Tag: Trump

Presidents’ Day Honors an Odd Bunch

By Gary Bennett


This article appears in the February 15, 20204 issue of Frederick News-Post’s “72 Hours” entertainment insert.

The most humble of federal holidays falls annually on the third Monday of February. It’s commonly known as Presidents’ Day – but it technically isn’t.

In 1971 Congress passed a measure that redirected many holidays to a Monday date, so that workers could enjoy several long holiday weekends throughout the year.  

As part of this bill, Washington’s Birthday (Feb. 22), which had been celebrated as a federal holiday since the 1880s, was to be renamed Presidents’ Day to also honor Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12).

After much debate the name change failed but lived on as Presidents’ Day when retailers embraced the term for monetary and commercial reasons.

This year Presidents’Day in Monday., Feb. 19.

Presidents 45 and 46 (Trump and Biden) dominate the news cycle now, but it is quite interesting to look back and consider what an odd lot these presidents have been.

There are founding fathers, scallywags, scholars, and simpletons. And, for an office so sought after, more than a few were accidental presidents. Even a few more never wanted the job in the first place.

George Washington falls into this category.

He never wanted the job but took it at the urging of the other founders. He wanted nothing more than to retire to his plantation after leading the nation to independence. It’s hard to believe now, but it is well documented that he was largely reviled as president. No wonder. He was constantly charting new territory in this strange new job, to the consternation of most at the time.

But he gave a gift to the young republic struggling to disassociate itself from the English monarchy that cannot be repaid and has been brought into sharp focus on Jan. 6, 2021. He voluntarily and peacefully gave up power after eight years in office. This astounded not only the other founders but also most U.S. citizens and the world who assumed he would rule until death.

The behavior of presidents proves there is nothing new under the sun.

John Adams served one term and was so upset about his one vote loss to Thomas Jefferson in the House of Representatives in 1800 for his second term that he skipped Jefferson’s swearing in. Sound familiar?

Besides Mr. Trump and Mr. Adams, John Quincy Adams (sixth president and John’s son) and Andrew Johnson (17th president, Lincoln’s successor, and the first to be impeached) also skipped their successor’s inauguration. Each was a one-term president who lost a bitter re-election bid.

Then there is the enigma known as Thomas Jefferson.

He was a proud member of Virginia’s upper crust but also lived most of his life in heavy debt to the point of near poverty. He was a quintessential introvert. He wrote and reasoned brilliantly but had such a soft, unassuming voice that he struggled to be heard.  

He was an eloquent defender of independence and liberty but was also an unabashed slaveholder. He was mostly aloof but was also the mentor of both Madison and Monroe, and helped usher in 28 years of what today would be called liberal Democratic policies.

Mr. Trump’s decision to run again in 2024 put him in sparce, but pretty good, company. Ex-presidents Grover Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt ran again years after completing their terms.  Cleveland (22nd and 24th president) actually won a second time and is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Roosevelt split his party in 1912 with the incumbent president William Howard Taft, thereby handing the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, a stuffy scholar who ignored the pandemic of the day.

The case can be made that Taft actually went on to an even better job.  After his presidency ended in 1913, he eventually became chief justice of the Supreme Court, the only former president to do so. John Quincy Adams was no slouch either. He went on to serve several terms in the House after his presidency, which would be unthinkable today.

Joe Biden is a healthy 81-year-old but has surpassed the life expectancy of males in the U.S. If he were to die in office, it would be sad but not unusual. Several accidental presidents assumed office upon the death of the president.

John Tyler assumed office in 1841 upon the death of William Henry Harrison, who died after only one month in office, reportedly from pneumonia suffered after giving an exceedingly long inaugural address in bitterly cold weather.

Harry S. Truman and Andrew Johnson assumed office in similar manners, ascending after Franklin Roosevelt died just one month into his fourth term in 1945 and after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just a month into his second term in 1865.

Millard Fillmore became president in 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor.  Chester Arthur assumed the presidency in 1881 after James Garfield was assassinated just months into his first term. Teddy Roosevelt became president the same way, after William McKinley was shot in 1901 and lingered on for days dying excruciatingly of an infection from the bullet wounds.

Warren G. Harding died in office of a heart attack in 1923 midway through his first term propelling Calvin Coolidge to the presidency.  And, Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963 after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. 

Of these accidental presidents, modern day chiefs Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson all won terms of their own.

Only one incumbent president was denied the nomination of his party to run for re-election. Franklin Pierce was held in such low regard and was so inept as president that the Democratic Party in 1856 went with James Buchanan as its standard bearer instead of the sitting president.

That could not happen today. Buchanan won after all this chaos that would have shaken even the most hard-bitten of modern political operatives, and is renowned for only one thing: he was our only bachelor president.

Dwight Eisenhower was such a national hero in 1948 after leading the Allies to victory in World War II, both parties courted him to run for president. Incumbent president Harry Truman even offered to step aside if Ike would agree to run as a Democrat. Imagine that today. Instead, he waited four years and ran and won twice by landslides as a Republican.

Richard Nixon was the only president to resign the presidency, doing so in 1974 at the height of the Watergate scandal.  His successor, Gerald R. Ford, was the only president not elected to either vice president or president and never wanted to be president.

Besides Ford, Jimmy Carter in 1977 may have been the most unlikely modern president.  His Southern, born-again Christian and plain-folks demeanor was the perfect elixir at the time (and probably no other) for a reeling nation after Nixon resigned and was pardoned by Ford.

Modern presidents George W. Bush (2001) and Donald Trump (2017) won the presidency despite not winning the popular vote. Exhilarating or shocking, depending on your point of view, this was nothing new for the U.S.

Under the Electoral College system, five presidents have been elected despite the fact that their opponent won more popular votes. Along with Bush and Trump, John Quincy Adams won in 1824 over Andrew Jackson, who went on to win in a rematch four years later, as did Rutherford B. Hayes (1877) and Benjamin Harrison (1889) with the help of some Congressional deal-making shenanigans.

Andrew Jackson was the first president to use the power of personality to propel his ascension. He portrayed himself as the hero of the common man. He was gruff, flamboyant and downright mean at times. Again, sound familiar?


Gary Bennett of Frederick is an amateur presidential historian.

Time for Media to Move on from Trump

Former President Trump benefitted from intense, free media coverage.

By Gary Bennett

With former President Trump grudgingly departing the White House and decamping for the friendlier confines of Mar-a-Lago, I think I speak for most Frederick County citizens and certainly all Frederick County democrats by calling on all major media outlets, including this newspaper, to refrain from covering his future attempts at making news just to remain relevant. It’s time we got on to the serious business of this country, and we now have a serious president who will do just that.

Just like a train wreck happening in real time, we had to watch.  But no more. The deafening silence you’ve heard since Insurrection Day on January 6 was a president with nothing relevant to say and no social media accounts to say it with. It’s been great. It’s how life used to be in the U.S. For you youngish readers, this may be hard to believe but in the old days – back to at least 2016 – we could go weeks without hearing from the president. I submit that’s how it should be. We should be able to trust the fact that the president is hard at work for the American people, and there is no need to rile us up at every turn.

Can there be any doubt that Mr. Trump will ignore the tradition that calls for former presidents to keep their mouths shut for a while so a new president can get his footing and a fair chance at governing without constant second-guessing and backbiting? It would be a major upset if Mr. Trump found this religion, but I wouldn’t bet on it. So, if he won’t do it willingly, we must do it for him. All media have a starring role to play. Social media has started the job; traditional media must now finish it. The AP and UPI will continue to submit stories about his latest outrage no doubt, but there is no reason this newspaper should pick them up. I hope that’s what happens.

You have to go all the way back to Herbert Hoover in 1933 before you can find an ex-president who just couldn’t let go.  Just like Mr. Trump, Mr. Hoover didn’t know just how out of touch and out of his depth he was. He soon realized how foolish he was as the New Deal kicked in and the economy began to recover. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump does not suffer from any pesky self-awareness. 

The last two one-term presidents who lost their reelection bids showed us the true meaning of grace and patriotism by putting country before their own bruised egos. Mr. Carter in 1981 and Mr. GHW Bush in 1993 went on to serve their countries with distinction in their post-presidencies, and in at least the former’s case, went on to greater acclaim as a past-president than president.

I know it won’t be easy to wean ourselves off of Mr. Trump. He has been like catnip to us and to the nightly talking heads, social media giants, and print publishers. Ratings are up. Clicks are up. Readership is up. He couldn’t stand not to be in the spotlight, and good or bad, that’s where he put himself. Constantly.

But, I’m asking, no pleading, to give him no air now. We are exhausted. Oh, he’ll threaten, but I doubt Mr. Trump will run again in 2024 even if he is eligible. There is a reason only one president has served nonconsecutive terms. Grover Cleveland was an anomaly. Former presidents enjoy the post-presidential life of many perks but no responsibilities. Even if Trump doesn’t like retired life, Americans are almost never ready to look again to a vanquished president or nominee. For that reason, democrats will welcome Mr. Trump as the 2024 republican nominee if it comes to that. Only the most weak-minded, politically naïve, easily swayed die-hards with short memories and stars in their eyes will want four more years of constant chaos and mean-spirited politics.

I’ll make one exception to reading about Mr. Trump in the future. I hope newspapers like this one will cover his upcoming civil and criminal legal proceedings completely and fully, including all his outlandish claims that he did nothing wrong and that it was all a hoax despite hours and hours of damning video and his own reprehensible and never ending lies that the election was stolen from him. After his conviction or acquittal, it’s time to move on.

In Defense of the Humble Word ‘Hoax’

Irony may be lost on this Trump supporter.

By Gary Bennett

If there is one word that defines the Trump presidency, it would have to be ‘hoax.’  I’m not talking about his presidency itself. That has been all too real. I’m talking about all the wild, outlandish tricks and pranks that have been perpetrated on this poor man in just four short years.

The president, for his part, has not missed a chance to call our attention to a veritable smorgasbord of hoaxes that have befallen him. He has used this humble word to describe everything from the deadly dual poxes of climate change and coronavirus to Russian election meddling and Bountygate. Even when the damaging words come right from the president’s own mouth – Ukrainian phone call, disparaging war heroes, and grabbing female body parts – he has called on this once-obscure word to assure Americans that all is well except when his enemies are putting words in his mouth and disrespecting America.

But, why the word ‘hoax’?  The president could have used longer or less dated words like conspiracy, scheme, ruse, or collusion (okay, that one’s been taken.) I believe Mr. Trump keeps returning to the word because it is simple, understandable, and even a little bit old-fashioned. Hoax is a derivation of the Latin word ‘hocus’ as in the fun phrase ‘hocus pocus’. Hocus refers to a conjurer or juggler. Hocus pocus refers to deceiving with a fabrication, lie, or misdirection. A close word cousin to hoax is ‘hokey’, which means lame, strange or odd.  Knowing this, is it any wonder Mr. Trump is drawn to this word, subconsciously or otherwise?

Of course, none of the hoaxes I mentioned previously sound like much fun, and indeed they haven’t been; not to the intended target, POTUS himself, and certainly not to the American people who’ve had to incessantly ponder who would do such things to the leader of the free world, or more perplexingly, who has the time to think up these elaborate ruses.

It wasn’t always this way. Hoaxes used to conjure up feelings of fun and frivolity. Remember the classic one where college engineering students disassemble the dean’s car and reassemble it on top of the administration building?  Or, how about the truly great Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast in the 1930s? After the hysteria died down, folks hailed this hoax as a masterpiece. Bigfoot? Crop circles? Jackalope? Loch Ness Monster? Paul is dead?  All of these thoughtful hoaxes took time, planning, patience, and a certain genius to fool the media, crowds, and even the military. But when everything turned out to be harmless and entertaining, it was a thing of beauty. Coronavirus and Russian election meddling?  Not so much.

But just like crying wolf, crying hoax can be too much of a good thing. According to Twitter and Factbase, Mr. Trump has publicly used the word over 600 times during his three and a half years as president. There is nothing else even remotely close. Not ‘policy’, ‘serve’, ‘protect’, or even ‘American people’. It’s almost a verbal tic at this point, predictably coming out of his mouth at the first sign of trouble.

But political scientists will invariably tell you that repetition of this word serves to portray Mr. Trump as a victim and an everyman victim at that. This has become a very effective part of his brand – an ‘us versus them’ mentality. It allows him to avoid explaining complicated issues by simply dismissing them out of hand, which is something Mr. Trump must do since he is demonstrably incapable of defending any challenge in a thoughtful and analytical way. The goal, of course, is to make himself the only credible authority, and it works like a charm with a sizable segment of America. For the rest of us, we’re left with that niggling, bothersome thought in the corner of our minds that perhaps there are no facts and nothing can be trusted. The president knows this all too well, and to the detriment of everything else, uses it to his advantage as no one before. After all, if nothing can be trusted, nothing can be changed. And if nothing can be changed, how can you change the president?  

Always the butt of the joke, Mr. Trump nevertheless plies his hand at hoaxes, too.  Unfortunately for him, but perhaps good for the country, he is not very good at it. In fact, he has a perfect losing record when it comes to hoaxes. Remember the oldies but goodies that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and that Ted Cruz’s father assisted with the JFK assassination?  To his credit, he keeps trying.  Mail-in voting fraud, Harris’s ineligibility to run because of her Asian Indian roots, and wacky QAnon conspiracies are still on the front burner and simmering away.

I Get it Now: Greatness is in the Details!

The president operates at a level mere mortals just can’t understand.

What with the raging pandemic, struggling economy, and racial injustice, you’d think that would be more than enough on the plate of any president.  Ahh, but we don’t have just any president. We are blessed with a president who is more than willing and able to handle any issue, large or small, that can benefit from his attention.  And that is most of them!

Consider this: You watched in awe as our scholarly president straightened us all out on the need to leave those confederate statues alone because, you know, they represent our glorious past. You giggled nervously with delight as he upbraided NASCAR and that ungrateful Bubba Wallace for having the temerity to find a noose in his garage and then make everyone aware of it. You could hardly believe your eyes when he came to the rescue of Goya beans, who any cook worth their salt will tell you is the most excellent, right-leaning bean available and the only one worthy of display in the oval office. And you thanked your lucky stars when he, perhaps most creatively of all, brought to light the brilliant musings of the most underutilized political analyst of our time, fellow game show host Chuck Woolery of the middling 90’s TV show, Love Connection.

Pure genius. We don’t have to understand.

But like any other superhero working today such as Captain America or Tucker Carlson, our president handles so many things humbly and out of sight that even he forgets about them. So, as a public service and to recognize our selfless leader who would not want to bother your feeble minds with such trivialities, I present here the other issues he won’t let go of, I mean, is handling on our behalf.

  • Since Black Lives Matter is obviously a hate symbol, the movement will hereby be referred to as ‘Stupid Is as Stupid Does.’ (The president is currently trying to locate Forrest Gump to reserve all rights.)
  • As a nod to Native Americans and a sly reference to a healthy spray-on tan, all sports teams currently using Indians, Braves, R**skins, or Chiefs will be immediately renamed to Orangemen. 
  • The official list of sh**hole counties will be updated to include those ingrates Mexico, Canada, and EU.  EU (pronounced “yew”) is one of those newish countries in Europe that won’t pay their NATO bills.   
  • The president’s new hit action show, Law and Order Portland, starring, well, we’re not sure who’s starring in this, is doing record numbers, the likes of which have never been seen. Unfortunately, Portland’s mayor, who is currently recovering from an accidental lung problem at Portland General, has revoked the filming permit.
  • In a long overdue tribute to our proud confederate heritage, the big, beautiful Southern border barrier will soon be reconstituted as a ‘stone wall.’ 
  • Expert jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts will be contracted to reassemble all confederate statues that have lost their way. No nursing home or third grade class will be spared in this exhaustive search. 
  • Beginning immediately all cancer and heart disease screenings in America will be curtailed. We learned our lesson with all those COVID-19 tests that made us look so bad! Hair loss screenings exempted, of course.
  • As a measure to keep attendance at a reasonable level, all frat boy COVID-19 parties will be moved to Mondays since nothing much goes on that night anyway.
  • All future redactions in subpoenas, indictments, telephone call logs, and presidential daily briefings will change from black to white, because, well, you know.
  • In a related move, white out will be made mandatory at all secretarial schools thereby bringing back good-paying manufacturing jobs to produce this handy, underutilized product.
  • Vladimir Putin will be issued immediately a lifetime frequent traveler’s pass to Mar-a-Lago with the presidential suite renamed in his honor.
  • In a related move and after a long negotiation, Bounty paper towels will be named official paper towel of the Taliban. They will be shipped to Russia who will make sure they are received in Afghanistan in a timely manner.
  • Black Flag will be retired as official pesticide of the White House grounds, because of, well, you know.  Plus, the lingering residue keeps Stephen Miller from getting to work on time.
  • Governors Ducey, Abbott, and DeSantis will be named governors for life in Arizona, Texas, and Florida, respectively.  The president really likes the hilarious ‘Who’s on First’ routine the Texas governor performs with that fat guy Costello.
  • Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is hereby ordered to immediately undergo experimental COVID-19 testing as a service to her country. What, too soon? She’s in the hospital all the time anyway!
  • Quaker Oats Company and MARS, Inc., respectively, have been ordered to leave lovable brands Aunt Jemimah pancake mix and Uncle Ben’s converted rice alone in order to preserve America’s proud carbohydrate heritage.
  • To improve efficiency, all elementary, middle and high school back-to-school nights will now be relocated to the nearest urgent care clinic.
  • Along with Ghislaine Maxwell, the president is proud to pass along his best wishes to Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Prince Andrew, Tik-Tok’s Faizal Siddiqui, congressional powerhouses Ted Yoho and Louis Gohmert, and all former White House aides currently spending time in prison.
  • In an effort to broaden the number and types of medical voices heard on the current pandemic hoax, the president will not only listen to the crazy lady witch doctor from Texas but also Doogie Howser, MD, Bones McCoy, and Dr. Dre.
  • Teddy Roosevelt’s nose and eyeglasses will be slightly relocated at Mount Rushmore to make room for any future presidents who find themselves out of work, indicted, and in need of a little pick me up.
  • Along with moving Election Day from November 3rd, New Year’s Day will move to May 1st to take advantage of better weather and Columbus Day to December 25th to give it the attention it deserves. Juneteenth and MLK Day are hereby scrapped.
  • Last but not least, last-century game show icons Bob Eubanks, Wink Martindale, and the late Tom Kennedy will join Chuck Woolery as informal “kitchen cabinet” advisors to the president.  And, since we’re talking kitchen cabinets, Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor is under consideration as well.
Goya Beans are excellent, beautiful beans and the only ones worthy of display on the resolute desk.

Is Donald Trump the Dumbest President Ever?

By Gary Bennett

Trump supporters, I know what you’re thinking. Please stay with me. It’s not as bad as you think.

When President Trump suggested that scientists should look into injecting disinfectant into the human body as a means to clean the lungs of covid-19, you may have thought that clinched his standing as the least intelligent president of all time. To be sure, the uncomfortable look on the face of Dr. Birx as she contemplated the style and color of her shoes as Trump looked her way and made his plea was priceless.

But not so! Tempting as it may be to label Mr. Trump as least intelligent president ever, we should remember that we’ve been here before. Well, maybe not to this extent. Just in my lifetime, both George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan suffered from so many malapropisms, verbal tics, lapses in thought and in Reagan’s case, forgetfulness, that their intellectual capacities were likewise questioned. During their presidencies, conventional wisdom among wide swaths of Americans, both supporters and detractors alike, deemed both to be not very bright.

We face the same dilemma today with Mr. Trump. Is he profoundly unintelligent as so many think?  Or is he crazy like a fox, continually egging on the political establishment for his own benefit? Or more importantly, does it even matter? After all intellect can’t be the only predictor of presidential greatness. If it was, then smart presidents such as Bill Clinton (Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School grad) and Jimmy Carter (Naval Academy graduate with distinction and a submarine officer) would be among our greatest presidents. Historians widely agree they are not. Conversely, presidents such as Reagan and Harry Truman were not considered very smart but are ranked highly on the greatness scale.

The examples I list above should pass your smell test that there is not a one-to-one relationship between presidential intelligence and greatness. But it is close! General intelligence has consistently been found to be the one best predictor of positive job performance in a wide range of occupations. Being president is no different.

There has been quite a bit of research done on the subject of presidential intelligence. I’ve read some of it. The most cited study seems to be that of Dean Keith Simonton and published in Political Psychology in 2006. He used “estimated IQ” to rank the presidents. Because most U.S. presidents died long before the advent of actual IQ tests, Simonton and his colleagues estimated presidential IQ based on observed factors from biographies including published works, openness to experience, inventiveness, curiosity, charisma and sophistication. This study garnered quite a bit of press in its day but also featured many detractors. Of course, to accept these findings, you have to believe that presidential historians are trying their level best to shed light on their subjects in an impartial way with no axes to grind (a tall order for many of us, I know.)

The rankings I present here are my own based on my reading of the above-mentioned study and my own reading of many presidential biographies (a hobby of mine).

You’ll note that I did not try to rank Donald Trump. I, like many political observers who are not overly partisan, just don’t know what to make of him. As I mentioned earlier, he is either one of the more intelligent presidents, operating at a level that most of us can’t understand, or he is the least intelligent president of all time. I do suspect it is the latter, but I’m not sure. History will judge.

Finally, it should be noted that all 39 presidents ranked in the study were found to have estimated IQs higher than the population in general so please don’t associate the ten least intelligent presidents with not being smart. Nothing is further from the truth. All of our presidents, by definition, have been smart enough to ascend to the highest office in the land.  But, you’ll see, there are no great ones among those with lower intelligence.

Ten Most Intelligent Presidents

  1. Thomas Jefferson – widely accepted by most scholars as brilliant. Principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
  2. John Q. Adams – Highest estimated IQ of all presidents. Prolific writer, speaker, and thinker.
  3. James Madison – Father of the Constitution. Adroitly maneuvered among the top thinkers of the day to put his stamp on the Constitution.
  4. Abraham Lincoln – widely credited with saving the union through his adroit use of power and strategic thinking.  Our most gifted orator.
  5. Bill Clinton – Rhodes Scholar who excelled at mastering complex information and explaining it with simple, understandable words.
  6. Woodrow Wilson – Highly respected academic who was president of Princeton University. Strategic thinker who was the father of internationalism.
  7. Theodore Roosevelt – Highly educated and erudite with the ability to present himself as an everyman. Uncanny ability to persuade people to follow his lead. Our most quintessential “leader.”
  8. John Adams – Founding father who adroitly shifted the country, rightly or wrongly, toward political partisanship.
  9. John Kennedy – Had a razor-sharp wit, was highly educated and a respected if not prolific writer.  His strategy is credited with saving America from a nuclear exchange with Russia in 1962.
  10.  Jimmy Carter – Successful businessman, Naval Academy graduate, and submarine officer. Credited with bringing Egypt and Israel together in late 1970’s. Winner of Nobel Peace Prize.

Ten Least Intelligent Presidents

  1. Andrew Johnson
  2. James Buchanan
  3. Zachary Taylor
  4. Warren Harding
  5. George W. Bush – Despite a Harvard MBA, showed little intellectual curiosity. Not a good speaker. Overly trusting. Would rather delegate than master complex information.
  6. Calvin Coolidge
  7. James Monroe – a plodding speaker and middling intellect of the day.  Benefitted almost completely from Jefferson and Madison patronage.
  8. Ulysses Grant – Despite his reputation as Lincoln’s top Civil War general, he was an unimpressive thinker and failed farmer. He was largely an accidental soldier. Was the beneficiary of immense blind luck. Presidency plagued by scandal due to hands-off approach.
  9. Benjamin Harrison
  10.  Gerald Ford – An accidental president and unimpressive thinker and speaker. Prone to misspeaking.

Other Notables: 

George Washington
Middle of the pack. His physical stature, quiet confidence, and blind luck largely drove his success.

Andrew Jackson
Toward the bottom. A frontiersman with little formal education, he did not distinguish himself in speech or writing. Ruled through intimidation, not with power of thought.

Herbert Hoover
Middle of the pack. Downplayed warning signs of Great Depression. Paralyzed, unable to make big decisions.

Franklyn Roosevelt
Middle of the pack.  Despite his larger than life persona, he was mostly the beneficiary of wealth, privilege, and good political instincts. Depended largely on the intelligence of others.

Harry Truman
Middle of the pack. The quintessential everyman was a failed farmer and retailer.  He was the beneficiary of the democratic political machine of the day. Thrust into the spotlight by happenstance, not intelligence. But highly regarded as a great president.  Able to make tough decisions.

Dwight Eisenhower
Toward the top.  A first-rate military mind who nevertheless tended toward intellectual laziness later in life.  Widely accepted as a good, but not great president.

Lyndon Johnson
Middle of the pack. Not highly educated or known for deep thinking or introspection. The quintessential political animal.

Richard Nixon
Toward the top.  Accepted as a strategic and deep thinker but made the mistake of trusting in others too much. Another political animal, second only to Johnson.

Ronald Reagan
Toward the bottom.  Not highly educated or respected as a deep thinker.  He was second only to FDR in positive political instincts. Nevertheless, accepted as a good to great president.

George HW Bush
Beneficiary of wealth, upbringing, and a political family. Not known for his speaking or writing capabilities.

Barack Obama
Toward the top. Is verbally eloquent, fluent, and has the ability to inspire and motivate. Constitutional scholar.

Donald Trump
Either crazy like a fox or least intelligent president ever.  History will have to judge.

The Latest Pandemic: We Refuse to Learn What History Teaches

By Gary Bennett

3D illustration of Coronavirus, virus which causes SARS and MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Will we ever learn?

Epidemics, plagues and pandemics have been around since the dawn of time. But over and over, government response has fallen heartbreakingly short. Indeed, keeping its citizens safe from enemies foreign and domestic is the main reason we have government in the first place. But when it comes to disease, governments more often than not downplay the threat posed by this insidious enemy.

Don’t be fooled by the flurry of governmental activity happening now surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19. Daily announcements of more and more drastic measures to mitigate spread of this disease don’t change the fact that we are frantically trying to play catch up.  It didn’t have to be this way. 

Back on January 22nd President Trump was asked if he was worried about a coming pandemic based upon what was happening in China. Trump responded, “No. Not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”  Even if you discount his penchant for looking at everything through a political lens and his seemingly intrinsic need to sound authoritative on a topic he obviously knows little about, his carefree stance was horrifying.  He held to this position for several precious weeks when we could have been preparing. That point should not be lost. Presidents must measure their words carefully and land on the side of caution, but those are behaviors this president doesn’t much care for.

No president can know everything of course, and we can’t blame them for that. That’s why we have experts in government advising the president on technical and scientific matters regularly. Except in this case we didn’t until very recently. 

A week before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Obama’s homeland security advisor briefed his incoming counterpart on pandemic threats and how to respond to them based on the previous administration’s response to outbreaks of swine flu, Ebola, and Zika. The briefing covered limits to international travel, compromising of supply chains, tanking of the stock market, overburdening of our health care system, and all framed by the premise that a vaccine would not be ready for many months—the same situation we are in today.  Falling on deaf ears, National Security Advisor John Bolton eventually shut down the National Security Council’s unit for preparing and responding to pandemics. Then, the new administration’s official in charge of spearheading responses to infectious threats quit and was not replaced. We should not forget that both actions egregiously inhibited our initial national response to COVID-19.

It is no secret—unless you are perpetually affixed to Fox News—that this administration’s response to the latest pandemic has been woefully inadequate, especially in the beginning when it would have made all the difference. But unfortunately, this administration is not alone.  One only has to look at the two most virulent international pandemics in modern U.S. history. In both cases we had a chance to lead and mitigate the consequences but fell woefully short: the HIV/AIDS pandemic of 1981 and Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

In 1981 Ronald Regan (R) was in the White House. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit, the Reagan administration’s first reaction was to treat it as a joke. In a new documentary short called When AIDS Was Funny, posted by Vanity Fair, audio of press conferences reveals Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes, joking about the now well-known HIV/AIDS epidemic and assuring the country that Reagan was doing nothing about it, nor should he be. The administration assured America that the disease could only be slowed by ethical behavior that could not be legislated. The perpetrators of the disease – gay men – would realize this and adopt proper lifestyle changes eventually. How terribly shortsighted this policy was.

History shows this inaction was an undeniable stain on the Reagan presidency. It took deaths by celebrities like Rock Hudson, deaths of thousands of heterosexual Americans, and deaths due to transfusions from tainted blood by children like Ryan White to change Reagan’s mind and get him moving. By the time he finally addressed the crisis in earnest in 1987 – six years after its discovery – 23,000 Americans had died from the disease.  To date, 35 million people have died from HIV/AIDS and its complications worldwide. How many would have been spared with more timely, thoughtful and decisive action by the U.S. president, one who did not pander to his yuck-it-up base?

In 1918 the U.S. government badly handled the Spanish flu pandemic, responding to it much as the current administration has to COVID-19. Woodrow Wilson (D) was in the middle of his second term as president. World War I was raging in Europe but prospects of an armistice were growing day by day. When the Spanish flu hit first in New York with a deadliness that few had ever seen, officials downplayed the threat. They were more concerned with keeping up morale for the war effort. That decision proved disastrous. As more deaths occurred, panic spread and people distrusted the government more and more. Americans witnessed scenes reminiscent of the European Black Death they had heard about from stories passed down from their grandparents.

Amazingly, Wilson never released a public statement on the pandemic. Surgeon General Rupert Blue said, “There is no cause for alarm if proper precautions are observed.” Another top health official dismissed it as “ordinary influenza by another name.”  Of course, it was not. Spanish flu had a mortality rate of 2 percent — much higher than seasonal influenza strains, and similar to some early estimates about COVID-19. By 1942 when a vaccine was finally licensed, 675,000 Americans had died and over 50 million worldwide,

In a chilling parallel to today, if a newspaper reported the truth, the government threatened it. The Jefferson County Union in Wisconsin warned about the seriousness of Spanish flu on Sept. 27, 1918. Within days, an Army general began prosecution against the paper under a wartime sedition act, claiming it had “depressed morale.”  In an ironic twist of fate, President Wilson even contracted the disease, only to eventually recover and be felled by a stroke a few months later. Historians agree that his months-long recuperation from Spanish flu hurt negotiations to end World War I.

We will get through the COVID-19 pandemic like we have all the others. People will suffer and many will die, but this is not the end of the world. Most biblical scholars can assure you of that. We can only hope that this and future administrations will finally learn the lessons that history tries to teach us over and over again: take it seriously and prepare as soon as possible. As soon as we recover from this disaster, we must insist that government prepare for the next one, which is sure to come. Politicians must listen.

Historical Open Letter from President Donald J. Trump

My fellow patriotic Americans (and all you losers without MAGA hats),

I, President Donald John Trump, am sacrificing a bit of my executive time with Fox News today to announce that I hereby resign as your favorite president.  It’s been a fun and perfect three years demonizing the lefties, allies, Gold Star Families, and the so-called free press but all good things must come to an end. Just ask my three Secretaries of Defense, three Secretaries of Labor, three Chiefs of Staff, and of course my personal fixer, Michael Cohen, who can be reached in federal prison in upstate New York.  I swear I was going to clean up the swamp and appoint the best people but every person I appointed turned out to be a crooked loser.

It has come to pass that I find myself about to be impeached, and as much as I like to be the center of attention, I don’t want to be lumped in with those phonies Bill Clinton and Andrew Jackson, Johnson or whatever his name was. I’d rather dramatically ride off into the sunset on my personal chopper, Marine One. No one’s ever done that before and can you imagine the ratings! Plus, those enemies of the people—the lamestream media, won’t have me to kick around anymore!  This I can tell you.

Can you believe it?  Me, impeached?  The Chosen One! AND, I’M DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Bill’s economy in 1998 was even better and we were at peace. You saw what they did to him. At least many of the same senators who screwed him have come to see that impeachment is not the way. I’m looking at you Mitch and Lindsey! It is serious business lying about an extramarital affair and getting caught so I guess Slick Willy got what he deserved.  Better just to be upfront about it. Hell, if the evangelicals don’t care about extramarital affairs and grabbing female body parts, why would anyone? 

A lot of people are saying you just can’t trust those Dems to see things the right way. They’ve made up some malarkey about their congressional oversight duty and impeachment being in the constitution.  SAD!!!  When I smartly and bravely bring up words like “coup” and “treason”, WHICH IS MY RIGHT, they have the audacity to lie and point out that treason only applies to aiding and abetting a wartime enemy, not criticizing the president, and that coups are things that happen in sh*thole countries at the end of a gun, not in countries like ours that depend on that pesky rule of law. But I feel better now that my thirteen-year old son explained to me that Republicans will still be in charge.  I could have sworn those Dem traitors Nervous Nancy and Crooked Hillary would take over. Why else would they do this?  What’s in it for them? We all like a good civil war, of course, but if I can’t be Supreme Commander, why bother?

Okay, maybe I should have reported that Russian meddling thing in the 2016 election that I obviously knew about but did nothing to stop. But the Russians were for me and anyone would have taken that meeting.  And by the way, I’m not a puppet. Hillary’s the puppet!  I fired that giant Lurch Jim Comey to make it all go away and what did that get me?  Just more grief and low-energy, sad sack Robert Mueller and his so-called investigation that dragged on for over a year.  He had the audacity to not exonerate me and even charge obstruction.  But no matter, I just claimed I was cleared and my loyal subjects ate it up. Plus, my fat personal lawyer, I mean Attorney General, Bill Barr, backed me up, too.

And sure, I obviously asked Russia, Ukraine, and China to get some dirt on that scumbag, Joe Biden, and in the case of Ukraine, withheld some military funds until they did but that was my money anyway!  And I had to match the Dems before they meddled in the 2020 election by trying to make sure every citizen, especially the Blacks and Hispanics, suburban moms, and manufacturing workers whose jobs never came back, exercised their right to vote. We can’t let low-IQ Joe Biden take over anyway.  He’s not smart enough to keep America interesting and on edge by constantly belittling half the population and pitting them against each other. Can you imagine how boring things will be under Sleepy Joe?  And his family – what a bunch of losers and hangers-on!  

I’d like to take this opportunity to recap our accomplishments over the last three years. We didn’t get much accomplished, okay?  Well, other than some tax cuts for the rich, executive orders that will get reversed when the Dems get their chance and of course all those federal judges and Supreme Court justices. Mitch sure pulled a fast one when he prevented the Obama/Clinton gang from having their choice back in 2016. That was my idea, by the way. I don’t know Merrick Garland but I hear he is a nice fellow – just not Supreme Court material like my guy Brett Kavanaugh. With me and Brett, I hope women have at least learned that their hysterical, lying, sexual misconduct charges will get them nowhere.  We did have a fun government shutdown and took some money from the Defense Department to start on my beautiful Southern border wall. There are some bad hombres trying to get into this country and I’m proud to say we have slowed them down even without shooting them in the legs, WHICH IS MY RIGHT!  If people want into this country so badly, they should just pay their way in at Ellis Island like my grandfather did!

I hope we can count on all those judges Mitch and I are appointing, but you never know. Some of those losers claim independence from their Dear Leader and rely on that pesky rule of law. Just ask that deep state flunky John Roberts who voted to keep the ACA intact even though we were sure to eventually come up with something much better.  I did my best, though. I kept ACA underfunded so rates would soar and declined to defend it in court. 

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t going to leave in 2020 anyway, no matter what the crooked election said. Probably not in 2024 either as long as my perfect health held up. It is just not possible for me to be voted out after all that I have done for this country! You may have heard that I took a pay cut to be your leader. No, as a stable genius and with more military knowledge that all those generals of mine combined, there is no way I could be removed from the White House.  But just think of all the fun we will be missing in January 2021 when that stiff Mike Pence has to turn over the keys to Sleepy Joe. Wouldn’t you have rather had me up there saying “I don’t think so, Joe.”  My people were already working on that speech.

But, in my great and unmatched wisdom, I’ve come to the conclusion that you just don’t deserve me. That’s why I’m walking way. What’s next for me, you ask?  I have three words for you – Trump News Network. That’s right, we’ll finally have media we can trust.  I’ll be the only correspondent of course because why would I share air time with anyone else if I don’t have to? Once I became my own press secretary things went much better, don’t you think? Even those ingrates at Fox News were starting to turn on me. They were starting to ask some pushy questions and not doing the job they were paid to do. The last thing I’ll do before I go is remove the Fox News line item from the Republican National Committee budget.  That’ll teach them.

So, it is with a full heart, terrific hair and tan, and smokin’ hot daughter and wife that I bid you farewell. Try to get along without me for a while. I said this before that foreign loser Arnold What’s-his-name did – I’ll BE BACK, which is my right.

Don’t worry about me, MAGA friends. I’ve already pardoned myself. Just waiting on that superb ass kisser Mike Pence to read it later.

Gary Bennett writes from an alternate universe where everyone, including President Trump, has come to their senses.

Why Trump?

By Gary Bennett

It is not news to anyone that this presidency is emphatically different than ones we’ve known in the past. To be sure, ‘different’ is what many people voted for, and we’ve certainly gotten it.  But, I can’t help wondering, is what we are getting now what we all bargained for? 


As seen in the Frederick News-Post Saturday, April 6, 2019.

There were high hopes that Mr. Trump would drain the swamp, give a voice to the voiceless, and put an end to political correctness. We are swampier than ever, of course, with many of his close aids either indicted or currently serving time, but there is no doubt that he has shaken the political establishment. Before he was elected, we were less sure about the actual policies he would pursue. After all, Mr. Trump is a former democrat who had no previous voting record and had previously espoused such non-conservative principles as the right to choose. 

During the primary campaign and general election we heard him talk about strengthening border security, lowering taxes, and bringing back good-paying manufacturing jobs, to name a few. I think we can all agree that he has tried to keep his promises but I also think we can agree that he has not been very successful in enacting the legislation that would make them so. He has done much better with executive orders, but of course they can be easily reversed upon the election of a president with opposing views, and most probably will be.

So, how did we get here?  Is it just a recalcitrant Congress that stands in his way? It can’t be that. The president’s party controlled all levers of government in 2017 and 2018 and still not much got accomplished. Is it obstructionist federal judges who can stop executive orders in their tracks with the wave of a pen? To some extent, yes. But I believe the biggest barrier is that we elected a businessman/television star with zero political and governmental experience. He simply doesn’t have the wherewithal to do well in this job and is not very good at picking people who can stay out of trouble and help him. Mom always told me that anyone could grow up to be president. But, that doesn’t mean anyone should.

To believe that someone with no government experience can get a majority of Americans and a majority of Congress to accept or at least tolerate his policies is to believe that there is not an art or science to governing. My old political science professors at Frostburg State University would be aghast and tell you otherwise. Horse trading, building consensus, persuasion, and good old-fashioned compromise are the building blocks of good governance. This is what our forefathers envisioned.

This president is woefully inadequate in all these areas.  When you combine these shortcomings with his penchant for insult and ridicule, it is no wonder there is constant turmoil and few legislative successes to point to. Would you go along with someone who constantly insulted you?  No, me neither. What may have worked well in a closely held business does not work well in government.

Some may say that Mr. Trump has been unfairly scrutinized and challenged at every turn. I say that is exactly what democracy is all about. Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Clinton (you can go all the way back to Mr. Washington if you like) were all challenged to the fullest extent possible. That is what helps make America great and keeps us from becoming a dictatorship. You can bet that if Mr. Obama’s closest associates had been indicted and imprisoned like Mr. Trump’s, Congressional Republicans would be doing exactly what Democrats are doing now. As citizens we should insist upon nothing less.

I’m old enough to remember the Clinton Administration being continuously challenged at every turn by a newly energetic Republican Congressional majority in 1994. What did they do? The Clinton Administration redoubled efforts to look for areas of agreement and compromise wherever possible. For the current administration, compromise seems to be a dirty word.  Mr. Trump doesn’t seem to want to play the game. For him, there can only be winners and losers.

The reason that Mr. Clinton could rebound and govern effectively, turning over a roaring economy and budget surplus to Mr. Bush in 2001 was that his presidency was the culmination of his government experience, not the launching point. The same can be said for most presidents except the current one. Experience does matter.  If you don’t think so, try applying to be the publisher of this newspaper.

I don’t blame the Americans who voted for Mr. Trump in the handful of key states that decided the election for the lack of legislative progress and the constant rancor and turmoil we now live under. Given the choice between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton – a highly flawed, unlikable, tainted candidate that represented the old guard — I can see where many Americans would want to take a chance on the exciting new irreverent star on the political scene.

What I don‘t understand and what I would love for my Republican friends to explain to me is why they chose Trump as their nominee over the better-prepared, better qualified conservative Republican candidates available at the time. After all, most held similar beliefs to Mr. Trump but also had a history in government and a record of getting things done in government that Mr. Trump did not. Does anyone not think that John Kasich, for example, would have fought hard for conservative principles but been willing to compromise to move this country forward?

Please tell us all what it is about Mr. Trump that most Americans are missing and leaves us embarrassed for our country at the end of each evening. Is it the absurd political theater that Mr. Trump provides? Is it the political incorrectness?  Is it that he was untainted by Washington’s ways? Is it his purported business acumen?

As a moderate Democrat, I will admit I was entertained by the insults and name calling Mr. Trump leveled at the other Republican candidates. Like most, I didn’t see any way he could be nominated. And after he was nominated, I didn’t see any way he could be elected.  Of course, like a lot of people I was very much wrong.

But I’m wondering if after two years of constant turmoil and not getting much accomplished perhaps even Republicans have had enough. I think possibly some but probably not very many.  My guess is, however, that most independents who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 will not do so again. Words, demeanor, grace, and yes results matter even if Mr. Trump is pursuing policies you agree with.

If Mr. Trump showed up my door this evening I’m not sure I would invite him in and show him the respect his office should demand. That is because I’m not sure he respects the office himself. He certainly shows no respect to those who disagree with him.  And I do mean everyone and not just opposing politicians.  Just ask the Gold Star father. Rather, his opposition is considered unpatriotic and presidential harassers.

I have lived happily through many presidents from both parties. You could question their policies but never their good intentions, respect for the office and all Americans, and their wish to bring us together.  I don’t think you can say that about this president. He doesn’t seem to want to be the president for all Americans.