The Presidential Burden

It's a wonder anyone at all, let alone our best citizens, seeks the American presidency given its enormous pressures and burdens. While doing book research, I came across this passage in Doris Kearns Goodwin's excellent book "No Ordinary Time": FDR was "far more cautious than his wife. While Eleanor thought in terms of what should be done, Franklin thought in terms of what could be done." In the mid-1930s, FDR was dealing with blow-back from his refusal to endorse a federal anti-lynching campaign. "I did not choose the tools with which I must work," Franklin told an aide. "But I've got to get legislation passed by Congress to save America. The southerners ... occupy strategic places on most of the Senate and House committees. If I come out for the anti-lynching bill, they will block every bill I ask Congress to pass to keep America from collapsing. I just can't take that risk." FDR, of course, was referring to his New Deal remedies for coping with the Great Depression. He faced a choice: preventing human rights abuses vs. economic apocalypse. As every president learns, part of governing is knowing how and when to pick your crucial fights. Today, much of the political class, unwittingly playing the role of Eleanor, concerns itself with what President Obama should do on this issue or that. Is that is how it should be? Maybe, maybe not. Yet, only the man in the Oval Office knows (or should know) what can be done at any given moment. And the choices we force our presidents to make are never easy. For that, we probably owe them a little slack.