Ignoring the lessons of effective presidents

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Washington Examiner

Who have been most successful presidents in the last 80 years? Most successful, that is, in framing issues and advancing their policies, achieving foreign policy success, winning re-election and maintaining high job approval.

My nominees are Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. They had in common many things: winning smiles, confident optimism, a seeming sympathy with ordinary Americans. Together they won eight presidential nominations and eight general elections.
There were personal connections among the three. Reagan was, and remained all his life, an enthusiastic fan of Roosevelt. He had fond memories of looking out from his radio station office watching Roosevelt and his motorcade driving through the streets of Des Moines.
Roosevelt, having observed Eisenhower in multiple high-level conferences, chose him to command the Normandy invasion and Allied troops on their way toward Berlin.
And, as author Gene Kopelson has revealed in his book Reagan's Dress Rehearsal, in his post-presidential years Eisenhower had several serious meetings with Reagan and may have regarded him as a worthy successor.