I recently read a very interesting article by David Shribman who argued that a recent poll conducted by The Gallup Organization reveals the essential ingredient for presidency and leadership as a whole: Courage.

 The poll asked Americans to rate the top five presidents in history.

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. Ronald Reagan

3. JFK

4. Clinton

5. FDR

So the golden thread is difficult to see amongst these presidents as they all faced very different issues and are of diverse backgrounds and temperments. But as David pointed out, in their individual niches of history, they all showed courage in the face of the issues.

Let us all show a little courage as we face ours.

A message to the Afghan suicide bomber who failed to kill Cheney but managed to kill 23 of his own people: Your aim sucks.

I am thoroughly irritated with the middle east's continuing failure to exert any sort of victory over our dictat... ahem, administation. Not that I am advocating the complete decapitation of our government but let's just say the tears I might shed at Cheney's funeral would be entirely reptilian. In fact, in some circles they could be interpreted as tears of joy.

Oh, and by the way all you Afghan terrorists... how does blowing up YOUR OWN PEOPLE further any sort of message you might be hoping to send? You're right... killing innocent people will certainly make us realize that we ARE complete infidels and must begin converting at once! Brilliant.

You're looking to intimidate a country that stood by and watched the holocaust unfold and dropped A-bombs on villages of women and children? We DEFINED the act of killing innocents. So if you are laboring under the delusion that we are intimidated, much less shocked at your lousy aim, remember, we're too busy being horrified by our OWN government to give a flying flip about yours.

Fin.