George H.W. Bush: Lessons for Obama

January 2, 2010 by R.T. Johnson

Out of all the political gaffes made in the 20th century, the American public failed itself in 1992 when it did not re-elect George H. Bush President. I am not a Republican (nor am I a Democrat) yet George H. Bush is on of my favorite Presidents of all time. He brought about the most devastating military force the world has ever known and he called out Reagan’s economic policies as early as 1980. Yet, he was not re-elected when he raised taxes. However, economic policies he put in place in 1991-1992 set the stage for balanced budgets of the Clinton era. There are several lessons from Bush’s presidency which any future president can learn from.

Lesson One – Network
George H. Bush is the ultimate schmoozer. Beginning in the 1960s, Bush coveted relationships. Throughout his political career it was those relationships behind the scenes which would allow him to achieve first Operation Desert Shield, then Operation Desert Shield. Whether it was a Congressman, Director of the CIA, RNC Chairman, Envoy to China, or Vice-President, Bush had over 25 years of contacts all around the world when he became President.

For Bush, it was these contacts that made his Presidency. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Bush called upon his 25 years of experience to liberate Kuwait. For Bush, he was not the greatest of public speakers. He was an administrator at heart. And in administrating the war and coalition, he had no equal.

As President Obama gets ready to maneuver American forces around the planet, he would be wise to follow not only Bush’s ability to network, but also his ability to set clear, achievable objectives in the conflict. Now there are some who will say that Desert Storm should have gone to Kuwait. But behind the scenes, the Saudis, who actually paid for the war, said no. To go into Baghdad at that time would have been a mistake. Even Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney agreed with the policy at the time.

Lesson Two – Read My Lips
George H. Bush was not Ronald Reagan’s lackey. he had his own mind and his own beliefs about how the economy worked. In fact, during the 1980 Presidential Campaign, Bush called Reagan’s trickle down theory “Voodoo Economics.” Throughout the 1980s, as the deficit skyrocketed from 300 billion to over 1.2 trillion under Reagan. In fact, Bush campaigned under the promise of no new taxes.

However, the budget problems continued under Bush. He knew something had to be done. He raised taxes in 1991. No matter what Bush did the next year, the American Public did not care. For Bush had broken the promise not to raise taxes. The last year of his presidency spiraled but little did Americans know at the time, the deficit began to shrink. It would continue to do so as the new revenue combined with lowering spending would balance the budget in six years after Bush left office.

What Bush always lacked what he called “the vision thing.” Bush was a great administrator and reactor to events in the world but he was not proactive in the White House. His reaction to events was always sound, but he lacked any sound policy or principle on which to be re-elected. As a result, he was not re-elected.

As for the current Executive, one wonders whether his vision of what America can be will get him re-elected. For everything that Bush wasn’t, Obama is. For everything Bush was, Obama is not. In order for him to avoid the pitfalls of George H. Bush, President Obama will need to learn how to build the coalitions needed in world events yet mesh his vision with the American public’s vision of America.

Other Presidential Lessons for Obama Series
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Teddy Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Ronald Reagan
George H.W. Bush

Woodrow Wilson: Lessons for Obama

January 2, 2010 by R.T. Johnson

Woodrow Wilson always fancied himself as a progressive at heart. Prior to his election in 1912, he had been the head of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey. He considered himself an expert in domestic affairs and a novice at foreign affairs. He often noted it would be a shame if he had to strictly deal with foreign affairs. During Wilson’s eight years, a number of financial and social reforms were passed, including four amendments to the constitution, but it was foreign affairs which dominated his presidency, and thus, his legacy. When one begins to look at what lessons once can draw from Wilson’s eight years in office, it is a cautionary tale of avoidance at all costs.

Lesson One – Get Re-elected
Wilson was originally elected on his pledge for “A New Freedom”. This domestic agenda included financial, currency, income taxes, and trust reform as well as tariff reform. Unfortunately for Wilson, what took up most of his time was the Mexican Revolution. Events south of the border required Wilson to act before it spread onto American soil. Up to this point in time, the United States had operated under the auspices of the Monroe Doctrine that this our hemisphere. Teddy Roosevelt had added his Roosevelt Corollary and his successor, William Howard Taft, just threw money at the problem in what became known as Dollar Diplomacy. As 1913 drew on, Wilson followed a policy of what he called “Watchful Waiting”. He knew with all the players in Mexico (Carranza, Huerta, Obregon, Villa, and Zapata), there was no one to trust.

As events in Mexico began to play themselves out, events in Europe quickly boiled over and a regional conflict in the Balkans blew up like a powder keg and most of Europe was involved in less than a month. Wilson knew the United States could not get involved. He declared the US Neutral. Over the next two and half years, the economic interests of the US collided with the military interests of German U-boats in the North Atlantic. US ships began to be sunk, followed by a pledge, followed by another ship, and followed by a pledge, etc.

When Wilson campaigned for President in 1916, he campaigned and was re-elected on the fact he kept us out of the Great War. However, before he could be sworn in for his second term, Germany ratcheted up war fervor when the Zimmerman Telegram was published. The Telegram warned Mexico that the Germans would unleash unrestricted submarine warfare on the Atlantic . The note also pleaded with the new Mexican government to join Germany in a war against the Americans and in return they would get the Mexican cession back. To most Americans, they were outraged. However, Mexico was having a hard time fighting its own revolution let alone a war overseas. In April of 1917, war fever had spread across the US and the Congress would declare war on Germany.

Regardless of what any first term Presidents wants to do, their first priority is to get re-elected. Wilson proved that. However, once re-elected, all bets and promises are off.

Lesson Two – World Organizations are Bad…Maybe
Americans don’t want anyone telling them what to do. When the Great War was over in 1918, Woodrow Wilson left to go to Paris as part of the Peace Conference. His 14 Points had captured the imagination of the populace and turned him into a rock star President. However, soon after the peace process began, rather than follow his 14 Points, Britain and France wanted revenge for the war. The resulting treaty was brutal towards Germany and helped set up World War II with its reparations and mandates, but it was never passed. The US was never going to give up its autonomy on foreign affairs to some European group. Led by Senator Lodge, the US Senate never approved the treaty and would sign a separate treaty later. The unwillingness of the US to sign the treaty would make the League powerless to stop Hitler some 17 years later.

While Wilson’s 14 Points could have averted another war, we will never know. What we do know is the Versailles Peace Treaty “screwed the pooch”. Whether it was Britain’s and France’s incessant need for revenge or the Lodge reservations need for autonomy, we were no longer living in a world where the Monroe Doctrine would apply. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, America would go in an isolationist frenzy. No matter what we might think, America could no longer stick its head in the sand and ignore what is taking place in the world. The long-term consequences of doing so are too dangerous. After World War II, Wilson’s 14 Points would become a reality in a new United Nations.

Lesson Three – Don’t Tell the People What They Can and Can Not Do
Wilson often fancied himself an expert when it came to his domestic agenda. Only two Presidents passed more legislation in US History, FDR and LBJ. From anti-trust regulation to child labor laws to women’s right to vote to prohibition, Wilson was at the forefront of an idealist time in America. His 14 Points were part of the idealism, but Prohibition was one of America’s biggest mistakes. The amendment that made the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcohol illegal would be repealed in the early 1930s. However in the years in between, organized crime gained control of the industry and a crime wave unlike any America has ever seen took place.

To legislate morality, or anything for that matter, is to try to control the masses. By stipulating that the citizenry can do this or can not do that is promote tyranny on our shores. Americans have never liked being told what to do and what not to do as far back as the 1760s and the events leading up to the Revolution. Maybe the health care plan will work itself out next year, maybe it won’t. Who knows what will happen. But if you want a clue, look at the reaction of the public during prohibition. It could be that reform and regulation of the Industry might have been the more historically accurate choice rather legislating that every American have health care. We will have to wait and see how it plays out. Otherwise, lesson number one will be for naught.

The Golden Age of Baseball: The 1930s

January 2, 2010 by R.T. Johnson

When the Great Depression struck, many baseball owners feared the worst. They would have trouble drawing fans. The fans they did draw would have a hard time paying for the extra souvenirs or food concessions. Little did they know, people would still come to the ballpark if only to forget about their own troubles for a while. Attendance would be down in the 1930s but none of the sixteen franchises ever folded or moved as a result of the Great Depression and some of the games’ lasting stars said goodbye while others said hello. New ways of playing emerged, lasting vestiges of the game emerged, and a new era of baseball had begun.

Coming out of the 1920s, baseball began to boom. Newspapers and radio combined to turn the game into a way to forget about your problems for a couple of days. New stadiums had been built and offense was booming. In 1930, both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit over 40 home runs. By the end of the decade, both men would be out of the game. In September of 1939, Gehrig would make his last appearance and give one of the most memorable speeches in all of history.

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body

— it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.

The game continued to evolve in the 1930s. The Cincinnati Reds brought lights into the game in an effort to get more fans to the game. It was a new way of playing and spread all across the country. It would take 50 years before the Chicago Cubs would add lights. In fact, it was during the 1930s that a young Bill Veeck planted the ivy at Wrigley Field which would become the face of the field and the franchise. It was also in Chicago that Babe Ruth would supposedly call his shot in the 1932 World Series.

The 1930s also saw two immortal aspects of the game arrive. The first being the Baseball Hall of Fame. It would not be until 1939 that the Hall was built, but its first five inductees would be Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. The 1930s also saw the arrival of the All-Star Game. Originally, played in Comiskey Park in 1933, the managers and the fans selected the players. The game was thought up Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward. The game was to be a part of, and take place simultaneously as, the celebration of Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.

The 1930s also saw its fair share of stars on the field too. Aside from Ruth and Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio arrived to roam center field for the Yankees in 1935. Jimmie Foxx dominated the decade at the plate. In 1933, Foxx hit .364 with 58 Home Runs and 168 driven in. He kept this up for most of the decade. In 1938, Foxx hit .349 with 50 Home Runs, and drove in 175. The 1930s also saw the Gas House Gang arrive in St. Louis in 1934 and win the World Series. Led by Dizzy Dean and Leo Durocher, the Cardinals were constant rivals to the Cubs and Giants to win the National League pennant in the 1930s.

Much like the 1920s, the Yankees dominated the second half of the decade. Led by manager Joe McCarthy, the Yankees won four World Series in a row to close out the decade. While Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics started out the decade by winning two AL Pennants in a row, their back to back run of 29-30 came to a close in 1931. The 1930s also saw the introduction of a 17 year old Bob Feller, Lefty Grove, Power Hitters Hank Greenberg and Mel Ott, and a Young Ted Williams arrived in 1939.

The Negro Leagues were in their hey-day in the 1930s. Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and a young Satchel Paige flourished as stars; and even the Negro League’s greatest ambassador, Buck O’Neil, made his debut. Some of the finest baseball ever played was never seen by most of America.Whether it was in league play, barnstorming, or playing exhibition against white teams, the brand of baseball played in the Negro Leagues would not arrive as a unified style until the late 1940s and 1950s.

What Rube Foster was to the 1920s for the Negro Leagues, Gus Greenlee was to the 1930s. He organized the East – West All Star Classic in Comiskey Park. Greenlee’s 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords may have been the greatest team ever to play the game. The Crawfords boasted five future Hall-of-Famers: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson and Oscar Charleston. Contrary to popular opinion it was the Crawfords who dominated this era, not the Homestead Grays. The Crawfords won nine consecutive Negro National League Championships.

But the Negro League’s true star was none other than Satchel Paige. Joe Dimaggio even once said, “After I got that hit off Satchel (Paige), I knew I was ready for the big leagues.” Ted Williams echoed the sentiment when he said, “Satchel was the greatest pitcher in baseball.”

When one looks back at the decade, it is a wonder the game survived in such a harsh economic climate. Thanks to its stars and innovations made in the 1930s, the game lived on. Surviving the war would be another story as most of the great players of the 1930s signed up to serve their country. However, the stars it did have made the 1930s able to stake its claim as the Golden Age of Baseball.

Check out this student made Documentary on the greatness of Satchel.