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When Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 prepared to ask Americans for a stronger defense against the danger of Adolf Hitler, his handlers reminded him that the country was isolationist and such boldness would jeopardize his third-term campaign. Roosevelt overrode that advice. He presided over American history's first peacetime draft call—a week before the 1940 election. His isolationist ambassador to London, Joseph Kennedy, bluntly told him, "You will go down either as the greatest in history—greater than Washington or Lincoln—or the greatest horse's ass." FDR replied that there was "a third alternative": if he didn't strengthen America's defenses, Roosevelt said, Hitler could rule the world and "I may go down as the president of an unimportant country."

-- Michael Beschloss for Newsweek

I'm sleepy and it's nappy time and I only skimmed this four-page article, and I'm mainly getting this down to have in the archives, but I thought I'd share this little historical nugget. The piece is about presidential courage. I'm not sure that Bush wouldn't feel that he was engaging in an exercise of great political courage by bucking all the voices to cut our losses in Iraq, though I suspect that that is not what Beschloss would have intended. Bush would have to win to be proven right, and that would seem to require a genuine miracle at this point.

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In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

-- Robert Pear for The New York Times

The Bush Administration has found another way to impose its anti-evolution theory and anti-global warming theory on the government and its work. See, people speak of this president being fired and just marking time, but his power only grows exponentially. I am hoping that we will not have a day when the president decides that we need to suspend elections until he wins the War on Terror.

( Pear article )

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WE hear constantly now about “our commander in chief.” The word has become a synonym for “president.” It is said that we “elect a commander in chief.” It is asked whether this or that candidate is “worthy to be our commander in chief.”

But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine. I am not in the Army.

-- Garry Wills, "At Ease, Mr. President" in The New York Times

It may be a pedantic point, but I found it sharp and illuminating, waking one up a little. I particularly loved learning about how the practice of the marines saluting the president when he boards the White House helicopter was started by Ronald Reagan - another Republican playing Commando.

Of course, we understand that by referring to the president as commander in chief we mean to point out that he is the one who orders the military forces. We also know that a certain level of secrecy is unavoidable, even if Mr. Wills is right that Administrations, particularly Republican ones, take advantage of it. Still, this was some nice morning reading and a keeper.

( Wills column )

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