All The Men Presidents

I have always been a bit of a follower of trivia about U. S. Presidents. As a kid, I read books about them and I’m sure that interest propelled me into my current love of all kinds of politics. Wednesday, in the White House, all the living Presidents, and the next one to take office, gathered for lunch, discussions and to have their picture taken together. It gave us an opportunity to look at the men who have held the top job and to review the job they did as Chief Executive.

President Jimmy Carter, was the first President I ever supported. As a youngster I worked my neighborhood with my parents to help him get elected in 1976 - so early in the campaign that hardly anyone had even heard of the guy. Coming of voting age in 1980, I spent some of my Senior year in High School working on the unsuccessful campaign to get him reelected. It has been widely said for decades now that the Carter Presidency was an absolute failure. I would not go so far as to say that is completely wrong but I would amend that analysis a bit. Many of Carter’s ideas were absolutely right, but the methods he tried to advance his agenda were dead wrong. Just think how much better shape would we be if we had conserved energy as he suggested in the 1970’s. We could have long ago ended our reliance on oil from unfriendly sources, moved to a greener means of powering the country and perhaps slowed the global warming that now threatens our very existence. He was inarguably right on that and other issues he advanced.

Carters’ problem, in my opinion, was his personality and management style. He just didn’t play well with others. This kind of baffled me until had the opportunity to visit Plains, Georgia and see the man in action. I attended Sunday school one weekend where President Carter was teaching and got a taste of his personality and demeanor. He came across as an intelligent but very stubborn and inflexible man. I can understand now how that would be an ineffective way to build consensus and support for ideas no matter how good they are. Reading about how he ran the White House and how he clashed with even leaders of his own party, I understand now why his time in office can be characterized as unsuccessful.

I certainly worked hard against the election of George H. W. Bush. I thought he was more or less an empty suit, riding the coattails of Ronald Reagan. On top of that, his campaign in 1988 began the politics of hate and smear that characterized the conservative movement until it’s recent demise. It was despicable to watch Bush Sr. divert attention away from serious issues and steer voters minds towards flag burning and other meaningless rubbish. The early part of his Presidency was characterized by the first Iraq war and which was seen as a success. However, after that he squandered the good will Americans felt toward him and, as I had originally feared, he coasted through the remainder of his term, not doing anything particularly dangerous but also not solving problems apparent and growing during his term. Consequently, he was soundly defeated for reelection in 1992 by a younger and more energetic candidate and when he left office those on the left and right both declared his Presidency a failure.

In the subsequent years, George H.W. Bush’s reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated. Especially when compared to his son, Bush Sr. has come to be appreciated as someone who respected the United States Constitution, incorporated logic and reality into his decisions and was at least a practical caretaker if nothing else. As a former President, he has been focused on making money but has also softened in his partisanship and become at least a moderately respected statesman.

Bill Clinton was the first President that I had personally discovered early in the process and advocated for from the very start. I spotted him even before the 1992 Primary season had started and was easily one of the first people in North Florida to champion his run. Clinton’s presidency was effective and successful but tainted by his inability to act like an adult. This was probably a result of his quick rise from poverty and oblivion. He was a very impressive and successful student, earning stunning praise and accolades especially considering his very humble start. He was a boy-Governor in Arkansas and was reelected over and over by the citizens of his state. Perhaps it was this early success that lead to a sort of arrested development in the man which lead to his personal failings and national embarrassment. Certainly his behavior was distasteful, but the fact that the conservative movement at the time sunk unimaginable time and resources in smearing the man, lead to a stifling of progress in the country and crippling of what could have been an even more successful Presidency.

Then there is our current Chief Executive, the idiot George W. Bush. To my dying day I will never understand how anyone who spent 5 minutes listening to him as a candidate or even a President could think he was up to the job. Bush Jr. had all the worst features one could imagine in a U.S. President. He was clearly unintelligent, unimaginative, overly ideological and arrogantly mean spirited. He was like the stupid asshole up the road that inherited all the property in your small town and walked around bullying people, acting as if he were a self made man. I remember in 2002, I was working in a place where nearly everyone called themselves a conservative. Bush was on TV making no sense whatsoever, his eyes looking empty, his disposition agitated and his words completely nonsensical. I said, perhaps a little indelicately, that I thought he was “mildly retarded". Man, did people get pissed at me. I admit I was wrong. It’s was not that mild at all.

Only those who purposefully refuse to address reality now see the Bush Jr. presidency as a failure. The only bright side is that it was his gross incompetence and mismanagement lead to the promising choice of the fifth man in the picture, Barack Obama.

The Barack Obama presidency holds so much potential and gives us - yes - so much hope. He is smart, thoughtful, modest and talented. He is surrounding himself with intelligent, non ideological people and seems to be very organized and deliberate. As we stand on the brink of his inauguration, Obama's positive ratings are unprecedented for a President-elect. We all have reason to believe that he is the best person for the job at this troubled time. As we reflect back at all the men Presidents that gathered this week in the White House lets hope that President Obama will be the best of all. At this treacherous point in out history, I doubt that we can progress with anything short of that.