As you may recall, Truman was extremely unpopular when he finally left Washington in 1953, thanks largely to the Korean War. Today, however, he is thought to have been a solidly good president, a Near Great even, in the terminology of those surveys of historians they do every now and then. – Thomas Frank
This aesthetic quality, then, is what politics is all about. Its authenticity that separates winners from losers, good politics from bad, and he-man leader-types from consultant-directed puppet-boys. – Thomas Frank

