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What makes a ‘great president’?                                                                                    

Posted at: Nov/06/2012 : Posted by: mel

Related Category: Historical Insights, Politics & Gov, Watching America,

As today is Election Day 2012, it seems only fitting to ask this question. We have all grown up being taught that “anybody can grow up to be President.” Despite these motivational words to our children, I’m not entirely sure it is true. It clearly takes a person who is smart, tough and driven just to campaign for the office. Once in the Oval Office, the pressures of the job take over. We have had 44 presidents as of this writing, yet I would guess that most American’s would struggle to name 15-20 of them. The list is even shorter if these same people were asked to list those presidents who they consider “great.”

While growing up, I remember my father lamenting often on the subject of who he would vote for. My father was an educated and insightful person who taught me to take my voting responsibility very seriously. In our conversations on the subject he would often speak of the lack of “presidential timber” on the ballot and how this frustrated his selection. With age I have come to realize that my father may not have been entirely right on what it takes to be an American President, let alone a “great” one.

The cynical side of me realizes that a substantial portion of being president is having a presidential sized ego. If a person merely aspires to be powerful, there are many opportunities to find this in industry and the military. In both of the aforementioned great power can be amassed without having every aspect of your personal life and history dragged under the public microscope. The public pressures and scrutiny make being president a choice few are willing to make. Obviously, for those few who do seek the presidency, the desire to be remembered with a legacy in history books is greater than mere power itself must be considered part of their motivation.

My personal list of great presidents would be the following (in historical order):

George Washington: His lists of contributions to American history prior to becoming our first President are significant. As our first President he presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that drafted the Constitution we know today. I also look to the standard he set as a President by leaving office peacefully at the end of his second term and then retiring to private life. Many of his closest advisors wanted him to not leave the office, yet he created a historical standard for a peaceful transition of national leadership that is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

James Polk: He would not make many peoples list of great Presidents, but I recognize his achievements for securing the Oregon Territory, Texas and California which not only defined the geography we know today. This effort secured all the natural wealth and resources involved with the lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln is remembered for saving the nation that Washington created. Presiding over our civil war he preserved the union and ultimately was a driving force to free 4 million slaves.

Theodore Roosevelt: Teddy tamed the unregulated trusts and large corporations. He preserved large tracts of land as national forests and parks. He also began the notion that the United States could and should be considered a world power along with mediating the Russo-Japanese War.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: FDR may have understood the presidency better than anyone else before or after him. He is definitely the model for all modern presidents. Most historians will rank him as the greatest president of the 20th century because he knew what people wanted, despite being isolated in the highest office in the land: action, words and optimism. FDR was able to successfully transition from “Dr. New Deal" where he lead the country during the great Depression, to a philosophy of "Win The War" beginning with his “infamy” speech following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Historians will debate forever whether FDR actually ended the Depression, but he clearly took aggressive action once we entered WWII.

Harry S. Truman: Truman drew red lines to keep the Soviets from continually gobbling up countries after WWII. He saved Greece and Turkey with his Truman Doctrine. He saved Berlin with an airlift when the Soviets blockaded it. He led in forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to protect Europe. He was behind the Marshall Plan which gave Europe $6 billion to reconstruct itself and be a bulwark against Communism. He encouraged the rebuilding of Japan as a democratic and capitalist country and as a counter to Communist China. Additionally, he recognized the state of Israel as soon as it declared its independence, and he desegregated the American armed forces by executive order.

Ronald Reagan: Reagan dismantled large parts of the federal regulatory system and legitimized the notion of demanding smaller government and lower taxes. He also oversaw the winding down of the Cold War.

There are some who would argue that John F. Kennedy should be on this list as well. Since this is my list it is my choice. I think that Kennedy handled the Cuban missile crisis well, but had he not been assassinated while in office…he would not be as memorialized in history as he is. Others might suggest Thomas Jefferson, but I feel that the majority of his accomplishments, great as they were, occurred prior to his tenure as a president as a key force of the revolution. As I said, this is my list and you don’t have to agree.

It would appear that my views on American presidents align closely with Gutzon Borglum since 3 of the 4 faces on Mount Rushmore appear in my list.

I have come to believe that being a great president is significantly driven by timing. Despite designs to the contrary, being a president is about reacting to the unforeseen. We ultimately judge and remember our presidents by how they react to one or two big crises while they are in the White House. No one remembers whether Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt balanced the national budget. We remember them for the hardships of the Civil War, the Great Depression and WWII after Pearl Harbor.

A majority of these men presided over the country during the worst of times, including war and the Great Depression. This does not mean war is a requirement to being remembered as a great president, but there is a paradox here. Most of our greatest presidents presided over the country during the worst of times, especially war when the status quo of American life is broken. Nevertheless, Dwight D. Eisenhower, LBJ, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush were wartime presidents and have not secured great or near-great status by most accounts. Obviously, Korea, Vietnam and the two Iraq war respectively accomplished little and reflected on the seated presidents of their eras.

When the Soviet Union was putting nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy said in private that doing nothing was the worst option and he would be impeached if he did not take action. In good times or bad, a president is expected to “do something!” Obviously, if that something is the right thing, they become great for it.

I guess ultimately, that is what we expect from our presidents, we expect them to “do something.”

In truth, it appears that presidential greatness is a pretty rare thing. Our three greatest American presidents by most accounts -- George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt -- all came to office at times of great crisis. Washington created a nation out of a loose confederation of states. Lincoln saved the nation that Washington created. Roosevelt rescued our country from the Great Depression and the forces of totalitarianism during World War II. It would be logical to assume that presidential greatness only occurs in the furnace of a major crisis.

My father was looking for the mystical “presidential timber.” I have come to believe that what he was really talking about is “presidential steel.” As I study and learn of our history it is clear that the greatest of presidents come from the furnaces of crisis and disaster. Our economy is underperforming, but has not collapsed. We have a lot of debt, but there is no overt flight from the dollar. We have American troops throughout the world, but are not engaged in a global war. We are continually under threat of terrorist attack, but a nuclear bomb has not gone off in New York or Washington. Clearly, the situation or crisis that makes the legend of a great president is not upon us.

It truth, I am happy to settle for a president who is “good enough.” It would be good to not have a president who is challenged by the circumstances demanding greatness. The next president need not strive for greatness. Their greatness would endow them with a historical reputation at a cost that most of us cannot bear. Instead, I ask only for a president who understands and appeals to America’s core values.

Being a good president will be good enough for me, and please “do something.”

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