Happy President's Day. It's the lamest excuse for a three-day weekend there is, but editorial columns have to be filled, and a holiday is always good for 600 or 700 words. Remembering the value of leadership? We're at a point in history in which roughly 40 percent of the people will hate everything a president stands for, although President Bush has been exceeding that. Whoever the next president is, of whichever party, will be in for a rough four years.
Just to start an argument, here are my candidates for the top four presidents in American history: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. They all had to step up at critical points in the nation's history, and they did. Washington was first and had to get it right for the idea of the nation to survive. Lincoln saved the union and showed the world we were ready for it. FDR put us firmly on that world stage. And Reagan saved us from the worst evil that world produced.
There are plenty of candidates for the fifth -- maybe Jefferson, maybe Truman -- but I think good cases can be made for those four.
