Irvine

Reagan Popularity Disputed: Despite assertions that Ronald Reagan has vast public appeal, no President has ever been “more unpopular overall with the voters,” according to UC Irvine political science professor Martin Wattenberg. Results of Wattenberg’s research were published in the July issue of American Politics Quarterly. Wattenberg, who is completing a book on Reagan, researched the presidential elections from 1952 to 1984. When Reagan was first elected to the White House in 1980, even many followers had doubts, Wattenberg said: “No victorious presidential candidate has ever been more intensely disliked by his opponents, greeted with more doubts among his supporters and hence been more unpopular overall with the voters.”