Land of Lincoln

I had the pleasure of reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," and while the first 100-150 pages were tough sledding (at least for me) and the book comes dangerously close to becoming hagiography, in general it kicked ass. I was sorry to see it end.

Seeing how Lincoln elevated the office of the presidency made me think about how much the current occupant of the White House and his recent predecessors have diminished it. Bush, the frat boy Cheney puppet; Clinton, the philanderer (who even with a Democratic majority in Congress wasted much of his presidency and could have accomplished so much more); Bush the Elder, who had no idea what to do with the position once he achieved it; Reagan, who slept through most of his presidency (talk about plausible deniability!) and committed the unpardonable sin of Bitburg, for which he should never be forgiven; Carter who more than lived up to the words of Golda Meir (she was speaking of someone else, and there are some who attribute the quote to Mark Twain), who said, "Don't be so modest. You're not that great."; Ford, whose sole claim to fame appeared to be that he was a nice, and not scandal tainted, guy; and Nixon, who would have bombed his own people (and certainly bombed the Constitution) if Kissinger had told him to.

Small men all, who made the office of the presidency smaller with their pathetic attempts to fill it.

Another Lincoln would be nice. I'd even settle for another Harry Truman.