1. Churchill -- Great oratory combined with will and determination to courageously lead his country to stand down the century's greatest evil. This was the easiest slot for me to fill.
2. FDR -- I find it tough to reconcile his leadership on war and depression with his creation of a too-large governmental apparatus. His skill in selling the public on (1) the programs to address the threat to capitalism posed by the Great Depression; and (2) the need to assist the Allies in the war in the face of isolationist sentiment (Compare "Hitler is not our problem" with "Saddam is not our problem") ultimately raise his ranking several notches.
3. Thatcher -- she gets no extra points for being a woman (because I think that's as wrong as giving extra points for being white or male or purple or florescent), but she took a country that had stopped believing in both itself and capitalism and arrested its decline.
4. Reagan -- Leadership is about setting and changing the tone, and he did both when it was sorely needed. Marked down for lackluster second term.
5. Blair -- His moral courage and eloquence are ingredients of leadership too often overlooked. Still a work in progress, could move higher.
6. Bush Jr. (W.) -- I think the partisan criticisms of him are way off the mark, and that he will easily win reelection. When all is said and done, his ability to see through the clutter and identify what matters from a long term perspective will determine how well history judges him. Churchill had his critics and was even driven from office, yet history viewed him with great favor because it turned out that he was right to concentrate on what needed to be done and not on how difficult it would be. Could also move higher IMO.
7. Bush Sr.-- Shining moment (building of Gulf War coalition) overshadowed by silly tax pledge waffling and failure to deal with deficits or Saddam. Could not win reelection against two pathological liars.
8. Truman -- not a bad President but not in the league of so many other leaders listed here.
9. Clinton/Nixon (tie)-- two different flavors of the same rat poison....smart, unprincipled, eloquent in their own ways, ruthless, brought down by their own inability to separate right from wrong.
11. Chamberlain--An angry hate-filled gorilla should not be dealt with by giving him some food, patting him on the back, and saying "nice gorilla". His failure to understand that cost tens of millions of lives and half the world's Jewish population, and led to many of today's problems as well. On this anniversary of his famous act of spinelessness, we would do well to remember what happens when the combination of evil and power is not dealt with in the strongest possible terms. |
