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Sunday, February 3. 2008

The Last Substantial Person To Occupy The White House



If you disassembled the current slate of candidates from both parties into their component parts, then stitched together the best bits from each of them, (good luck looking for the good bits) you might be able to make a zombie Franklin Pierce out of the mess. Maybe. After you re-animate the dodgy potlach politician you've assembled, it could wear any one of their empty suits. Not one of them is qualified to go out and get Eisenhower a pack of smokes. America has always produced great men (and women) like Ike.

I wonder where we keep them now?


Posted by Roger de Hauteville in History at 14:55 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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We keep them in the [present] military.
#1 Jack Coupal on 2008-02-03 15:51 (Reply)
I agree, Jack Coupal. We certainly don't keep them as Columbia University Presidents, in the job where Ike presided [and signed my B.A. in 1951] after he won WW II and before he became the Nation's president. I've eliminated any university donations after the present Columbia president offered Ahmadinajad a platform to spew.
Congress damm well better protect our military with enough dollars to keep our future great ones safe, or I'll take my aged body on a march on Washington to demand that they do so.

Marianne Matthews
#2 Marianne Matthews on 2008-02-03 16:06 (Reply)
"We keep them in the [present] military."

Yes, and that could be trouble down the road. When the institutions of your typical banana republic begin to fail, oftentimes there is only one place to which the country can turn.
#3 Skookumchuk (Link) on 2008-02-03 16:32 (Reply)
What man (or woman) of that caliber would think it provident to associate with the gang of jackals and poseurs that pass for politicians (careerists) these days? It never was a supposed to be a career in the U.S. of A., but a chance to contribute to the overall good, similar to military service.

Steve
#4 Steve on 2008-02-03 17:03 (Reply)
After his tour as Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe, the presidency was probably duck soup for Ike.
#5 buddy larsen on 2008-02-03 17:52 (Reply)
Not really, in the military orders were to be obeyed. There are no "orders" for Congressmen or Senators. Which is as it should be.
#5.1 grant1863 on 2008-02-03 23:55 (Reply)
well, General Eisenhower had to balance fractious foreign allies, while defeating the Wehrmacht, and every decision was life-or-death.

Later, as President in DC, there was always a tomorrow in the political battles, unlike say, a command failure on the Normandy beaches or the Bulge would have granted.
#5.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-04 00:45 (Reply)
I think Steve nailed it. The really qualified people are not about to crawl around in the slime, which is our political process these days.
#6 Santay on 2008-02-04 06:26 (Reply)
I like Ike, but remember that many conservatives of the time considered him dangerously moderate. To go back to a "real" conservative, I think you have to go back to Coolidge.

Which would be fine with me, BTW.
#7 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2008-02-04 22:03 (Reply)
"Silent Cal" --yes, an excellent model of a proper president.
#7.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-05 00:09 (Reply)

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