Remembering the indispensable man

Powerline ^ | 2/22/2011 | Scott Johnson

[Lakeshark]

Today is the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington's greatness was the rarest and the most needed. At this remove in time, it is also the hardest to comprehend.

Take, for example, Washington's contribution to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Washington's mere presence lent the undertaking and its handiwork the legitimacy that resulted in success. The convention's first order of business was the election of a presiding officer. Washington was the delegates' unanimous choice.

[Lakeshark]

The original President, the main reason for President's Day. A good read on his birthday, a good reminder of a giant who came before.

[mmercier]

We no longer have indispensable men willing to present for public service.

As we deserve, we get the... Churlish; and those who manifest some form of greed interbred with a malignant narcissistic desire to control.

[stevem]

Read anything about that era...anything. There isn't one chance in an expanding universe that the United States could ever be if George Washington wasn't or elected to remain in Virginia or resigned the same day he saw how rag tag his first forces were.

Same if he had said, "No," to the notion of President Washington.

If not for the United States, no one would ever have heard of George Washington. The reverse is equally true.

[Jacquerie]

Virginia planters regarded it as their duty to serve their colony/state in elective positions. They could no more turn down public office than a enfranchised man could refuse to vote. Much was expected of this aristocracy, and much was given.

And for it all, Washington never accepted a dime’s worth of compensation. It is a shame that he no longer rates #1.