Harry S. Truman, about General Eisenhower

[Xipe Totec]

“He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”

http://www.bartleby.com/73/1514.html

Any resemblance to people now living in the White House...

[Botany]

1. Do not begin to compare Ike to Trump.

Ike was a great man.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Not comparing the man; comparing the situation. nt

[Caliman73]

5. The situation is BECAUSE of the man

Clinton faced a congress that was hostile and an economy that was beginning to stagnate. Lincoln faced a rebellious southern part of the nation. FDR faced the Great Depression and the Axis Powers. Kennedy faced a nuclear crisis. President Obama faced the potential Great Depression part 2. Each of the people above were able to face these serious problems because of who they were and who they surrounded themselves with.

Every President comes in not truly understanding what the job entails and just how difficult it will be. You can see the toll the job takes by looking at how Presidents (especially 2 term Presidents) go into office and how they come out looking. We are talking 8 years, not 20 not 30, 8. It is a highly stressful and frustrating job.

Trump was never up to the task, not in his wildest dreams. His whole reason for running was to show up President Obama for daring to insult him at the Correspondents Dinner. What we are seeing is not the result of a situation or a time in our history. All the craziness that is happening now is because of how Trump is handling the job.

[ananda]

4. Actually, Ike was a good general ..

.. but an average to lousy do-nothing prez.

[Botany]

7. " .... but an average to lousy do-nothing prez."

Please don't use any of our interstate highways then.

5. He Sponsored and Signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1957.
This was the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction. Much to Eisenhower's dismay, Congress amended the bill and critically weakened its effectiveness.


4. He Sponsored and Signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.
This gave birth to America's interstate highway system. Eisenhower worked hard to get the bill passed and it was his favorite piece of legislation.


3. He Balanced the Budget, Not Just Once, But Three Times.
Despite much pressure to do otherwise, he also refused to cut taxes and raise defense spending. His fiscal policy contributed to the prosperity of the 1950's.


2. He Ended the Korean War.
He alone had the prestige to persuade Americans to accept a negotiated peace and convince the Chinese that failure to reach an agreement would lead to dire consequences. Eisenhower considered this to be his greatest presidential accomplishment.



1. He Kept America at Peace.
Eisenhower was confronted with major Cold War crises every year he was in office: Korea, Vietnam, Formosa, Suez, Hungary, Berlin, and the U-2. While more than once America seemed on the brink of war and those around him clamored to drop the Bomb, Eisenhower always kept a level head. He dealt calmly and rationally with each situation, always finding a solution that avoided war without diminishing America's prestige.

https://www.nps.gov/features/eise/jrranger/5accompx.htm

Ike also warned about the M.I.C. too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military–industrial_complex

[DefenseLawyer]

10. Ike let the Dulles brothers run amok

That's certainly a less than stellar aspect of his legacy.

[Caliman73]

3. To answer the question at the end of your post... No. Not really.

While Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander and was accustomed to giving orders and having them followed, he also understood the bureaucracy in the civilian chain of command. Eisenhower was also an thoughtful and intelligent man.

Truman was being a Democrat and throwing a bit of shade at the incoming Republican president. While I am sure that Eisenhower found dealing with the co-equal branches of government to be a difficult and frustrating task, you are talking about the man who helped to usher through the modern highway system. Trump and his family are at best, a special kind of stupid and at worst they are crooks, grifters, and that special kind of stupid.

This mess that we are seeing is not a function of Trump being a CEO or not having experience in politics. It is a function of Trump being an emotional train wreck and incurious about anything other than how to enrich himself from his position.

[Xipe Totec]

6. Truman may have been throwing a bit of shade at Ike,

But Trump definitely fits the description of someone who thinks he can just say: "Do this, do that" and it will happen.

[Caliman73]

9. Yes. He has said as much.

There is a tag line that they use on Sirius Progress where Trump is saying, "I've never had a problem leading people...When I say do it, they're gonna do it."

One, that is not a leader. A leader makes you want to do things without having to say "Do it". A leader inspires people to go above what they think they can do because a leader sells the concept and reinforces it by example.

Trump is a bully, nothing more. He mistakes leadership for bossiness.

The only modern analog to Trump we have is George W Bush. He was totally unprepared for what the presidency demands of people. The difference, love them or hate them, is that Bush had Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others who had been in Washington for a long time and understood how to do things. Trump surrounds himself with yes people and still proceeds to try to play them against each other like a game show because he is twisted like some kind of crime boss.

[loyalsister]

8. Non transferrable skill sets

He was a bully real estate mogul who created a world that revolves around him then, he became a low grade entertainer in a medium that tries to transform stage craft into reality. Non of that translates into a capacity to represent an entire country and be leader of the free world.

Truman may have had a point in that realm. A big part of the presidency is seeking and taking advice.

But I don't see similarities in terms of agenda, character, or how the lack of skill drives severe incompetence.

[Democrats_win]

11. Trump wants to go back to Ike's 1950s.

Trump is living in the difficult, grievous 1970s and he has nostalgia for the 1950s. However, America got past the 1973 Arab oil boycott and the Iranian hostage oil crisis. Trump and his followers never suffered from those years. But eventually all of their industries did decline. While we suffered and survived those years, they're now complaining--40 years too late. The coal/steel years are LONG gone. Today, Trump and his followers want to take us all down, making us losers too. They are punishing us for our success (with apologies to Mitt Romney) instead of working to make themselves successful in reality.

[dembotoz]

12. i think he sees himself more as capt pickard from the star trek show

on the show, the enterprise would get into this problem or that and the good capt would be provided with solutions that would defy all the laws of physics and reality...
the capt would say "Make it so"

and the officers of the ship would push the buttons and save the day.

trumps problem is....in this century he is still bound by physics and reality and his staff is helpless to make it so