Posted on 02/19/2018 1:01:48 PM PST by Academiadotorg
On President's Day, we not only remember George Washington and Abraham Lincoln but also another president born in February.
American presidents of both parties, all too often, need to be appreciated at a distance. Of the 20th Century chief executives, perhaps only Ronald Reagan holds up well under scrutiny.
Truly, the more you know about him, the more there is to like. Even a few academics appreciate him.
"Political scientist Andrew Busch conducted a content analysis of major presidential speeches from Lyndon Johnson through Reagan and found that Reagan cited the Founders three to four times as often as his four predecessors," Steven F. Hayward writes in his masterful The Age of Reagan. "Reagan mentions the Constitution ten times in his memoirs, often in a substantive way; Carter, Ford, Nixon and Johnson mention the Constitution a grand total of zero times."
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...
This belongs in the blog section.
I love Reagan but regarding titles I think that gesture goes to Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln - Biography of a Failure “Fail forward” toward success
Difficult childhood
Less than one year of formal schooling
1831 - Failed in business
1832 - Defeated for legislature
1833 - Again failed on business
1834 - Elected to legislature
1835 - Fiancee died
1838 - Defeated for Speaker
1840 - Defeated for elector
1842 - Married, wife of burden
Only one of his four sons lived past age 18
1843 - Defeated for Congress
1846 - Elected to Congress
1848 - Defeated for Congress
1855 - Defeated for Senate
1856 - Defeated for Vice-President
1858 - Defeated for Senate
1860 - Elected President
That dastardly site snopes.com took issue with 1840. I wrote to them and told them it was true. He was indeed on the 1840 slate of Whig electors, and the Democrats carried Illinois that year.
What I don’t know (and as far as I could tell, neither did they), was whether Lincoln’s name actually appeared on the ballot.
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