General Discussion

Martin Eden

(12,870 posts) Sat Jul 16, 2016, 10:27 AM Jul 2016

Mike Pence on the Character of a President:

From today's commentary by Steve Chapman (quoting from a 2010 speech to the Federalist Society):

The presidency's "powers are vast and consequential, its requirements -- from the outset and by definition -- impossible for mortals to fulfill without humility and insistent attention to its purposes as set forth in the Constitution of the United States," declared Pence, his gaze steely and his jaw firmly set. Of power, he said, "Those who are entrusted with it must educate themselves in self-restraint."

"A true statesman lives in what Churchill called a continuous 'stress of soul,'" Pence informed his audience. "And that's why you must always be wary of a president who seems to float upon his own greatness."

Pence told a story to illustrate the humanity and humility of Calvin Coolidge. "A sensibility like this -- and not power -- is the source of presidential dignity, and it must be restored," he said. "It depends entirely upon character, self-discipline and an understanding of the fundamental principles that underlie not only the republic but life itself.

"It communicates that the president feels the gravity of his office and is willing to sacrifice himself, that his eye is not upon his own prospects but upon the storm of history, through which it is his responsibility to navigate with the specific powers accorded to him and the limitations placed upon them not merely by man but by God."

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Mike Pence on the Character of a President: (Original Post) Martin Eden Jul 2016 OP

sounds like pence isn't voting for trump spanone Jul 2016 #1

Silent Cal struggle4progress Jul 2016 #2

I had forgotten about that story. It's always been Different Drummer Jul 2016 #6

The Strange Life and Presidency of Silent Cal struggle4progress Jul 2016 #3

Evidently, Coolidge was an evolutionary step ... Martin Eden Jul 2016 #4

Yesterday he said, "Aww, I was just fucking with you". 11 Bravo Jul 2016 #5

Oh boy, this election will be so amusing IgelJames4 Jul 2016 #7

spanone

(135,844 posts)

1. sounds like pence isn't voting for trump

Reply to Martin Eden (Original post)

Sat Jul 16, 2016, 10:30 AM

Jul 2016

struggle4progress

(118,295 posts)

2. Silent Cal

Reply to Martin Eden (Original post)

Sat Jul 16, 2016, 10:44 AM

Jul 2016

Reviewed by H.W. Brands
Sunday, January 21, 2007

... "His ideal day," H.L. Mencken wrote, "is one on which nothing whatever happens." Walter Lippmann was being kind when he characterized Coolidge's philosophy as "Puritanism de luxe, in which it is possible to praise all the classic virtues while continuing to enjoy all the modern conveniences."

Coolidge's terseness became legendary. He could be "silent in five languages," a contemporary asserted. A favorite joke had a pretty young woman approaching the president to explain that she had bet a friend she could make him say more than two words. "You lose," Coolidge replied. Alice Roosevelt Longworth said he looked as though he'd been "weaned on a pickle." When Dorothy Parker heard in 1933 that Coolidge had just died, she archly inquired, "How could they tell?" ...

Coolidge liked to think of himself as a practitioner of laissez faire. In fact, he might better have called himself an advocate of laissez le bon temps roulez (if French had not been one of the languages in which he was silent). The Roaring Twenties were the decade of Prohibition, which didn't prevent most of those who wanted their booze from getting it. Coolidge, a son of Plymouth Notch, Vt., didn't indulge in alcohol, but he did indulge the business culture of the decade in its acquisitive ways. He supported an increase in the tariff to protect the domestic market and fatten corporate profits, and he famously declared that "the chief business of the American people is business." Under Coolidge, the stock market swelled into an enormous bubble, inflated by borrowed money and a belief that the self-proclaimed "New Era" really was new. Coolidge managed to get out of office before the bursting, but that didn't prevent hard feelings. "Nero fiddled," Mencken said, "but Coolidge only snored" ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011801946.html

Different Drummer

(7,621 posts)

6. I had forgotten about that story. It's always been

Reply to struggle4progress (Reply #2)

Sat Jul 16, 2016, 01:06 PM

Jul 2016

a favorite of mine.

A favorite joke had a pretty young woman approaching the president to explain that she had bet a friend she could make him say more than two words. "You lose," Coolidge replied.

struggle4progress

(118,295 posts)

3. The Strange Life and Presidency of Silent Cal

Reply to Martin Eden (Original post)

Sat Jul 16, 2016, 10:52 AM

Jul 2016

... Coolidge was sure to be in bed by 10:00 PM and normally awakened between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM ... Coolidge somehow found enough time to religiously squeeze in a nap every single day ... Coolidge insisted that his sleep habits were actually a positive for the United States – if he was asleep, he couldn’t mess anything up – and the he often woke up and asked an aide, “Is the country still here?”. One evening, the President attended the theater to see the Marx Brothers perform Animal Crackers, and upon noticing Coolidge in the audience, Groucho Marx yelled to him, “Isn’t it past your bedtime, Calvin?” ...

During the 1924 campaign in which Coolidge won a Presidential term of his own, he answered questions for reporters who had been pleading for a question-and-answer session. One reporter asked, “Have you any statement on the campaign?”. “No,” said Coolidge. “Can you tell us something about the world situation?”, asked another reporter. “No,” said Coolidge. “Any information about Prohibition?”, asked yet another reporter. “No,” said Coolidge once again. Knowing that they weren’t going to get anything new from the President, the reporters began to disperse as Coolidge quickly said, “Now, remember – don’t quote me” ...

... Coolidge noted, “The words of a President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately”, and often said, “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called upon to repeat it” ...

The Republican Party nominated Herbert Hoover for President in 1928, and Coolidge was lukewarm about Hoover’s candidacy, noting, “That man has offered me unsolicited advice for the past six years, all of it bad.” Hoover won the election, however, and Coolidge offered the incoming President advice of his own, suggesting that Hoover could rid himself of long-winded visitors by simply sitting still and remaining completely silent until the visitor stopped talking on their own, explaining that "If you keep dead still, they will run down in three or four minutes” ...

http://deadpresidents.tumblr.com/post/89309695887/i-thought-i-could-swing-it-the-strange-life-and