I thought of this while packing for my trip this weekend to Minnesota to celebrate my mother's 91st birthday. (If you've ever wanted to rob my house, this would be as good a time as any.)
I'll be driving on I-94 for six-and-a-half hours or so on Friday and six-and-a-half back on Sunday. It's really a very easy ride; I much prefer it to flying. I leave when I want, listen to satellite radio, make a few phone calls and -- before you know it -- I'm raiding the fridge at my mom's. Beautiful! (And without any of those pesky pat-downs.) Try doing that on the old two-lane state highway system.
So what does all this have to do with Eisenhower? Like Obama, Ike was a calm, centrist (two-term) president who disappointed the left and the right. And, like the current president and universal health care, Eisenhower ushered in the Interstate Highway System, a huge federal program which improved the daily lives of average Americans. It's also one which people today largely take for granted and couldn't imagine living without. (I wonder how many on the far right condemned it at the time as creeping socialism.)
Oh, and in an era of Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon, Eisenhower was also often the only grown-up in the room.
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