As you prepare to cast your ballot, you might take at least a few moments to consider the qualities that make for a great president.
As we learned in this forum back in the summer, Alvin Stephen Felzenberg has contributed to the debate with the book, The Leaders We Deserved (And A Few We Didn?t): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game.
While I disagreed with some of Felzenberg?s assessments, I appreciated his willingness to move beyond the standard groupings (?great,? ?near great,? ?average,? etc.) in other high-profile presidential rankings to rate presidents based on six dimensions. Lincoln and Washington score well in each category, while others earn a wider range of scores.
Felzenberg concludes the book with a list of characteristics common to the best and worst presidents. Among those attributed to the former: a sense of purpose.
Nearly all presidents who earned a rating of great or near great articulated specific goals that they wanted to achieve as president. George Washington wanted to make the American experiment in independence and self-government succeed. Abraham Lincoln sought to restrict the spread of slavery and put the institution on the road to extinction. Dwight D. Eisenhower aimed to maintain a bipartisan consensus for the containment policies toward the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan wished to accelerate economic growth by reducing taxes, regulations, and inflation, and to end the Cold War both peacefully and on terms favorable to the West.
Even if you wait until after Election Day to peruse Felzenberg?s book, it might prove to be a useful tool for your assessment of the 44th president.
