I was there, natch, and I loved the speech. I quite understand why it wasn’t Jonah’s kind of talk, and some of the people at our table had the same reaction. But I think that anyone who reads it carefully will see it was very well done. The main theme was that our greatest presidents (and he went through an entertaining list of surveys, all of which produced Washington, Lincoln and FDR as our greatest presidents) all had the same kind of government, which he called “open government,” in which there were not only loyalists but also critics, and always very strong personalities. And when they strayed from this template, and opted for loyalists above all, things went south.

Great historians like Fisher make important points quietly, by telling the stories. And I like that a lot. You don’t find serious historians very often and they should be cherished.

Good for us (AEI)!!