Leonard Pitts Jr., The Miami Herald

March 16, 2008

Leonard Pitts Jr.

The Miami Herald

One Herald Plaza

Miami, Florida 33132-1693

RE: Preparations for the Presidency – A somewhat different take on your column on why Senator B. Hussein Obama’s lack of serious credentials, however they are defined, should not be an impediment to his election. Plus, some nit-picking corrections.

Mr. Pitts,

You may not know this but in the three wars that had the most casualties for America [The Civil War, World War 2, World War 1] none of the Presidents had combat experience. Lincoln had some military training. Roosevelt and Wilson did not.

Chester Arthur is one of my favorite 3 forgotten Presidents. He was a consummate local pol. He was thrust onto the national ticket to get him out of town. In his short term he had many accomplishments that I will leave for you to discover. His own Party denied him a second term.

Abraham Lincoln did not need a 19^th century version of the Patriot Act to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and to arrest a Congressman who opposed him. The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves where he couldn’t and didn’t free them where he could. He did it because it advanced the Union’s war aims. Speaking of that war, and I have a relative who is still at Gettysburg “wrapped in his faded coat of Blue”, he was vehemently opposed by the Democrat party and the New York Times. They couldn’t call him Hitler because he wasn’t born yet but he was regularly called him a baboon. He really did think he was going to lose the 1864 election until he received a telegram that began with the famous words “I beg to present you the city of Atlanta…”. It was signed by General William Tecumseh Sherman. Shortly after that feat of arms Sherman led a successful “surge” that shortened the war by at least a year, saved at least 100,000 lives and did free the slaves. Incidentally, it took Lincoln 35 months to find the right General. Grant took command in March, 1864. Plus, he knew when to die. He would have fared no better than Andrew Johnson after the war. The Gods do have both a sense of humor and a sense of irony.

Richard Nixon may have said something about but the definitive statement about was made by James Madison. When asked what was the most important trait to seek in any candidate for any public office he replied, “Character. Character is all.” Since he, like all the Founding Fathers, was well versed in Greek and Roman History he was borrowing from Thucydides who said, “Character is destiny”.

You omit some important facts about Lyndon Johnson. He lost the election for the Senate in 1948. He sent Abe Fortas to Duval County where he found missing ballots sufficient to give him an 87 vote margin of victory. He survived the sobriquet “Landslide Lyndon” and wound up as President. Who knows what would have happened if the typical Democrat Party solution to a close election – keep counting until you get the right count - was not applied? Certainly Hecate Hillary would not have been criticized for her remarks about “it took a President to get the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s passed”. Johnson would not have been President.

The fact is that sometimes we try to fill an inside straight when we elect someone. That we do could be taken as proof that God does bless America. That phrase was written by an immigrant.

It’s what makes us the envy of the world.