Why Such A Lack Of Leadership?

It isn't easy picking George Bush's worst moment last week. Was it his first go at addressing the crisis Wednesday, when he came across as cool to the point of uncaring? Was it when he said that he didn't "think anybody expected" the New Orleans Levees to give way, though that very possibility had been forecast for years? Was it when he arrived in Mobile, Ala., a full four days after the storm made landfall, and praised his hapless Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director, Michael D. Brown, whose disaster credentials seemed to consist of once being the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association? "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," said the President. Or was it that odd moment when he promised to rebuild Mississippi Senator Trent Lott's house- a gesture that must have sounded astonishingly tone-deaf to the homeless black citizens still trapped in the post-apocalyptic water world of New Orleans. "Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house-he's lost his entire house (Note: one of two house that he owns.)," cracked Bush, "there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

-Matthew Cooper, Time Magazine September 12, 2005

Why such a lack of leadership? Because we elect politicians and expect them to be leaders. A politician's main job is to get elected and he or she does this with the help of a political party. His or her second job is to help other members of that political party get elected. A politician does this by making decisions that will help him or her in this quest to keep his party in office. George Bush is good at the job of getting elected or he would not be the President of the United States. But sometimes a President is faced with a crisis during his term of office that calls on him stop thinking like a politician, "How will what I decide to do impact me and my party?" and to make the leap to thinking like a leader,"How will what I decide to do impact the citizens of my country and the rest of the world?"

Let's see how many other Presidents made the leap from politician to leader starting with one of the worst:

Warren G. Harding (1921-1923) "Less government in business and more business in government."
Crisis: His administration.
Ahh, Warren- always a politician and never a leader. His administration was one of the most scandal ridden in American political history. He put his cronies in key administrative positions and they used their power to line their own pockets. The biggest scandal will go down in history as "Teapot Dome." Teapot Dome, WY was where naval oil reserves were stored. Harding's U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, took a bribe from Harry Sinclair of Sinclair Oil to allow Sinclair illegal access to these oil fields. Harding died before knowledge of the scandals reached the public.

Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) Known as "Silent Cal."
Crisis: The stock market.
Did nothing to stop the what was then know as "Coolidge prosperity." A prosperity that, unchecked, lead to the crash of the stock market and the Great Depression.

Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
Crisis: Stock Market Crash and start of the Great Depression.
The man never had a change-was the scapegoat for the sins of the previous administrations.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
Crisis: The Great Depression and World War II.
One of the best politicians to ever hold office and a great leader. Used his political talents to push though legislation that help to pull this country out of the depression. His leadership qualities kept the country's hopes alive and helped get the country, still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, ready to fight a war quicker than anyone anticipated.

Harry Truman (1945-1953) "The buck stops here."
Crisis: End of World War II and and start of Korean War.
Ordered the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His Secretary of State came up with the Marshall Plan which helped with the economic recovery of western Europe after the war. Ordered supplies to be flown into an isolated West Berlin after Russia closed all land access to the city. Fired General Douglas MacArthur, head of American forces in Korea, when MacArthur publicly disagreed with his policy. This was a gutsy move since MacArthur was very popular at the time.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) "America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world."
Crisis: McCarthyism,
Eisenhower did nothing to stop what became a witch hunt (McCarthyism) for suspected communists in America. Many people were wrongly accused of being communist on hearsay evidence and their civil and constitutional rights ignored in the anti-communists desire to root out any and all communists.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)"Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
Crisis: Civil Rights and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy is the perfect example of a politician becoming a leader. His slow reaction when it came to Civil Rights was because all his decisions were based on how they would impact his ability to get votes in the south. During the Cuba Missile Crisis when American and Russia were on the brink of war his decisions and actions got the Russians to back down.

(continued tomorrow)