Anyone who watched Staurday Night Live in the late-1980s surely remembers Dana Carvey's send-up of President George H. W. Bush. You can hear Carvey's caricature, "wouldn't be prudent at this juncture."
I've been thinking about the first president Bush -- and his cautious, prudent style of leadership -- after watching an interesting documentary about his life last night. (The program was broadcast on another network. The second part of it airs tonight.)
Perhaps the single most memorable moment where Bush' displayed presidential prudence was at the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Two of the most memorable moments in presidential rhetoric came at the Belin Wall. President Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech and President Reagan's exhortation to the Soviet leader: "Mr. Gorbachev, trear down this wall."
So why, then, when the Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989, didn't the U.S. president go to Germany and make powerful speech?
President Bush decided that it was Germany's celebration, not America's. He staued in the U.S. to avoid grandstanding. The documentary notes that his mother taught him not to brag or seek the spotlight.
But Bush also knew that it would be difficult to negotiate with Mikhail Gorbachev if the United States were prerceived as "dancing on the wall."
Bush did not humiliate Gorbachev. The documenatray argues that Bush's restraint paved the way for personal diplomacy.
That helped bring about Soviet concessions on where a reunified Germany would fall in internatianal order. Germany eventually joined NATO and became a staunch U.S. ally.
When we think of politics today -- particularly in the context of this year's presidential campaign -- it's hard to imagine that kind of prudence.
Candidates exploit every possible event for maximum political gain.
We seem to remeber our charismatic presidents (Kennedy, Reagan) more fondly than our prudent presidents. Is prudence a good quality for a president?
What kinds of qualities are you looking for the next president?
