Word: qualitiesâ
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...were to take all of Reagan's qualities???the detachment, the self-knowledge, the great voice and good looks?and project them into the White House, he would have a first-class B-movie presidency. That is no insult. The best B movies, while not artistically exquisite, are often the ones that move us most because they move us directly, through straightforward characters, simple moral conflicts and idealized talk. Reagan once called himself "the Errol Flynn of B movies," which was astute (except that Errol Flynn was also the Errol Flynn of B movies). The President who remains above...
...this requires him to be a politician in the highest meaning of the word. Politics is the real means of mediation between the individual and the group. This was Lincoln's genius. Today's Americans, enmeshed in community, can only wish for Lincoln's qualities???he was politic without being unprincipled, patient without being resigned, flexible without being opportunistic, tough-minded without being brutal, determined without being fanatical, religious without being dogmatic or unworldly, tender without being sentimental, and devoted to man without worshiping...
Still boyish-looking at 43, Jack Kennedy has the gemlike qualities???highly polished, but hard and rather cold?sometimes found in men of silver-spoon birth, Ivy League education and high ambition. Once he decided to be a politician, he set for himself the highest possible political goal, the presidency, and he marched toward it with machinelike efficiency. For him, the House and Senate were not so much arenas of action as steppingstones to his goal. In the Senate he was conspicuous not for achievements of legislation or leadership but for youth, good looks, wealth, and the aura he exuded...
...Royal Commissioner (dictator) of the opera. Under the supervision of Benito Mussolini, he was empowered to select a new director. He picked Signorina Colombo. The Press raged. People held mass-meetings. A woman? It was unthinkable. But someone sagely pointed out that Miss Colombo's most useful qualities???energy, firmness, business sense?seemed to be Teutonic in origin, were not likely to be imitated by Italian ladies. This mollified a few critics...
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