Journamalism: A Symposium on Presidents' Day on National Review

It would be inconceivable for any of them to name... Abraham Lincoln, wouldn't it?

An NRO Symposium on Presidents' Day on National Review Online: NRO asked a group of historians and commentators for their favorite presidents:

Richard Brookhiser... George Washington
H. W. Crocker III... Ronald Reagan
John Derbyshire... Calvin Coolidge
Bruce Frohnen... William Henry Harrison
Paul Kengor... Ronald Reagan
John J. Miller... Calvin Coolidge

Wow.

Comments

[Bruce Wilder]

Two go for Ronald Reagan and two for Calvin Coolidge.

I'm thinking Air Traffic Controllers and Boston Police Strike, respectively. So, maybe they heard that Lincoln preserved the Union, and thought that meant a labor union . . .

[Calton Bolick]

Calvin Coolidge?!?

[pollster]

Haha! This stuff writes itself.

Thanks for peering down into the intellectual sewer of NR, so that we don't have to.

[jimbo]

It's a three part grudge about freed slaves, the New Deal, and the civil rights movement. It explains about 90% of conservatism.

[RN]

"So, maybe they heard that Lincoln preserved the Union, and thought that meant a labor union . . ."

Execellent. :)

[Ken Houghton]

William Henry Harrison makes the list on the Hippocratic Oath Rule: "First, do no harm."

If you develop pneumonia at your inauguration and die a month later, having been virtually incapacitated the entire time, you have done no harm.

So add Harrison as the "any government is bad" representative and you've covered all of the NRO brand of conservatism.

[Gene O'Grady]

Don't knock Calvin Coolidge. I'm pretty sure he was the last president who, like Karl Marx and Duncan Foley, knew how to read Greek.