Appreciate the thoughtful remarks. With Eisenhower, I admire his presidency because he presided over a time of general peace and prosperity where nothing happened. While he gets credit for being a good president, he is often overlooked as one of the greats in part because nothing really happened on his watch. Conservatives of all people appreciate what a work of greatness it is to be president of a government where nothing happens, where the list of accomplishments flowing forth from DC is overshadowed by the general peace and prosperity of the nation.
While every president receives too much credit for what happens with the economy on their watch, Eisenhower receives too little credit for his brilliant vision, for guiding the country and its foreign relations towards reasonably successful, bipartisan and uneventful outcomes during his years. His career was full of examples of this kind of quiet effective leadership, but the most significant was clearly ‘managing’ the war, mustering all of the resources and personalities required to win it. To my mind, there have been a few presidents that governed in the model of George Washington. Eisenhower was one of them.
Susan Eisenhower, Ike’s granddaughter, wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post last week endorsing Obama. She’s a life-long member of the Republican Party who is crossing lines to support Obama. She sees the same things we do. Time to turn the page.
