“THE Leaders We Deserved (And A Few We Didn’t)” By Alvin S. Felzenberg Perseus Books Group, 2008
“The Leaders We Deserved
(And A Few We Didn’t)”
By Alvin S. Felzenberg
Perseus Books Group, 2008
We have had Presidents of this Republic—and it is safe to say that some have been clearly a credit to our people, others have been quite commendable, still others have managed to be somewhat above the mediocre—and a couple of these are downright disasters. Of course, as we are wont to say, history is the better judge—and I agree.
Research efforts, dominated by surveys, have been conducted, and their methodologies have improved much, measuring the popularity and approval ratings of the presidential incumbents during their watch. These research efforts—which should ideally use “triangulation” as we use it in the academe—should consist of surveys, focus group discussions and focus interviews.
Therefore, with growing research sophistication, any incumbent president can indeed keep his “ears close to the ground,” have a handle of the popular things to do, and calibrate his or her presidential moves that strike a responsive chord in a sampling of people eager to get their views registered by the research agencies.
Such research instruments cover such survey questions for respondents’ agreement on some presidential decisions, their trust level in the leader, and their overall view of whether the current president has improved the lot of his/her people.
The questions are admittedly few, and they don’t quite cover some important criteria by which we can measure a president—past, present or future.
This book, “The Leaders We Deserved (And a Few We Didn’t),” presents the following metrics by which people can rank their presidents—which are: Character… Vision… Competence… Economic Policy… Preserving and Extending Liberty… Defense…National Security… and Foreign Policy.
The book author, Alvin Felzenberg, an academic and one who worked with American presidents, criticizes the over-simplification in rating the presidents as “Great,” and “Near Great,” downright “Failure.” He frowns on the idea of rating performance in such a complex presidential job “on a simple linear scale.”
“An enduring limitation to the usefulness of presidential surveys has been bias on the part of the evaluators,” the author argues. Quoting Calvin Coolidge, Felsenberg writes: “Unfortunately, not all experts are entirely disinterested. Not all specialists are without guile.”
Using this flawed metric, the usual winners in the rating game are George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Felzenberg offers in this book a more reliable way of assessing presidential performance, ranking them according to the previously mentioned criteria.
The first three chapters assess the presidents according to the traits they bring to the Oval Office—character, vision and competence.
The next three consider how presidents performed in three policy areas: economic policy, the protection and expansion of liberty, and defense and foreign policies.
Furthermore, the book makes running commentary on whether identified presidents “left the nation they led better or worse off than they found it.” There are surprising verdicts in this book.
One president who has been consistently classified as “near-great” rated low using “wisdom by hindsight” because he abused his use of the presidential veto, excessively making the presidency powerful and consequently weakening Congress. Sounds familiar?
This book offers some fine-tuning to the way a president is measured. Using these metrics, some presidents rated high on “Character” like Jimmy Carter, yet rated low on “Competence.” In other words, he is a good man, but he lacks ability.
Another president rated very well on “Competence,” but measured dismally on “Character.” He is admittedly very able, but you cannot entrust your wallet to him!
This book has an easy style, and has even made it easy for readers to have a quick glance of the rankings of America’s presidents. For example, the following 17 presidents got the highest five points on Character—notably, Washington, Lincoln, Taft, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan Bush, and Jimmy Carter.
The lowest—one point— was given to a James Polk, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan—and (this is familiar), Richard Nixon of Watergate fame-shame!
Cited in the book are the integrity of Washington, the word of honor of Lincoln, the simplicity of Reagan, and the virtuous life of Carter.
the value of vision in a president is emphasized in the book. “You cannot be a successful president unless you can project a vision about your purpose,” writes the author, quoting political scientist Thomas C. Cronin. The highest pointers in the “Vision” criterion are: Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, followed by Washington, Jefferson, Kennedy, among others.
Jefferson’s vision for America was “rooted in the Enlightenment,” the author says, inspired by the ideas of John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume. (The vision of our Philippine President is “Tuwid na Landas,” the straight path.)
Lincoln dedicated his presidency to the emancipation of the Black race. He quotes Lincoln: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”
Reagan devoted his Presidential watch to “create a world bereft of the Soviet Union and the omnipresent threat of a nuclear war.” As history would have it, President Reagan’s vision was prophetic. The gigantic dictatorial apparatus of the Soviet Union fell tumbling down, a few years after he declared while in Berlin: “Tear down this wall.”
Discussions on other criteria are equally backed by accounts of governance. Lack of competence is shown in mishandling a hostage crisis. Bad economic policy set back reforms in the economy.
Expansion of liberty is halted by Presidential overuse of executive power, including invasion of privacy. And foreign policy suffers a black eye when the cold war again rears its ugly head, or the country stays longer than necessary in Vietnam, fighting a losing war.
This book is instructive to an Asia Pacific country like the Philippines—first, because its political system is akin to the American model—including its Presidential leadership set-up, in contrast to many in Asia which operate under the Parliamentary system.
The Aquino Administration is clearly enjoying favorable ratings across economic classes and geographic territories. The criteria mentioned in this book might as well be addressed by Aquino supporters—in order to assure a legacy strong in Character, Competence, Protection of Liberty, credible Defense and strong economic fundamentals.
For the high-profile presidential wannabes, here’s a book which spells out exactly how they square off with the metrics.
(This book is the last copy bought by the writer from Popular Bookstore. An online check shows it is available those who have contacts or resources to make purchases online.)
Still, this Presidential Scorecard must be read—not only once—but many times, since it is a treasure chest of methodologies insight into presidential performance, and a rich source of strategic tools and weapons to assure a presidential legacy—or a presidential future.
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