Presidential stuff

[Wayne Johnson]

Listened last night...on the radio...to Carl Sandurg reading selections from
Abraham Lincoln and not the G'bug address. I wasn't paying early attention
but I think what I heard was an address to Congress.

Thoughts:

No President in the past fifty or sixty years appears to have written his
own speechs.

No President in my memory (which goes back to FDR) has had anywhere near the
eloquence and depth of                 thought as Lincoln.

No President would *dare* to debate either Lincoln or Douglas...especially
for say, four or five hours.  They                 would look like monkeys
if they tried.

No Presidential candidate in the last fifty years could produce anything
remotely resembling the G. Address in terms of depth of meaning to length of
speech.  And all who were there expected something much, much longer.

As American History is replaced by something called "Social Studies", fewer
and fewer people will ever read or hear what this man says or have any kind
of exposure to him and his thinking except for the most simplicistic and
superficial.

Well, most Nation States have had there lumiinous and gifted leaders, then
sank into the mire of History.  The US will do the same.  Hope the Chinese
have some good Historians.

wj