%. Women also prefer a male president, 25% to 19%.
Hometown Influence: Where Are You From?
A majority of those polled, 57 percent, said it didn’t matter where the president came from.
Those who said it didn’t matter tended to favor someone from their own part of the country. Regional appeal was strongest in the center, chosen by 27% of Midwesterners. 20% of those in the Northeast chose the East Coast; 18% from south to south; The West Bank accounts for 16% of those from the West.
Which party? What about both?
Not surprisingly, a large majority of Democratic voters prefer a Democratic president (71%) and a large majority of Republican voters prefer a Republican president (74%).
But there was considerable support for the president, who is not affiliated with any major political party. That was the advantage not only of two-thirds of independents (67%), but also of 17% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans.
Young voters were the least party-affiliated. 31% of 18- to 35-year-olds want a Democratic president, 19% want a Republican president, but 41% say their ideal president would be an independent.
Leadership Style: To Compromise or Not?
By double-digit margins, 57% to 34%, Americans prefer a president who compromises to get things done, rather than a president who sticks to principle no matter what.
But the differences behind the numbers help explain why it’s so hard to actually get things done in Washington.
Unhappy New Year? The poll found Americans fearing the nation’s direction, its leaders and its future by 2023.
4-1, 74%-19%, Democrats want a deal-breaking president. 50%-38% of Republicans want a president who sticks to the principle, even if those things don’t get done.
That gap in leadership styles was one of the biggest partisan differences in the poll.
Political experience? Yes, but…
Most voters considered experience in politics a plus. Democrats preferred senators to governors, 37% to 32%. Republicans, perhaps reflecting the GOP’s antipathy to the entire Washington state, preferred governors over senators 3-1, 36%-11%.
There seems to have been a backlash to the political experiment among Republicans. A third, 32 percent, prefer a person with no political experience.
Business experience? Yes, but…
There was also partisan disagreement over the value of business experience in a perfect president.
Overall, 56% said the ideal president would have business experience. It included 85 percent of Republicans.
However, there seems to be a backlash among Democrats against the corporate practice. 55%-29%, they chose a president with no business experience. It could signal opposition to Trump, the real estate mogul and reality TV star who never ran for office before winning the 2016 presidential election.
Military experience? Yes, but…
Military service was an obvious asset among Republicans; 61% said their ideal president was in the military. Democratic views were somewhat mixed: 31% supported the incumbent president; 37 percent chose the absent person. Another 31% volunteered that it didn’t matter in any way.
