Henderson and Gochenour on “Presidential Greatness”, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

We find that a strong predictor of greatness is the fraction of American lives lost in war during a president’s tenure. We find this predictor to be robust and compare favorably to other predictors used in previous historical research. We discuss potential reasons for this correlation and conclude with a discussion of how historians’ views might affect policy.

via Henderson and Gochenour on "Presidential Greatness", David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty.

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From Megan McCardle on the President’s Speech

While I voted for the President and may again, I find he doesn’t seem like a bold leader. Here a suggestion of why:

… there’s rather a big poison pill for Congress in here: Obama has proposed no pay-for. Or rather, he proposed that Congress figure out how to pay for it:

The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next ten years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas. Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act. And a week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan — a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run.

One gets the dreadful feeling that the more ambitious plan may consist of asking Congress to find another couple of trillion under the couch cushions.

As MuniLass said over Twitter,

Obama: “Here’s the deal: I take credit for the new spending now; you take credit for making politically unpopular cuts later.”

This is becoming a signature move for Obama. As far as I can recall, he has never taken the risk of proposing anything even potentially unpopular; even with something like health care, he let Congress take the lead. Eh voila–anything you like in the plan is a product of his wise leadership, while anything unfortunate is, y’know, the not-perfect stuff he had to sign in order to get Americans health care.

One more reason to hate Woodrow Wilson

 

As if there weren’t enough reasons to view Woodrow Wilson as the worst of American presidents, I chanced to stumble across this March 4, 1906 New York Times piece. The lead: "The newest charge to be made against automobilists is brought by President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton University, who accuses them of encouraging the spread of Socialism."…

One more reason to hate Woodrow Wilson
bsmith
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:25:46 GMT