johnson

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Reflections On the Presidents I Remember


I have been alive now to have lived under four different Presidents of the United States. The first I must be excused from any remembrance of Harry Truman as when he left office, January 1953, I was only 3. Pres. Eisenhower is the first president of whom I have any memory. It was probably around 1958. The media seemed to be mocking him for having back problems and his regular appearance on the golf course. I do remember when he was running for re-election in 1956, in the town of Andover MA where my father had his business, everyone seemed to be wearing “I LIKE IKE” buttons. Of course, I was still not of an age during his administration to have any political feelings about him. My father, who had served in World War 2, voted for him twice for obvious reasons. On reflection, great credit must be given to Pres. Eisenhower as he had the idea to take the German Autobahn and replicate in the United States as our Interstate Highway system.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy was running against Richard Nixon, Eisenhower’s Vice-President, for the Presidency. I remember a family a short distance from my house having “vote for Nixon” signs all over a pine tree in their yard. Even to my young 11-year-old brain, this seemed to be a bit overboard. And so, I took the opposing side and rooted for Kennedy, even though I was for too young to vote. After all, Kennedy was a Massachusetts man and a Catholic, both which I was, and am. Also, something that bothered me immensely, the Republican Party launched a campaign against Kennedy saying, to effect, that his election to the Presidency would mean the Pope would be meddling in our country’s affairs. Something inside me told me that was not true.

After Kennedy had won, by an extremely narrow margin, I stopped thinking about politics. It was not until 1963, when I was 13 years old, and a freshman in high school, that one sad day, November 23rd, someone came to the music room, where I was part of the band, and told us that Kennedy had been assassinated. Time seemed to stop. It was a little after 2 in the afternoon, and everyone started wandering in the corridors, no one saying much of anything besides “can you believe it?” There was no need to announce the end of the school day as students were already leaving the school and heading home. I think most of us watched in stunned silence, before our televisions, the next six days. In between his assassination and funeral, Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live television. I did see that as it happened and once again was stunned by what was going on in our country at that time. Our first youthful President, in either our recollection or that of our parents, had been taken from us and was replaced by a much older man. In Kennedy so many of us had such high expectations which started with his promising to put a man on the moon and then his handling of the Cuban missile crisis.

I think a lot of people tuned out as Johnson was sworn into the Presidency aboard Air Force 1. He did keep the space race going which gave us all something to cheer about. But he also increased our presence in Vietnam which had started during the Kennedy Administration. Personally, I tuned that out as graduating from high school was my priority. On reflection, a little reflection back then on what was going on in Vietnam would have done me good. Still, it would not have changed my mind away from joining the military. I think Johnson was an average president. He had no crowning achievements.

An aside. Pres. Johnson had kept many of Kennedy’s cabinet members. One of them was Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General. Eventually he was replaced but in 1968 he was running for President and once again our hopes arouse only to be dashed when he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. I was in the U.S. Army’s flight school at the time. I called my mother and in tears asked her what was going on. I felt our country was in trouble.

In 1969, Richard Nixon took office as President. At the time, the U.S. Army had given me all all expenses paid for vacation in the far east, Asia. For some reason, still unknown to me, our former vice-president, Hubert Humphy (it could have been Nixon’s VP) showed up in-country and set up the protect him at all costs scenario. I though it to be foolishness on his part and it gave me a poor opinion of Richard Nixon, poorer, that is, than I already had. Nixon simply continued the mess which was going on before realizing its futility. I was a career soldier and I do remember something he did for which I am grateful. He gave the entire military a big pay raise. We really deserved and even though we were still grossly underpaid, we were thankful. Nixon’s presidency was first blackened by the Spiro Agnew debacle, when it was found out he was doing illegal business activities and was forced to resign. He was replaced by Gerald Ford, a soft spoken, well-respected senator from Michigan. When Nixon resigned, Ford filled the void.

President Ford was made fun of from his stumbling a couple of times. But in true, he was a breath of fresh air after the Nixon Presidency. Pres. Ford was a highly qualified, honest to a fault President. It is a bit difficult to explain Ford’s failure to win the Presidency in 1976 but he at least had restored honor to the position.

President Jimmy Carter was probably one of the least ready for the job Presidents we have ever had. People were quick to point out that he had a degree in nuclear engineering, his service in the US Navy in such a position. His folksy way made him a most likeable person and that may have been the single reason he prevailed. By anyone’s measure of his time in office, he was a failure. To his credit, Carter tried to free the hostages in Iran only to have the mission fail from an unforeseen sandstorm. In the election of 1980, Republicans used that failure to describe his entire Presidency, along with very high interest rates, something no President has much control over. He was also submarined by the Republican “October surprise” where Ronald Reagan had promised to free the hostages.

President Reagan took office on January 20, 1981, and the hostages in Iran were immediately released. That some sort of an illegal backroom deal was made was obvious. But what was it? Reagan was a good talker and could convince people of many things. Reagan, like Carter, had a folksy way about him and with economics as they were going into the election, it was easy for the American public embrace him in hopes of a change for the better. Interest rates did go down. Our economy also seemed to settle down and an era of “good feeling” set in. But behind the scenes, the Reagan administration arranged for the sale of arms to Iran, something that had been made illegal by Congress. The funds gained from the sales were used to arm the Nicaraguan rebels. At the forefront was Lt. Col. Oliver North. And although North was the most visible part of those illegal doings and who took the fall. In truth, nothing happens of that nature that the President is not aware. Then in 1987 the stock market took a fall so great that all trading had to be suspended. Until that time, there was nothing to stop the freefall. Not long afterward, Congress passed a law directing the stock markets to put in stop gap measures should the market be headed for a similar fall. It has been used in the years since. And finally, we know for fact that President Reagan suffered for Alzheimer’s Disease. It is well-established that this disease takes its time settling in and that it is likely he was suffering from it while still President. Although some Democrats have suggested that Nancy Reagan was calling the shots, I think it was most likely VP Bush. Reagan’s successes can be measured in just 2 places. First, he put in place a minimum tax rate for all corporations and person’s making over a million dollars a year. Republicans since have seen fit to remove those things. More importantly, he united what had been a divided Republican Party.

I am not going to say much of President George H. W. Bush. Mr. Bush was an extremely honest president and one who did not shy from difficult situations. His downfall, of course, was when he found it necessary to raise taxes after having run on a no new tax platform. I was in Gunter AFB in Mississippi in 1991 with a high ranking official from the U.S. Air Force’s air staff from the Pentagon. I was working for the U.S. Department of Transportation but worked entirely on military projects related to transportation and logistics. The man I was with, who I will call George, sat with me as we watched the beginning of our war against Saddam Hussein. Mr. Bush did not feign enjoining the fight but instead put exactly the right troops at exactly the right time in Saudi Arabia to take on the Iraqi Republican Guard, purportedly their finest troops. I think the Bush Presidency was an overwhelming success at all levels.

Then in 1993 the reins of power were turned over to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton may well have been the most intelligent President we have ever had, to include going forward to the present day. Republicans hated Clinton in some part because he stole some of their agenda, eliminating the national debt, and also by repeated, and mostly without merit, the claims of sexual misconduct by the President, the one which was both true and caused his impeachment, was his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. But he was far from the first, or even the second, to have had such dalliances. Presidents Kennedy, Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Harding all have well-documented such affairs. Why was Clinton different? Republican truly hated him and had been spurned on by New Gingrich, a Republican representative from Georgia. How would I characterize the Clinton Presidency? A little above average, in light of his financial successes, but nothing to cheer about.

The last presidency I will comment on is that of George W. Bush. Mr. Bush probably made the Presidency via US Supreme Court meddling. It overturned a Florida Supreme Court decision, something the USSJC is wont to do at all times. In office on 8 months, Mr. Bush was put into an impossible situation. On 9/11 he was blindsided by a terrorist attack on our country. Many people, particularly Democrats, were quick to point to his inaction immediately following the attack. That was simple political fodder, expediancy, when in fact, there was nothing to do in the moment except to support those at the twin towers in their efforts. That he did do with immediacy. From there, a planned attack on Iraq was formed. The reasoning used, extremely faulty, was that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction and hid terrorists. There were no weapons of mass destruction but there certainly were terrorists. And when it was discovered that Osama Bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks and that he was hiding in Afghanistan, the war was expanded to there. I think those were the right moves at the time. Saddam Hussein was still in power in Iraq and had no problem not only terrorizing his own people but harbored those who terrorized other countries. By-and-large, the Bush Presidency was above average. His one big failure was his inability to reign in financial markets, and in particular, the sub-prime mortgage thieves. Even though I did not vote for Mr. Bush either time, I found myself defending him when Democrats were calling him a draft dodger, someone who used his father’s office to gain a position in the Texas Air National Guard. The very fact that he served was enough. As anyone who ever served in Vietnam knows, members of the National Guard of the various states were not immune from serving there, and many did. He was, and is, an honorable man who served his country to the best of his ability.

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America’s Ten Worst Presidents


This list is in the order they took office and not how badly a job I think they did.  I am certain at least one of my choices will cause some people to think me nuts.  But before you shunt aside any of my choices out of hand, consider the evidence offered.

1.  John Quincy Adams — Adams was seen by the Federalists as a natural to take office.  He was hugely popular in senate.  He was a successful Secretary of State under Monroe and held a number of other offices which seemed to make the case for his being president.  Once in office, however, Adams became impotent.  He had to fight sectionalism and factionalism that was rife in the congress of the day.  He did not take on either fight.  Charges of corruption were rampant during his term, and Adams proved to be entirely unfit for the office.  He was easily defeated by Jackson.  Adams was sent to the house of representatives in 1830.  His career as a U.S. representative was stellar and showed the initiative and statesmanship he lacked as chief executive.

2.  John Tyler — Most people in government did not take Tyler seriously.  Even though he was a Whig, he vetoed the entire Whig agenda.  He vetoed a bill that may have helped the country after the Bank Panic of 1837.  He was so hated by his own party members that he was expelled from the party prior to the next election cycle.

3.  Franklin Pierce — Pierce was in many ways like J. Q. Adams.  He was neither able to lead his party nor navigate the maelstroms of the day.  Issues like expansionism, states rights, slavery, the Kansas Nebraska Act, and a civil war in Kansas were his undoing.  Pierce found it difficult to gain a consensus on any issue and frequently found himself at odds with his own party, and Northerners in general, he was from New Hampshire.

4.  Andrew Johnson — The man Lincoln hand-picked to help bring the south back into the union failed in that respect, and many others.  When the Confederacy put down its arms it was the Johnson administration that oversaw the events that followed.  Northern men who saw a quick buck to be made at the south’s expense rushed to the defeated states and became known as carpetbaggers.  Johnson’s handling of the officers of the Confederate army was seen as particularly heavy-handed.  They were not allowed to hold public office and were forced to sign a pledge of allegiance.  Johnson’s rebuilding of the south was an abysmal failure.

5.  Ulysses S. Grant — Grant simply continued many of the failing programs started by Johnson, most of which are referred to as “radical reform.”  The radical spoken of is that of the “Radical Republicans.”  These were northern Republicans who were hell-bent on a continued punishing of the south for having started the civil war.  Grant was a scrupulously honest man but ill-suited for the office of the president.

6.  Warren G. Harding — Harding may have been the most corrupt president this country has ever had to suffer with.  Harding is best known for the “Teapot Dome Scandal.”  This scandal refers to the probably bribery involved with high government officials, possibly Harding himself, in the leasing of an oil field known as “Teapot Dome.”  But that was just one of many such charges pressed to the administration.  Well-known criminal elements were able to influence federal officials to make deals with them that helped them dodge probable arrests.

7.  Herbert Hoover — Hoover inherited the excesses allowed by the Coolidge administration.  These were excesses in the banking and asset trading community.  In March 1929 Hoover was warned that the stock market was in perilous danger of collapse.  But Hoover chose to ignore the warnings, possibly desiring to not anger industrialists he relied upon.  But even after the collapse of the market in October 1929, Hoover continued to insist that America stay the course, that recovery was near.  His intransigence was his ultimate demise.

8.  Jimmy Carter — One of the things Carter is accused of is having been too cerebral.  He lacked the ability to be pragmatic about the economics of the nation at the time.  Carter, for all his success with Israel and Egypt, was equally a failure in his handling of the economy.  Interest rates skyrocketed which greatly hurt the housing market as well as other markets.

9.  Ronald Reagan — People were so unhappy with what Carter had brought them they almost greedily embraced any change in economic course.  And Reagan offer just such a course.  Reagan started deregulation without any thought to its consequences.   Reagan put to flying public at immediate risk when he fired all the striking air traffic controllers and replaced them either with managers or poorly trained controllers.  Reagan, and his cronies, were responsible for the Iran-Contra affair which only LtC. Oliver North was convicted.   I can assure you a person at North’s rank does not have the power to pull off the deals done in Iran-Contra.  Reagan’s mishandling of economics and regulation almost brought the collapse of the stock market in 1987.

10.  George W. Bush —  Bush was not, in spite of what others may say, responsible for America’s lack of readiness on September 11, 2001.  Federal intelligence agencies have a long history of not sharing material, which still exists today, and that is what is most responsible.  But, Bush allowed falsehoods to be the reason we started a war in Iraq that eventually cost in excess of 4000 American lives.  There was ample proof that Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, and had nothing to do with 9/11.  There is no doubt Bush knew this.   This unnecessary war in turned cost America trillions of dollars.  The Bush administration was advised as early as 2005 of improprieties in the mortgage market but chose to take no action.  Worst of all, the Bush administration pushed into law the “Patriot Act” which was mostly a scam to get Americans to give up some of their constitutional rights in the name of Patriotism.  This act ranks right up there with the Dred Scott decision the Supreme Court made.