Populists Vs. Elitists - U.S. Presidents, since 1932.

Just for the record:

Harvard & Yale Graduates:
FDR
Ford
JFK
Bush I
Bush II
Clinton
Obama

DC Insiders
LBJ (Left Texas at 23 for DC and stayed there until President 32 years later)
Nixon ( Went to DC at 29 stayed in DC/NYC until he became President 26 years later)
Ike ( DC/NYC 1928-1935, 1942, 1946-1951. Europe 1942-1945, 1951, 1929)

PopulistsReagan
Carter
Truman

Culture and the Camelot Revolution

An Excellent book. The author defends his book against an intellectually dishonest review



And this from Althouse

More on Jerry Ford - Why he was made V-P

I'm on a Jerry Ford kick, and just read his autobiography and Ambrose's book on Nixon's last years. Interesting fact on Ford's selection as V-P in 1974. After Agnew resigned Nixon took a poll of the RNC, his Cabinet, the Senate and House Republicans to see who should replace him. The results were as follows:

1) RNC - Goldwater, Reagan, Rockefeller and Connelly approximately 50 votes each or 200 total. Ford got 9 votes.

2) Cabinet- Ford got 2 of 12, with the remaining votes split between Rodgers, Goldwater, Reagan, Rockefeller and Connelly.

3) The Senate Republicans - Ford got 1 vote.

4) House Republicans - Ford got 80 votes with 75 other votes going to the big 4.

Nixon himself wanted Connelly, and listed Reagan and Rockefeller next with Ford in 4th place.

Given this lack of support why was Ford chosen? Three reasons. First, Nixon didn't want a party fight or to make anyone unhappy, so that eliminated Reagan (whose selection would anger the RINOs) and Rockefeller (hated by conservatives). Secondly, Nixon didn't want a congressional fight over the nomination, and the Democrats (Albert and Mansfield) told Nixon they would fight if Connelly was nominated. Albert and Mansfield told Nixon the Republican they would support was Ford. Thirdly, and incredibly, Nixon thought Ford was impeachment insurance. Nixon thought that the Republicans and a few Democrats would support him staying on rather than see "Dumb as a Rock" Ford succeed him.

So why was Ford V-P? Bottom line: Because the Democrats wanted him. Nixon felt he shouldn't or couldn't fight for a stronger man. And the Democrats position was vindicated - from a partisan standpoint - by Ford Presidency and his loss in 1976.

Write it When I'm Gone. by Tom DeFrank

After listening to DeFrank on Meet the Press, I went out and read the book. Several thoughts:

1) It is a badly written, badly organized "journalistic" book.

2) Jerry Ford comes off in the book as an even bigger blockhead, than I first realized. It seems that Ford was bitter and resentful for the rest of his life because Reagan ran a primary challenge against him in 1976 and didn't campaign hard enough for Ford or go to Texas and Mississippi in October 1976. He bad mouths Reagan saying he "was not a technically competent President" and a "shallow Showman"; was upset at Reagan getting $2 million for speaking fees in Japan, and was jealous that the Press gave him so much credit for ending the Cold War. Even more amazing, he wanted to run in 1980 and was sure he would win and was not sure Reagan could. Finally, he turned down Reagan's offer of the V-P slot in 1980 and when Reagan offered again in Detroit, Ford deliberately made demands so impossible that it scuttled any V-P deal and led to Bush's selection.

3) Ford tried to get Bush to dump Quayle in 1992, because he was too conservative and a drag on the ticket. Suggested alternatives were Cheney or Kemp.

4) Cheny was " too conservative" as V-P.

5) He didn't offer Reagan the V-P. He didn't like him or want him on the ticket. And his advisers warned him against selecting Rockefeller (Rocky was a "weak 5th" on the list of possible nominees) but Ford made him V-P anyway, because he "needed a moderate as V-P".

6) He believed his "indefatigable" campaigning for Reagan in 1980 won him several states.

7) He supported McCain in 2000 and Dole in 1996. He strongly wanted Powell to run in 1996 and thought a Dole-Powell ticket would win easily.

8) He strongly supported NAFTA and congratulated himself on "single-handedly convincing" Clinton to support it.

9) His deepest regret as POTUS was dumping Rocky in 1975 because of the "hard right wingers" However, he and Rocky both knew it had to be done to win the nomination. Nixon and he never met privately after Ford Left the Presidency.

10) Ford disliked Carter, and even on the way to Sadat's funeral (1981) called him a "Chickenshit". He also called him the weakest President in his lifetime. However, when Carter came to speak to raise Funds for the Ford Library the two men had a warmer relationship. By 1997 Ford told DeFrank that Rosalind and Betty were very close and that the two men were friends.

11) Ford requested Clinton not be allowed to speak at his funeral. Bush-I had a secure phone line installed to talk to Ford on a regular basis.

Jerry Ford - Blockhead

Just watched the C-Span Presidential series on Jerry Ford. A fascinating series on the Presidents since Hoover, it contains some new information on Ford, along with never seen Ford reflections on his Presidency. Watching it, I kept thinking "what a blockhead".

There are two common views about Ford. First and true, he was one of our dumbest Presidents. Second and falsely, he was humble. In fact, Jerry Ford was never "humble" he was an egotistical, arrogant man. And like most egotists forever blaming others for his failures, and refusing to admit mistakes.

No one prior to 1975 thought of him as Presidential material. He was selected as V-P primarily because no one dislike him or thought of him as a threat. Yet once President, he not only regarded the Presidency as his own, he thought he was entitled to reshape the party in his own image. Ignoring advice, he embarked upon a series of disastrous decisions designed to alienate and enrage the conservative wing of the party. To whit:

• Appointing Rockefeller, the conservatives enemy, as V-P
• Refusing to offer Reagan a significant cabinet post
  
• Adopting the policy of Detente, firing all its opponents (Like James Schlesinger) and signing the Helsinki accords.
• Snubbing Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the advice of Kissinger
  
• Refusing to nominate a conservative to the SCOTUS.
• Running a massive budget deficit
• Leaving Vietnam
• Trying to give the Panama Canal away to Panama
  
• Ignoring social conservatives.

Because of these actions, Reagan who had already run for the nomination in 1968, challenged Ford in 1976. After all, Ford had no right to the Presidency, other than his own sense of entitlement. The result was a draining and completely needless primary fight that went on till August 1976. To cap it off, Ford further alienated conservatives by refusing to offer Reagan the V_P slot, instead going with Bob "where's the outrage" Dole.

Even with all this, Ford could have won had he not insisted in the debates, and for a week afterwards, that "there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe". This gaffe not only alienated anti-communists, but reminded everyone of what a blockhead he was. According to Novak, for a week afterwards, Ford refused his aides entreaties to admit his comment was in error. He only made a public retraction for political reasons.

So in the post presidential interview does Ford admit all these mistakes and take the blame for the loss? Of course not. Who was to blame? Why Ronald Reagan! You see it was "unwise" for Reagan to "Challenge an incumbent President". And why didn't he choose Reagan as V-P? Why, his feelings were hurt during the primary challenge and Reagan wasn't a friend of his! (Right Jerry, who cares about winning, when personal feelings are involved.)

Further shifting the blame, Jerry states he still might have won if only Reagan had campaigned harder for him. Leaving aside the truth of the charge, exactly why Reagan, after being snubbed for V-P twice by Ford, and viciously attacked during the primaries as a "right-wing extremist" should have campaigned harder for him is unclear.

It should also be noted that Rumsfeld and Cheney - those two political and foreign policy geniuses were both Key Ford subordinates. Cheney was Ford Chief of Staff while Rummy replaced Schlesinger at DOD

A list of FDR's failures in WW II

Let's List FDR's failure:

1) Failure to unite the country in a time of war (see Thomas Fleming "New Dealers War")
2) Appointment of Communists to high positions
3) Appeasement of Stalin.
4) Refusal to plan for the postwar world
5) Hostility to the British Empire
6) Failure to build up the US Air Corps and Navy prior to June 1940.
7) Failure to plan for the German U-boat attack in 1942. Refused Navy advise to build DE's prior to Pearl Harbor.
8) Failure to adequately provide for the defense of Pearl Harbor.
9) Policy of Unconditional Surrender
10) Endorsement of the Morganthau plan.
11) Failure to build Aircraft Carriers instead of Battleships prior to 12-7-1941.
12) Endorses Marshall's absurd "Sledgehammer" plan.
13) Refuses to negotiate with Mussolini or Italian Military prior to July 1943.
14) Refuses to delay start of Pacific War by compromising with the Japanese. We could have delayed the start of the war by 3-6 months which would have given us time to prepare for the attack.

Myth: FDR Decided to invade the Philippines - Honolulu 19944

This myth was started by Robert Sherwood in his book "Roosevelt and Hopkins". Per Sherwood, FDR traveled to Hawaii in July 1944 and met with MacArthur and Nimitz. After talking to both men, he was swayed by MacArthur's oratory and decided to invade the Philippines in October 1944.

This is false. FDR came to Hawaii on July 26, 1944 and left three days later. He spent the night of the 27th and the morning of the 28th talking with Mac and Nimitz about the future of the war in the Pacific. The rest of the time was spent inspecting the troops, making speeches, touring Hawaii and various entertainments. MacArthur had no staff with him and spoke off the cuff.

The decision to invade the Philippines in October 1944 was made by the JCS in September 1944. The final decision to invade Luzon and liberate Manila was made by the JCS on October 3, 1944.

So, FDR did NOT decide the strategy of Pacific war in July 1944. The decision to invade the Philippines was NOT a political decision. It was military one made by the JCS, Marshall, Arnold, King, and Leahy.

BTW, there were two reasons for FDR's trip. One was to shore up his popularity by showing him as a war leader. The second, was to provide FDR, a very sick man, with a 4 week vacation from DC.

Myth: MacArthur was disrespectful to President Truman

MacArthur and Truman met only once face to face at Wake Island in October 1950. MacArthur showed up at airfield one hour before Truman landed and the two men got along very well. After the meeting Truman had only complimentary things to say about MacArthur - until the Chinese attack after Thanksgiving 1950.

In his communications to President Truman from 1945 to 1951 MacArthur was always respectful.

The legends that Truman "dressed down" MacArthur at Wake Island, or that MacArthur and Truman's planes circled over Wake Island waiting for the other to land are untrue.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the whole Wake Island meeting lasted only 3 hours and MacArthur was NOT accompanied by his staff. The whole meeting was suggested by Truman's PR man, and was a political junket to help Truman and the Democrats in the November 1950 elections.