Obama: the right leader for our time

According to the oft cited quote from Winston Churchill: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.”

And certainly it seems that, by design, by luck, or by divine providence, whenever the US has been faced with a major crisis it has eventually brought forth a leader to deal with that crisis. FDR saw the country through both the great depression and World War II, Abraham Lincoln successfully defended the union and ended slavery during the civil war, and at the nation's most critical moment, its birth, George Washington set an unmatched example of how to lead, and transfer leadership for the new republic.

As the US stares down the worst economic crisis since the great depression, as it finds itself embroiled in two land wars, as it sees its military, political, and economic leadership at new lows, will we be again so fortunate as to choose a man who historians will rank with Washington, with FDR, with Lincoln?

Reformed religious right leader, author, and Obama supporter Frank Schaeffer certainly thinks so:

Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.

Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.

As a skeptic and cynic by inclination, as well as training, I have a hard time buying into the totality of Schaeffer's paean.

And certainly such belief would be mocked incessantly by the right (despite, of course, some of the rather silly things they've said about W over the years).

The thing is though, I really want to believe.

And, even as an agnostic, even I might be inclined to say a word or two in prayer to whatever gods there may be, that Obama become the man we so desperately need him to be.

You can read Schaeffer's whole post over at Huffingtonpost.com.

Lessons ignored: George Bush on George Washington

I realize that I should learn to let such things pass, but I somehow can't stop myself from taking note of W's latest effort to compare himself with one of America's greatest leaders, George Washington. From Bush's Presidents Day speech:

"On the field of battle, Washington's forces were facing a mighty empire, and the odds against them were overwhelming. The ragged Continental Army lost more battles than it won, suffered waves of desertions, and stood on the brink of disaster many times. Yet George Washington's calm hand and determination kept the cause of independence and the principles of our Declaration alive."

In other words Bush is implying that critics should back off and trust W's calm hand and determination.

Not surprisingly W fails to note the irony of the historical comparison to which he has just alluded:

On the field of battle, Washington's forces were facing a mighty empire, and the odds against them were overwhelming. The ragged Continental Army lost more battles than it won, suffered waves of desertions, and stood on the brink of disaster many times.

The British, the greatest military power of its day, lost to what amounted to (in their eyes) a ragtag bunch of farmers wielding hunting rifles, demonstrating the difficulty faced by a military power, however great, when fighting an enemy thousands of miles distant, on the enemies' own turf, where the enemy himself is indistinguishable from the general population.

No doubt King George III believed the American revolt would be over in six months as well.

Of course why I should expect a man who seems incapable of correctly interpreting his morning newspaper (or in W's case his morning PDB), why I should expect such a person to garner any lessons from history is beyond me.

And I realize that politicians the world over habitually compare themselves (favorably) with revered figures from the past.

Still, I find it irritating for George Washington's legacy to be maligned by comparison to that of the Worst. President. Ever.