Book Recommendation

I just finished a well-written treatment of an oft-asked question: does a national leader's private life have a bearing on the execution of his office? Many of us would agree that our presidents, for instance, should have a moral vision; yet many also say that a leader's private life should be kept private.

Marvin Olasky's The American Leadership Tradition: The Inevitable Impact of a Leader's Faith on a Nation's Destiny is a series of glimpses into the lives of American leaders - George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, and John Kennedy, to name four. A pretty good case is made that integrity, or its lack, in the man's private life maps squarely onto how he governs. Among the several compelling portraits are those of Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland - both flawed men, to be sure, but men who faced their own failures and went on to take sacrificial stands against the corruption of the Union.

A good read.