Apr 5, 2022 2 min read

I remember the day that President Kennedy was assassinated. He had been an immensely popular and well-liked president. Most Americans thought that he would be remembered as one of our greatest presidents. A historian cautioned that one must wait 40 or 50 years to see how history will actually judge a leader. How prophetic! Today, we remember John Kennedy primarily as the man who stood up to Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis,” and one of the four presidents who was assassinated, but little else.

His successor, Lyndon Johnson, was very unpopular and intensely reviled primarily due to his vigorous prosecution of the Vietnam War and his inability to curtail the burgeoning urban unrest and crime. Today, history remembers President Johnson as the promulgator of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid and numerous public benefit programs that persist to this day. He is considered, by historians, to be one of our most productive presidents. Who would have guessed?

Clearly, President Trump will be remembered as the only president in the near 250-year history of our republic to have instigated a failed coup against democracy. Already, I can’t recall any other accomplishment of lasting note.

Will President Biden be remembered as a bumbling old fool who accomplished little as his detractors would have us believe? Or, will he be remembered as the president who stood up to a Russian bully, tightened our traditional bonds with Europe, strengthened NATO and reestablished America as the leader of the free world. Will he be remembered as the president who made America great again?

I guess we will have to wait and see how history ultimately judges him.

Mike Leco

McMurray