Qualifications Quotes
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Battle was the grandson of a Revolutionary war soldier and the son of a former slave. He was the first person inducted into the New York City Police Force when it was first organized after the consolidation of the boroughs in 1898. He became the first Black Police Sargent and the first Black Lieutenant of the city and was probably the only Black senior police officer in the country at that time.
The only soldier ever so honored. MacArthur had a huge ego, and was a shameless self-promoter. However he was never secure enough to have a personal staff of strong independent thinkers the way Dwight Eisenhower and most other high military officers did. The men who stayed on MacArthur’s personal staff tended to be sycophants and toadies and treated him like royalty, hence the remark by General Marshall.
This quotation shows Washington's amazing tolerance for the times.
This was remarkable praise for a man of the opposite party who had himself served two Presidential terms.
Kennedy had financed bootlegging operations and had himself been involved in many shady stock deals.
Cleopatra was not just a woman ruling between male dynasties, but a brilliant and able politician, tactician, and military leader. She was descended from Alexander the Great’s Macedonian General Ptolomy who inherited Egypt upon Alexander’s death. By all accounts she was an amazing leader irrespective of gender. But she also used her sexuality very powerfully. Her language skill was remarkable; she was actually the first of the line of Ptolemy rulers of Egypt who actually spoke and read Egyptian. Of course she was also fluent in Greek and Latin as well as all the “Barbarian” languages.
Although she was living proof of a woman’s ability to accomplish what most men could not, she was always publicly differential to men and their sexism. Although she opposed women voting in Parliamentary elections, she did believe that women should vote in local elections where the understood the issues much better.
This is an important quotation because it was believed by most of the Founding Fathers and the American public until relatively recently. Presidential candidates would not think of publicly campaigning. The view was that anyone who was ambitious for power and authority should not be trusted with it. The idea was first stated by Plato and has been a major view of Western politics since. Many still believe it, but no one has come up with a practical alternative in a large jurisdiction where there is no way to know about the possible candidates without their initiative. Earlier American presidential candidates, although they did not campaign as we know it, got associates to do their campaigning for them. At Presidential nominating conventions, candidates would not even attend. Abraham Lincoln for example never attended the convention at which he got nominated, but he had associates lining up delagates and he was managing their efforts behind the scenes.
Stimson had been a key member of the Theodore Roosevelt national administration, and Roosevelt, before he became Vice President and then President had been a very popular governor of NY. Stimson, although a brilliant administrator, and statesman was a bit stuffy and aloof and was a terrible campaigner. He thought it immodest to refer to himself in public or to talk about his record. See {589269}. So the Republicans tried to tie him to Roosevelt who was still very popular. See {589268}. It was not enough. Stimson lost.
Not all kings were uncaring aristocrats and a few were excellent, compassionate, rulers. Most were not however.
