Today marks two significant events in American history!
It is the 67th anniversary of V-E Day, the end of the war in Europe against Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1945.
It is also the 128th anniversary of the birth of President Harry Truman, who took over the Presidency suddenly, less than a month before the end of the war in Europe and his birthday, and always stood out, through crisis after crisis, as a man of courage, guts, decisiveness and principle, not much appreciated at the time, or in retirement, but now seen as usually the fifth best President, trailing only Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt.
These are important historical events to commemorate, as we face a campaign in which the nation is more divided than it has ever been since a time of great unity in 1945,
And we have a candidate for President, Barack Obama, who can be compared in courage and decisiveness in foreign policy to President Truman; and with Obama’s opponent, Mitt Romney, easy to compare in so many ways to Truman’s opponent in 1948, Thomas E. Dewey, who came across as plastic, not liked by conservatives in the Republican Party, lacking in dynamism and charisma, and lacking strong principles.
Hopefully, the Dewey defeat in 1948 will be matched by a Romney defeat in 2012!