SUPERLATIVE EDITORIAL "President's Day - A Lesson in Greatness"

Investor's Business Daily published an outstanding editorial Monday.  Please read and pass on - they highlight three of our greatest presidents:  Reagan, Washington and Lincoln.

Presidents Day is a good time to reflect both on the accomplishments of presidents past and on the lessons of history.
It's also a time to honor our truly great presidents: George Washington, the father of our country; Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator; and Ronald Reagan, the great communicator.
Reagan, the greatest president of modern times, provides all of us a lesson in presidential leadership. True, it was his oratorical skill that made Reagan such a potent force. But it was his ideas and his unwavering belief in America's greatness that made him great.
Take America's Cold War with the USSR. On March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan declared the Soviet Union "an evil empire."
The reaction was immediate. A blanket of condemnation rose from political pundits and the mainstream media. Critics and conventional wisdom called Reagan's remarks "unpresidential," an abrogation of diplomacy.
They characterized him as "a doddering old man barely in charge of his mental faculties, who was unaware of what he was saying." And worse.
But the reaction was different in another part of the world. In the most remote part of Siberia, deep in a Soviet gulag, in a dark, damp and dingy cell, a political prisoner quietly whispered between the iron bars of his cell, "Ronald Reagan has just called the Soviet Union the evil empire."
Yes, words have meaning.
Reagan's words marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire. Reagan was a crusader against evil in the world, and he boldly challenged, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
And the wall fell. Words have power.
But words are only powerful if they are pursued with meaning, purpose, commitment and action. The collapse of the Soviet Union was only one facet of Reagan's achievements. His administration can provide many lessons that can be applied today.
Let's look at the America Ronald Reagan inherited before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981:
• America was suffering, as we were told by Jimmy Carter's departing Democratic administration, from a national "malaise." And it was our own fault.
• The "misery index" (unemployment plus inflation) was above 20%.
• We had high unemployment, double-digit inflation (13.5%), and double-digit interest rates (the prime rate was 21.5%).
• The soft diplomacy of President Carter's "policy of appeasement" had severely damaged America's international reputation.
• Deep cuts in the military had damaged our defense posture.
• Iran had taken 66 American hostages, 52 of them remaining hostage for 444 days.

 Read the rest of IBD's excellent editorial here.