What would America’s best presidents say to us now?

Here’s how the best did it, and what we can learn from them

Editor’s note: Contributing columnist Talmage Boston has written a book, How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons From Our Top Presidents, which has been endorsed by several presidential historians, including three Pulitzer Prize winners. It will be released on April 2. For Presidents Day this election year, Boston has provided the following excerpt from the closing chapter of the book.

To write these chapters on our eight greatest presidents, I essentially had to live with them in my home for two years after they had been mere come-and-go visitors in my intellectual neighborhood for over a half century.

Something about the process of learning their life stories on an extended up-close-and-personal basis, and then distilling my research and reflections into accounts of their most important leadership traits, made me enjoy them more at the completion of each chapter than I ever had before. The experience flipped a well-known adage, in that it was not absence, but closeness to these men that made my heart grow fonder.

After rereading the chapters to create this, the book’s final statement, here are my conclusions about their ultimate legacies as to what they did and how they did it.

George Washington: He got the American experiment off to a great start by consistently exercising sound judgment on how the new nation and its president should conduct business, because he operated with unimpeachable integrity and in a manner that inspired trust.

Thomas Jefferson: His being a visionary genius, eloquent wordsmith, relentless relationship builder and pragmatic dealmaker made him uniquely capable of moving the nation forward during the make-or-break second decade of its existence.

Abraham Lincoln: Through the wisdom and word power that flowed from his steel-trap mind, and his unwavering magnanimity, equanimity and promise-keeping shown to all, he caused the United States to survive its darkest hour.

Theodore Roosevelt: With his electric energy and brilliant mind, he seized new opportunities for presidential leadership, kept the peace through his “speak softly but carry a big stick” diplomacy, and used his “bully pulpit” to aid those positioned below the top quadrant in the American pecking order.

Franklin Roosevelt: His refusal to be defeated by polio is the most inspirational story in presidential history; and through that, his resilient and radiant spirit provided hope to an economically depressed people, moved our foreign policy away from isolationism, and transformed our industries into a powerful war machine, all of which caused us to become the preeminent nation in the world.

Dwight Eisenhower: A superb military and political leader, he made the federal government run like a well-oiled machine that brought forth eight years of peace and prosperity because he knew when to be patient and when to play hardball.

John Kennedy: Growing in stature throughout his presidency, he prevented the Cuban missile crisis from becoming World War III by rejecting the hawkish advice of his military leaders and political executive committee, and also elevated the nation with stirring presentations that turned his words into deeds by producing positive, concrete results.

Ronald Reagan: He proved the power of an optimistic leader to inspire a nation, especially because he stayed the course with his principled convictions and capacity to foresee the future and bring it to fruition, as shown by the way he revived the economy and wound down the Cold War with his “peace through strength” diplomacy.

This book has aspired to be a work of “applied history,” a term defined by John Avlon, master of the genre (and author of my foreword), as “not simply the study of what happened but why it happened, and how the answers to those questions can guide us now. Useful wisdom is the goal.”

In the spirit of Avlon’s commitment to promoting history as a means of guiding us to make sound decisions about today’s critical issues, here’s my best effort at using the information contained in these chapters as the basis for predicting what each of these men would say now, if given a one-sentence limit, to tell Americans what would be on their hearts if they had the opportunity to look at our nation’s situation in facing the next presidential election.

Washington: Because we had the wisdom, grit, perseverance and moral character to declare our independence, win the Revolutionary War, create the new government finalized in the Constitution, and implement the checks-and-balances system that has lasted more than two centuries, the challenges facing the country today pale in comparison to those in my era; and, therefore, they can be met as long as our government leaders fully embrace these essential virtues.

Jefferson: For those who believe today’s political polarization presents an insurmountable obstacle to effective governance, don’t just stand there and complain about it; make it your job to build positive relationships with those who hold opposing views, just as I did throughout my presidency to bring down the walls that divided America’s house.

Lincoln: Anyone can say and do harsh things when conflicts emerge; but what separates Americans from the rest of the world has been our long-standing commitment to take the high road when problems arise, and make the right decisions on how best to solve them when guided by the better angels of our nature.

T. Roosevelt: Even though I savored my experience with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, I learned the hard way about the devastating loss and anguish of war, given what it did to two of my sons in World War I, which produced my strong belief that we must always explore every viable diplomatic option before making the decision to send troops into war.

F. Roosevelt: Never underestimate the power of the human spirit in a person or a great nation to triumph over adversity; and since moving public sentiment where you want it to go requires processing of information and emotions, never attempt to move multitudes faster than one step at a time toward the desired direction.

Eisenhower: We have the best chance of achieving peace and prosperity if our president puts into place a well-organized support team of competent and honest people who can give him what he needs to make the best decisions in real time; and if America chooses as its chief executive someone who opts to pursue challenges either by himself, in a mode of disorganization, or surrounded by sycophants, he will surely drive our nation down the road to disaster.

Kennedy: To be in the best position to lead the country requires recognizing that final decisions about how best to address crucial issues often involves moral imperatives and not just political considerations.

Reagan: There will always be pessimists and naysayers who do their best to dispirit people and block progress, and history usually forgets them; but if a principled president has strong long-term convictions and a clear vision for effectuating a brighter future, nothing can stop him from achieving his goals.

Just as the American journalist Lou Cannon perceived that the presidency was Ronald Reagan’s “role of a lifetime,” outside of my personal commitments to faith, family and friends, creating this book has been the most important role of my lifetime. Here’s hoping you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

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