Reputation

[caroljane]

"I  think continually of  those who were truly great....

and left the vivid air signed with their honour".

- Stephen Spender

 

Obviously this is not about  our Reputations on our profiles on OL, though if you want to think I am truly great do feel free.  Partly it is about seeing a "smartest president"  post, I did not read it because it had a two-line internet address which gave me the hives. But it gave me something interesting to think about, because there have been so many smart presidents, from my very limited knowledge of them.  I divided them into ante- and post-bellum,  because there were so many educated intellectual types ante, and so many generals post. Not that I have anything against generals.  In general.

I would call it a tie between Jefferson and Lincoln, the mix between original thought, deep reason and formal education mixing so in them to lead the new nation as they did.

After the generals, Teddy Roosevelt is my main brain man, I think, although Wilson was the most highly educated, but a sad example of an over-thinker.

I leave it there for you all to enlighten about the mental capacities of the ensuers.

In the presidency as in life, I think, intelligence is only one of the factors required for success in  a four-year contract job, and usually not the most important one.

[Peter]

Before he was nominated I spoofed: Good evening. This is David Pecker of The National Enquirer and I am here to interview Presidential candidate Donald Trump. Good evening, future Mr. President. Is there anything you want to get off your chest before we begin?

Yeah, David. I still say Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or somewhere outside the United States. I will have the CIA look into that and water board those people in Honolulu who faked his birth certificate.  And he was raised a Muslim. His Black Power Christian Church was just a sham to get elected. Just look at his name. It’s obviously not American. And for Christ’s sake everybody knows the book title, “Dreams of My Father” was a stolen title. It was Mitch Album, not Barack Obama who wrote, “Dreams of My Father.”

How will your campaign change after you win the nomination, Mr. Trump?

Well, JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” My slogan is “America First, and ask what you can to for Trump.”    

Thank you Mr. Trump for a great interview. American will get to love the real Donald Trump. end quote

In spite of my spoof, America did begin to “love” the real Donald Trump. We are freer, safer, smarter, and better off. I was deeply impressed when he refused to sign that bogus Paris Climate Accord. How dare he! THEY screamed. The mocking news media can’t get enough of his brilliance and any “spin” (or is that smelled “shit”) they try to throw at him is ignored by 75 percent of Americans after they say to themselves, “What hogwash!” It’s a good day in America.

Applied history, intelligence and reason could be President Trump’s motto. As the song goes, “There goes my hero,” and I am very serious and not spoofing now. Peter    

[Jonathan]

17 hours ago, caroljane said:

I would call it a tie between Jefferson and Lincoln, the mix between original thought, deep reason and formal education mixing so in them to lead the new nation as they did.

How would Jefferson or Lincoln fare against a modern, hostile, activist media? How would any past distinguished president do against the tactics used against Bush, McCain, and Romney? What would happen to their reputations when judged by the type of shallow people who suffer from TDS? I don't think they'd handle it well. They'd be shocked and dumbfounded at the unintelligence and irrationality of the TDS mentality.

J

[Peter]

I remember the political cartoons of those times and they were vicious! I admire Lincoln but I went to Monticello when I live in Charlottesville,  Not that being poor and living in a log cabin was necessarily bad back in the early 1800's. They didn't have vinyl siding back then, but I imagine they somehow survived brutal winters and hot summers. Jefferson did live like a "royal." He would have fit in at ye olde Downton Abbey.