Robert Dallek, one of the most hyper-partisan liberal historians
around (I'm sure Spectator Readers can name a few more)
postulated on NPR yesterday that all important and consequential
presidencies can be summed up by a bumper sticker.
From the January 7 edition of Morning
Edition:
"The most memorable presidents without question are those who
had some kind of catch phrase - a bumper sticker, if
you will," Dallek says. "Franklin Roosevelt - the New Deal; John
Kennedy - the New Frontier; Lyndon
Johnson - the Great Society, Reagan remembered for saying, 'It's
morning in America.' What is there with George W. Bush?
What's the bumper sticker? I don't know."
Dallek also says that because he has no bumper sticker, Bush will
eventually be forgotten. No bumper sticker for George W. Bush????
This revelation comes as a surprise to those of us who had to
drive behind cars plastered with vitriolic anti-bush bumper
stickers the past eight years.
The truth is, for better or worse, the modern president runs a
government staffed by thousands of political appointees spread
out across hundreds of agencies, divisions and offices, all
engaged in multitudes of occasionally worthwhile initiatives and
programs. Though the scope and size of this enterprise pains some
of us, consigning a presidency to a simple bumper sticker shows a
stunningly simplistic view of something Dallek professes to be an
expert on. Either that or he is just participating in the
"dumbing down" of history and politics our elites lament and
prosper from at the same time.
