It’s no secret that I enjoy writing.
I have written two books and to date have written over 350 opinion columns since 1998. I have always wanted to write a book about some of the American presidents but it is a monumental task.
If I could write a book about the presidents who I have lived to see, I would have called it “Missed Opportunities.”
I would start out with John F. Kennedy whose failures had more to do with fate than with bad judgments or dumb mistakes.
During his brief period in office he set a high mark for vision and articulated a host of possible reforms that would elevate our country. His handling of the confrontation with Russia’s Nikita Khrushchev over Russian intervention in Cuba, was indeed a profile in courage.
Richard Nixon, while not my favorite, was able to make history by traveling to China, a place where no Republican would dream of visiting.
He defied his party and got America to understand that sometimes confronting your adversary is the way to bring about change. His foreign relations successes would have made him a great leader in the history books, but his failures at home brought his presidency down to a crashing end.
America owed a great deal to Gerald Ford for having the courage to pardon Richard Nixon to avoid our country from being involved in years of angst.
But President Ford, despite having years of success in Congress, could never escape the image of being a bumbler, incapable to leading at a time when leadership was badly needed.
His effort at being elected to a full term ended with his defeat at the hands of Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.
President Carter had the smarts to be a leader and understood what the obstacles were that a president needed to conquer.
But Carter surrounded himself with his Georgia buddies, most of whom were incapable of providing wise counsel.
In the end, faced with the Iranian hostage crises, Carter was unable to muster the strength required to get the hostages released. In the end, he was outsmarted by smarter Ronald Reagan.
Most Americans, from either party, have developed a great deal of nostalgia for the Reagan years because for one brief shining moment he made Americans feel better about themselves and about their country.
He was able to raise taxes four times and do things that no Republican would dare to do. But like many other presidents, his final years were riddled with scandal. The Iran Contra episode tainted his legacy and history gives him mixed reviews.
President George H.W. Bush was a classy president who had all of the history needed to succeed.
But he lacked the ability to convince the voters that he understood their pain and served only one term.
President Clinton had the ideas and vision to make him a leader for all people. His reforms were historic but fell victim to personal weakness that debased his legacy.
President George W. Bush continued the family dynasty but never had the smarts of his father. He was able to serve two full terms but in the end will be remembered most for getting America into the war in Iraq which today continues to drain our federal budget. Bush listened to the wrong people and never seized the moment of greatness.
President Barack Obama had the fastest rise to power of any American president.
From an obscure start as a community organizer he rose to become a state legislator, a U.S. senator and then was elected president on the promise of hope and change.
He did many positive things but in the end they were not enough for him to meet everyone’s expectations.
To be fair, he never had any help from the Republican Party, and no doubt their campaign to undermine him succeeded.
President Donald Trump has time left to his first term but even his most loyal supporters will admit that his tenure has failed to unite America.
Once elected president, any successful candidate should read some of the history books and see how leaders succeeded and how consensus was built.
At this early stage, it is safe to say he too has missed his golden opportunity
