missed. Other Presidents have statues;rnHarry Truman left a record.rnYet there is a danger when examiningrnMr. McCuUough’s biography, and that isrnin allowing ourselves the luxury of comparingrnthis presidency—in reality sornmuch a part of our recent past, thoughrnfor half of the population my age andrnunder the Truman years are ancient historyrn—with what we have now. If thernearly Truman revival was sparked byrnVietnam and Watergate, a time whenrnour constitutional form of governmentrnseemed in the process of being torn tornshreds, then it stands to reason that anotherrnTruman revival should occur in arnperiod when our governmental way ofrnlife appears to have flat broken down.rnPolitics, the business of conductingrnthe public’s business, has become thernbusiness of alienating the public. Specialrninterests rule the day from the hallsrnof Congress down to the city councils.rnA President who once basked in somernof the highest ratings of popularity everrnrecorded after winning a lightning warrnthen wallowed near the bottom of thernpolls. The Democrats, out of the WhiternHouse now for 12 years, offer up twornfresh-scrubbed faces and try to portrayrnthemselves as the party of change, andrnan Independent acts as a pied piper tornFor Immediate ServicernCHRONICLESrnNEW SUBSCRIBERSrnTOLL FREE NUMBERrn1-800-877-5459rnthousands left out or bored with it all,rnonly to change his mind the very week ofrnthe Democratic Convention. Surelyrnthere are parallels to 1948, when HarryrnTruman confounded the press, his ownrnstaff, and most of all Tom Dewey byrnwinning what is still considered therngreatest upset in American presidentialrnelections.rnBut one must evaluate Truman for itsrndistinctions. Although his admirationrnfor Harry Truman is evident, I do notrnbelieve that Mr. McCuUough’s reasonrnfor taking on such a project was to givernus a feel-good attitude about Harry Truman.rnThe book is a serious biographicalrnappraisal, and Mr. McCullough is at hisrnbest when he describes the life and timesrnof the former President. He is not resuscitatingrnHarry Truman, but showingrnhim as a character from our history.rnStill parallels will be drawn, so let usrnconsider the distinctions. Immediatelyrnfollowing their nomination. Bill Clintonrnand Al Core set out on a bus tour of thernindustrial states of the “Rust Belt,” andrnimmediately references began to bernmade to a “whistle-stop” tour. Sincernwords come cheap to political polemicists,rnyou can call it a whistle-stop tourrnall you want, but it most certainly is notrn(nor have been any of the other imitations,rnincluding Michael Dukakis’ shortrnjaunt up the Central Valley of Californiarnin 1988) the “whistle stop” that HarryrnTruman introduced into the Americanrnpolitical lexicon. No one has matchedrnhis Herculean feat—not in distance ofrnmiles traveled bv train, not in speechesrngiven, not in the size of crowds attracted.rnIn other words, Harry Truman was notrnlooking for “photo-ops” or “soundbites”rnthat would hit the evening news; he wasrnworking for his election.rnBut there is another distinction, andrnthat is the bond that Harry Truman establishedrnwith the American people. Hernknew that some of them could not standrnhim, but he treated all as though theyrnwere his employer and asked them tornconsider their interests—not his—whenrncasting their votes. Yet the one distinction,rnnot raised by Mr. McCullough directlyrnbut evident to readers throughoutrnhis narrative, is the most obvious one.rnAnd this, of course, is that America todavrnis a very different place than it was inrn1948.rnTruman was thrown into the presidencyrnin the twilight of World War II.rnHe had to make the decision to drop thernatomic bomb on Japan and then inrnpeacetime faced the twin problems ofrnreturning the nation to a peacetimernfooting while holding off Joe Stalin, whornwas threatening another global conflict.rnWorld War II had broken isolationismrnfor good, and America seriously debatedrnits role in the world.rnToday, we seem a nation obsessedrnwith trivia and the glorification of self.rnWe see government—or really, the politicalrnprocess—as irrelevant unlessrngovernment is to relieve the pain of ourrnown follies. The press, which used tornproudly proclaim itself the Fourth Estate,rnis no longer our watchdog, but arnlapdog for irresponsible experimentationrnwith social engineering, offering a nationwidernforum for an endless freakrnshow of malcontents who know they canrnget the media eye by blaming their problemsrnon the Reagan-Bush administrations.rnWe worship as a hero a sports figurernwho advises us to use condoms lestrnwe catch his sexually transmitted virusrnand put alarm systems in our houses sornthe illegal aliens we have hired to cutrnthe grass don’t come back to steal thernVCR. Our political battles, or so thernendless number of chattering observersrntell us, are no longer over the great issuesrnof the postwar era, but “family values”rnand a “woman’s right to choose.”rnConsider this. In 1948, Harry Trumanrn—facing more turmoil at home andrnmuch greater threats abroad—took hisrncase directly to the American people.rnIn 1992, Messrs. Bush and Clinton arernhaving a difficult time even getting onrntelevision, the preferred medium ofrncampaigning in our modern era. Therndeplorable lack of television coverage ofrnthe deplorably stage-managed DemocraticrnConvention is but a prime examplernof the problem. One has to thinkrn”That Damned Truman” would notrnhave tolerated such a slight—that hernwould have at least given the mediarnbarons a little hell. But the truth is, HarryrnTruman suffered even greater slightsrn(although fortunately television in its infancyrnwasn’t much of a political player).rnThe distinction here is that he foundrnthe way to overcome them.rnGreat leaders do (cliche intended)rnrise to the occasion. Harry Trumanrnknew the job that was before him, knewrnwhat was expected of him, knew thernprice of his failures. But he also knewrnthe American people. Only time willrntell if the candidates of 1992 can acquirernthe same knowledge and deliver us fromrnourselves. crn32/CHRONICLESrnrnrn