Michael's Presidential Gallery
Click HERE to hear "Hail to the Chief"
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt is one of my favorite presidents and is considered to be a "near-great" president, commonly ranked just after Franklin Roosevelt. Ever since he was a young man, TR wanted to be a master politician and to restore the old political order which he believed was lost in industrialization. TR knew that if he were to ever be successful in politics, he would need a good education and a varied career. With this in mind, TR, after attending Harvard University, went to the Dakotas to get a "taste of real America." When the Spanish-American War loomed on the horizon, TR seized the opportunity to to gain a military reputation and joined the cavalry. Perhaps the most memorable scene from the "Splendid Little War" is that of Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charging San Juan Hill.
With his status as a war hero secure, TR returned to New York to run for Governor and won. To the dismay of the Republican Party, TR was completely uncontrollable as Governor, so they "shut him up" by making him Vice President under William McKinley. In 1901, McKinley was assassinated and TR ascended to the Oval Office.
As president, TR was sensitive to the needs and desires of the American people, passing many reform bills such as the Pure Food & Drug Act and the Hepburn Act to regulate the railroads. TR was also a passionate conservationist and worked with other conservations like John Muir and Gifford Pinchot to preserve and create our national parks. TR also led America out of its long tradition of isolationism and into world affairs by declaring his Roosevelt Corrollary to the Monroe Doctrine, building the Panama Canal, expanding the "Great White Fleet," and using his "gunboat diplomacy" ("I speak softly, but I carry a big stick"). He also won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Russo-Japanese War.
Unfortunately, TR chose not to run for a third term and left the White House in 1909, passing the presidency to his Vice President William Howard Taft. TR did re-appear on the political scene, though, in 1912, after his safari in Africa, to run against Taft and Wilson on a third party ticket, nicknamed the Bull Moose Party. TR would have won if he had run against just Taft or Wilson, but the three-way race split the Republican Party and allowed that great idealist Woodrow Wilson to slip into office.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson is my other favorite president, and ranked as a near-great president. Wilson's eight years in office changed both American and world politics. Long after Wilson's death, his idealism would be remembered and called upon in World War II and throughout the Cold War.
Before his term in office, Wilson was the Governor of New Jersey and President of Princeton University, initially winning fame at his academic reforms at Princeton. In 1912, Wilson narrowly slipped into the Oval Office when Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican Party. As president, Wilson worked hard to better the lives of Americans and to reform big business.
Despite his efforts, America was sucked into World War I and Wilson brought his idealism to the world scene. Wilsonian Idealism was embodied in his Fourteen Points (particularly in Wilson's League of Nations) for peace which he put forth at the Versailles Treaty at the conclusion of the war. Unfortunately, America was not ready to play a part in world affairs and Congress, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, refused to ratify the Treaty. Wilson left office in 1921 a sick and broken man. After suffering a series of major strokes and having watched his dreams for world preace shattered, Wilson passed away in 1924.
Harry S. Truman
Probably one of the most controversial presidents of the 20th Century, Harry S. Truman is at least a near-great president. While most US presidents only had to face minor problems, Truman had to tackle three major landmark problems: 1)Dealing with Communist expansion, 2)Leading the country through reconversion from war to peace, and 3)Following the great FDR and living up to his standards. Only one other president, Andrew Johnson, has had to follow in the footsteps of such a towering figure as FDR, and he was a complete failure and was the only president to ever be impeached! Known as the "Little Man from Missouri," Truman served in World War I and gained fame in thec Senate during World War II, leading some important committees. When an agreement about the Vice Presidency could not be reached at the 1945 Democratic Convention, they turned to Harry S. Truman -- this became known as the "Second Missouri Compromise." Assuming office after the death of FDR in 1945, Truman immediately immersed himself in government and tried to provide continuity to prevent a crisis. As president, Truman was honest and hard-working, seeking both world peace and economic stability. Due to his enterance into the Korean Conflict, steady inflation (which was beyond his control), and his failure to get domestic reforms pushed through Congress, Truman left office with a staggering 31% approval rating, despised by the people. Now Truman is seen as a near-great president whose policies of Containment and economic stability paved the way for future presidents like Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan.
Click HERE to hear Harry Truman.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Another great controversial president is Lyndon Baines Johnson. Ascending to the presidency after Kennedy's asasination in 1963, LBJ launched a new era in American politics and society. His "Great Society" would fulfill the liberal, New Deal dreams of past greats like FDR, Truman, and Kennedy.
Raised in rural Texas in a poor household, Lyndon learned to love politics from his father. But LBJ also learned from his father's many mistakes and failures. After completing his education, LBJ became a school teacher and quickly learned of the many hardships faced by minorities and the poor. After a year of teaching, he was hired as a Congressional aide to the Texan playboy Congressman Richard Kleberg. Since Kleberg was always at his country club, LBJ ran the office single-handedly and developed many of his campaigning and political tricks. He soon made his way from a Congressional aide to a Congressman himself, and then a Senator. LBJ sought to know the workings of Capitol Hill inside and out, always willing to do people favors and finding out what each Senator's tastes were. LBJ was perfect in the Senate and he quickly rose to the top, transforming every position he filled into a seat of power.
As a Senate leader and one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill, it is puzzling why he gave it all up for the Vice Presidency under Kennedy. Perhaps he believed that he could transform the useless office of Vice President into another seat of power as he had done with all his other offices, but it was not meant to be. LBJ the Vice President was frustrated and miserable.
On November 22, 1963, history would thrust the lankey and crewd politician from Texas into the Oval Office with the assassination of Kennedy. Like Truman before him, LBJ sought to privide a continuity of government, recognizing the national crisis at hand. With a sympathetic Congress and a willing public, LBJ was able to push through more legislation than even FDR's New Deal. Landmark legislations like Medicare, Federal Aide to Education, National Endowment for the Arts, and Clean Air & Clean Water Acts, just to name a few, quickly formed the foundation for his "Great Society." LBJ also launched a "War on Poverty" and a series on monumental Civil Rights Acts.
Unfortuntely, LBJ sealed the doom of his "Great Society" and his own with the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Started by Eisenhower and escalated by Kennedy, LBJ simply continued the accepted and approved Policy of Containment begun by Truman. His central mistake, though, was his belief that he could keep the war from the public, thus allowing the rest of his "Great Society" legislation to pass through Congress. Of course, he failed. As news of the war spread, his legislation was rejected and the public lost their faith and trust in him. LBJ left the presidency hated by liberals, conservarives, and moderates alike. Much of this animosity still exists today, but who knows how we will view his presidency in twenty years!
Click HERE to hear LBJ speak about Kennedy's assassination.
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover, a name senonimous with failure and rigidity, is perhaps one of the most unluckiest presidents of our country's short history. In his four years in the Oval Office, Hoover faced monumental domestic problems and revolutionary foreign difficulties - crisis at home and distaster abroad characterized his term. As an engineer and former Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover was seen as a "modern" thinker, and, with his reputation as a progressive humanitarian, the answer to America's problems in 1928. Almost as soon as he entered office, though, the consequences of unchecked consumerism and easy credit of the "Roaring Twenties" became realized with the stock market crash of 1929. Although his repsonse to the unprecented economic disaster and the Great Depression were indeed innovative and bold (such as the Reconstruction Finance Committee), Hoover nonetheless stood for the traditional conservatism of the 1920's and was ultimately unprepared for the such a disaster. After the crash of '29, his promise of "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" became a constant reminder of his own inadequacy.
With unemployment rates soaring to unprecedented levels and the standard of living plummiting to homelessness and starvation, the people came to despise Hoover and the conservatives. For example, the shanty towns with houses made of boxes and trash which developed on the outskirts of cities were hatefully referred to as "Hoovervilles," and pockets turned inside-out were called "Hoover-flags." Hoover sealed his doom, though, in 1923 with his reaction to the Bonus Army march on Washington. When the make-shift band of WWI veterans came to Washington D.C. demanding their army bonuses early, Hoover responded by sending the young General Douglas McArthur to burn their tents at Anacostia Flats and chase them away with armed troops and tanks.
Because of his immense unpopularity, Hoover lost the consenus and trust of the people, thus crippling the rest of his presidency and allowing the Democrats to regain the White House in 1932 with FDR and his New Deal. In his book Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, William E. Leuchtenburg states, "A man of impressive accomplishments, he [Hoover] had little understanding of the nuances of the art of governing. . . . No president ever worked harder in the White House than Herbert Hoover, but he was never able to convince the nation that he cared deeply how people were suffering and that he shared with them the sorrows and the blighted prospects the depression had brought."
Ronald Reagan
"The pride is back!" As president, Ronald Reagan both brought back a long overdue respect for the presidency and divided the country with his policies. Although the effectiveness and appropriateness of his programs can be debated, no one can deny that Reagan did indeed bring an new pride to the American people and restored, even if only momentarily, trust in the presidency. His witty remarks and constant optimism won him the nickname, "President Feel-good."
Ronald Reagan grew-up in small-town Illinois in a family of moderate means. This embodiment of small-town culture of individualism and honesty would become evident in his future politics. After a job as a sports announcer during the Depression, Reagan went to Hollywood to become an actor. Although he began as a New Deal Democrat and a supporter of Truman, in the 1950's he switched to the Republican Party over the issues of Communism and organized labor. In 1960, he supported Nixon and in 1964 he supported the obvious loser Goldwater. In 1966, he decided to run against Pat Brown for Governor of California and won. He quickly won fame as governor for his pragmatism and charisma (although he opposed abortion morally, he signed into law the most liberal abortion bill ever). After losing the Republican nomination in 1976 to Ford, he obtained the nomination in 1980, placing him against the upopular Carter.
Although a majority of his initial success as president was due to luck (release of the hostages in Iran), he did inspire a new hope in the people. The public epsecially warmed to him after the assassination attempt: when his wife Nancy met him at the hospital he said to her "I forgot to duck!," and in the operating room he told the surgeons "I hope your all Republicans." His resilience won the country over and captured their imagination.
For the first two years of his presidency, the economy continued to stumble and the stock market continued to slow, but in 1983 things began to get better. With such controversial programs as Reaganonmics, he was ble to breathe life back into the economy at the expense of our national budget and deficit, running the largest depts in US history. Reagan also found success in the area of foreign affairs where he negotiated with the reformed-minded Gorbachev and intimidated the Russians with a nuclear weapons build-up and his SDI (Star Wars) defense strategy. The arms race, though, aroused much suspicion and fear on the homefront, resulting in such movments as the Freeze Movement.
Despite the public's fears of nuclear war and the Iran-Contra Scandal, Reagan did offer American's hope in the future and led the country in a new direction. Only time will tell whether it was the right direction.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Richard M. Nixon
Warren G. Harding
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