Cameron from the TV show Modern Family once said that "There are dreamers and there are realists in this world." He was right.
Leadership comes in many forms. There are realists, dreamers, and there are combinations of the two. President Obama, for example, is a dreamer. George W. Bush was a realist. And Bill Clinton was a mix of the two.
Obama has always been able to mobilize large crowds and as a visionary he speaks to many Americans' idealistic tendencies. President Bush on the contrary could not mobilize large crowds like Obama but his ability to convey realistic solutions to problems (whether popular or not) was concrete and often overt and concise. Bill Clinton not only dreamt big but also governed in the middle, where he was able to turn dreams into reality for many.
George H.W. Bush was a realist but less concrete than his son. But Reagan, like Clinton, was also a hybrid: He was a great communicator, actually the "Great Communicator" and then worked with a Democratic Congress to try and find bipartisan solutions. And then there was Jimmy Carter, arguably neither a realist nor a dreamer, as he had trouble both commanding crowds and implementing change.
As you can hopefully determine by now, such categorizations are simply my own opinions. Historians categorize presidents all the time -- and I am no historian. But try and see if you notice a trend so far.
Gerald Ford did not have much time in office but his immediate pardon of Richard Nixon demonstrated early on that he was a determined individual with realistic tendencies. He followed Nixon who in some ways was both a realist and a dreamer. Nixon, easily demonized, dreamt of and created the EPA (could you imagine a Republican President doing the same today?) but also carefully managed diplomatic relations by opening relations with China (concrete).
Lyndon Johnson was a sure-footed realist. He knew his mission: to carry out John Kennedy's dreams. It was Kennedy who was the dreamer, Johnson the enforcer. If Kennedy had lived longer, would he have been a hybrid?
Dwight Eisenhower was also a realist. He built the interstate highway system and led Americans in war before assuming the presidency. Truman, a realist too, made one of the most challenging decisions as a leader by choosing to drop the atomic bomb to end the war. And Franklin Roosevelt was like Reagan and Clinton. He dreamt of new social programs to lead us out of the depression and then he worked to implement them.
So notice the trend: realists often follow dreamers or dreamers often follow realists (what comes first is like the chicken or the egg phenomenon). But why?
Maybe it's because we, as Americans, love to dream. Yet often when we do, we discover that the heights we reach are simple plateaus and not mountaintops. Then, possibly in our disappointment, we search for realists to bring us back to earth.
Barack Obama is a dreamer and Mitt Romney, a realist.
So the question now is, do we want four more years of a dreamer?
As Cameron from Modern Family continues, he says: "... the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists... well, without the dreamers, they might never get off the ground."
With the next four years in mind, how close to the sun do you want to be?
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A realist sees reality, including in idea form.
A concretist cannot imagine, cannot process or understand non-physical ideas.
Dubya could not grasp theory, only concrete form.
Not a good trait for a leader.
Example, he talked a great deal about "freedom", which is an ideology.
What he meant was "stuff I want to do," which is concrete.
He did not mean "stuff you want to do," which is abstract.
Not sure he understood the abstract concept of "freedom" in a real sense.
And wrong. Just because something solves a problem, that does not mean it is the correct solution.
Especially when world politics are involved.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/four-out-of-five-economists-agree-the-stimulus-created-jobs/2011/08/25/gIQAb1CbPR_blog.html
And the fact that you believe we dropped the H-bomb, which was not invented until the 50s, on Japan shows that you are misinformed about basic historical facts.
No, Mitt Romney is a fat cat vulture capitalist. He will say and do anything to get ahead and keep his money. Bottom line, Mr. Romney loves his money. He said if he knew he had to disclose his tax returns he would not have run. He loves his money first and foremost. There is nothing wrong with that...I just won't be voting for him.
You have the stones to label W a realist? The guy who thought it was a great idea to start two wars (off the books) AND give out a huge tax cut? Something that has never been done by any leader, anywhere, at any time, because.... it's pretty close to the dumbest idea of all time? That one?
This crisis was decades in the making. It's going to take more than 3½ years (with a minority party filibustering everything) to fix. Sorry if you've been brainf*cked by sitcoms into thinking every problem can be solved in 26 minutes and everything goes back to normal at the end of every episode. You should probably watch less TV.
I eagerly await your next article about how we should alter the electoral process so that it uses 1-800 numbers like American Idol.