The Character of George Washington and the Challenges of the Modern Presidency

"The current Presidential crisis has presented our country with an opportunity. A debate about the nature of leadership - usually the purview of think tanks like the one that gathers us here tonight - is taking place on a national level. Abstract questions are rarely considered so publicly as has been the well-trod debate over private versus public character, and the relative importance of each. All of America, from corridors of power to main street cafes, has, during the last eleven months, been considering the issue of the President as moral leader: the importance of what he is versus what he does; the degree to which a leader's personal standards of morality and its closely related (but somewhat different) cousin - character - make a difference. The kindling of this debate may be a lasting legacy of this Presidency."

- From The Character of George Washington and the Challenges of the Modern Presidency