The ultimate president -- here's the recipe
A bit of inspirational vision from Thomas Jefferson. A dose of national supremacy from James Monroe. Theodore Roosevelt's bully pulpit, Ronald Reagan's folksy charm and Bill Clinton's empathy. Add it all up and what have you got? The ultimate president. Of course, there's no such thing as a perfect chief executive, but that doesn't stop Americans from looking for one in the bits and pieces of presidents past. A Frankenstein president might look like this: startclickprintexclude--> PROTECTOR: Teddy's cousin, the avuncular Franklin D. Roosevelt, led the nation out of the Great Depression and into World War II, famously saying that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Reagan, too, exuded a fatherliness that many found appealing in a president. AMBITION: Eager to see the nation's boundaries expanded, Americans embraced James K. Polk's notion of "Manifest Destiny," an ideology that held that it was the destiny of the United States to expand its territory to the Pacific Ocean and spread the blessings of liberty. SPIRITUALITY: Democrat Jimmy Carter may have been the nation's first evangelical president. President George W. Bush called Jesus his favorite philosopher. AUTHENTICITY: Harry Truman took long walks in public near the White House, which he called the "Great White Jail," and never seemed to lose touch with his Missouri roots. "I have had all of Washington I want," he wrote after choosing not to seek a third term. "I prefer my life in Missouri and I prefer to live the way I do." DECISIVENESS: President George W. Bush persuaded wary voters to back his re-election bid despite concerns about the war in Iraq, saying in his 2004 convention speech: "Even when we don't agree, at least you know what I believe and where I stand." After the campaign, the war took a bad turn and voters started to see stubbornness in his so-called resolve. |
