(#6198) The personas of Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Obama

      The greatest presidents of my lifetime, John Kennedy and Barack Obama, with Dwight Eisenhower a close third. I am not quite old enough to have had Franklin Roosevelt as my president, but I will include him anyway because he might have been the greatest. I rate presidents by their effectiveness with ordinary citizens and the world at large. Like with Roosevelt conquering the national poverty the previous republican president Hoover left him. Not only conquering poverty and building a middle class of outstanding opportunity but then chasing down and destroying a world nemesis in the fascist nazi Hitler. He didn't do it on his own, Supreme Commander General Eisenhower was the tip of the sword, but Roosevelt masterminded the American solution with unwavering devotion to democracy.
     Every one of these presidents I admire surely were fallible but not out of some trickery or intent. They honestly strived to shepherd our American society with class and honor. Barack Obama gave us grace and dignity under a cloud of racism spawned by the republican party yet he held his head high and fought for the American working middle poor class, while also destroying the leader of the 9/11 attack. John Kennedy although flawed somewhat in his personal life never transitioned that into his public life. "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country!" Kennedy spoke these words 65 years ago yesterday. And even in that inspiring charge he led all of us to the eventuality of landing on the moon before the 1960's decade ended.
     Although I said little about Eisenhower, he is much admired by me for creating our national highway system and taxing the wealthy with fair proportionality. Even though Dwight was a republican he did what was best for all Americans not just the wealthy. These four men all had a persevering ambition to make America into more than what they knew. They didn't throw around slogans that had little to do with their behavior, they created realities where only dreams existed before them. These four had one thing in common that is most admired by me. They never were in it for themselves. The nobility of honor and sacrifice was their protocol and that is why my own life is better because of them.