Posted by
Thomas Hibbard on Sunday, May 11, 2008 3:49:35 PM
Let's see -- I was alive during Franklin D. Roosevelt's tenure in the Oval Office. Don't recall much about it except that America was at war and there was gasoline rationing and at nighttime black curtains were pulled over windows to keep light from escaping -- in case of an invasion. But I vividly recall Harry S. Truman's presidency. Mostly, like many young people, I enjoyed calling him by a name that played off his middle initial. I was too young to think much about mundane political policies and the like. What I did hear about Truman was negative, not unlike the media bilge of today. After reading David McCullough's book called "Truman" I've come to have far more appreciation for the little man.
I served in the military outside Washington, DC during John F. Kennedy's Administration. I recall the summer of 1962 when my parents came to visit and I took them to tour the White House. We stood at the end of a long line of tourists, on the far south end of the grounds. It was my first visit to the White House. As I looked at that magnificent structure I had no way of knowing that a little more than a decade later I would begin a career that would take me back many times.
I grew to enjoy politics and found myself reading books about presidents past and present. The point of all this is: I have a reasonably good understanding of people who have occupied the Oval Office, their staffs, how their administrations operated, and what it takes to be an effective leader of our nation. And from this experience I am aghast that millions of Americans would for a moment consider Barack Obama qualified to be President of the United States. He is an empty suit with a talent for reading TelePrompters.