Fools and Wise Men
It should have been one of the all-time greatest quotes in political history -- especially since it had been captured on film, the kind with sound, even.
The speaker was Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and the Democrat was speaking to a group of folks on the campaign trail in 1968. The topic was, what kind of person should occupy the Oval Office?
Humphrey, at the time Lyndon Johnson's vice president, was going up against Richard Nixon, who was clearly breaking his promise made six years earlier, when he told the press that they "wouldn't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore."
Humphrey, speaking in a folksy, soft tone, began listing the ideal qualities that this country's Chief Executive ought to possess. Then, as he addressed the ongoing situation in Vietnam and how he'd bring an end to it, Humphrey dropped this gem on the crowd.
"Any fool can get this country into trouble," he said. "It takes a wise man to get it out."
I saw it on YouTube, the video version of Google. I don't even know how I stumbled onto the Humphrey speech. Such is the blessing/curse of YouTube -- you start out looking up one thing, then due to all the "related videos" that pop up, before you know it you're onto something else.
Any fool can get this country into trouble. It takes a wise man to get it out.
Why hasn't this been branded onto our brains by now? That's some great stuff!
Humphrey: was a great presidency in the offing?
Naturally, I thought of Nixon, the man who Humphrey lost to by the slimmest of margins in '68. And I thought of George W. Bush, who beat two men by the slimmest of margins. In both Nixon and Bush's cases, I thought about them in relation to the first part of that quote. You know, the fool part.
Nixon didn't start the Vietnam War, obviously. But it wasn't the war that was his, or the nation's, downfall. It was his hubris and his paranoia and his insecurity that not only brought him down politically, but the country down in terms of losing confidence in their leaders and sullying the presidential institution.
And Bush? Where do you want me to begin? That's a whole new blog, and I just started this one; not gonna start another.
But back to Humphrey. I was saddened, really, when I saw the clip because all it did was make me wonder where we'd be, even today, had Humphrey managed to nose out Nixon for the presidency in 1968. HHH gave it another shot in 1972, but couldn't get out of the primary round on the Democratic side. He couldn't even beat George McGovern, which tells you how far Humphrey's political stock had dropped in four years.
It might be silly to think that a fella could have been a great president based on one quote taken from the campaign trail. After all, politicians often talk a good game. But the manner in which Humphrey said it, combined in retrospect with the kind of presidency that Nixon had, made it extremely difficult not to take pause and fantasize about a Humphrey Oval Office occupation.
So, we've had our fool for eight years. Let's hope Barack Obama is the wise man to get us out.
The speaker was Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and the Democrat was speaking to a group of folks on the campaign trail in 1968. The topic was, what kind of person should occupy the Oval Office?
Humphrey, at the time Lyndon Johnson's vice president, was going up against Richard Nixon, who was clearly breaking his promise made six years earlier, when he told the press that they "wouldn't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore."
Humphrey, speaking in a folksy, soft tone, began listing the ideal qualities that this country's Chief Executive ought to possess. Then, as he addressed the ongoing situation in Vietnam and how he'd bring an end to it, Humphrey dropped this gem on the crowd.
"Any fool can get this country into trouble," he said. "It takes a wise man to get it out."
I saw it on YouTube, the video version of Google. I don't even know how I stumbled onto the Humphrey speech. Such is the blessing/curse of YouTube -- you start out looking up one thing, then due to all the "related videos" that pop up, before you know it you're onto something else.
Any fool can get this country into trouble. It takes a wise man to get it out.
Why hasn't this been branded onto our brains by now? That's some great stuff!
Humphrey: was a great presidency in the offing?
Naturally, I thought of Nixon, the man who Humphrey lost to by the slimmest of margins in '68. And I thought of George W. Bush, who beat two men by the slimmest of margins. In both Nixon and Bush's cases, I thought about them in relation to the first part of that quote. You know, the fool part.
Nixon didn't start the Vietnam War, obviously. But it wasn't the war that was his, or the nation's, downfall. It was his hubris and his paranoia and his insecurity that not only brought him down politically, but the country down in terms of losing confidence in their leaders and sullying the presidential institution.
And Bush? Where do you want me to begin? That's a whole new blog, and I just started this one; not gonna start another.
But back to Humphrey. I was saddened, really, when I saw the clip because all it did was make me wonder where we'd be, even today, had Humphrey managed to nose out Nixon for the presidency in 1968. HHH gave it another shot in 1972, but couldn't get out of the primary round on the Democratic side. He couldn't even beat George McGovern, which tells you how far Humphrey's political stock had dropped in four years.
It might be silly to think that a fella could have been a great president based on one quote taken from the campaign trail. After all, politicians often talk a good game. But the manner in which Humphrey said it, combined in retrospect with the kind of presidency that Nixon had, made it extremely difficult not to take pause and fantasize about a Humphrey Oval Office occupation.
So, we've had our fool for eight years. Let's hope Barack Obama is the wise man to get us out.
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