I was sitting in the waiting room at the foot doctor and thus reading old, but not antiquated Time magazines. In one I found mention of a book that sounded interesting. Presedential Courage by Michael Beschloss.

I might have heard a bit about that several months ago, do you recall what it was about?

It is about presidents who have done the hard things necessary that turned out to be good for the country but were unpopular at the time they were done.

Lincoln, for instance. He was advised to repeal his emancipation proclamation so he could be re-elected. Obviously, he didn't.

FDR with his entering into world war 2.

Theodore Roosevelt against big business and a very large bank in particular.

Yeah, I think that's the one I heard about. I wonder though...will the book make the insinuation that Bush is courageous because he led us into war with Iraq? Even though his stated pretenses were at least false and possibly horribly contrived?

I don't think so. Perhaps reading it will tell?

Maybe Gore will sneak in for championing an unpopular cause even while the President took his policy from the oil companies.

Actually, I got the impression the book did not contain political bias toward any party, just outlined the seemingly courageous things presidents did even though they were unpopular to do at the time.

The TIME magazine article was talking about how all the current candidates say they want to be like Truman. Truman wasn't popular at all during his time in office according to the author, but now he's seen as having done the right thing.