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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] What's more important?
  • Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:18:00 -0800

Clinton's scandal(s) didn't affect him anywhere but here. In fact, the whole bruhaha over Luwinksy or however the heck you spell her name, was considered more American foolishness by other countries. He is far better liked than most of our prez's in the last few decades. It is why he was sent around with the Senior Bushy. Sr. Bushy wasn't well liked but countries/leaders would see him as long as Clinton was with him.

Bush's drug history wasn't a factor either with other countries. He was looked upon as merely a weak shadow of daddy. Ya know, kind of pat him on the head kinda thing, now go home little boy. I think the only head of state that actually liked him was QEII. He is one of the few people she has ever invited to her actual home.

I routinely read newspapers from about 20 or more other countries. It is quite interesting to see what they are saying. Quite different than what we are told they are thinking/saying!

As to why they think someone is or isn't a great leader, well, it sure can't be ethics or morals, I mean, look at your list of 20. The biggest drunk of all time (Churchill), a mass murderer (Hitler), MLK (plegarised his thesis), the Ayatullah (need I say more) and so forth and so on. And, Reagan. Now there's desperation and rewritten history if he's in the top 20!

Lynda
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are
to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theordore
Roosevelt, 1918.
----- Original Message ----- From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


I think it is all about image. Roosevelt was well aware that standing
tall was important as he spent a good deal of time in a wheelchair. He
understood first hand about what images convey. There was a lot of
hoopla about Obama's abs, and Kennedy's abs....they looked fit and fit
equals strong. Reagan did not look fit, but he had movie personas
working for him(and against him), and of course, he was often filmed and
photographed on a horse, a trick of prowess and size, a trick Putin also
has mastered. Obama is Christian, but cultivates his Muslim heritage in
areas of the world where that will work for him. George H.W. Bush
cultivated an image based on his past directorship of the CIA. People
fear the CIA, they don't fear klutzy presidents or peanut farmers.
Sadly, President Obama's race and heritage are his image, not his legal
accomplishments or his Senate record or his leadership ability. If your
image is tainted by scandal(Clinton) or drug addiction(Bush2), then it
is really hard to overcome and project anything positive.

Even children know that you can't be friends with everyone. There is
gonna be someone that doesn't like you because you are nice or because
you live in a big house or because you wear second hand clothes, etc. I
think the best leaders are those who have instilled a bit of fear.

This made me think of who might qualify as the world's best political
leader. I looked at the Time top 20 leaders who have shaped our world:

David Ben-Gurion, Ho Chi Minh, Winston Churchill, Mohandas Gandhi,
Mikhail Gorbachev, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King, Ayatullah Ruhollah
Khomeini, V.I. Lenin, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan
Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Margaret
Thatcher, Margaret Sanger, Lech Walesa, Mao Zedong

Interesting list, huh?
I think a bit of fear goes with just being the President, because
sometimes incompetence breeds fear, but I think if a leader presents a
strong image and then wields the big stick in the right moment with the
right person, he can find the balance and power without really bashing
his own image.

As usual, I'm longwinded, but I think it is more important for a world
leader to be feared than to be liked. Even if you are not liked, you
get respect, and if you are liked, sometimes you don't have as much
respect. Of course, most of the world is trying to just survive day to
day and couldn't care less about whether our President is feared or
loved....they just remain hopeful and cautiously optimistic.

To close, I wanted to share this site I found. I have no idea of who
some of these people are, so I have some research to do, but isn't it
interesting that this Iranian page omits both of our two most recent
Presidents?


Bev

--
Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the ocean's depths, MY son is
protecting your freedom on the USS Key West, currently deployed
somewhere in the Pacific and/or Indian Ocean. Go Navy!
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA

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