Disappointment in President’s unprofessionalism

@Devil Doc, with all due respect, your last post seems completely off topic.

As my mother used to say, if you can't post a food photo with bacon, don't post a food photo at all.
 
THParent said:
I have always respected Harry Truman. Dropping two atomic bombs on civilian population centers is a tough decision which I would not wish on anyone. Not sure that I could have made it, but it was the correct decision.
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Just finished 'The Accidental President', Truman was literally dropped into the worst scenario ever in US history, in my opinion. What he managed to do with the hand he was dealt was simply astonishing.
 
I dont want to get political but here goes. Is it possible for the academy football teams to pass the ball a littile more often. Not sure if this is correct, but I think Navy passed once for one yard. If the other team knows you are never going to pass ,doesnt that dicate how the defense is going to play the game. One futher point, enough with the bacon. As much as I love bacon, i rather eat italian dry salami.
 
I think that Army DID think Perry was going to pass. Perry did quite a lot of passing throughout the season. I think this worked to his advantage many times, because that opened up holes right in front of him. Once he raced through those holes, no one was fast enough to catch him before he made each 1st down. I was yelling at the TV for Malcolm to pass, but he just wasn't listening to me. Obviously, he knew better than me. I mean, I was just sitting on the couch drinking Bloody Marys. Maybe my football sense was muddled a bit.
 
jebdad said:
I frankly was amazed at half time when the president walked across the field and right into the stands and appeared to be just going off on his own shaking hands with midshipman. All you could see was the red hat in a swarm of midshipman. I'll bet the secret service was going crazy. Say what you want about him, but that was cool.
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And he did the same thing on the Army side earlier. Say what you want about him but he does love the military.
 
jebdad said:
I frankly was amazed at half time when the president walked across the field and right into the stands and appeared to be just going off on his own shaking hands with midshipman. All you could see was the red hat in a swarm of midshipman. I'll bet the secret service was going crazy. Say what you want about him, but that was cool.
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My son was one of the Midshipman who got to stand on the field to salute the President during that halftime ceremony. Incredible experience, especially considering he was in HS only 6 months ago. He's even on the President's instagram page! It was a good day...
 
Heatherg21 said:
Just finished 'The Accidental President', Truman was literally dropped into the worst scenario ever in US history, in my opinion. What he managed to do with the hand he was dealt was simply astonishing.
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Harry Truman became POTUS with the US having 100% employment and its 15 million strong military marching victoriously globally (albeit with heavy casualties, i.e. Germany, Okinawa, etc.) It's position as leader of the free world was unquestioned. Its economic might was supreme. Bretton Woods tied the post-war global economy to the US. Its national resolve was never more solid as in 1945. Hell, even the Copperheads in Ohio-Indiana-Illinois were serious about breaking away from the USA.

I would say that Abe Lincoln became president during the "worst scenario ever in US history", the nation tearing itself apart with its bloodiest (by far) war opening. There's was a reasonable doubt that Lincoln would be the last president of the United States.

I'd also volunteer that FDR and Nixon became presidents at far worse times in the nation's history than did Truman. 1933 & 1969 were, for different reasons, very bad times.

Truman was dealt not a bad hand but a straight flush.
 
kinnem said:
There was a world war on... you bet everyone who wanted a job had a job
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I would even assume there was negative unemployment. More jobs than people available. I would also assume things changed dramatically when the war was over and the soldiers came home. I wonder once the women were layed off from the factory jobs if they were even calculated in the unemployment figures or was it just assumed that once the guys came home, they werent interested in working any more. I never read up on Truman but i have to assume it was probably tough on him when he took over. Dont know how involved he was with the war effort prior to being president and being thrown into the position even with the war going in the US favor, must have been hard on him.
 
Humey said:
Dont know how involved he was with the war effort prior to being president and being thrown into the position even with the war going in the US favor, must have been hard on him.
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That's the part that shocked me. The President never included him in meetings, updates, international meetings with allies etc. He was really in the blind.
 
Heatherg21 said:
That's the part that shocked me. The President never included him in meetings, updates, international meetings with allies etc. He was really in the blind.
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This was the rule rather than the exception for most of American history, up until VP George HW Bush was included in the workings of the Reagan administration.

Remember Abe Lincoln's vice president in his first term, Hannibal Hamlin? No? Well, Abe didn't either, giving him no role in the war effort against the Confederacy. He went off to serve in a Maine militia unit, performing duties like guard duty & being a cook (no combat). No one in DC even missed him.

Teddy Roosevelt was unhappy being Willima McKinley's veep, because he had nothing to do. He used as a show piece during the election ("Roughrider Teddy - the War Hero") but had no role in McKinley's administration. He was prepared to resign when, 6 months into his vice presidency, McKinley was assassinated & Teddy became POTUS.

WW1 & WW2 vice presidents - who were they? Who remembers Thomas Marshall, Wilson's VP? Not Wilson. VP Marshall got war news buy reading about it in the newspapers.

For all but the last 3 months of his wartime presidency FDR had Henry Wallace as a veep. Who? He did almost nothing during the war years other than make some good speeches. He's most well remembered as running as a 3rd party candidate in 1948, splitting the Democratic vote & nearly costing Harry Truman the victory he eventually got. Oh yeah, he was a Stalin apologist too.

Eisenhower almost never spoke to his vice president, Richard Nixon, whom he held in low regard as a Joe McCarthy-esque figure. Didn't even help Nixon during his failed presidential campaign in 1960.

Remember when LBJ conferred with JFK over the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Bigs, Berlin Wall Crisis? No? Because he didn't. JFK hated & didn't trust LBJ, but kept him as a VP to help with the South in 1960.

Nixon called his first vice president, Spiro Agnew, "assassination insurance".

Jimmy Carter rarely consulted with Walter Mondale.

But from 1981 on the president-vice president has changed so they are closely aligned & the VP becomes almost a prime minister of sorts (or, in Dick Cheney tenure, as a generalissimo), becoming the presumed nominee-on-deck for the ensuing presidential elections.
 
Day-Tripper said:
This was the rule rather than the exception for most of American history, up until VP George HW Bush was included in the workings of the Reagan administration.

Remember Abe Lincoln's vice president in his first term, Hannibal Hamlin? No? Well, Abe didn't either, giving him no role in the war effort against the Confederacy. He went off to serve in a Maine militia unit, performing duties like guard duty & being a cook (no combat). No one in DC even missed him.

Teddy Roosevelt was unhappy being Willima McKinley's veep, because he had nothing to do. He used as a show piece during the election ("Roughrider Teddy - the War Hero") but had no role in McKinley's administration. He was prepared to resign when, 6 months into his vice presidency, McKinley was assassinated & Teddy became POTUS.

WW1 & WW2 vice presidents - who were they? Who remembers Thomas Marshall, Wilson's VP? Not Wilson. VP Marshall got war news buy reading about it in the newspapers.

For all but the last 3 months of his wartime presidency FDR had Henry Wallace as a veep. Who? He did almost nothing during the war years other than make some good speeches. He's most well remembered as running as a 3rd party candidate in 1948, splitting the Democratic vote & nearly costing Harry Truman the victory he eventually got. Oh yeah, he was a Stalin apologist too.

Eisenhower almost never spoke to his vice president, Richard Nixon, whom he held in low regard as a Joe McCarthy-esque figure. Didn't even help Nixon during his failed presidential campaign in 1960.

Remember when LBJ conferred with JFK over the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Bigs, Berlin Wall Crisis? No? Because he didn't. JFK hated & didn't trust LBJ, but kept him as a VP to help with the South in 1960.

Nixon called his first vice president, Spiro Agnew, "assassination insurance".

Jimmy Carter rarely consulted with Walter Mondale.

But from 1981 on the president-vice president has changed so they are closely aligned & the VP becomes almost a prime minister of sorts (or, in Dick Cheney tenure, as a generalissimo), becoming the presumed nominee-on-deck for the ensuing presidential elections.
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Wow, that's a lot of info I wasn't aware of. I was familiar with JFK and Roosevelt, but not the extent of the others. Is there a book on just VP's over course of last 100 years? That would be an interesting read to me.
I really did like the Accidental President, great book.
Currently engrossed in A Dog's Purpose and Charles Krauthammer's last book. Thank you for the history lesson!
 
Day-Tripper said:
Truman was dealt not a bad hand but a straight flush.
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It was more like he inherited a very strong hand in bridge, but with an unrealistic contract. And he didn't even know how to play bridge. No one had any confidence that he was up to the job.

When FDR died there was a still yet to be defined post-war architecture and a yawning gap developing between the US and its major allies (the UK, the USSR, France and China) over what the world would look like as the pieces were put back together.

This is an incomplete list of challenges and accomplishments during his tenure:

-The defeat of Japan
-The occupation of Japan and Germany
-Redrawing the map of Europe
-Post War Soviet aggression in Europe and Asia
-The Berlin Blockade and Airlift
-The establishment of NATO
-The Marshall Plan
-Recognition of Israel's independence
-The Independence and partitioning of India
-The Chinese Revolution
-The Korean War
-Transitioning from a War economy to a peace economy--100% employment didn't last for very long--and the transition was anything but peaceful. Unemployment and the number of strikes soared.
-Integration of the Armed Forces. This and some of the first Civil Rights legislation from a man who was known to use the "N" word and was put on the ticket with FDR specifically to satisfy the Southern wing of the Democratic Party.

FDR didn't leave a road map. The architecture of the Post-War World, with an ever changing landscape came together during Truman's presidency, which he began by saying, "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." Not exactly, "I alone can fix it."
 
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