Imagine if you will, running for President 100 years ago.
Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat bested Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft
that year. A grand total of 15 million people voted in that election. A hundred
years later we might well wish that one of them, any one of them, was running
this year instead of the candidates we have.
On the
other hand, I wonder whether Wilson, Roosevelt and Taft would look any better than
today’s candidates if they had to endure our 21st century media circus.
One tremendous advantage to running in 1912 was the absence of practically every
utterance made by the candidates since they entered public life, preserved on video
and easily transmitted digitally on a moment’s notice.
Did the
voters in the election of 1912 know that after graduating from the University
of Virginia law school, Woodrow Wilson had a “feeble law practice for about a
year?” Wilson’s father defended slavery and even owned slaves. The man didn’t
learn to read until he was ten. One can only wonder what Fox News, had they
existed back then, could have done with this kind of “critical” information?
Yet, President Wilson is often ranked as one of the top ten Presidents of all
time.
Former
President Theodore Roosevelt, the trust buster, the walk softly and carry a big
stick guy; a Republican turned progressive, is a legendary American, good
enough (and tough enough) to have his profile chiseled on Mount Rushmore. Did you know Roosevelt also ran for mayor of
New York City and only managed to finish third? That’s right, third! He would
present some problems for the pundits who screech for MSNBC though. He really
was a trust buster who increased regulation of businesses.
Just yesterday I
heard Rachel Maddow criticize Governor Romney for announcing his selection of
Congressman Paul Ryan on a battleship. She found it galling that he would do
that since neither he nor Ryan ever served in the military. Would she have
chided Teddy for being a trust buster when he never ran a publicly traded
company?
And here’s one of Teddy’s many quotes to ponder. “A man who has
never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university
education, he may steal the whole railroad.” In the political arena today would
Roosevelt be accused of suggesting that higher education leads to crime? Try
not to laugh. You know I’m right. Roosevelt also said, “A typical vice of American politics is the
avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.” Some things never change. The
first President Roosevelt also makes most top ten lists.
In the very weight conscious society
we live in today, President Taft’s image, the man weighed 350 pounds, would
have been a problem for him. But far more devastating was what he said in a
letter to Yale University in 1899, ten years before he became President. “I
believe in God. I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many postulates of the orthodox
creed to which I cannot subscribe.” If he was running this year how long would
his candidacy last? Taft, another Republican, doesn’t make any top ten lists I
can find, but he did solid work as President and was later appointed the
nation’s 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He is the only man
to serve in both capacities.
Considering how much scrutiny our
Presidential candidates are subjected to now, it’s a wonder that anyone is
willing to run for the office. I’ve seen video of Mitt Romney as a 23 year old
working to support his mother’s candidacy for the US Senate. People mercilessly
combed through his comments, looking for inconsistencies. I would hate to be on
the record for something I said at that age. We are all works in progress.
Jesse Jackson said it very well in his speech at the Democratic National
Convention in 1984, when he was 42 years old. “As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not
finished with me yet.”
Regardless of your preference in
this year’s Presidential election, be slow to judge either candidate simply by
what they say or the gaffes they will surely utter. Be wary of the pundits who
need controversy to get you to tune in and are never happier then when they
appear clever with words. Whoever wins will have an enormous job ahead of him.
The problems we face are large enough that if our next President succeeds in
solving them, there might well be a spot for him on Mount Rushmore.
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