Posted on 09/13/2008 7:22:01 AM PDT by milwguy
So far no one has picked up on the significance of Palin's invocation of Harry Truman in her convention speech. Her reference was more than just a bridge to a heartland-versus-Beltway theme. Truman, recall, was the only president of the 20th century who was not a college graduate. Less than two months after abruptly taking over from FDR with no preparation, Truman wrote his wife Bess describing his quick progress in taking the reins:
"It won't be long before I can sit back and study the whole picture and tell 'em what is to be done in each department. When things come to that stage there'll be no more to this job than there was to running Jackson County and not any more worry."
In retrospect it is clear that Truman "got it." He didn't need any more "experience" to master the job. "Well I'm facing another tall day as usual
John Sears, whom Reagan had unceremoniously fired from his campaign in 1980, later put his finger on a key aspect of Reagan's strength:
Since the primary prerequisite for handling the presidency is to ignore the immensity of it, a president must find the confidence to do so in self-knowledge. . . . Reagan knows himself better than most presidents and has kept his identity separate from politics. Reagan knows who he is and therefore he possesses the first prerequisite for being a good president.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Both Truman and Teagan knew who they were, were comfortable with themselves, and knew how to make HARD decisions. Contrast that with Obama, who wrote two books on his own search for identity, and who prefers 'nuance' and global concensus on the difficult decisions facing our country. Does anyone believe Obama could ever have made the decision of Truman to drop atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII? What about putting missles in Western Europe and starting the "Star Wars' missile defense plan that Reagan championed?
Leadership is about the ability to make decisions and rally the populace behind the path you have chosen. Thus far Obama has not shown any aptitude in this area, he wants to rally his supporters behind HIM, not anything he has espoused.
The judgement to make the right decisions is extremely important. We all know experienced, educated people, who cannot make good decisions and have not been very successful.
The media gushed over Truman. "I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."
With Palin, she tells the truth and they GIVE her hell.
I live withing the suburbia of the Truman Library. One of my customers made this comparison yesterday. He told me that Truman’s wife Bess did a little singing thing and one member of the media trashed her singing. Harry wrote him a letter and told him if he ever saw him in an alley he would punch him in the mouth and blacken his eyes.
“Lurking just below the surface of the second-guessing about Sarah Palin’s fitness to be president is the serious question of whether we still believe in the American people’s capacity for self-government, what we mean when we affirm that all American citizens are equal, and whether we tacitly believe there are distinct classes of citizens and that American government at the highest levels is an elite occupation.
Nails it on the head. Dems believe only ‘elites’ are capable of being leaders in this country, when in actuality, that class has usually been proven to be disasters in any society.
With respect, I believe it was Truman’s daughter, Margaret, who was the sometime ‘singer’, not Bess. Bess was a very shy and soft-spoken woman who loathed DC and all its trappings. It’s very difficult to imagine Bess performing a song in public.
Had to post this other gret quote from Jefferson in the article:
“Jefferson, moreover, trusted ordinary citizens to recognize political virtue in their fellow citizens: “Leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the aristoi from the pseudo-aristoi, of the wheat from the chaff. In general they will elect the really good and wise.”
I believe it was Harry’s daughter Margaret who was the singer. Not trying anything other than going for historical accuracy.
Go Sarah.
To be fair, it was only years after his Presidency that they gushed over him. At the time, they gave him all kinds of hell. Just like Reagan.
Palin is cut from the same cloth. She will eventually be a President much like them.
-ccm
“Truman, no college degree, Reagan, graduated from Eureka College. Both regarded as two of the greatest POTUS os the 20th century.”
There really is something called common sense, and it’s worth more than all the college degrees ever awarded. And particularly in this era of PCness and mulit-culti mis-education, college can all too often diminish a person’s common sense rather than enhancing it.
Common sense, good judgment and a belief in basic and traditional American values mean more to me in a potential president than education and experience combined and raised to the nth power.
And Obama continues to display a surprising lack of any of those desirable traits, while Palin displays more of it than any of the other three on the major party tickets.
Fairness noted! May I therefore revise and extend my remarks to “The media presently gushes over Truman.” Although, I am still technically correct. In the not too distant past, the media have gushed over Truman.
Go Sarah, ‘With a servant’s heart’.
Harry screwed up monumentally.
A product of the corrupt Missouri political machine the bosses thought he'd make a great vice-president whose duties at that time didn't amount to much more value than a 'bucket of warm spit'.
He bears responsibility for Potsdam where the ribbon was added to the Eastern Europe gift FRD wanted for Stalin, thereby enslaving millions of innocents.
He refused to admit that his administration and government was top-heavy with communists.
He lost the Korean War, thereby saddling us with a shameful truce that we are suffering for today.
Sarah Palin is no Harry S (for nothing) Truman.
Praise God!
My favorite of all First Ladies was Bess Truman. She was her own person and hated Washington, hence, spent a lot of her time back in Independence.
When she first became First Lady, she allowed one, and only one interview to a gaggle newspaper ladies. There she announced this was her first and would be her last interview. They all gasped after that announcement. With that said, she packed herself up and returned to Independence (by train).
My second favorite First Lady is Mrs. Betty Ford. Throughout the years after leaving the White House, her quick wit and great sense of humor was/is without peer. She always made me feel good after an extemporaneous talk/speech.
Well, I’m putting the blame for Korea on MacArthur’s hubris (to use a word that’s been in the news lately). Truman had the guts to fire him for screwing it up. After losing that chance, the situation was pretty much unrecoverable beyond what we have today.
I agree w.r.t. Potsdam although a lot of the blame goes to FDR for keeping Truman in the dark and for probably being a Soviet sympathizer in the first place (as you point out). Also a lot of the blame goes to the Brits for firing Churchill and turning it over to the “highly experienced” socialist Attlee. A lot of good that experience did him.
Wanna’ bet that Gibson thought that Palin wouldn’t know the meaning of “hubris”.
What? No college degree for an ivy league school your not fit for office. Some one who hasn’t had the wonderfull professors like Ward Churchill I would never have known how evil the USA is and reponsible for all the worlds problems. And how guns are EVIL and must be kept out of people’s hands. We will protect you from everything.
“What? No college degree for an ivy league school your not fit for office.”
Wonder what the nation would look like if we could ban all Ivy League grads from government positions for say, twenty or so years.
Vast improvements, I’d guess.
MacArthur didn't screw up the Inchon incursion. He didn't screw up the wiping up of Japan's invasions of the archipelago nations and vindicating those heroes who staggered over the Bataan Death March.
MacArthur was guilty of distrusting politicians who rein them in in times of war and those actions usually result in defeat!
WWII
Korea
Vietnam
?
As far as Churchill is concerned, he was, in fact, sitting between FDR and Stalin at Yalta and signed the papers that turned the Eastern nations over to a horrible fate at the hands of the USSR.
FDR, Truman, Churchill: useful pawns at the hands of Stalin and his agents who had honeycombed their governments.
Thanks for the correction, I hadn’t heard the story before and maybe my customers memories were a just a bit off, funny story though.
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