Brad DeLong links to this NRO Symposium on the favorite presidents of the panelists. Want to see their list?
Richard Brookhiser... George Washington
H. W. Crocker III... Ronald Reagan
John Derbyshire... Calvin Coolidge
Bruce Frohnen... William Henry Harrison
Paul Kengor... Ronald Reagan
John J. Miller... Calvin Coolidge
I'm with DeLong--could none of them bring themselves to mention Abraham Lincoln? Nothing against Washington, you understand. But were it not for the fact that he was the first, he would have been remembered as the Eisenhower of his day--a war hero who gave a great farewell address that his successors ignored. Someone had to be first, and Washington was good in the role. But Lincoln's task was much more trying.
He wanted to save the Union and end the expansion of slavery, but he did not set out to be an emancipator even though he felt that slavery was morally wrong. He would have preferred that slavery die a slow death and fade away. But the war changed him. In his final speeches, you sense that he knew that things had changed. It is truly a tragedy of history that he did not live to preside over the reconstruction. It is that question--what would the reconstruction have been like if Lincoln had lived--that vexes me. Did he have enough fight left in him to resist the opponents in his own party? We romanticize Lincoln--perhaps too much. What if he had lived and had failed at the reconstruction? Would he still be on the penny then?
Interesting questions, but reality brings us back. He went out on top, and... for better or for worse... become a martyr. He was an incredibly complex man, not without contradictions. I've studied him, but I never stop wanting to know more. He managed to do the right thing when it counted.
And did it ever count.
I can think of half-a-dozen founding fathers would would have made an adequate first president. But the thought of any other mid-19th century politician being elected president in 1860 is unfathomable. And that right there, is the most concise statement of why Abraham Lincoln is my pick for our nation's greatest president.
Reconstructing Ronald Reagan
By Russell Baker
New York Review of Books
Interesting read about Ronnie. I read Dutch and found it a good read also. I liked the part where someone says after these years of knowing gwb Ronnie stands with the imortals.
Hey how about: Chester Alan Arthur? (my fave)