Grover Cleveland

Crossing Party Lines To Serve A President: The BEST American Tradition!

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Following up on Jon Huntsman’s defense of serving President Obama as Ambassador to China for two years, when one looks at American history, one sees many examples of public figures crossing party lines to serve a President of the other party, a commitment that is in the BEST American tradition of bipartisanship and service to country.

A look back reveals many examples of such bipartisanship and putting the country ahead of party, as witness the following examples:

President Barack Obama

Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation
John McHugh, Secretary of the Army
Jim Leach, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve

President George W. Bush

Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation

President Bill Clinton

Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
William Cohen, Secretary of Defense

President George H. W. Bush

Robert Strauss, Ambassador to the Soviet Union/Russia
Richard Stone, Ambassador to Denmark

President Ronald Reagan

Mike Mansfield, Ambassador to Japan
Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Ambassador to the United Nations
William Bennett, National Endowment for the Humanities
Secretary of Education

President Jimmy Carter

James Schlesinger, Secretary of Energy
Lawrence Eagleburger, Ambassador to Yogoslavia

President Gerald Ford

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ambassador to India and to the United Nations

President Richard Nixon

Sargent Shriver, Ambassador to France
John Connally, Secretary of the Treasury
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ambassador to India

President Lyndon B. Johnson

Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam and to West Germany
Edward Brooke, Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders

President John F. Kennedy

Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense
C. Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury
McGeorge Bundy, National Security Adviser
Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Martin Durkin, Secretary of Labor
William McChesney Martin, Jr., Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Robert B. Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury

President Harry Truman

Warren Austin, Ambassador to the United Nations

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy
Henry Stimson, Secretary of War
William Donovan, Head of the Office of Strategic Services
John G. Winant, Ambassador to Great Britain
Harlan Fiske Stone, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

President Herbert Hoover

Benjamin Cardozo, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

President Warren G. Harding

Pierce Butler, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

President Grover Cleveland

Walter Q Gresham, Secretary of State
Theodore Roosevelt, Civil Service Commissioner

President Rutherford Hayes

David Key, Postmaster General

President Ulysses S. Grant

Caleb Cushing, Ambassador to Spain

President Abraham Lincoln

Edwin M Stanton, Secretary of War
Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee

This is quite a list of distinguished Americans who served their country for a President of the other party, and Jon Huntsman, as Ambassador to China for two years, adds to that distinct list, and it should NOT disqualify him to run for President of the United States!

Why Chris Christie Is Not Qualified To Be President!

Ronald 1 Comment

Now it turns out that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, despite constant statements that he is not interested in being President, and is not experienced enough yet to be President, is allowing himself to be courted by wealthy corporate and Wall Street executives to run for President, indicating that he is reconsidering!

What a terrible decision that would be, for so many reasons, including:

1. Chris Christie does not have the “fire in his belly”, which should be a requirement to run for President, and has no conception of what it means to announce for President, the work required and the sacrifices he would have to make to run for President, particularly at such a late date when Republican Presidential opponents, particularly Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, have big treasure chests and advisers and campaign structures all set up, while Christie has none.

2. Chrisitie is, as he himself said, not qualified to be President based on less than two years in high elective office, and could not run the Presidency in the manner that he has run the Governorship–like an authoritarian dictator who takes no prisoners! The Congress would not kneel to him as the state legislature may have done, and the powers of the New Jersey Governorship in some ways are far greater than the domestic authority of the Presidency!

3. Chris Christie has a horrible, bullyish personality, refuses to consult with his own state’s Democratic Senators and Congressmen, and treats critics publicly in a way no other politician does. It may humor some people who hear it, but it is actually totally unprofessional and unacceptable behavior, and Christie shows evidence of the need for anger management on a grand scale!

4. Chris Christie is no model for good health, being extremely obese, not acceptable considering the stresses that he would face in a campaign and in the White House! We may have had heavy Presidents, including Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft before, but the Presidency was not the heavy duty, high stress job then, that it is now! He is no model for children, and already there is evidence that his bad health is a threat to his ability to do the job he has, having been forced to go to the hospital this summer for an asthma attack. And his problem with anger also undermines his health. This is not just the story of anyone being morbidly obese, but the story of the leader of the free world! He would need to set an example on losing weight, but that is not an easy thing to do in any case!

5. Christie’s personality and bluntness would undermine relations with other nations, and threaten peace in the world, as diplomacy implies the use of tact, not nastiness and confrontational attitudes! He has also shown no understanding of American foreign policy!

6. His treatment of labor unions, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public servants demonstrates that he is not respectful of the sacrifices of people, and yet is willing to concede to corporate masters, including the Koch Brothers. This is not what we need to lead our nation in the future!

Governor Christie needs to gain more experience in office, open up his mind to new ideas, change his personality approach, and lose weight, before he seriously considers running for President. And if he is honest with himself, he would still realize that he is ill qualified in so many ways to be our Commander in Chief!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: Being Wooed As The Savior Of The Republican Party

Ronald 1 Comment

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in office less than two years, is being wooed by Wall Street Republicans and conservatives on talk radio and Fox News Channel as the savior of the Republican party, and being pressured to get into the Presidential race.

There has not been such a draft movement in the GOP since Dwight D. Eisenhower was successfully brought into the Presidential race in 1952.

But is Chris Christie another Dwight D. Eisenhower? Is he the “knight in shining armor”, or is he just the flavor of the month, a desperate attempt by Republicans to find a winning candidate who can unite the Tea Party Movement and Establishment Republicans, which no one else seems to be able to do?

After all the glamor is stripped from the excitement around Christie, is he the answer for the beleaguered GOP? The answer is NO, as despite what many might think, the odds on Christie winning the White House are extremely low!

What makes people in the party so excited about Christie?

1. He is very blunt and forceful in his language, but some would say overly confrontational and crude.

2. He attacks labor unions, which make Wall Street and big business thrilled.

3. He is the original “Bully” Governor, a model for Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Rick Scott in Florida, and Paul LePage in Maine.

4. He attacks public education in favor of charter schools, which pleases many conservatives.

5. He promotes budget cuts, which ultimately means the promoting of cuts in state support of social services, a popular move with the right wing nationally.

But why is he a horrible choice for President?

1. His “in your face” personality is precisely what we do NOT need in the White House!

2. His anti education, anti teacher, anti union agenda would solidify the right wing agenda in other states and harm the nation’s future.

3. His personality would undermine American foreign policy, as he would antagonize even friendly nations with his pompous, aggressive manner.

4. While a federal prosecutor in his past, he has only been Governor of New Jersey for less than two years, giving him very little elected experience, far less than Barack Obama, who had been in elected office for twelve years in Illinois state government and the US Senate.

5. He would be a terrible choice on the basis of physical fitness and health, has obvious health issues including a recent asthmatic attack, and while it could be said that we had William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland in the past, it would not be a positive to have a person of his girth in the White House.

While many would see Christie as the ideal choice, he would be a bad model for the nation’s future in so many ways, and might even flop, as Rick Perry seemingly has, once we and the party and the nation had a better look at him!

Christie is more realistic than most when he says he is not ready for the Presidency, so let’s take him at his word and stop wooing him to enter the race!