Being Calvin Coolidge

History hasn't been kind to Calvin Coolidge. He really did put the cool in Coolidge.

Here's the thing I've come to learn about Presidential history. Presidents tend to be ranked according to their charisma and ability to show their doing something, anything so long as it fits the contemporary view of what the Presidency should be. We take our current notion of "what ought be" and paste it on past presidents and see if they pass muster.

Guys like Lincoln, FDR and JFK, as a result, get ranked highly. In fact, everyone is ranked ahead of poor Calvin. Yet, when you look at his leadership, he acted exactly how I would want a boss to behave. Adult-like and wise is the best way to describe it.

Or minimalist as Reason called it. 

Alas, in this day and age of "feel-good" and "make me feel-worthy" politics, Coolidge looks like a downright meanie. Can it be he was just asking Americans to take care of business?

It's a bizarre situation when a President like Woodrow Wilson gets the nod over Coolidge despite his rather tyrannical edge. His "ideals" it seems were enough to overlook the fact he imprisoned students.

I really don't get it.

Coolidge strikes me as the kind of guy who when he spoke you came away with the idea of whatever he said "made sense."

Obama gives me, by contrast and personally speaking the exact opposite feeling.  Perhaps with hindsight I may change my opinion and see the error in my thinking (since that does happen from time to time), but for now this is it.