PRESIDENTIAL “LEADERSHIP” ??? …
WHICH AMERICA? – The “Good, Bad and Ugly”)
DONALD TRUMP
A “DEAL MAKER” WHO “HITS BACK”
A “PROFIT MAKER” and “PUGILIST” (fighter)
ELITE IVY LEAGUE (born rich) from (working class) “QUEENS” (New York “Street-Smart” and “Brash””
ANTI-“ESTABLISHMENT” – “DRAINS SWAMPS”, FIGHTS the “DEEP STATE” and TWEETS AGAINST “FAKE NEWS”
AMERICAN “EXCEPTIONALISM” (The “Good, Bad and Ugly)
THEN BEFORE HIM WAS …
OOPS … MY BAD … NEVER MIND … APPARENTLY, WHAT “COMES AROUND GOES AROUND”
OBAMA
FOUGHT “ENEMY” STRAW MEN WELL …
an “ALINSKY-ite” CHICAGO “GANGSTER”
“LEVEL-er” and “DIVIDER”-in-Chief” WHO WILL GO ON TO “FIGHT IN-EQUALITY”
oops, no one told him …
“LED” (the world) FROM BEHIND (appeaser-in chief)
The “CULT of PERSONALITY”
BUT ENOUGH of THAT PRESIDENT … LET’s MOVE ON …
GEORGE W. BUSH #43
INFAMOUS FOR “WAR” … DID NOT FIGHT BACK (at home)
“DIGNITY” of the OFFICE of the PRESIDENCY … MOCKED and RIDICULED MERCILESSLY
A “LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE”
BILL CLINTON
A “HANDS ON” POLITICIAN
SOUTHERN “CHARM” and “CORRUPTION”
A “CONSERVATIVE” LIBERAL
GEORGE H.W. BUSH (#41)
“COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM”
DID NOT “READ” HIS OWN LIPS (taxes)
BOTH “LEADER” and “SERVANT” – War Hero, Congressman, Businessman, Ambassador, CIA Director, Vice-President, President, Father to a President
RONALD REAGAN
The “AMICABLE, LONER” LEADER
“TORE DOWN WALLS”
(A “COALITION” BUILDER)
CONSIDERED “CLUE-LESS” BY SOME …
HE HAD a “COMPASS”
TO QUOTE ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL MISQUOTE, REAGAN was HUGELY “MIS-UNDERESTIMATED”
JIMMY CARTER
CLUELESS (“instincts”)
“GENIUS” (intellect)
GERALD FORD
“SACRIFICIAL LAMB” SET UP FOR FAILURE
UN-ELECTED, ENSURED NO FUTURE WHEN HE BURIED (PARDONED) the PAST …
GOOD “SOLID” MAN, BAD SITUATION
RICHARD NIXON –
A NATURAL (Irish) “FIGHTER” (with many “enemies”)
BRILLIANT “INSIDER”: (ended war in Vietnam “with honor”, anti-communist who “opened” Red China) & BUMBLING “OUTSIDER”: (cheat in landslide election, resigned from office)
POPULIST (“Silent Majority”; of humble Quaker beginnings) and PUGILIST (“Enemies List”)
LBJ
LBJ – A NATURAL LEADER and “POLITICIAN”: (New) “DEALER” and master SENATE LEADER
MAYBE AMERICA’s GREATEST “POLITICIAN” (not President)
JFK ???
BOTH “MAN” and “MYTH”
ONLY 1000 DAYS of “CAMELOT”
BOTH “RECKLESS” and “RESPONSIBLE” …
the PROMISE of the FUTURE – “A NEW FRONTIER” …
EISENHOWER
A TRUE “COMMANDER-in-CHIEF” …
“SOLDIER” and “STATESMAN” …
KNEW HOW TO “CARRY a STICK” (controlled, calm, “competence”)
HARRY S. TRUMAN
The “UN-EXPECTED OUTSIDER”
“HE GAVE ‘EM HELL”
“THE BUCK STOPS HERE” –
MOMENTOUS DECISIONS: ATOMIC BOMB, BERLIN AIRLIFT, DESEGREGATED MILITARY, KOREA
ONLY PRESIDENT TO NOT ATTEND COLLEGE, HE POSSESSED “WISDOM”
FDR – “The CULT of PERSONALITY”
ALONG WITH REAGAN, MOST INFLUENTIAL, IMPACTFUL PRESIDENT of the 20th CENTURY
(e.g. my mother “came of political age” in the 1930s-40s and was a life-long “FDR Democrat” LIBERAL – her “heretical” son, a child of the 1980s, became a “Reagan Republican” CONSERVATIVE, coming from a family that voted for George McGovern in 1972 and was mocked on his 2nd grade playground for it. – but I digress …)
HERBERT HOOVER
HOOVER – “The ENGINEER” – “DESIGNer” and “DISASTER” (Great Depression)
A “SELF-MADE” MAN WHO PERSONIFIED AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY and OPTIMISM, HOOVER PERFORMED GREAT ACTS of “HUMANITARIAN-ism”, ONCE CONSIDERED a “MIRACLE WORKER“, HOOVER ALSO was HATED by “EVERYMAN”, CONSIDERED “UNCARING” by the “COMMON MAN”,a “CURSE” and “DISASTER” as a PRESIDENT.
SYMBOLIZED BOTH AMERICAN WEATH and POVERTY (The “Roaring 20s & Great Depression)
BOTH AMERICAN “GENIUS”, “KNOW HOW” and GROSS “INCOMPETENCE”
IRONICALLY, a “MAN of ACTION” PERCEIVED and LOATHED FOR “DOING NOTHING” in time of national catastrophe.
DESTINED for “GREATNESS”, DOOMED for “DISASTER”
CALVIN COOLIDGE
“SILENT CAL” – MADE “AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” (WHILE TAKING NAPS)
WARREN HARDING
HARDING – “RETURN to NORMALCY”: LOVED POKER, DRINKING DURING PROHIBITION and MISTRESSes
WOODROW WILSON –
“PROGRESSIVE”, “LIBERAL FASCIST” PROFESSOR
SELF-RIGHTEOUS, RACIST “CRUSADER”
ULTIMATE AMERICAN “PROGRESSIVE”
A UTOPIAN “CRUSADER” (e.g. made world “safe for democracy” in the “war to end all wars”)
TEDDY ROOSEVELT
AMERICAN “EXCEPTIONALISM”, “ENIGMA”, “EXTREMES” and “ENERGY”
BOTH “TRADITIONAL” and “PROGRESSIVE”
“KILLER” and “CONSERVATIONIST”
POLICEMAN-SOLDIER and PEACEMAKER
LIKE HIS DISTANT COUSIN FDR, the “CULT of PERSONALITY”
LINCOLN
HIS ELECTION CAUSED WAR, BUT HE SAVED the UNION (a “HOUSE DIVIDED”)
MAYBE MOST “EXCEPTIONAL” of AMERICAN “EXCEPTIONAL”
BORN in a LOG CABIN, (“LOW” BEGINNINGS), CALLED AMERICA the “LAST, BEST HOPE of MANKIND” (“HIGH EXPECTATIONS)
JAMES K. POLK
MAYBE MOST “EFFECTIVE” PRESIDENT EVER–
DID EXACTLY WHAT HE PROMISED and LEFT OFFICE (and died shortly thereafter)
ANDREW JACKSON
PARADOXICALLY “ELITIST” and “The COMMON MAN”
The ULTIMATE PRESIDENTIAL “FIGHTER”
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AMERICAN “FLAWED” GENIUS:
FARMER, INVENTOR, SCIENTIST, LAWYER, POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER, MUSICIAN, AMBASSADOR, VICE-PRESIDENT, PRESIDENT, EDUCATOR
AMERICA “EXTREME” and “CONTRADICTION”:
an “ELITIST” WHO FAMOUSLY TOLD WORLD “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”;
a RELIGIOUS “NON-CONFORMIST” YET UNAPOLOGETICALLY WROTE of “NATURAL RIGHTS” DERIVED from OUR “CREATOR” and the “GOD of ISRAEL”;
a “REPUBLICAN” WHO STARTED “DEMOCRAT” PARTY;
“ESTABLISHMENT” and “ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT;
A SLAVE HOLDER WHO HATED SLAVERY but LOVED a “SLAVE”;
a “PACIFIST” ISOLATIONIST WHO ACTED as “INTERVENTION-ist” – STARTED “MARINES” and SENT THEM to FIGHT “JIHAD”; a “CONSTITUTIONALIST” WHO OFTEN IGNORED CONSTITUTION when “expedient”;
PREACHED AMERICAN “RESTRAINT” (an anti-imperialist) WHILE PRACTICING AMERICAN “EXPANSION“, DISCOVERY (Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark) and “EMPIRE”
WASHINGTON –
“FATHER of OUR COUNTRY”
A GREAT WORLD “REVOLUTIONARY” – (compare to French Revolution – Napoleon)
AMERICAN “EXCEPTION-alism”
BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE HIM or “The FOUNDERS”, HOW MANY COUNTRIES HAVE YOU STARTED OR “FOUNDED”?
P.S.
HISTORY “X-treme” …
