"Influenced by his deep faith, Olasky's writings show that values and moral convictions are critical to the strength of a free society and a free people." -George W. Bush
"Olasky establishes the urgent need for role models who stand for the virtues that we want to pass on to our children, including honesty, responsibility, and accountability."
-U.S. Senator John Ashcroft
"Olasky's book reveals how the character of our leaders has been, and remains, crucial to America's destiny."
-Gary L. Bauer, Family Research Council
"One can only pray that Olasky's work as a historian, which helped reverse the momentum of the march of big government, will be similarly used to halt the slide into moral despair."
-Charles Colson, Chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries
Many Americans seem to believe that a president's private activities bear little connection to his public decisions, yet we are also convinced that moral vision is crucial for a leader. Where does the truth lie?
In detailing the words and experiences of the great, the good, and the deeply flawed men who have led this country, journalist Marvin Olasky examines the intersection of politics and religion. The lives of these thirteen American leaders from Washington to Clinton provide indisputable evidence that private morality does indeed affect public policy. And that it does so in ways you may never have considered until now.
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Despite receiving Congressional censure, Andrew Jackson is praised, largely because he was a religious man who read three chapters of the Bible a day, remained faithful to his wife his entire life, and supported smaller central government and term limits for federal officials. Grover Cleveland--a youthful carouser who fathered a child out of wedlock--also benefits from Olasky's political formulation of morality, having fought government growth and attacked a bill aimed at providing pension benefits to Civil War veterans and their families because he felt charity was best left to churches and local organizations, not the federal government.
Olasky's sharpest criticism is given to Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and--unsurprisingly, perhaps--Bill Clinton. All of them were unfaithful to their spouses, and each was self-absorbed, but how thoroughly did their personal qualities damage their presidencies? Olasky is not fully convincing here. His strongest points, ultimately, concern how a president's personal behavior sets the standard for future presidents and affects the public trust: "When shepherds take the wrong path, sheep follow," Olasky concludes. "The United States desperately needs honest and discerning shepherds to lead it into the next century." --Linda Killian
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