Status Updates From The American Leadership Tra...

The United States desperately needs honest and discerning shepherds to lead it into the next century.

… The Constitution has worked because of the "constitutional morality" of American statesmen and citizens: "We are self-restrained." A century later Americans who do not feel God-restrained often have less self-restraint, but they still look to leaders to show them the distinction between ethical and illicit action. When shepherds take the wrong path, sheep follow.

… and leaders who break a large vow to one person find it easy to break relatively small vows to millions.

Essay by Woodrow WIlson in the 1890s, "Government Under the Constitution": A form of government is important, but it has no saving efficiency of its own. Whether it lasts and succeeds depends heavily upon the men who become governors and upon the people over whom they are put in authority. ...

… Reverence toward God does not confer the ability to have a successful presidency; look at Jimmy Carter. Faithfulness to a wife is no guarantee of faithfulness to the country; look at the last near-impeachee, Richard Nixon. Faithlessness in both areas, however, is a leading indicator of trouble. Small betrayals in marriage generally lead to larger betrayals, ...

Before Americans can succeed in placing a moral leader at the top, we must develop a consensus on the importance of integrity; once that is in place, the likelihood of finding a person who can perform all of the presidential functions is increased. How should we pick one? Historical records show that there are no guarantees, but they do provide warning signals telling us what to avoid. ...

… Such patterns were overlooked during the Kennedy administration for many reasons, but one was the existence of a greater danger, the threat of external aggression against which national unity was imperative. Today, the large threat is internal demoralization, and the White House's white noise feeds it.

By discerning a candidate's views of God and sex, will we be able to predict particular problems? No, but the lives of leaders show how physical and spiritual adultery are warning signs of deep difficulties that emerge in many different ways: Specifics are unforeseeable, but dangerous patterns of behavior are not. ...

Every president who speeds up the downward slide makes a return to earlier and high standards more difficult. If the press and public accept Clinton adultery and lies, future presidents will have a lower bar to hop over: Look how Bill Clinton successfully compartmentalized by delivering a State of the Union address amid questions about sordid sex. If he can do that, why does integrity--"made whole"--matter?

Every president sets up expectations for his successors. A president seen as having high moral character raises the bar for his successors, and the reverse is also true. A series of outstanding presidents increases the likelihood of the populace demanding another outstanding leader, and the reverse is also true.

… for establishing such a high standard of leadership that experienced politicians like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon became despondent over their inability to emulate him. But when it became known years after his death that Kennedy's gods were sex and power, many Americans came to believe that any gold the perceived in politics was fool's gold. The only way not to be fooled was to define deviancy down.

Kennedy had no opportunity to utter any memorable last words. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., however, records that someone in the White House once asked Kennedy what he regretted most. He replied, "I wish I had had more good times." He had given the country the opportunity for good times--but, oh, what he could have accomplished! The legacy he actually left was a time bomb. For a time he was remembered ...

…several months earlier. Had he not been wearing the brace, the impact of the first bullet that struck him would have pushed him to the floor of the limousine, with his cranium out of the line of the fire of a second bullet. The brace, however, kept him up, a sitting duck for the fatal shot. Journalists, had they exposed his extramarital activity and forced him to stop, would have done him a favor.

… but as the real story came out, the belief that presidents should not be believed grew.

In a peculiar fashion President Kennedy's sexual practices even contributed to his death. Time magazine correspondent Hugh Sidey reported in May 1987 that Kennedy was wearing his back brace while motorcading through Dallas on the fatal day because he had thrown out his back while engaged in energetic adultery...

… but as the real story came out, the belief that presidents should not be believed grew.

In a peculiar fashion President Kennedy's sexual practices even contributed to his death. Time magazine correspondent Hugh Sidey reported in May 1987 that Kennedy was wearing his back brace while motorcading through Dallas on the fatal day because he had thrown out his back while engaged in energetic adultery...

… During his life, amazingly, Kennedy got by, but when the facts trickled out, cynicism grew. In 1960, Newsweek reported that the typical American college student "believes in romantic love, yet attaches scant importance to chastity. He is religious, but in a hazy, uncommitted way." Kennedy proposed to make those college students hear the call of trumpets, not strumpets, and for a while they did, ...

John F. Kennedy

Herve Alphand, French ambassador to the US, described President Kennedy as a man who "loves pleasure and women. His desires are difficult to satisfy without causing fear of a scandal and its use by his political adversaries. That could happen one day because he does not take sufficient precaution in this puritan country." ...