Brent Colton is a retired CIA operations officer now in the employ of the Creighton Corporation, a privately owned think tank that advocates various opinions on world issues, but it’s his clandestine job to solve the dirty problems for their private clients for a million dollar fee with no questions asked. When recovering stolen technology from a Vietnamese industrialist, Colton obtains evidence that he secretly partnered with a U.S. Senatorto rig the recent presidential election and elect him to the nation’s highest office.

PRESIDENTIAL POLL DOESN’T ADD UP ON WHAT AMERICA WANTS AS A LEADER!
by Terry Heath, 2007

As we celebrate President’s Day it must be noted that pollster John Zogby has released a new survey which he claims would indicate most American citizens when asked who they are looking for in choosing an excellent chief executive are longing for the leadership qualities from several of the more popular presidents of the modern era to solve the problems this nation currently has.

We’re supposed to believe that what America wants as a leader is based by answering simplistic questions from a stranger on a telephone?

It’s seems ludicrous to suggest that presidents dealing with the unique situations of their particular era could solve today’s issues with the same decision making process required from their time. How would a George Washington or Thomas Jefferson react in dealing with a terrorist attack on our soil involving nuclear weapons?

843 likely voters in the nation were quizzed Jan. 5-9 and asked a series of 98 questions about presidential leadership qualities they would want in choosing a president. So how can 843 people being asked various questions over a telephone and presumably giving short and potentially one and two-word responses to pre-packaged queries chosen by the pollster speak for the thoughts of 300 million Americans?

Who were these 843 people apparently selected at random? What is their educational level? What is their political affiliation? How much do they actually know about American history? How can they fairly judge the 42 men who have served as presidents when most Americans are ignorant of the past and can barely name four or five of our chief executives off the top of their head at a moment’s notice?

Zogby’s own press release stated their pollsters offered thumbnail descriptions of presidential qualities, including providing the names of five of what they describe as the greatest American presidents. The five they cited were George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

How did they define ‘greatest’ in their categorization of those chief executives? What were the criteria in the choices provided?

For example, how can John Kennedy be considered a great president? He was barely elected in 1960 in an extremely close race and was concerned he was not going to win re-election in 1964 when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963. His greatest triumph is considered to be the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. But we’ve now learned from the revelations of history that he caved in on keeping our missiles in Turkey as a compromise to having Russia’s missiles in Cuba taken out.

And why FDR? Most economic historians now agree his simplistic and short-term monetary policies lengthened the Great Depression and there’s much evidence to support the claim he enticed the Japanese into attacking us to place this nation in the World War Two conflict.

And why were no other presidents offered as choices in this poll? Where were Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman who were considered above-average presidents?

Could it be because the public doesn’t even know the names of most of our other presidents?

So what is the American public looking for in a president? A chief executive with practical experience in running a massive bureaucracy to guide the nation or are we demanding a savior and messiah to save us from ourselves?

People being questioned will, from the top of their heads, at best only recall four or five American leaders they’ve learned from history, and two of them will assuredly be Washington and Lincoln since their likeness is depicted on our currency.

So who would make a great leader for the nation?

Perhaps some candidate with a military background?

It used to be that being a veteran with combat experience was the best way for a candidate to get elected to the White House with four of our chief executives (Washington, Jackson, Grant and Eisenhower) having the unique opportunity of being both a military commander and a president.

The first two presidents besides George Washington who solely used their military notoriety yet lack of political credentials to get elected to high office were William Harrison and Zachary Taylor, both of which were members of the Whig Party in the 1840’s. Coincidently, both died in office in their first terms.

Six future presidents served in some type of military capacity in the Civil War, with the most famous being Ulysses Grant who accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Virginia Army in April, 1865. The others were Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.

Theodore Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1898 when the Spanish-American War began. He resigned that post, set up a volunteer outfit to participate in the invasion of Cuba and became a hero. He returned home, got elected as governor of New York, then was selected as vice-president in 1900. Six months into that term, he became president when William McKinley was assassinated.

Harry Truman was a junior artillery officer in France in World War One and those events he witnessed and participated for that war left a lasting effect on his governing style three decades later when he took over the reigns of power in the closing weeks of WW2 and the beginning of the Cold War.

Eight straight presidents, starting with Dwight Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush, participated in some type of military service during World War Two. The Navy had the lion’s share of chief executives from that era with Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Bush serving in some type of capacity in that service.

Ronald Reagan served in the Army Air Force where he took part in the making of training films while Eisenhower was the supreme commander of Allied Forces for the liberation of Europe.

But since the baby boomer generation has taken over control of politics it appears that military experience may have become a liability to those seeking high office.

Wesley Clark was a retired four-star Army General who headed NATO during the 1990’s Yugoslavian Civil War and ran for the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination, but got nowhere and quickly dropped out. And John Kerry’s military service during the Vietnam War didn’t appear to help him that same year.

Of the current crop of candidates running in 2008, only Arizona Senator John McCain meets the qualifications of war-time military service since he was a hero for the country by spending seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Yet he was only a naval fighter pilot turned POW, not involved in any major decisions of war-making policy from that time four decades ago.

So he may be a sentimental choice but not a practical one of someone who would have knowledge and experience in heading a military bureaucracy who could successfully lead a civilian government.

Terry Heath California E-Mail readermail@terryheathbooks.com