In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Pullitzer-prize winner Steve Coll has an extremely insightful article about what defines a great president. Particularly after the fact. Oh yes, the ability to keep your cool in a squeeze is important, but long-lasting reforms are what really make a president’s legacy great.
On this important day, why don’t you read this article while waiting for the results to tick in tonight?
Here’s an appetiser:
The accumulating failures in the country’s health-care system are a cause of profound weakness in the American economy; unaddressed, this weakness will exacerbate the coming recession and crimp its aftermath. A large number of the country’s housing foreclosures in recent years appear to be related to medical problems and health-care expenses. American businesses often can’t afford to hire as many employees as they would like because of rising health-insurance costs; employees often can’t afford to quit to chase their better-mousetrap dreams because they can’t risk going without coverage. Add to this the system’s moral failings: about twenty-two thousand people die in this country annually because they lack health insurance. That is more than the number of Americans who are murdered in a year.
