LEWISBURG -- Neither President Bush nor Republican presidential nominee John McCain has shown leadership during the financial crisis afflicting the nation, a renowned author and presidential historian visiting the Valley said Tuesday.
The Wall Street bailout crisis has revealed a "sad leadership vacuum in this country," presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said before giving an address at Bucknell University.
"Here you have the president of the United States in the middle of a crisis and the people were not listening to him in his own party," she said.
"Then, there was McCain, rushing to Washington, hoping I think, to corral his Republicans colleagues, and had he been able to do so, it would have been the perfect exemplar of him claiming that he's experienced in leadership.
"But somehow, there was no following there."
Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, wisely stayed out of it by announcing only his pre-conditions, she said.
"He doesn't yet have the stature to fully lead the Democratic Party," Goodwin said.
The United States, she said, is hungry now for a leader that can make the country move forward again.
"If you could bring Franklin Delano Roosevelt back or Ronald Reagan back," she said, "whatever side of the political spectrum you're on, people would respond. They were truly leaders, able to move the country forward, together and united."
Debate poses tough task for VP picks
A keen observer of the political landscape, both past and present, Goodwin says she is looking forward to Thursday's vice presidential debate.
"I suspect this debate will be watched by more people than viewed the first presidential debate," she said. "Partly, that's because of the entertainment value. Sarah Palin has become a cultural figure on Saturday Night Live.'"
More importantly, she said, the debate is about whether Republican vice presidential nominee can step into the role of the presidency, given McCain's age of 72.
"If (Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe) Biden is smart, he will not be condescending to her," Goodwin said. "He has to hold back from that. If I were Biden, I wouldn't even talk about her problems. I would simply talk about McCain. And whatever she says about McCain's position, they could argue about that."
Palin has a terribly hard task ahead, Goodwin said.
"Even if she is crammed full of facts and ideas, as she is now, it's not going to sound natural," Goodwin said. "She is a natural politician when she feels comfortable. But even Albert Einstein wouldn't feel comfortable at this point, given all the information being thrown at her.
"If she is able to be herself, without looking as if she has just memorized a whole series of things, it may calm the fears that have arisen on the conservative side as well as the liberal side about what her vice presidency might be like."
The qualities of great presidential leadership, as exemplified by Abraham Lincoln, was the subject of Goodwin's 50-minute address at the Weis Center.
The address was part of the university's speaker series, "The Citizen & Politics in America."
In a time of unrest, she told the near-capacity crowd, "A great leader is able to build their confidence in how things should be, and take people with him."
Powerful leaders should not be out of touch with the people, Goodwin said.
"Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson all had an inexplicable feeling of where the country was," she said. "Knowing the mood of the country is the key to being a great leader."
n E-mail comments to rdandes@dailyitem.com
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