“It is much better not to press a candidacy too much, but to let it develop on its own merits without artificial stimulation. If the people want a man they will nominate him, if they do not want him he had best let the nomination go to another.”

“I’ll tell you a story about reasons,” Coolidge responded. “A Massachusetts Governor some years ago appointed a judge. He named a young lawyer. The latter called and expressed his gratitude. ‘There’s just one piece of advice I care to give you as to your course on the bench,’ said the Governor. ‘Give your decisions – they may be right; but don’t give your reasons – they may be wrong.’ And so, I’m not going to give you my reasons. I’ve decided to stop.”

Come to think of it, similar reasoning may have been behind his refusal to elaborate on his 1927 statement that he “did not choose to run” for re-election. His decision made, he did not care to state his reasons.

“Don’t elect Democrats,” Coolidge shot back.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In her campaign to pester Coolidge into appointing a Chicagoan of Polish descent to a federal judgeship, Illinois Congresswoman Ruth Hanna McCormick once brought a group of Polish-Americans to visit the White House. The meeting didn’t go too well; the visitors didn’t really know what to say and Coolidge followed his usual policy of keeping as silent as possible while studying the floor. Finally he spoke: “Mighty fine carpet there.” His audience was relieved to hear the president converse and expressed their assent. “New one,” Coolidge added, “Cost a lot of money.” The group again nodded and smiled in agreement. Then Coolidge delivered the coup de grâce, pointing to the Congresswoman: “She wore out the old one trying to get you a judge,” thus ending the meeting.

It was a fine day, an open winter day, January 5, 1933, in Northampton. Calvin Coolidge rose, went about his daily chores, neglected to shave before breakfast. Breakfast usually punctilious – was on the tick of the tock. And at nine o’clock he went downtown to his office. He stayed there for a time, perhaps an hour, doing odd jobs, attending to the routine of his office work and business duties, then he rose and said casually to his associate that he was not feeling very well and that he thought he would go home. Just that.

At home he sat down for a while, apparently reading. Mrs. Coolidge had gone into downtown for her morning’s shopping. Some casual errand attracted him to the basement. He went down, passed the man of all work there with a brusque “Good morning, Robert,” and climbed the two flights of stairs up to his bedroom. At noon he remembered he had not shaved and went upstairs, took off his coat, got out his shaving tools and then – no one knows exactly what happened. When Mrs. Coolidge came in she called cheerfully to him as was her wont, but when there was no answer she went to the second floor to put away her wraps and there, face downward on the floor she found his lifeless body. He who had lived aloof, died alone.

RIP, Calvin Coolidge 1872 – 1933

Certainly Calvin Coolidge never had to face a presidential primary. In his day, there may have been some genteel campaigning and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, but the real dealmaking and vote-counting (not to mention vote buying) took place during the national convention, where party bigwigs wheeled and dealed to determine the makeup of the national ticket. If primaries were held at all, such as in the contested 1912 race, when Teddy Roosevelt challenged incumbent president William Howard Taft for the nomination, they were generally non-binding – Taft would have sunk like a stone if the primaries had been binding, but he controlled the convention and was nominated, prompting the Bull Moose Party split from the GOP.

Broader use and acceptance of the primary system only came in the wake of the chaotic 1968 Democratic campaign and convention, bringing more transparency to the nominating process, but also a prolonged political battle. Criticism of the primary system has focused on the non-representativeness of early caucus and primary battlefields, and on the front-loading effect that ensures that the nomination is all but decided before many people in many states have had a chance to influence the selection process. While some proposals have been floated, such as a national primary, they are not without their own flaws, and it’s likely we will be stuck with the present nomination process for the time being.

For Coolidge fans, it’s fun to speculate how well their man would have done if exposed to the selection process as practiced today. In my view, it’s difficult to say – while he did prove adept at “retail politics” on the local and state level, he was obviously not a back-slapping gladhander, and with a national campaign, he probably would have done well to rely on radio, the one medium that allowed him to shine. Apart from that, a lot would have depended on his organization.

And here, for all of you struggling with the question of what resolutions to make for the new year, wise counsel from the 30th president:

“Perhaps the best resolve is to live so that next year’s new resolutions will be unnecessary.”

(from the daily Calvin Coolidge Says column, Dec. 30, 1930)

(Annual Message to the Congress, Dec. 8, 1925)

“Christmas is not a time or a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.” (Calvin Coolidge)

While the New York Times was ecstatic about Obama’s attempt to twist the election into a referendum on income inequality and approvingly noted the heavy-handed symbolism of speaking where Roosevelt issued his call for a “new nationalism,” commentators on the conservative side of the spectrum were not amused. Linda Chavez opined that Obama “is no Teddy Roosevelt,” while, more to the point, revisionist Roosevelt scholar Jim Powell writing in Forbes pointed out the similarities in world view: in a nutshell, they are both so-called progressives that actually are backward-looking and actively doing their darndest to halt progress. What has changed since the days of TR is that while the American economy was powerful back then, charging forward on industry and innovation, the economy is stalled today, chafing under red tape and an all-intrusive government.

While it’s probably more exciting to model yourself on the oversized, larger-than-life Teddy Roosevelt, it would be wiser for president Obama (or the next president) to model themselves on the admittedly somewhat smaller-than-life Calvin Coolidge. He may not have been a visionary, but visionaries can go wrong in bringing about their large schemes. And TR was undeniably wrong about much of what he set in motion. Coolidge “did the day’s work,” carrying out the unspectacular but productive and liberating work of reducing debt and taxation, and keeping the nation out of wars. On all those fronts, we would do well to have a president who models himself on #30 instead of #26.

Update: here’s an excellent and thoughtful piece by Troy Smith at American Thinker, comparing TR and CC.