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Essay on What Makes A Good President

Students are often asked to write an essay on What Makes A Good President in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on What Makes A Good President

What makes a good president.

A good president is a leader who can bring people together, make tough decisions, and represent the interests of all Americans. They should be knowledgeable about the issues facing the country and have a clear plan for addressing them. They should also be honest, trustworthy, and fair. A good president should be a strong communicator who can inspire and motivate the American people. They should be able to build consensus and work with Congress to pass important legislation. They should also be a skilled diplomat who can represent the United States abroad. A good president should be someone who is dedicated to serving the country and who puts the needs of the American people first.

250 Words Essay on What Makes A Good President

Qualities of a good president.

A good president is someone chosen to lead a country, usually through elections. They have a lot of power and responsibility and making good decisions is very important.

Characteristics Of A Good President

A good president should be honest. Honesty is a basic quality that everyone should have, even more for a president. People will not trust a president who is known to lie or cheat. A president should be fair and just. They should treat everyone equally and according to the law. They should not favor one group of people over another.

Being Intelligent and Knowledgeable

A good president should be intelligent and knowledgeable. They should have a deep understanding of the issues facing the country and of the world as a whole. They should be able to think critically and strategically.

Courageous And Decisive

A good president should be courageous and decisive. They should not be afraid to make tough decisions, even when they are unpopular. They should be able to stand up for what they believe in, even when it means going against the majority.

A Good Communicator

A good president should be a good communicator. They should be able to clearly and concisely explain their ideas and policies to the public. They should be able to inspire and motivate people, and they should be able to build consensus and cooperation.

500 Words Essay on What Makes A Good President

Leadership and decision-making.

A good president is a strong leader who can make tough decisions, even when they are unpopular. They must be able to think strategically and see the big picture, while also paying attention to the details. They also need to be able to communicate their vision and inspire others to follow them. Presidents must be able to understand the needs of different groups of people and make decisions that benefit the entire country, not just their own interests or the interests of their political party.

Integrity and Honesty

A good president is someone who is honest and trustworthy. They must be able to keep their promises and admit when they are wrong. They also need to be able to resist temptation and avoid conflicts of interest. If a president is caught in a lie or a scandal, it can damage their reputation and make it difficult for them to lead effectively.

Communication and Empathy

A good president is a good communicator who can connect with people from all walks of life and understand their concerns. They must be able to explain their policies and decisions in a clear and concise way, and they need to be able to listen to feedback and respond to criticism. Presidents also need to be empathetic and able to understand the needs of others, even if they don’t agree with them.

Experience and Knowledge

A good president has the experience and knowledge necessary to do the job. They should have a deep understanding of government and politics, and they should be familiar with the issues facing the country. Presidents also need to have good judgment and be able to learn from their mistakes which they will no doubt make occasionally in their tenure.

The qualities that make a good president are complex and varied, but the most important ones are probably leadership, integrity, communication, empathy, experience, and knowledge. Presidents play a vital role in our government, and it is important to choose someone who is qualified and capable of doing the job well.

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12 traits of an ideal American president | For What It's Worth

January 6, 2021 will go down as a day of infamy and shame for all Americans who love our nation and democratic republic. 

Question: Does Wednesday's riots mark the end of the American experiment in democracy, or was it just the end of another chapter in the ongoing cycle of American history. 

American historians view U.S. presidents by their individual character and competence.

The 45th American president is a "grotesque" according to historian David McCullough, an unamerican-like autocrat who is demented, unempathetic, unbalanced, and according to Washington, D.C. mayor "unhinged."

There are 12 individual traits and behaviors every American president should possess to be the nation's Commander in Chief. President Donald Trump possesses none of these fundamental and necessary behaviors, characteristics, qualities, traits, etc.

American presidents should demonstrate and utilize the behaviors/traits which measure their character and competence:

1.   "Talk straight" and honestly to the American people; 

2.    Demonstrate your respect and trust for the American people; 

3.    Create transparency by communicating the truth to the American people; 

4.    "Right wrongs" i.e. Admit your mistakes made and lies to the American people; 

5.    Demonstrate your loyalty to your staff and to the American people; 

6.    Deliver results - i.e. "The Goods" on what you promise the American people; 

7.    Get better over time— Get on the job training as an American president; 

8.    Confront reality head on and tell the truth to the American people;

9.    Practice and provide accountability: The buck stops with you as Commander in Chief of the American people; 

I0. Empathy is the ability to listen to other points of views as an American president; 

11. Keep your oral and written commitments to the American people; 

12. Trust the opinions and viewpoints of the American people.

— Richard Weintraub, Esq. is a columnist for the Pocono Record. 

what makes a good president essay

As Americans celebrates the country's founding, we examine the presidency. How is a president’s leadership measured over time, and how do cultural moments change our historical perception? We offer insight from C-SPAN's Presidential Historians Survey.

  • 'The Framers would not recognize the modern presidency.’
  • Promises made. Promises kept?
  • C-SPAN’s Presidential Historians Survey 2021

Biden’s evolution on criminal justice

The Biden administration is supporting a bill that would end the sentencing disparity in crack and powder cocaine offenses. But that disparity exists largely because of bills President Biden spearheaded in 80s and 90s. How much has Biden evolved?

Inside the Trump White House during the pandemic response

On this episode, Post Reports host Martine Powers talks to two Post reporters who reported on chaos in the early days of the pandemic including details about how sick President Trump was and his proposal to send infected Americans to Guantánamo.

what makes a good president essay

24 Qualities of a Great President

While most Americans understand that who we elect as President is important, we don’t typically understand just how vitally important the election really is. Because of this, we do not take selecting a president seriously enough. In fact, we have thought and acted very superficially in creating the standards for those seeking the highest office.

Because of this lack of serious attention, Americans have typically failed to identify and enumerate a clear set of high standards and qualities that we the people should expect, admire, and strongly desire in our President – as well as our Senators and Congressmen. Today the expectation for the presidency (as well as the House and Senate), has become so lowered that we have forgotten to think in terms of greatness..

In truth the President must be a complete man – one who is unified in mind, and spirit, and who has a dynamic, holistic understanding of life and broad vision for freedom.

The following is a list of qualities that are essential for a president to not only possess to a high degree, but to earnestly strive to have in greater measure in order to achieve greatness in his role as President. It is important to realize that governments are run by “men and not by angels.” No presidential candidate or President will ever be near perfect—true greatness comes when human preparation meets grace. But it is absolute that a president must exert great effort to continually grow personally and spiritually while he is in office.

If it is believed by the people that there is a lack of potential greatness among the choices for President in any given election cycle, then the people must turn to the one who is most adequate to hold the country together while greatness is being cultivated in other future presidential candidates.

In evaluating this list, it is important to realize that these qualities are all interrelated and interdependent, each one complements the others and builds on the whole persona and capability of the President.

The 24 Qualities of a Great Leader and a Great President

  • Spiritually True (Active, Strong Faith)
  • Strong in Character
  • Defender of Natural Rights, Civil Liberties, & the Constitution
  • Vision Driven
  • Team-Oriented
  • Knowledgeable
  • Independent Thinker (Holistically Minded)
  • Effective Communicator
  • Experienced
  • Socially Conscious & Compassionate
  • Environmentalist
  • Fiscally Efficient & Sound
  • Problem Solver
  • Progressive (Committed to Growth)

Spiritually True (Active, Strong Faith) By far and away the most important quality a president can have is a strong abiding faith in God. No greater preparation can a man have for the highest office in the land than to have been battle-tested and to have been found an overcomer and warrior in the realm of spiritual warfare. When a president is spiritually buoyant he will have the necessary optimism and faith to impart to the people the goodness and hope that is inherent in the dream of America.

There is no possibility for a president to be a great leader without a strong connection to God, because without God, an individual is left out with his own resources and strength- which are not even adequate to running his own life to full potential, let alone the whole nation.

Any person running for the Presidency or the House or Senate who thinks that they can govern the greatest nation on earth at any time, let alone during the most complex and difficult time in history apart from a connection to God and a working knowledge of the Scriptures is delusional and arrogant beyond measure. Such an individual can only lead the people towards chaos. And more importantly, any generation of Americans who thinks that the quality of their President’s faith doesn’t really matter because of the false belief that the office is a secular one and that there are no spiritual demands in running a nation makes a tremendous mistake, and in the process of making that mistake, demonstrates an almost total lack of understanding of both what the office of the American Presidency really is, and what true inspired leadership is all about. Such a people are set up to select a straw man that is not needed rather than an iron man that is. They will be putting their trust in someone who cannot deliver in real terms and who is destined to fall short of the gold standard of American presidents.

The spiritual life of a leader will ultimately determine everything vital about him, and inform his judgment on all important matters. As suggested in the section entitled “ America’s Greatest Deception ,” future presidents will inherit a whole collection of problems beyond human capability to solve, and will not be in office for more than a moment in time before running headlong into new and unheard of perplexities.

If a president cannot demonstrate true loyalty to the Creator first, by at the very least supporting basic moral, spiritual, and biblical values, it is sure that he will also be disloyal to the people in their ultimate needs and betray the country at critical moments. In fact when a president promotes any agenda that goes against the essential tenets of God and life, he has already sold the people and the nation out, and even though the consequences may not be apparent at first, disaster is sure to follow.

Even when a secular leader seems solid for a time, sooner or later his lack of spiritual preparedness will show forth. In these unprecedented, incredibly difficult, and insane times in which he must govern, a president’s faith and character will be significantly tested over and over again. There will be numerous situations and decisive times in the life and course of our nation that will overwhelm the individual who lacks faith; and with only his own resources to rely on, he will either falter and retreat to political correctness, or panic and act stubbornly or foolishly.

The man of great faith, on the other hand, will remain steady and strong while tethered to the power and light, and have the composure to see the clear way to guide the country towards its highest good through all forms of adversity, uncertainty, and other extreme forms of pressure.

  • A president who is morally and spiritually compromised will also compromise the moral and spiritual values of the nation. When a nation’s moral and spiritual values are compromised, the nation is put at risk from enemies both from within and without.
  • A spiritually strong president is the greatest asset to a country in terms of leadership because he will have the foresight and fortitude to steer the country in the right direction- of which direction the positive results can only be realized after the fact. It is this demand for foresight gained through faith that explains why so few leaders lead from the cutting edge, and why most lead from behind.
  • The greatest American presidents all had a clear understanding of God, and in times of national importance they consistently directed the nation toward the light. (These included Washington, Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, F. D. Roosevelt, Reagan, etc.)

Strong in Character Character relates to the solidity of the virtue, faith, and goodness at the core of an individual. In order for a society to be healthy and stable, it must first place a premium on character, for without character it is impossible for society to function in a healthy manner since every interaction within society, to some degree or another, is dependent on the character of its people. In fact, without people of good character, the world would degenerate into an unimaginable hell, as everything would have to come under constant evaluation and suspicion.

Once character is lost as a central root in society, it is only a matter of time before the people suffer precipitously. This is because character is the conduit between the people and a common higher life that can be collectively drawn from, be established by, and remain rooted in.

The President of the United States is epitomic of the people, and therefore it is paramount that he display to a high degree the ideal character that enlightened citizenry should desire.

In this, the President is an elder – leader of the nation, and his commitment to truth and goodness are the standards by which we the people should also measure his fitness to serve in the highest office.

A president of character begins with a desire to strengthen the overall integrity of the country, as well as a desire to encourage moral excellence among the people as a means of promoting the general welfare. He demonstrates and enumerates the manifold benefits of being a nation of character and virtue, and inspires the people to be greater citizens. Only a president of strong character can ultimately gain the respect of the country and influence the people to strive for the noble ideals of the nation. A president who lacks character cannot ultimately gain the respect of the country, and therefore cannot bring the people together at the highest level.

  • Any free and enlightened society has a mandate and necessity to place a premium on character as a core value.
  • In a free society, as opposed to any form of totalitarian rule, the people are essentially responsible for governing themselves which shifts the balance of control from the external automatic role of government to the internal, independent rule of the people.
  • The President must be a man of character because he is the highest representative-statesman of the people; he must embody the best noble qualities that our nation’s people should aspire to.

Wise Wisdom is far deeper than having information about things, it is knowing the inner nature and workings of things; it is understanding the relationships between the living elements of life itself.

It takes years of living with an open mind and strong heart to learn the simplicity and power that wisdom has to offer. And ideally, a president will have been honed for many years before seeking the office of the presidency.

A president must see and understand the blueprint of life and health if he is ever to lead this great nation with clarity, and connect the whole country to what is good, true, and right. By understanding the principles of life and health, he will be able to direct the nation in paths that are sustainable and truly productive. A man who has been prepared by wisdom is a man who has been constantly open to the unity of truth, and in all matters has exercised both his mind and soul in order to effect proper ends of that truth.

  • A president who has wisdom sees the essence of a problem or opportunity in whole terms, and is therefore able to accurately assess the strongest course of action based on the fullness of truth.
  • Many of today’s leaders and politicians create as many problems as they solve because their actions and sequence of ideas are superficial and lack the sustaining strength of wisdom, and therefore lead the people away from the very truth that they are ignorant of, and into the error that they don’t have to experience.
  • Wisdom is a great guardian of office governing, because wisdom applied to life’s most difficult situations literally saves untold amounts of time, money, and life.

Humble The first reality that any intelligent and enlightened man should know before even running for the office of the Presidency is that the job is essentially an impossible one, and is so beyond him, and that without humility –which attracts the aid of the heavens- he will entirely be overwhelmed and rendered ineffective.

A president who has humility is an incredibly powerful leader because humility reveals to the individual both the awesome responsibility of leading the American people, as well as the sheer honor of doing so.

It is time that the concept of servant-leader is emphasized in America again when it comes to our elected officials. Today the kind of people who get into politics often do so not because they predominantly have the people’s best interests at heart, or have something highly beneficial to contribute to the nation, but because they wish to exercise authority over people, and are on their own ego trips- wishing to contribute to their own coffers.

  • An arrogant president is someone who will miss the glorious moment and opportunity to serve the people as assuredly as a dullard will miss the exquisiteness of beauty.
  • A humble president is far more likely to seek out essential assistance and Godly advice than a president who is not humble.
  • Arrogance in a leader almost entirely disables his ability to truly serve the people.

Defender of Natural Rights, Civil Liberties, & the Constitution The cornerstone of understanding American freedom is that it exists within a context of purposeful living that supports life, liberty, and happiness. What constitutes natural rights is that they are given by God, and cannot be taken away by Government.

Therefore, in order to have a nation that thrives, we must protect our natural freedoms against the encroachment of unnatural laws that would compete against our natural rights. While we live in a free country, it does not mean that the Constitution was set up to protect the violating of moral and spiritual laws. On the contrary, it was set up to protect people who live according to natural and spiritual law. Our Bill of Rights provides for the protection for all sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances. This latitude should not be confused with the original intent of the founders, which was to protect natural rights over and against all other considerations.

The Founders understanding of  natural rights and civil liberties can be summarized in the following three points:

  • All of our natural rights and freedoms first and foremost are dependent on the reality that they come from an ultimate ruling authority. The First Amendment is established by this truth. Without the freedom to worship and acknowledge God, all other rights are threatened. Therefore if Government is allowed to remove the giver of freedom (God) from the national consciousness, especially the educational and legal systems, then the people will eventually lose all their freedom.
  • If the people allow the Government to take away their first freedom as enumerated in the First Amendment, eventually they will lose all their freedoms.
  • If the people don’t understand the purpose of freedom, neither will they understand how to use their freedom to its maximum potential.
  • The most important right to protect is that of spiritual and religious freedom. No liberty is currently under greater assault than our religious freedoms.
  • A president who does not understand the source of natural rights will fail to understand their importance in relation to the creative and spiritual well-being of the people. He will, in his ignorance, confuse them with rights “granted by the Government” and fail to protect them accordingly- whether through his rhetoric, court appointees, or executive action.
  • A president that protects natural rights will promote the greatest safeguard to a just, free, and orderly society because the people will be protected according to the highest purpose of the creator for man- the right and ability to pursue life, liberty, and happiness (see John 10:10).

Passionate America is tired of passionless politicians who care more about their politically correct agendas than they do about building the stability and prosperity of the country for the sake of the people. When a president has passion, he exerts energy from the core of his being in the execution of his office. It is his passion that burns away the political correctness or selfish ambition that renders most politicians ineffectual. This fire makes him human, and in his humanity, he is able to lead with true heart and soul.

  • A president of passion finds the truth, lays hold of the truth, and leads the country in that truth.
  • A president that is lacking in passion will eventually be easily driven backwards, and cornered into compromised complicity.
  • Passion ensures authenticity, and authenticity allows the people to trust in what they see in their President.

Creative All too often a president or presidential candidate is identified according to party affiliation or some subcategory within their party. Terms such as conservative, liberal, moderate, etc. tell only a fraction of who they are or what they are capable of. The real question should be, “Is an individual’s creativity consistent with the first principles of life and government?” It is that distinction of creativity that enables a leader to access the full spectrum of social, political, and economic genius.

Creativity in and of itself connotes positive, useful action, and therefore encompasses both spiritual and natural talent and knowledge. Therefore if a leader is highly creative as well as ethical, no traditional definition of him will be adequate to describe him, and a new, more enlightened one will evolve – one that is positive and expansive, rather than negative and contracting. In this, the negative associations  with traditional labeling will give way to a more enlightened, radical, and true to form expression of these terms, while their counterfeit definitions and expression should be rejected.

  • A creative president is someone who will lead in a movement of national renewal, because creativity militates against stagnation.
  • Creative brilliance is not often associated with the presidency, but innovation combined with a sense of artistry and craftsmanship is precisely what is needed to throw off the old limitations of stale leadership that we have become accustomed to in our time.
  • Creativity closes the distance between various competing ideas between parties and within parties. Creativity reveals truth and opens up new possibilities and evolves new pathways to higher collaboration, which destroys the old gridlock that is so commonplace among our elected officials.

Patriotic A patriotic president is someone who connects the people to the unifying core ideals of faith, family, and country.

Our patriotism is a fundamental love for America and belief in her inherent goodness and place of exceptionalism in the world. In this, American patriotism is a special sense of loyalty and pride in our country, not simply because it is our country, but because it is a country worthy of loyalty and pride.

It would seem obvious that a president should be patriotic, but in truth not all political leaders are necessarily so. People get into politics for all sorts of reasons, and some have little to do with serving the country. There are those who spend the country for their own advancement, while others who spend themselves for the country’s advancement.

While it is possible to still be a good person and not love America, it is impossible to be a good president and not love America. An unpatriotic president will ultimately undermine the entire country in pursuit of their personal political causes (even the legitimate ones) because they don’t first love the broader vision of American more than they love their own limited vision of political ideology.

A patriotic president is someone who truly loves America; he feels the honor and purity of our nation’s ideals deep within his being. American virtue runs through his veins and the national legacy soars in his mind. He does not ignore the wrongs of our nation, but believes that the best way to correct these wrongs is to get the country back to, and deeper into, its founding values and highest course.

  • One nation under God is the strongest rallying cry that only a truly patriotic president can give to his countrymen because it places the people under the highest source of power, goodness, and truth.
  • When a president is patriotic, he inspires patriotism and selflessness in the people. He binds them to the beautiful and lofty values and virtues that befit our nation.
  • If a people elect a president who is not patriotic, the people will increasingly lose the love they have for their own country and grow colder to its idealism. This will lead to a greater number of individuals unwilling to protect and support America, and instead, simply use and consume the country without replenishing it.

Vision Driven A true leader with vision is someone who sees the potential of a country and knows how to get to that potential. He knows what it takes to get the country from a lower position to a higher one in any practical area of common life. He understands the superiority of what could be rather than what currently is. He measures, and then sets the whole course of action for the country to follow in order for it to get better in all areas.

He therefore is able to override the human propensity to aim for popularity at the expense of greatness; he understands that positive change is essential, but not easy. He motivates and instructs the people to overcome the obstacles and resistance—both internally and externally- that are set against him.

  • A president who is vision driven uses his office as a means to communicate to the people the most positive and abundant agendas for the people. He consistently promotes the necessary changes within Government and society that allow for the increase and total prosperity of society, while simultaneously eliminating dysfunctionality.
  • To be vision driven is to win the competition of what is good, right, and best for the country over and against what is politically correct, insipid, and unhealthy for the country.
  • When a president lacks vision, he lacks the ability to compel true effective and efficient action, both for himself and others.

Courageous At the very heart of America is courage. It was a courageous generation that brought America into existence, and it will take future generations of courageous Americans to uphold the country’s greatness.

Courage is necessary to promote all that is good and true. In a world where good and evil plainly co-exist, courage is essential because every force of evil along the spectrum of human affairs is increasingly wearing down the moral and spiritual strength of the people and the country.

A president’s courage is going to be tested, there is no way around it. He will either remain in position to strengthen the country, or he will sell it out at critical moments, and that betrayal will be for purposes largely unknown to the American people. The consequences of him doing so will not necessarily be experienced immediately, but will be devastatingly so in the near future.

  • A courageous president will take on the enemies of America—both internally and externally- in a way that an ordinary leader never could.
  • A president who lacks courage in doing what is right and good before God and man is also a coward, and a coward is an easy pawn for use by evil.
  • Courage precedes greatness, because greatness demands the strength to overcome the incessant competition against it.

Personable There are two kinds of people who get into politics: one who uses people to accumulate power to himself, and the other is he who uses power to create quality of life for the people. At the core of any president must be a fundamental love for the people, and a great desire for their good.

It is said a president that will harmonize with any citizen who is reasonable and good, and whose positive energy will displace the animus which so often charges the air in politics will have no energy to fool it.

Ultimately, it is a president’s personableness and warmth that emanates from their soul that people most easily connect to, and identify with. An American president is truly the people’s President because he belongs to none other.

  • It is through the heart and soul of a natural leader that the people are touched in real terms and connected to their President. It is his voice, his calm, and his strength that reassure the people and gives them confidence when the nation collectively faces emergencies on the one hand, or experiences deep poignancy on the other. There is no faking these times, a president is either integrated with the people’s hopes and dreams or he is not.
  • A president who is transparent and likeable will automatically have a huge advantage in getting critical things done for the country—as he is more apt to navigate through a myriad of special interests and opposition.
  • A leader who understands that winning friends and influencing people (without compromising their values) is 90 percent of the battle when it comes to promoting polices both at home and abroad. It is the fundamentals of human relations that transcend all cultures and countries that best resonates with people, and puts a leader well on his way to being successful at foreign policy. Typically, a leader who lacks reasonableness also lacks warmth, and has an underlying unhealthy personality that leaves a trail of ruination because he will inevitably put politics and personal gain above the people’s interests.

Smart A truly smart person has a combination of intelligence, common sense, and spiritual discernment. His mind has the capacity to make meaningful connections with core life relationships in order to produce positive, sustainable outcomes.

A smart president therefore comprehends what is happening in and around him and with the country. With keen insight he is able to apply a certain skillful knowledge of what to do in each particular situation. He has a mind that is trained to know truth and apportion it accurately according to authentic needs.

He has a mind that is trained to know truth and apportion it accurately according to authentic needs.

Consistent with this ability is the acumen and desire to surround himself with the brightest and best people in all positions of leadership and advisement. This foresight is essential due to the complexity, diversity, and enormity of the situations and information that the President must process and act upon. In order for a smart president to get the most out of his intelligence, he must be properly paired with other very smart people who come alongside him in order to produce a geometric effect of that intelligence.

  • A smart president will save the country from astronomical amounts of chaos, waste, and stupidity because he acts according to first principles and true design. In so doing, he does not allow himself to get cornered by political correctness.
  • A president who lacks native intelligence and common sense will make so many blunders that he will be incapable of acting ahead of the curve. Such a president is likely to be taken advantage of by a whole variety of entities and people that are smarter and more cunning than he is, but that are not as ethical.
  • A smart president is able to educate the whole public in the various aspects of American life because he is able to understand the nuances of the challenges that face the nation.

Team-Oriented In order for a president to be successful in real terms he must be able to work well with others. The American presidency is not a monarchy, but a position of leadership within an overall structure of collaborative government. While the President is a leader, he is nevertheless a singular figure who must work effectively with a healthy congress in order to be productive.

The Presidency of the United States is really a venture with the American people, and therefore a venture with the many strata of human interactions across a wide range of expressions that make up both society and government.

  • A president who is committed to teamwork proves his unselfishness as well as his wisdom, and is more capable to take on the people’s causes than what he alone could possibly assume. Teamwork at the highest level of government reveals the first evidence of a nation’s functionality, and conversely, a lack of teamwork displays a nation’s first evidence of dysfunctionality.
  • A president that does not understand the necessity of effective teamwork, or does not put forth the effort to establish it, will quickly become overwhelmed and remain limited.
  • A president must also be accountable to the Constitution and a conduit to the nation’s honor and collective history in order to be a vital part of its positive lineage.

Knowledgeable An observant person will notice that our nation’s energy, focus, and resources are spent on the same problems and needs year after year. The same degree of limited information and knowledge produces the same level of inefficient and unproductive responses. A knowledgeable leader eschews conventional wisdom and knowledge– which has often been unsuccessfully applied to various situations and relies on a far greater mastery of information to produce the kind of permanent, sustainable increase and change that leaders who operate without that greater understanding never do.

Furthermore, a leader who knows in depth about the world around him, and understands the various nuances of life issues can address these issues in the most accurate and effectual way for the people.

  • The world and society are stuck in the same rut of dysfunctional behavior because the true knowledge about health, life, inspiration, and spiritual principle, are not applied to governance- issues such as healthcare, the economy, education, defense, etc. Therefore, an effective president will take time and learn as much as he can about these disciplines.
  • A president who values knowledge will also choose cabinet leaders and advisors who also are knowledgeable and well-studied in foundational areas of life in order to safeguard the highest course of action for the nation. Conversely, a president who lacks knowledge will often choose cabinet members who also lack knowledge, thereby guaranteeing a recycling of flawed strategy and policy.
  • A president who has not taken the time to truly learn about the core issues that surround the nation, will always be subjected to the wrong kind of advice and faulty information, which leads to systemic chaos. The unnatural control of any public institution is generally preceded by misinformation disseminated among the populace.

Independent Thinker (Holistically Minded) A great American president needs to have the general welfare of our wonderful country as his leading special interest. A great leader needs to affirm the truth and advance right action whenever and from wherever it manifests in the nation.

The goal of a true leader and great President, when it comes to his gathering of source information, is to arrive at the truth in all matters of consequence concerning the governance and life of the nation, and to practically apply that truth in the appropriate policies—regardless of party loyalties and pressure from other interests.

A holistic person is one who views life according to its true unified and comprehensive nature. A president who has a holistic mindset understands that every action is interrelated, and therefore knows that in order to develop real solutions to complex problems, advance effective policies, and truly promote the general welfare, everything that his administration does must correlate with the first principles of life.

If a president does not see the big picture of life in real terms, he will create imbalance by favoring one side of an equation at the expense of the other, and thereby inevitably create injustice for those who otherwise were perfectly within the natural and spiritual order to receive justice.

If a president is tethered to the ideas and thoughts of his party constituents that may seek to control him, he will lose his ability to be objective and vigorously open-minded on any particular issue. In this, he will falter before beggarly elements, as this unnatural influence is inconsistent with arriving at the truth or best outcome.

  • American politics need to be far more bipartisan in order to be healthy. The key to bipartisan health is for each party to ensure its own soundness. It does the country no good for compromises between the two parties when one or both parties have fundamental character flaws leading to a resistance of truth and excellence.
  • A president who is an independent thinker is open to all the brilliance and talent for the benefit of the nation that can be accessed from every credible source that is available from within the nation, regardless of its political or social origins. This openness is the only safeguard against his office from being mentally and intellectually hijacked or hindered.
  • If the President is a truth seeker, he will set the example in this regard for the whole nation. Never on his watch will he allow the kind of pettiness and manipulation that we are subjected to constantly… and of which characteristics are so entirely unbecoming of an honorable person and honorable leader.

Effective Communicator Communication is the key to making others know and feel what you know and feel; it is the skill of relaying precise information that is vital to life and effectual in meeting practical needs.

The essence of communication for a president is a driving desire to connect with the American people, as well as other leaders in a profound and clear way.

By the very nature of his office, a president is essentially the country’s spokesman. However, he must be determined to win friends and influence people by firstly making sure that he is on the right side of God and history in matters of importance, and secondly by tenaciously making sure that he is heard on real terms by real people in a whole way. He cannot allow the agenda of a biased media, close minded political opposition, or an insincere portion of the populace to dictate to the rest of the country their narrative on who he is or what he is actually saying.

  • In a world where misinformation and dishonesty is increasingly becoming the norm, it is essential that the communication of leaders be all the more honest, timely, and straightforward.
  • The American people are hungry and ready for a president who will communicate true values in an uncompromised way.
  • A president who fails to communicate effectively opens the door for rumor and misinformation to spread, leaves greatness to chance, and allows for misunderstanding to flourish.

Flexible Today the world is more destabilized, dangerous, and complex than at any time in history. Information travels from around the globe instantaneously, and innumerable challenges and perilous situations are fluid and ever unpredictable.

With the world looking to America for leadership in these times, a flexible consciousness and the ability to rapidly process information is critical for the president to have in order to adapt in real time and manage multi-dimensional situations. It is flexibility coupled with spiritual perception that provides a great president the ability to leverage maximum strength at every moment and from every position.

  • No president who took the necessary time to reflect on what adjustments needed to be made (even to the most carefully thought out plan), according to changing circumstances, ever regretted doing so.
  • Remaining open at critical moments that require strategic maneuvering can literally make all the difference in the outcome of national and world affairs.
  • An inflexible president is a leader who will stubbornly and ignorantly drive a country deeper into disastrous situations when it is a change or modification of direction that is needed.

Experienced Excellence is the first source of useful experience. True experience is not measured by merely being in a particular position over a period of time, as anybody can occupy a job in an undistinguished fashion. And being expert at political correctness and executing mediocrity are not advantages when it comes to preparing for greatness.

True experience is gained from being in a deeper place of rightful achievement accomplished against opposition. Therefore, the experienced person is a tested person- one proved by the refining fires of life. He is one that has overcome the same pressure that has tried every leader of true worth down through the ages. And while both the office of the presidency and our times are unique, the forces of human nature and spiritual warfare are not. Therefore, the best indicator of experience is proven success in the dynamics of actual life situations that required leadership in real time and according to true purposes.

  • The way a leader responds in one set of circumstances is a good way of knowing how they will respond in a similar set of circumstances. Putting a weak or an unproven person in real life situations in the highest office of the nation is to literally gamble with our future.
  • Sometimes it is better to have someone whose experience includes time spent outside of a political setting in order to gain the necessary life skills to be used inside a political setting.
  • An experienced person, one tested and found true, will prevent an inestimable amount of waste, lost, and suffering.

Socially Conscious and Compassionate There is a difference between social issues and social problems, and they should not be confused when it comes to political action and social service. Addressing social problems centers on meeting the legitimate needs of the people and dealing with the specific challenges and conditions that are detrimental to human life, and that create the problems within society in the first place. Social issues, on the other hand, often relate to special interests, trends, and movements– situations that include individual behavior, free will, and personal responsibility within a social context. These issues center on wants, as opposed to actual natural needs.

It is one thing to be socially aware, and another thing to have true compassion for what one is aware of. Social awareness allows an individual to know about certain problems within society, while compassion motivates one to act forcefully and effectively on behalf of the people affected by these problems. The concept of America as a Christian nation has been supported by both Republicans and Democrats throughout history in the context of advancing social justice issues.

A truly compassionate president is one who has the drive to act above politics and political correctness and to meet the people at the point of their true, natural needs. He deeply empathizes with the people, and in that empathy he will see the underlying realities to the problems that face them and the country, as well as the steps needed to bring about permanent solution.

A conscientious president can best help solve our social problems by helping to create the conditions within society that prevent them in the first place. This includes:

  • Encouraging the free expression of the religious faith, which in turn positively impacts the whole culture.
  • Freeing up charities and faith-based organizations to do what they do best.
  • Encouraging and inspiring philanthropy and volunteerism in America.
  • Discouraging all behavior that leads to vice and personal social ruin.
  • Addressing true inequalities as opposed to manufacturing fake ones in the hopes of garnering superficial political support.
  • As long as the conditions remain existent within society that promote and drive poverty, crime, immorality, addiction, depression, etc., no amount of governmental intervention will be effective.
  • A great president can inspire the people to be great, and it is the largesse of the American people that will have the greatest long term impact on society in terms of civility, social functionality and social cohesion.
  • A socially unaware or dispassionate president may still accomplish much, but he will have missed what would have made him special, which is social compassion—one of the most fundamental elements of the Gospel.

Environmentalist Because the environment and our natural resources are a the primal basis for life and health, the proper care of them is one of the few absolutes of national leadership that a great president, and indeed all members of Congress, must be knowledgeable of and active in.

Protecting the environment is of equal importance in the long run with “providing for the common defense,” because the polluting and destroying of our environment- which man has continuously and definitively proven to do- ultimately affects the same ends as a hostile insurgency. This reality becomes apparent when one is able to see in real terms the loss of human health, life, and potential that is directly related to a corrupted, polluted environment.

  • Environmental protection first and foremost translates into human life protection. Understood in these terms, protecting the environment will not be optional or open to political debate.
  • A president who is a true environmentalist has a holistic understanding of the environment, and is not given to pseudo-science, special interests, or political correctness when it comes to issues specific to the environment.
  • In our modern world there are far too many polluting agencies that destroy our planet and that cause our environment to be an unhealthy one. Because of this, the President must be proactive, both in word and deed, in protecting the air, water, and land that the people depend on for their very health and life.

Fiscally Efficient and Sound Because of the size and scope of the federal government, as well as that of the country, the distance between labor and the result of labor is too great to be understood and managed by anybody other than the wisest and most conscientious leaders.

It is a principle of personal spending that the more effort that one puts in the making of their money, the less likely they will waste that money, conversely the less effort one puts in the making of their money, the more likely they will waste that money. This principle transfers perfectly to government’s acquisition and use of the people’s money.

The problem in America today is that there is a tremendous disconnect between the labor of the American people and what that labor translates into in terms of real value produced by government spending.

A bloated government will typically misappropriate the national treasury because the greater the separation between he who earns the money and he who spends the money will cause a greater separation in how efficiently the money is spent. An unfit government is good at collecting and spending money, but not earning it.

Money spent wisely by the government translates into improving the overall standard of living for the people, and the quality of the infrastructure of the country. This is because what strengthens the whole also strengthens the parts- when these parts are properly connected; and what strengthens the parts also benefits the whole because the whole is dependent on the parts.

As a leading influence on the economy, the President has the responsibility and the opportunity to ensure that the people’s money is spent on what is truly productive and consistent with the spiritual laws of increase, which means that any money spent in the name of progress that does not promote systemic improvement and sustainability is money that is ultimately wasted. A president and his administration’s fiscal efficiency is not based on how little is spent, but how much is created by what is spent.

  • A great president first and foremost invests in making the economy sound and healthy in order to provide a wellspring for the people. When the people’s basic monetary needs are met through a healthy, non-oppressive economy, they are free to create more wealth and quality of life through higher levels of productivity and creativity.
  • A great president and wise Congress understand that the capital used by the government comes from the fruit of the people’s labors, and therefore they must use that capital in such a way that helps foster a true quality of life return for the people.
  • Every dollar that the government spends that goes to merely managing problems rather than going towards permanently solving those problems, represents poor use of money and a missed opportunity for growth.

Problem Solver The ability to solve real problems in real time is a special skill and talent that so many career politicians lack today. When a politician tries to solve problems without adhering to sound spiritual principles, he ends up not only further exacerbating the original problem, but leads the country into other problems as well.

Only a president with strong moral and spiritual values, common sense, and courage can be a true problem solver, because solving problems requires that one act counter to the political pressures and dysfunctionality that created the problems in the first place. A politically correct president can be neither a transformative problem solver or a true leader, because his duplicity will undermine that which is spiritually correct- which is the action of strength, truth, and goodness soundly applied to all problems. The work of true problem solving involves the work of structural integrity, which political correctness never affords. If it did, the root to any particular problem would never have had the cover to have initially grown deeper from the beginning.

National and international problems and delusions typically have:

  • A root cause supported by complementary causes
  • Corrupt elements that profit from the problems, and therefore are agents of propaganda
  • An uninformed and unenlightened populace that allows an unhealthy mindset of apathy and acceptance to be formed around a problem relating to the general public.

A great president deals with all three of these dynamics; he solves problems by creating solutions that are spiritually correct, logically coherent, and morally sound, which in turn appeals to the higher senses of man and creates a spirit of cooperation. Only in this way will there be solutions that are  sustainable over time.

  • When problem solving is attempted through political maneuvering rather than practical application, disaster follows.
  • The perpetual handing down, from one administration to another, of the same distresses and dilemmas is a cycle that needs to be broken through true leadership.
  • The world is becoming more complex by the day, and so are its problems. If the President is not an aggressive problem solver, he will in fact, be a passive enabler.

Inspiring In a time when political correctness, negativity, division and false agendas have seemingly dominated politics, the people are crying out for true leadership, and America desperately needs to be lifted up.

All too often in America today political polish is traded for inspiration. Yet no amount of political polish can make up for a lack of inspiration. Only a president who lives with heart and soul can ever offer this nation what is most valuable in a living, vital way.

The President must have inspirational qualities if he is going to energize the American people to live into the dream that is America, as well as provide the impetus for the structural change needed to help make the American dream more of an accessible reality than a theoretical concept. In short, his inspirational energy must be consistent with the nation’s inspirational legacy.

  • An inspirational president cuts to the heart of the nation’s people and causes a rekindling in their soul of all that is good and true about America.
  • When a president lacks inspiration he lacks the actual fuel that fires the country into determined action.
  • An inspirational president will help create the necessary conditions that will once again foster a sense of pride in America.

Progressive (Committed to Growth) The promise of America is so great, so bold, so venturesome and cutting edge, that the nation must have a continuous revolutionary spirit working through it in order to keep pace with its inherent genuineness of greatness.

America does not need continuous change so much as she needs continuous growth. A progressive president is one who is about the herculean task of moving the country forward into every good, true, and life-affirming activity that proves out the ideal of “the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.” He is one that has a forward thinking mindset; he sees the potential of the nation, and then stimulates the creative drive to meet that potential, while simultaneously developing the structural plans to do so.

The promise of America is so great, so bold, so venturesome and cutting edge, that the nation must have a continuous revolutionary spirit working through it in order to keep pace with its inherent genuineness of greatness.

  • The true quality of being Progressive does not reflect today’s pseudo-Progressivism, but refers to the progressivism and enlightenment of the scriptures and the working philosophy of the founding fathers. A truly progressive leader is going to at once conserve that which is essential to be conserved, while always seeking to improve upon all aspects of American life.
  • A true progressive leader and President is not seeking to supplant the nation’s founding principles, moral structure, and spiritual belief, but rather to embrace them, and cause all of American activity to more greatly reflect their creative essence.
  • A non-Progressive president idles the country into a prolonged period of stagnation. This is followed by a regression in the mindset and actions of both the government and the people.

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What makes a president great?

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch the Fox Nation special ' To Rescue the Constitution .' The special, hosted by Bret Baier, dramatically reveals the life of George Washington, the Founder who did more than perhaps any other individual to secure the future of the United States.

What makes a president great ? 

I’ve had occasion to ask that question many times in my daily work on "Special Report," and while writing five presidential biographies. I’m always looking for the hidden gems – the stories that will reveal core character traits and motivations of the men who have served this critical role. We’ve only had 46 presidents in our history; it’s a rare individual who rises to that position. 

It’s an election year, so conversations about what makes a president great are happening all over America. Presidents Day is the perfect time to look for insights, and the nation’s historians have some ideas. 

Since 2000, C-SPAN has conducted a survey among presidential historians and experts at the conclusion of every administration, to produce a Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership. There have been four surveys so far, with the latest in 2021, following the Trump administration. 

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All 45 presidents were ranked by 142 historians based on 10 leadership qualities. These were: Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Economic Management, Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, Relations with Congress, Vision/Setting an Agenda, Pursued Equal Justice for All, and Performance Within the Context of the Times. 

This isn’t intended to be a scientific review – just the opinion of 142 citizens, who happen to be well-informed. They include some of our most revered historians, whose writings and speeches have brought the lives of our presidents into our living rooms and classrooms. In the latest survey, they selected these as the top five: 

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. George Washington

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt

4.  Theodore Roosevelt

5. Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We can all quibble about somebody we think should be ranked higher or lower," said presidential biographer Richard Norton Smith, who was one of the advisers to the project. "But there’s something sustainable going on here." He pointed to the fact that the top four had been consistent throughout the history of the rankings. Eisenhower earned the fifth spot in 2017. 

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The rankings are not designed to anoint particular presidents over others, or to create debates along partisan lines. They are meant to inspire reflection and conversation about the leadership qualities we can look for when choosing a president. That’s a worthy conversation to have any time, but especially in an election year.

In that spirit, let’s briefly consider the top five men.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lincoln has consistently earned the number one spot, an acknowledgment of his leadership during the nation’s most dangerous period. Lincoln’s entire presidency was defined by war. Lincoln was a great man , but even great men have flaws, and he had to conquer his desire to micromanage the Civil War in order to prevail. He had an "I alone can fix it" complex, not unfamiliar in presidents. Fortunately, he also had the character to acknowledge the need for a military leader outside the presidency. He brought in Ulysses Grant, who turned the tide of the war. 

Most significantly, Lincoln always sought common ground. Despite overseeing a nation that was literally split in two, Lincoln never stopped pursuing peace, even if it meant bringing his strongest opponents into his administration – the so-called "team of rivals." 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, FEBRUARY 12, 1809, ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS BORN IN KENTUCKY

In his second inaugural address, toward the end of the war, Lincoln held out a hand of friendship to those he had fought. Rather than seeking vengeance, he offered brotherhood: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds."

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Washington is a prime example of a man who met the historical moment at every turn. He’d never planned to lead a nation to war. Nor did he have ambitions to lead a nation in peace. But when called upon to serve, he responded every time, and became regarded as the indispensable leader at the birth of our nation. 

He was a man of strong, quiet character – not a showboat like some of his peers. He had a gift for recognizing talent in others, placing both Hamilton and Jefferson in his first Cabinet . He was fearless about setting the mold, knowing that his administration would serve as a blueprint for others. 

I have often made the point that Washington delivered one of his most important contributions to our democracy in his farewell address. There he warned against reliance on political parties and the dangers of partisanship: 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1796, PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON ISSUES HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterward the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." 

That is a lesson we can take to heart today. 

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

FDR was distinguished by his vision, power of persuasion, and a tireless performance that met the times he was in. His unrivaled leadership qualities also contained the essence of his flaws. Like Lincoln, he believed he alone could bring the nation and the world to peace. He hid his infirmities, refused to acknowledge his physical weakness, and insisted on running for a fourth term when he was at death’s door. 

Of the five top presidents, FDR’s oratory was the most soaring . Even in times of crisis, his powerful words could lift a nation. "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny," he declared in 1936, and it turned out to be true. For his entire presidency, first during the height of the Great Depression and then in World War II, he shepherded Americans through the crises, inspiring them to acts of sacrifice and bravery they could not have imagined in themselves.

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FDR had a special gift for elevating the scene to reveal its historical importance, to help the public believe that it had a role in creating a better world for future generations. "We have faith that future generations will know here, in the middle of the 20th century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war," he preached in 1943, during the harshest time of the war. He gave them hope and motivated them to action. 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

 A man of tremendous moral authority, derived from his personal code of honor, Teddy Roosevelt boldly broke into the public sphere on the brink of the 20th century. As president during the first decade, he embraced modernity and set America on a course to become a global superpower. "Speak softly and carry a big stick," he preached as foreign policy. This meant openness to negotiation backed by a strong military apparatus. 

He loved his country and found sheer pleasure in the work. "I have enjoyed life as much as any nine men I know," he once said. The nation wanted to follow this fearless, magnanimous man, who was determined to lead them along new paths, including conservation.

We have an image of Roosevelt as a cowboy, so it’s surprising to discover that he was a skillful administrator. As he put it, "Any man who has occupied the office of president realizes the incredible amount of administrative work with which the president has to deal even in time of peace. He is of necessity a very busy man, a much-driven man, from whose mind there can never be absent, for many minutes at a time, the consideration of some problem of importance, or of some matter of less importance which yet causes worry and strain."

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

You might say that Dwight Eisenhower was the only non-politician of the group. Prior to his election he had never served in any office – nor did he want to. But Gen. Eisenhower was tremendously popular in the years following World War II. He brought the strength of a military leader and the homespun truths of a Kansas boy to the process, and it was an irresistible combination. 

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Eisenhower once wrote that a quality he had observed in every leader he knew was humility. "I have seen Winston Churchill with humble tears of gratitude on his cheeks as he thanked people for their help to England and the Allied cause. I have never doubted the stories of Washington on his knees at Valley Forge, humbly asking help from a power greater than he." 

Eisenhower embodied humility as well, believing that a leader had as much to gain from those he led as they had to gain from him. He’d learned that from his troops. 

Eisenhower was president during the most dangerous period of the Cold War, and he never stopped trying to make peace with the Soviets. He understood the cost of war, and the catastrophic potential of a nuclear age. He believed it was inevitable that the world would be forced to make a choice – and his words resonate to this day: 

"When we get to the point, as we one day will, that both sides know that in any outbreak of general hostilities, regardless of the element of surprise, destruction will be both reciprocal and complete, possibly we will have sense enough to meet at the conference table with the understanding that the era of armaments has ended and the human race must conform its actions to this truth or die."

These are just a few examples of presidential leadership. On Presidents Day , I invite everyone to pause and reflect on the qualities you would choose for a great president. Talk to your friends, your family, and especially your children about it. Delve into history and learn about past presidents. And then help write new history for future generations.

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Original article source: What makes a president great?

Abraham Lincoln and George Washington consistently rank as the greatest presidents in surveys from historians. iStock

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What makes a great president.

[The presidency for good or ill plays a vital role in the life of the country.] The president’s performance is often a measure by which we all judge the performance of our country. A president who succeeds makes us feel that the nation can succeed, and it is also through the president’s performance that we understand America’s role in the world and America’s hopes and aspirations for itself.

The presidency today is not what it was when Washington became President. It has constantly changed; generally, though not always, expanding in power and influence. For example, before Andrew Jackson, no president vetoed a piece of legislation he disagreed with unless he felt it was unconstitutional. Since Andrew Jackson, bills have been routinely vetoed because the President felt that while the bill was constitutional, he disagreed with the policy.

But I don’t want to focus on the evolution of the presidency. I want to focus on the characteristics – the changeless characteristics – of presidential greatness. What makes presidents able to rise to the moment? What makes presidents successful as history judges them in retrospect? Being a successful president means being a leader, but what, exactly, are the characteristics of leadership? What are the characteristics, most importantly, of successful leaders in the Oval Office?

Some suggest there aren’t good presidents. William F. Buckley once famously remarked that “the office of the presidency is so staggeringly complicated that nobody, nobody, can be a good president.” I disagree. It is clear that it is, perhaps, one of the world’s hardest jobs. There was a sign on Ronald Reagan’s desk when he was president, and it said simply, “It can be done.”

So how can it be done? What distinguishes the successful president from the unsuccessful president? I would like to suggest a few characteristics. I do this with trepidation, because people have studied this far longer than I have; and my experience is obviously colored by the last two years, and those two years are not necessarily representative of the sweep of American history. But it strikes me that one of the most important things that a president has to have to be successful is clarity of vision. Effective presidents have a strategic vision and a direction in which they want to lead the country. They are concerned with big issues and big challenges, and seek to explain their vision in a way that allows people to understand their circumstances and develop confidence in those proposals. One thinks of FDR’s fireside chats, where he inspired the country to overcome the Depression. We think of Lincoln with the “House Divided” speech, saying very clearly his goal was to save the Union while limiting the expansion of slavery.

There has to be a clarity about the goal, if not always clarity about the method. For the clarity of vision doesn’t necessarily always lend itself to a clarity of direction, which is the second great characteristic – consistency of purpose but a willingness to change strategy in moments of crisis. One again thinks of Lincoln. Lincoln’s purpose remained the same while the strategies continued to be modified.

The third thing, and this is what I have come to understand acutely in the last two years, is that in moments of crisis presidents benefit, for good or for ill, from the legacies that have been left to them by the previous presidents. One of America’s great presidents of modern times left a tremendous legacy for those who followed him, and yet at the time he was reviled – Harry S. Truman. What Truman did in changing the national security structure of the United States made it possible for America to win the Cold War and develop the military strength necessary to keep the peace. Lincoln, on the other hand, unfortunately inherited the legacy of his predecessors, who kept putting Southern sympathizers in top military posts, so that when Lincoln inherited the military, he inherited a military full of Southern sympathizers.

I am a Texan now, but I am also a Yankee sympathizer. So one of my least favorite legacies of James Buchanan is Colonel Twigg, who had the federal arsenal in Texas and surrendered it in January of 1861 to the Confederacy. I have a little place in Kerrville, Texas. Kerr County, Texas is the only site of a monument to Union war dead erected by a community south of the Mason-Dixon Line. We voted as we fought for 140 years. Few Democrats ever carried Kerr County, Texas for 140 years. And they still don’t. I don’t know what that has to do with presidential greatness, but what the heck.

One of the interesting legacies that Franklin Roosevelt inherited, was that he was guided by the failed legacy of a previous president, the failure of Woodrow Wilson to prepare for World War I.

The fourth characteristic comes from Professor Fred Greenstein of Princeton. His book on presidential greatness had this really weird phrase. He said that successful presidents are presidents with “emotional intelligence,” which he described as “free of distracting emotional perturbations.” I couldn’t understand at first what that was, but then I thought about that, and he is right. A successful president must have an internal self-confidence. A good president doesn’t wet his finger in the morning and put it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, but has core values and confidence in self. Everybody gets nagged by self-doubt at some point, even our great presidents. Even in moments of melancholy Lincoln doubted the outcome of the enterprise in which he was involved. But he knew the importance of staying the course for great presidents are not frozen by doubt and indecision, but are comfortable making decisions.

The fifth characteristic of a successful President is a recognition that the responsibility of leadership causes a president to have a healthy respect for public opinion, but not to be dictated to by opinion polls. In the year between 9-11 of 2001 and 9-11 of 2002, there were more public opinion polls conducted in America asking questions about the conduct of the war on terrorism than were asked in the entire four and a half years of World War II. I think that is a sign of decline, not growth. What would Lincoln’s attitude have been if he had looked at the public opinion polls of the summer of 1864?

A presidency driven to accept only what has been validated by focus groups and polls is a presidency that doesn’t believe in the ability of leadership to change public opinion. A president focused on creating a legacy by adjusting what he does and says to what’s acceptable to public opinion at that moment is a president focused on the wrong thing. History will make its own judgments. Long after a president has departed the White House, history will write a judgment about what the president does.

President Bush is fond of saying that, in the short run, history always gets it wrong. He is also fond of telling a story about Sam Houston. Sam Houston was the only person in American history who was governor of two states and failed to serve out his term in either state. He was the governor of Tennessee in the 1830s, married a much younger woman (which is always a mistake) and was embarrassed by the marriage. History argues over exactly what happened. But, feeling embarrassed, he resigned his office and lit out for the Indian territory. He had been raised by the Indians at a young age and was given the name “The Raven.” After he went back to live with the Indians after resigning, his name was “The Big Drunk.” Ultimately, of course, he ended up in Texas. He was Texas’s greatest hero. He won the Battle of San Jacinto to free us from the control of Mexico and was the second president of the independent republic, was its first United States senator, and in 1859, was elected governor of the state of Texas.

He loved the Union. He was a follower of Andrew Jackson, and all his adult life labored to bring Texas into the United States. So when the election of 1860 occurred, he could not bring himself to sever Texas from the Union. A constitutional crisis occurred. A secession convention was called. The convention issued an order to every statewide elected official that every statewide official would have to sign an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy or their office would be declared vacant. Texas’s greatest hero sat on the second floor of the governor’s mansion and thought. The deadline came and went without Sam Houston signing the oath of loyalty to the Confederacy. His office was declared vacant, and his lieutenant governor was made governor. Houston packed up his belongings, loaded them in a wagon and left the governor’s mansion to drive back to Huntsville, Texas. When the occupants of the State Capitol heard he was leaving town, they poured out of the State Capitol, lined the road, and hurled garbage and epithets at him as he left town – Texas’s greatest hero. He died two years later. Virtually no one went to his funeral.

In the short term, history said Sam Houston was a traitor to the cause of his state. But long term history has judged him to be what he was – a great man, of vision and leadership, who was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for what he thought was right. And he could care less about public opinion. He once said, “Do right and damn the consequences.” Successful presidents are also successful coalition builders. No president can operate effectively by himself. A president must build coalitions within his own party and between the parties. He must also rise above parties. That’s not to say to triangulate against both parties, but at times, to put the interests of the country above the partisan interests of either party. But the role of party leader is vital for a president: no president can be a successful leader without being a party leader.

A successful president surrounds himself with a strong team. Think about George Washington. He started both [with] Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in his cabinet, two men who hated each other , strong-willed individuals, yet both of them sitting around the table.

A successful president also organizes advisers to give him what a president most often lacks – solid, straightforward advice. President Bush talks about how he wants to create a spirit in which people feel comfortable coming in and saying what they feel in the Oval Office. Because people will sit outside the Oval Office and say, “I’m going to tell the president what I feel. He is absolutely wrong on this.” But they walk in the Oval Office and say, “Oh, Mr. President, you look fabulous today.” Chester Cooper, who served on LBJ’s National Security Council, said that his goal during the depths of Viet Nam was to be able to walk into the Oval Office, or walk into a meeting in the Cabinet Room, and say, “Mr. President, I strongly disagree.” He said his greatest failing in life was that he could never bring himself to say that. The office awes people that much.

So an effective leader is one who can allow people to give advice that may not be in agreement with his views and values and opinions, and yet to feel secure in the knowledge that they are serving the president by doing so. Creating this environment for rigorous give and take, and minimizing leaks and the use of the press to pay back other members of the staff who said something with which you might disagree, is a difficult thing for a president to do, but a vital thing.

Finally, there must be a readiness to act and a comfort in deciding. One of the great easy deciders was Theodore Roosevelt. This is the 100th anniversary of the West Wing which, incidentally, for those of you who have not been in the real West Wing, looks nothing like the one on television. There are nowhere near as many attractive, handsome people as there are on “The West Wing.” I don’t know where those glass partitions come from. People tend to walk a little slower in the real West Wing. The offices are one heck of a lot smaller. The lighting is nowhere near as dramatic as it is on the television program, but it is a pretty nice place to work. But a week ago Monday was the 100th anniversary of the West Wing.

The West Wing was built in characteristic Roosevelt style – a very short period of time. In March 1902, even before the appropriation had been voted by Congress, Roosevelt sent a letter to the architect in New York, McKim, [Mead] & White: “I expect you to begin the construction no later than the first of July [they hoped to get the money by the end of June]. I want the building completed by October and the grounds put back in order by Nov. 15.” In a few short months the West Wing was constructed. There are two interesting sidelights to that. One was a battle between President Roosevelt and his wife. The site Roosevelt had picked for the West Wing was where the garden conservatories were. In 1857, Buchanan began building these ornate glass conservatories. Over the years, they had grown and grown and grown. It was a great social highlight of Washington to be able to go, particularly in wintertime, to see the orange trees with the First Lady. Mrs. Roosevelt did not want the conservatories to be removed. She lobbied the architect to find another location for the West Wing. He reported this to Roosevelt, who in characteristic style said, “Smash the glass houses.”

It was also characteristic of Theodore Roosevelt that they built the West Wing so fast. They got it done in time – they finished it in mid-October – let the paint and the plaster cure for a couple of weeks, and they moved in on the fourth of November. But it was so hastily built, so shoddily built, and so small that they had to tear it down and double its size in 1909, when the first Oval Office was created. Roosevelt got his way, but someone had to clean up after him. But he was comfortable in making decisions.

None of these characteristics are enough for a president to be successful. It is how the presidents apply their abilities in times of crisis that matters. Buchanan, perhaps one of the most inept presidents in the run-up to the Civil War, had great abilities, but certainly didn’t apply them. One of my favorite historical figures is James Madison, (my son is named Andrew Madison Rove). He was a fabulous constitutionalist but one of my least favorite presidents. He almost single handedly brought together the Constitutional Convention, [and was] author of the Bill of Rights. But he was a lousy president. All of the great characteristics that helped him write our Constitution were of little help in governing as president.

One of the great things I have found out is that when you call somebody up and say, “Will you come and give a talk at the White House?” inevitably they say yes. I don’t know exactly why that is. We have had some fabulous speakers come to the White House. One was Forrest McDonald, the great revisionist historian, who gave a talk on presidential greatness. Afterwards, he asked a very interesting question: “Who are the great presidents we don’t know are great?” His answer was William McKinley. This tripled the size of the McKinley caucus in Washington. It was Bob Novak, me, and now Forrest McDonald.

But McDonald said nobody knows McKinley is great because history demanded little of him. He modernized the presidency, he modernized the Treasury to deal with the modern economy, he changed dramatically the policies of his party by creating a durable governing coalition for 40 years, he took a special interest in finding the rising generation of young leaders and putting them into the government, he attempted deliberately to break with the Gilded Age politics, he was inclusive and he was the first Republican candidate for president to be endorsed by a leader in the Catholic hierarchy. The Protestant, Anglo Saxon Republicans were scandalized by his 1896 campaign, in which he paraded Portuguese fishermen and Slovak coal miners and Serbian iron workers to Canton, Ohio to meet him. He just absolutely scandalized the country. Yet the times demanded little of him. Yet the times could have demanded as they have of other Presidents, some of whom rose to the challenge. Who would have thought that a guy who was a failed one-term congressman, a failed U.S. Senate candidate, and a railroad lawyer would have had the capacity to rise, as Lincoln did in a time of crisis, to do the greatness that he did?

Great presidents are made not just by themselves and their upbringing, but also made by the times in which they live. In October of 1962, following the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy remarked to his aides, “I guess this is the week I earned my salary.” In reality, every president has to earn his salary every week. But some presidents like Kennedy are thrust into moments of greatness and others are not. As Roosevelt said, “To each generation [he could have said to each president] comes its allotted task, and no generation is to be excused for failure to perform its task.”

Questions and Answers

Audience Member : Thank you, and welcome home, Mr. Rove. We appreciate your remarks just now and, of course, this morning also. The election has come and gone, and that was one great week for your White House and for your boss. Then we had “This was the week that was” with your United Nations action that was unanimous, and I guess you heard the news today that our not-so-friend over in Baghdad has “accepted,” quote-end quote. Would you speak in the context of what you just talked about – the political capital of the president, the challenges he faces which are of historic meaning, how you see this man you work with daily handling that, and how we can be helpful as citizens in that context.

Mr. Rove : The news today, on the surface of, is it very good, but we need to be watchful. The statement needs to be examined in its totality. More importantly, even if the statement is as it has been depicted, what really matters is results. We face an adversary who has thumbed his nose at the United Nations for 11 years – in the face of 16 United Nations resolutions. He has diverted literally billions of dollars from oil sales to continue to fund his programs to develop weapons of mass destruction – and we should not kid ourselves [about] how open and how desirous he is of obtaining these materials. This is not a man who hides his desires. When he meets with his nuclear weapons scientists, it appears in pictures on the front page of Baghdad newspapers with headlines that he is meeting with his “nuclear Mujahadeen.” We should not fool ourselves that we are dealing with a man who has thumbed his nose at the world for 11 years. We need to make certain that we have zero tolerance for any violation of the most recently enacted U.N. resolution.

Foreign policy is something that every president ends up having to deal with whether he likes it or not. We live in a world that is increasingly connected, in which America is the sole superpower, and in which if we blink, the rest of the world falls asleep. It is a dangerous world we live in, one in which presidential authority must be exercised cautiously and deliberately and in concert with as many allies as we can garner around the world. But it has to be exercised. This is not a situation where the United States can blind itself in the belief that we are protected by two vast oceans and two big allies to the north and south. After 9-11 we ought to know this with clarity.

No president wants war. Every president understands that there is one person who gets to hug the orphans and comfort the widows and the husbands. It may sound corny, but I have seen him do it. I saw him do in on 9-14 in New York. I saw him do it on 9-11 this year at the Pentagon, in a windy field in Pennsylvania, and at Ground Zero. I have seen the fathers and husbands, and wives and sons and daughters, visit with him in small back rooms in airports – at the Tri-Cities Airport in Johnson, Tennessee less than 10 days ago. It is not a task that any president wants. Any president who faces war does so with an understanding that there will be a real human cost. But if we do not act, if we do not hold this man to account, if we do not insist that he disarm, the things that he is trying to collect, may have collected and has collected, may end up back here in a very ugly way.

Audience Member : Mr. Rove, you spoke of the need for diversity of opinion in a healthy organization. I wonder if you could share with the audience an example of that in the current administration.

Mr. Rove : I can not tell you the particulars, but I will tell you this. One of the greatest things is the high quality of people that this president has drawn into both his cabinet and into his White House staff. When I walk into the 7:30 A.M. senior staff meeting, to the side of me is Condie Rice, on the other side of me is Margaret LaMontagne-Spellings, the domestic policy chief. I look around this table and I see incredible people with enormous ability and intellectual firepower and integrity.

One of the great things is being able to discuss an issue, to be blunt about where you are coming from, and to have the confidence in your colleagues – a trust in your colleagues – that even if you have diametrically opposite points of view, there is a mutual respect. However it is resolved, everybody will sort of salute and march forward. This president insists upon it. Franklin Roosevelt was Machiavellian. He encouraged open warfare among his cabinet and among his senior staff, pitting people against people. This president encourages straightforward candor. But he makes it clear that the price of straightforward candor is to treat everybody else’s opinions with respect. When things are done, you don’t leak.

Let me give you one example. In the summer of 2000, I went into the Austin Library of the Governor’s Mansion in Texas and sat there with the governor, candidate Bush, and the head of his vice presidential selection committee, and told them why I didn’t think Dick Cheney should be the president’s running mate. Of course, the head of the vice presidential selection committee was Dick Cheney. This showed I was a political genius. And this is what this president encourages. As a result, you see a lot of it. We can have spirited disagreements. We can have spirited arguments. The president insists on those arguments being presented to him. If we can come to consensus, fine, but if we can’t, everybody gets their shot to come in at one time, lay out their arguments, and it works.

Maybe it works because of the unusual chemistry, but I am absolutely convinced that this is one of the most difficult things a president can do and one of the most dangerous things not to do, because the office is so awe-inspiring. I mean awe-inspiring to everybody. You walk into the Oval Office, and it causes you to get just a little haywire. An example: Vladimir Putin came to see the President of the United States. Here is the leader of Russia, a great power. He was in the Roosevelt Room across the hallway from the Oval Office, he walked across the hallway, the door opened to the Oval Office, the President of Russia walked in, and his first words were; “Oh my God, this is beautiful.” That is what the office does. Because the office, in a way, is an expression of the American presidency. A president who is successful, I am convinced, is a president who spends a lot of time figuring out how to cultivate this truth-telling, because you can get very isolated inside that bubble. Sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue is 18 acres of sheer utopia, and like Utopia it can be isolated from reality quickly.

Audience Member : Mr. Rove, in the context of presidential greatness, of the recent elections, and of the energy this White House expended to get Republicans elected all across the country, could you talk about what benefit it is to a president to have the entire government of one party at a time when the nation is relatively split 50-50 along Democratic and Republican lines.

Mr. Rove : It was closely split in 2000. I am not certain it is so closely split now. Nothing stays in gridlock in American politics. Things move one direction or the other. To some degree we have evidence that things are beginning to move in one direction. For example, in the contests for the United States Senate, it was not simply that the Republicans picked up three seats, a net of two, it was that 52 percent of the votes cast in the U.S. Senate races were cast for Republican candidates and 47 percent for Democrats. In races for the U.S. House, it was not simply that the Republicans picked up six or seven or eight seats (depending on the outcome of two contests left undone). The last three congressional elections before this were all decided by less than one percentage point with neither party getting over 50 percent, instead 48 [percent] to 48 [percent], basically for 2000, ‘ 98 and ‘ 96, and this election it is 53-47, Republican versus Democrat.

To me perhaps the leanest example that things are moving in a new direction is in the races for state legislatures. You can always make an explanation for why the Republicans won the Senate or did well in the House. But since 1938 when people began keeping good statistics on it, the White House party, Republican or Democrat, has lost an average of 350 state legislative seats in its first off-year election. In this election, the Republicans will have gained 195. We are 545 seats ahead of where we should if we were suffering the normal depredations of the first off-year election. Something is going on out there. I attribute it to the president, to the president’s agenda, to quality candidates and quality campaigns, to some tactical advantages in our ground game, our getting out the vote, but I think something else more fundamental is happening there, but we will only know it retrospectively, in two years or four years or six years [when we] look back and say the dam began to break in 2002.

Audience Member : Mr. Rove, it is a real privilege to have you here. One of George W. Bush’s greatest assets seems to be that his opponents always underestimate him. Perhaps you could maybe shed some light on why people seem to do that, and as one who truly knows the president, maybe you could just shed a little light on what makes the president such a great leader and such a good man.

Mr. Rove : I can’t explain why they underestimate him, but they do. Whatever the reason, I hope they keep doing it. I think it is because he is from Midland, Texas, and his idea of a vacation spot is Crawford, Texas, rather than Hyannisport. I have known him for 29 years. He is one of the best-read people I have ever met. He was a Yale undergraduate, a history major. He has a great sense of history and its forces. He is the first president to be an MBA, a Harvard MBA. I had read Peter Drucker, but I had never seen Peter Drucker in action until I saw George W. Bush as governor of Texas. The governorship of Texas is constitutionally a very weak office. He defeated a very popular Democratic incumbent, faced a Democrat House and Democrat Senate, and yet pressed through his legislative program and won reelection with an historic margin for a Texas governor.

I think a great deal of it is his personal characteristics. He is a person who is “centered.” This is a person who, as you know, went to Sam Houston Junior High – who grew up in Midland, Texas. He knows who he is and is comfortable with who he is. He doesn’t need validation from the editorial pages of the Washington Post or the New York Times .

I think he is also someone who is driven by a vision. He ran for governor, became a candidate in the first instance, because he wanted to help bring about a change in the culture of Texas. He wanted to help bring about an education reform system. He was afraid that our system was leaving too many children behind.

The maddest I have ever seen him – I know exactly when it was the maddest I’ve ever seen him. It was February of 1995. He was getting his first briefing from the Texas Education Agency. They came in and gave him little old numbered charts – “we have 2.3 million children in the public school systems of Texas, etc. Last year on the minimum reading skills exam, 43,000 third grade students failed the minimum skills exam.” That caught jos ear: 43,000 third graders failed the minimum reading skills exam. Now this is not the acceptable, nor the maximum, reading skills exam. This is, “See Spot run.” He said, “What happened to those 43,000?” They said, “39,000 went on to the fourth grade.” He got hot. What this said to him was that we had an education system in Texas but a bunch of kids are not learning. Maybe English was not the first language in their home. Maybe they are from the wrong side of town. Maybe some kids can’t learn. But we are going to just shuffle them through the system. This was unacceptable to him. He was hot. Out of that was born the Texas education reform package [that was] then embodied in H.R.1, the national education reform package that every state is now going to have to begin to meet. Let me tell you what happened in Texas. We put the accountability system in place, raised the standards, and said every child is going to be tested, every child is going to learn. We are going to disaggregate the data. I didn’t know what “disaggregation of the data” meant until I met George Miller, a liberal Democrat from California. On the 19th of December, he came down to Texas and sat with President-elect Bush in the Governor’s Mansion and said, “I’m willing to work with you on the education package because you said ‘disaggregate the data.’” Disaggregation of the data means you take the data for kids that you test and break it out by Latinos, African-Americans, and Anglos, so that rather than hiding the failure to teach Latino kids, or African-American kids, with the successes of teaching nice white suburbanites, you break the data out so you can say, “We’re not doing the job we need to do in society for kids for whom education is the only way out, the way up.”

I think he is successful because he is a person who is entirely comfortable in his own skin. He knows what he believes. He is willing to listen to others. He knows that he is not always right. He has an ease in making decisions. He has a vision of where he wants to go, a comfort that he is going to do the best he can do, and if people don’t like it, he is going back to Crawford, Texas and mosey around his 1,600 acres, get a new pair of boots, watch baseball games, and read some good books. A lot of people underestimate him. Thank God they do.

Audience Member : Hello, Mr. Rove. I like your tie a lot. Today is a “code pink alert”. My question for you. You indicated that the president, the administration (I know it is not just the president) isn’t paying too much attention to popular opinion polls about the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Mr. Rove , interjecting: That’s not exactly what I said, but go ahead.

Audience Member: You hinted at that. But what I want to know is apparently, [you are] not paying a lot of attention to the 200,000 people who marched in Washington on April 26 and the hundreds of thousands who have marched all over the world, and there are one or two people here today. My question to you is: How can we get our government’s ear, those of us who are opposed to this invasion. Thank you. [Some applause and cheering from crowd.]

Mr. Rove : The way to do it is to do it the way that everybody else does, which is talk to your representatives and petition the Congress, and petition the President. You talk about 200,000 people. With all due respect, I worry about the 3,000 people killed on 9-11. [Applause.] I have a 13-year old. I would like to leave to my child a world that is peaceful, not a world that is threatened by transnational global terrorism. [Applause.]

Let me give you just one example. We need to see the world as it is, not as we would desire it to be. We have an organization that is sophisticated, well financed and dangerous. It is not five guys in some cave someplace. Al Qaida—these people, have access to cash flow in the tens of billions of dollars. We shut down one charity in Arlington, Texas that last year shipped $13 million to Al Qaida. Do you know how many people went through those training camps in Afghanistan? One hundred thousand. Some of them, 15,000 or 20,000, went through sophisticated training in electronics, spycraft, small weapons, explosives, biological and chemical weapons.

These people mounted a sophisticated operation aimed at the United States of America, and if anybody thinks they have now gone away or that they do not desire to hurt us and harm us, or to drive us back out of the world, you are kidding yourself. If we want to leave our children a legacy of a dangerous world, where people unbound by convention have access to some of the world’s worst weapons and have demonstrated a willingness to use them, then we either do not see this job to its conclusion or we fail – because that’s exactly the legacy we will leave them. [Applause.]

Every generation receives its challenge. It might have been the Great Depression or World War II. This is our challenge. As a country, we had better understand that it is a challenge we must meet, or we will leave the world in a much more dangerous and much more difficult way. I, for one, am not willing to leave that to my child. [Applause.]

Audience Member : This has to do with comments you made about unsung heroes who were president. I was curious who, in addition to perhaps McKinley, you might feel was an unsung hero as a president that we don’t necessarily look at as a “Lincoln.”

Mr. Rove : James K. Polk.

Audience Member : And why?

Mr. Rove : He led Texas into the Union. [Laughter.] I don’t want to make too much of a claim for my man, McKinley. I left the University of Utah and never got my degree. So I continued in a desultory fashion to pile up credits at various colleges. The great irony was that I got accepted into the Ph.D. program at the University of Texas Government Department. Their only requirement was that I finish my undergraduate degree. I was teaching, at the time, a graduate course at the LBJ School, proving that God does have a sense of humor.

But I signed up for a course to fulfill my upperdivision writing requirement, because they needed evidence I could string two words together. I looked around, I read the catalog, and lo and behold I found a thing called “Seminar in Historical Source Writing.” I went over to the History Department and asked, “What is this?” They said, “You have to get a professor, pick a topic, go do original research, and write it up.” So I asked, “What professor is in, today?” I walked in, and it was Robert Divine. UT has one of the great History Departments, and Robert Divine is one of the great historians of modern diplomatic history. I walked in, and he asked, “What do you want to do?” I said, I would like to write a paper on the 1940 Republican presidential convention. He said, “Great! I listened to it on the radio as a young man.…Great, go do it.”

I found that literally every book written about the 1940 convention, with the exception of one, is incorrect. Every contemporary account is incorrect, and every book written about it – except a very eccentric book written by a woman who may have been one of Wilkie’s many admirers, a very weird stream-of-consciousness book. Every one of them was wrong, because they say [on] the sixth ballot, the Pennsylvania delegation was recognized, they switched their votes from Gov. James to Wilkie, and this made Wilkie the presidential candidate. I was going through the minutes of the Republican convention, and had this little chart showing how Wilkie had this secret plan to win the nomination. Lo and behold, I found out that on the sixth ballot they came to Virginia, which voted just before Pennsylvania, which [had] passed. [Virginia] got recognized and changed its votes. Wilkie was put over the top by Virginia. But the convention was so chaotic (it was 1:30 in the morning) that nobody knew that Wilkie had just gone over the top, so they then called on Pennsylvania.

I got an “A” in the course. However, as luck would have it, between the time I signed up for the course (it was the spring) and when I turned in the paper in the fall, they had removed the course from the list of courses that you could take to fulfill the upperdivision writing requirement. So I went into the dean of students’ office, and like all dean of students offices, being helpful and courteous and kind, they said, “No way we are making an exception for you. It wasn’t in the catalog when you turned in your paper. You don’t get credit for it. Go find another course.”

I looked again at the catalog the following spring. They had put it back on the list. So I went back and said, “Dean, hear this.” [He said], “No, you’ve got to take it over.” So I took it over. I had decided I wanted to do a paper on Theodore Roosevelt and the 1896 campaign, because it was the turning point for his entire life. He had been made police commissioner in New York in 1895, and he loved the job. He wrote his sister about how he donned a hat and a cape and was going out at night to find the drunk policemen and rouse them from their slumber and put them back to work. He loved the job in 1895. But by 1896, he hated the job. He was in a lawsuit with the other two police commissioners. He had backed the wrong candidate for president, the Speaker of the House. He literally had written a letter at the time of the Republican convention saying that he thought McKinley was a dolt and not up to it, and he had absolutely nowhere to go in life.

Yet at the end of the 1896 election, Theodore Roosevelt got the plum job of his life. He was made the assistant secretary of Navy, and when the secretary of Navy made the mistake of going on vacation, he sent the orders to Dewey at Hong Kong saying, “Make steam for Manila,” thereby ensuring the great success of, “Fire when ready, Gridley,” when Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in a matter of minutes outside of Manila, which allowed Theodore Roosevelt to become the head of the “Rough Riders,” be elected governor after a six-week campaign, become vice president and, on the assassination of McKinley, become president. How did this all happen? How did his political career get rescued in the 1896 campaign by a guy who did not like him? At the end of the 1896 campaign, McKinley wrote a letter to the sponsors of Roosevelt saying: “I do not trust your young man, Roosevelt. I think him too ambitious.”

I walked into the History Department. A professor, who turned out to be one of the leading historians of the Progressive Era and of the Gilded Age, said, “I would love to take you on. But I’ve got one requirement. And that is that you go read the McKinley papers, because history gets McKinley wrong.” He said: “They get Mark Hanna wrong, and they get McKinley wrong.” I got the microfilm, and read the McKinley papers. I had my then nine year- old son photocopy all of the sheets I pulled off the microfilm. And when you read the papers, you see that McKinley was a masterful political genius. This guy was very impressive.

Whitlaw Reid, the editor of one of the leading publications in America, had lung problems and wintered in Arizona. Every year he arrived in Arizona to find a hand-written note from McKinley inquiring about his health, saying that he hoped that while in Arizona, if any occasion arises when he thought that there was something that he, McKinley, ought to hear, he would love to hear from him. When he was ready to go back east every year, he wrote Reid a letter saying that if he stopped in Washington to come by. He wrote him every year just like clockwork.

And, he was a brilliant selector of talent. Illinois was the heart of the Republican Party, Lincoln’s home. In 1895, McKinley picked a 31 year old lawyer with no political history to be the chairman of his Illinois campaign. And this kid actually ran the presidential campaign. Mark Hanna did not run the presidential campaign. The campaign was actually run by a young man who, by the time of the 1896 campaign, was 32 years old or so. McKinley installed a long-distance phone line and had him call him everyday to give him reports. He also had him write letters reporting on what was going on. They are marvelous letters to read. It is clear that McKinley was in charge of the campaign.

He installed his young cousin who was 36 years old [to be] in charge of the New York campaign headquarters – William McKinley Osborne – who writes equally marvelous letters reporting on what was going on in New York. There was this fabulous letter that he wrote in October saying, “Major (that’s how McKinley liked to be known), we had a meeting of the Republican National Executive Committee today, and in attendance were Hanna,” and he names all these rich guys. “I reminded them as you oft told us, it is with the interest of the working man that we must be concerned. Capital can take care of itself.” You can see this 36-year-old snotty kid saying, “Look, that’s not what the major wants you to worry about. The major says focus on the working man, you plutocrats,” to Mark Hanna et. al.

The 31 year old who ran the presidential campaign was Charles Dawes, who later went on to be the third American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, first head of the Bureau of the Budget, vice president under Calvin Coolidge, ambassador to Great Britain, and the first head of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. But in 1896, he was literally a young lawyer entrepreneur in Chicago, and McKinley picked him out of the crowd.

McKinley did not do this only with Dawes. He did it for a lot of people, including Roosevelt. (You’re getting more on McKinley than you ever wanted to know, I know that.) He recognized that he was the last of the Civil War generation to serve. He knew he was the last person who fought in the Civil War who would be president, and he absolutely loathed the generation that came after him in politics. There was a famous lawyer-lobbyist from Wisconsin, who took two years out of his life to work for McKinley as a volunteer. At the end of the campaign, he asked for his reward, and McKinley turned him down because he represented the old politics. Instead he picked out the 30 some-odd-year-old punk from New York City, who was the irascible, uncontrollable Theodore Roosevelt, and said that he represented the rising generation. Although he distrusted him, and although he did not like him, he represented the future of the party and the country. He was going to make him the assistant secretary of Navy.

There are very few people like this in American history. McKinley saw how the economy was changing and changed the government to match it. There are very few people who do that, who are able to move with the times and to see and to be farsighted. The problem was all the important things came before him or after him. As a result, we see him today as he was, which was a second-tier president.

Remember, he was killed in 1901, assassinated by a terrorist. The nation mourned – enormously. All across America, school children contributed pennies and nickels to build an incredible mausoleum outside of Canton, Ohio…[When I visited] the Antietam Battle Field, [I went] to see the McKinley Monument. They took me to it at the end of the battlefield tour because they knew I was a McKinley enthusiast. It shows Sgt. McKinley—it is a wonderful, tall piece of marble with a great bronze plaque on it and it – doing his heroic deed of delivering hot coffee to the troops at the Battle of Antietam. There was enough money left over to glorify being the “Starbucks” of 1862. But McKinley was a rare individual. There have been others. I think Polk was one of them. But neither one was called upon to deal with the greatness of the times. Thank you again. [Applause.]

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Lesson Plan: What Makes a Great President?

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What Makes a Great President?

Barbara Perry talked about the traits that make a great president, including self-confidence, emotional intelligence, and the ability to learn from mistakes.

Description

Barbara Perry, Presidential Studies Director, University of VA, Miller Center of Public Affairs, talked about the traits that make a great president, including self-confidence, emotional intelligence, and the ability to learn from mistakes. She used George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt as examples of how great presidents cultivated their leadership skills and won popular support.

As students view the video clips in this lesson, they can complete the chart on the handout.

HANDOUT: What Makes a Great President? (Google Doc)

Students will:

take notes on the qualities that are found in presidential leadership

explain the leadership qualities each president demonstrated through their experiences

  • consider the traits and examples that were presented and explain the leadership qualities they look for in their presidential candidates

As a class view the following video to provide context.

VIDEO CLIP: What Makes a Great President? (2:48)

Barbara Perry talked about some of the traits that make a great president.

Students may work independently or you can jigsaw your class into groups to view the videos below.

VIDEO CLIP: George Washington (9:43)

Barbara Perry discusses the traits that make a great president and provides examples through Washington's life.

VIDEO CLIP: Abraham Lincoln (5:23)

Barbara Perry talked about the traits author Doris Kearns Goodwin maintains Lincoln exhibited during his presidency.

VIDEO CLIP: FDR (6:34)

Barbara Perry talked about the traits Professor Fred Greenstein maintains FDR exhibited during his presidency.

VIDEO CLIP: Context of the Presidency (6:11)

Barbara Perry talked about Professor Stephen Skowronek's theory of presidential leadership.

As a class, discuss the presidential qualities and examples that were presented. Then ask students to write an essay explaining the traits they look for in a presidential candidate.

Students may also select a president they would like to research and explain the leadership qualities and examples that were demonstrated during that person's time in office.

Additional Resources

  • Video Clip: Historians Survey of President Leadership
  • C-SPAN Survey on Presidents 2017
  • Emancipation
  • French And Indian War
  • Gettysburg Address
  • Great Depression
  • Nonpartisan
  • Reconstructive
  • Self-deprecating
  • States Rights

187 President Essay Topics & Examples

If you’re writing an open letter to the government or trying to analyze some political topics, this page is for you. You will find these President essay examples collected by our team helpful.

🏆 Best President Essay Examples & Topics

👍 good topics to write to the president about, 🔍 great president ideas for research, ✅ interesting topics to write about president, 🎓 simple & easy president essay topics.

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  • Barack Obama Made History: The First Black President of the United States In addition to becoming the first black president of the united states, Barack Obama has numerous prominent achievements that will remain the history of the United States.
  • President as Commander-in-Chief However, the major issue concerning the world today is the fact that most of the armed conflicts are executed beyond the nationally accepted law.
  • Stories From the Great Depression: President Roosevelt At the same time, the era of the Great Depression was the time when many Americans resorted to their wit and creativity.
  • President Truman’s National Health Program It is fortunate that the organization failed to achieve its goal and that Truman’s proposal resulted in the creation of medical insurance.
  • A Critique of President Obama’s Administration Position on Contraception The paper comes from the premise that after all contraception is widely used in the US but not all the women can afford the contraceptive.
  • China Under President Xi Jinping The ascension of President Xi Jinping to the position of general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 marked the turning point of China’s political and economic reforms.
  • Avon China President to Persuade the Chinese Government to Lift Ban on Direct Selling In 2008, Avon was the top direct selling company worldwide. The president of Avon made consultation with different stakeholders to remove the ban.
  • President Obama’s Inaugural Speech Analysis In his speech, Obama was seen to take advantage of the significance of that moment to address the Americans’ main concerns.
  • President Roosevelt’s New Deal in Tennessee The United States was in the middle of the Great Depression when Roosevelt was elected. In conclusion, the election of Roosevelt seemed like a solution to the impacts of the Great Depression.
  • President Obama’s and Sen. Cruz’s Hanukkah Greetings The speeches reveal that upholding the celebration is an important event in commemorating the justice of redemption of Jerusalem and rededication of the second temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt.
  • The Contribution of Former U.S. Presidents in Overcoming the Great Depression The Great Depression presents an event in which the U.S.developed progressive leadership policies to improve living standards. Modern politics in the U.S.has caused social divisions similar to the period of Unravelling.
  • Foreign Policy Actions of Three Presidents George Washington believed that the treaty is beneficial to the United States due to the stabilization of the relationship with England.
  • The COVID-19 Bill Proposal by President Biden As the standing committees to introduce the bill to, the budget committees of the House and the Senate will be involved.
  • The President as a Legitimate Authority Nonetheless, a person has the right to disagree with the policy of the President but must respect him as the head of the country.
  • Progressive Ideology by President Roosevelt In addition, the key role of the progressive lies in addressing the problems of the other, for which reason they are to remain enthusiastic and inspiring under any circumstances.
  • Inside the President’s War Room Documentary Terrorists aimed two of the planes at the business symbol of New York the World Trade Center towers, and the other two at the Pentagon and, presumably, the White House or the Capitol.
  • President Obama’s Inaugural Address in 2009 First, the inclusion of certain phonological elements such as alliteration, consonance, and assonance works to beautify the language, which causes it to resonate with the listener.’Pounded the pavement’ or ‘picked up the phones’ is an […]
  • President Franklin Roosevelt’s Acts and Laws Thus, the president managed not only to engage people to participate in the agricultural spectrum but also promoted improvement of the African American, immigrants, and workers conditions.
  • History of the President Power It is essential to note that the president’s power expanded in proportion to the advancement of American society and not because of changes in the Constitution.
  • President Biden’s State of the Union Address in 2022 The measures taken to date will help reduce the share of unresolved problems and give some impetus to the development of the well-being of America and its citizens.
  • Speech of President Abraham Lincoln on Gettysburg Field The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most significant and well-known not only during the Civil War but also in the entire history of the United States.
  • President Obama’s Justification for Killing Bin Laden In Schlag’s opinion, the secrecy of lawyers in working on the legal actions surrounding the plot of Bin Laden’s death raised concerns regarding the justification of his killing.
  • The Egyptian Pharaoh vs. US President Comparison The Pharaoh was each temple’s high priest in Egypt and was the earthly representative of the Egyptian gods. The President is the head of State and does not meddle in Church/ religious affairs.
  • Speech by President von Der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary In the conclusion, she summarized the impact of the invasion on Ukrainians and cemented the speech with a message of hope.
  • President Hoover’s Role During the Great Depression Although a significant percentage of the causative constituents emanated from the previous government’s economic strategies, President Hoover elevated the conditional outlier.
  • Abraham Lincoln Leadership: American Ex-Presidents Abraham Lincoln was a participatory leader, which is described as a style of leadership that encourages individuals and societal systems to change.
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

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what makes a good president essay

In a democracy, the President is regarded as the head of the state who acts as the primary symbol of the nation. A good President should possess characteristics such as being honest, having integrity, being competent, and having respect for the law. This essay will explore what else makes a good President.

A good president is someone who

-is able to articulate a vision for the country and inspire others to support it -is honest and trustworthy -has a firm grasp of domestic and foreign policy issues -is even-tempered and level-headed -works well with others and is able to compromise when necessary

A good president is someone who can articulate a vision for the country and inspire others to support it. A president who is honest and trustworthy is someone who the people can believe in. A president with a firm grasp of domestic and foreign policy issues is someone who can make informed decisions about the future of the country. A president who is even-tempered and level-headed is someone who can handle difficult situations without losing their cool. And finally, a president who works well with others and is able to compromise when necessary is someone who understands that sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot.

A good president should have

There are many qualities that make a good president, but some are more important than others. A good president should be honest, intelligent, and have a strong work ethic. They should also be able to communicate effectively and be able to make difficult decisions. A good president should also be someone who is respected by the American people.

The qualities of a good president are

It is widely accepted that a good president must be honest, intelligent, and have good leadership skills. However, what other qualities make a good president?

Some say that a good president must be able to compromise and work with others, even if they do not agree with them. Others say that a good president must be decisive and have a clear vision for the future.

What do you think makes a good president? Write an essay discussing the qualities you think are necessary for a successful presidency.

Some presidents in history who were considered good were

George Washington- he was a great leader during the American Revolution and is known as the “Father of our Country”

Abraham Lincoln- he led the country during one of its darkest times, the Civil War, and helped to keep the Union together

Franklin D. Roosevelt- he guided the country through the Great Depression and World War II

In conclusion, a good president is someone who

– is honest and trustworthy – has strong moral character – is intelligent and can make sound decisions – is articulate and can communicate effectively – is a good leader – works well with others – is committed to the country and its people

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what makes a good president essay

President Essay Topics & Examples

  • Notable American Presidents
  • President of the 20th Century
  • President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Policies
  • The President’s Tools for Changing the Bureaucracy
  • A Contrast between the Leaders of the United States and Mexico
  • Barack Obama as US President
  • The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
  • The State of the Union Address by President Obama on January 1, 2011
  • The Picture of an Ideal President: Behind the Scenes
  • Note to President Obama Regarding Potential Postal Service Insolvency
  • Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the President
  • The President’s Signature on Tax and Spending Bills
  • President Obama’s Proposed American Jobs Act
  • Why Did President Obama’s Efforts to Prevent Israel from Building Settlements and the Palestinians from Applying for UN Membership Fail?
  • What Made Andrew Jackson a Great President?
  • Does the Vice Presidency’s Authority Come from the Office’s Increased Size or the President in Office?
  • Evaluation of Document 28-1 the Great Society and Document 30-4 Are Described by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Ronald Reagan Speaks Out in Defense of American Morality
  • Opinions on President Obama and Governor Romney Debate from October 3, 2012
  • Thomas Jefferson, 19th President of the United States
  • Cleveland, President You Are Where?
  • How Three American Presidents’ Administrations Affected Families of Immigrants
  • How Do You Account for John Quincy Adams’ Outstanding Performance as Secretary of State and His Comparatively Poor Performance as President?
  • The Japanese Head Of State and the French President’s Influence
  • The President and Congress in American Politics
  • Leadership Roles of Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower in the Vietnam War
  • The Presidency of the United States
  • Preventing Abuse of Power: When Congress Must Limit the President’s Actions
  • Role and Authority of Presidents
  • Lifespan & Personality: Explaining the Characteristics of President Barack Obama
  • President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms

Good Topics About the President

  • A Review of President Obama’s Activities in the Media
  • How Can the President of the United States Influence the Health of the Economy and Society?
  • President Kennedy’s Assassination in 1963
  • The US President’s Role in International Affairs
  • Presidents Bush and Obama’s Fiscal Policies
  • Analysis of an Article on a Request to the President of the United States
  • President Obama: Economic Manager
  • The Foreign Policy of President Obama
  • President Obama’s Obligations During His Second Term as American CEO
  • Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, both Republicans
  • President Obama’s National Export Initiative
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Hero of World War II
  • The Position of President Reagan on Abortion
  • Joe Salatino, Great Northern American President
  • Analysis of American History. Thinking Back on President Reagan’s Life
  • The President’s Agenda for Higher Education
  • Congress and the President’s Respective Powers
  • Organizational Learning: Boosting Worker Performance
  • S. Congress and the President
  • Civil Rights Movement under Presidents Johnson and Eisenhower
  • National Security Policy Responsibilities of the President and Congressional Committees
  • Has the US Under President Obama Undergone Change?
  • Healthcare Reforms Under President Barack Obama
  • The Impeachment of President Clinton
  • Donald Trump: The Political Journey and Presidential Impact
  • Elections for Kenya’s Presidency
  • The President’s Men
  • VP of Operations at Wendy’s Restaurant
  • Analysis of a Speech by President Bill Clinton
  • President’s National Security Remarks

Fascinating President Research Questions

  • President Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Address
  • American President versus Canadian Prime Minister
  • Expansion of the US Presidency
  • The Impact of Egypt’s Presidents
  • Johnson’s Involvement in the Movement for Civil Rights
  • Was the Auto Industry Saved by President Obama?
  • Why Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt the President Who Was Most Popular?
  • The Fourteen Points of President Wilson
  • President’s Interview on Democracy’s Battlefield
  • The History of President’s Day in the U. S.
  • Power Relation between the US President’s Office and Congress
  • The President’s Responsibility in the Puerto Rico Crisis.
  • The President’s Policies and Law Enforcement Trends
  • Executive Orders and Presidential Powers
  • The Watergate Incident and President Nixon’s Impeachment
  • The Top American Presidents between 1824 and 1865
  • Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon both Served as President
  • Vladimir Putin: The Success of the President
  • State of the Union Addresses by President Obama
  • American Presidents’ Policy Decisions
  • The US Presidents: Absolute Power
  • Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev vs. President Ronald
  • Reagan Ronald Reagan as a Leader and a Person
  • George Bush, U.S. President
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower Pipes’ “Ike’s Last Battle”
  • The US President’s Control over the Judiciary
  • President Trump’s Economic Impact
  • President Trump’s White House Turnover Rate
  • The Letter of Georges Clemenceau and the Fourteen Point Speech of President Wilson
  • For and Against Impeaching President Trump

Simple & Easy President Essay Topics

  • Is the United States Prepared to Choose a Woman as President?
  • What Makes a President Successful?
  • Undermining the Constitution and Congress with the President’s Czars
  • Leadership Influence Processes: Presidents and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs)
  • The United States Presidents’ Leadership Qualities
  • Bill Clinton’s Presidential Achievements
  • Barack Obama: The Very First Black President Historically
  • A Woman in the White House: A Shock to Society
  • The President’s Authority in Supreme Court Proceedings
  • Larry Summers’ Controversial Speech at Harvard
  • What Exactly Does a President Do All Day?
  • US Presidents L. B. Johnson and F. D. Roosevelt
  • William McKinley, the 25th US President
  • The US Congress and President Bush
  • Presidents Misdeeds: Morality and Analysis
  • The President’s Foreign Policy Responsibilities
  • Dana Perino and President Bush’s Armenian Genocide Conference
  • Barack Obama to Become the Next US President
  • President Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment
  • United States President to Be Elected
  • Abdul Kalam, India’s People’s President
  • The Italian and German Presidents’ Constitutional Roles
  • The First Black President of the United States: Is Racism Over?
  • Presidents Nixon and Ford’s Relations with Canada
  • How America’s Racial Issues will Change if Barack Obama Is Elected President of the United States
  • President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009
  • Recommendations from the President on Training and Development
  • Fred I. Greenstein’s “The Qualities of Effective Presidents”
  • Is it Possible for a Woman to Become President of the United States?
  • In the Presidential Election of 2008, Obama or McCain?

Most Interesting President Topics to Write about

  • Roosevelt was the First President in American History
  • The Tax-Cut Policies of President Bush
  • Obama vs. Lincoln: Comparison of the Two Presidents
  • American Haughtiness, Mr. President?
  • Do Americans Today Have High Expectations for the President?
  • Lyndon B. Johnson’s Works Review.
  • Barack Obama’s Performance as President
  • The Inaugural Speech of President Kennedy
  • Congress and President Obama Discuss the Healthcare System
  • Ronald Reagan’s Power: The 1981 Air Traffic Controllers’ Strike
  • Obama’s Capacity to Address Issues
  • The 2008 Elections and President Griswold
  • Republicans Grant, Hayes, and Garfield were Presidents
  • If the President Decides to Activate the Draught, Women Should be Eligible.
  • Analysis of American Presidents’ History
  • James K. Polk: Among the Most Violent Presidents
  • American Republican Presidents’ Histories
  • A Speech by President Nelson Mandela Analysis
  • Interview with Bolivia’s First President, E. Morales
  • Andrew’s “For the President’s Eyes Only”
  • Wall Street Reforms Under President Obama
  • The President of the United States Trip to India
  • American Presidents: The Strongest and Weakest
  • A Comparison of the 3 US Presidents
  • Does Donald Trump Have What It Takes to Be President?
  • A Change in President’s Attitude Toward Climate Change Awareness
  • The US Budget Proposal from President Obama
  • The President Serves as Commander in Chief
  • President Roosevelt’s Great Depression Stories
  • The National Health Program of President Truman

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Home / Essay Samples / Government / Franklin D. Roosevelt / What Makes a Good President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

What Makes a Good President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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  • Topic: Famous Person , Franklin D. Roosevelt , Influential Person

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