Politicians tackle debts and deficits, politicians deal with planning and zoning, politicians struggle with their civil service. Statesmen, or stateswomen, however, are the politicians who take hold, grasp and define the seminal moments of our times. They map out the course of history through surgical words and key actions. These words and actions stand to drive the statesman/stateswoman to glory and with luck and historical hindsight, will even earn the begrudging respect of political foes and ideological opponents. Lincoln gifted the world with the Gettysburg address, 272 words that were backed with surgical action—blood and treasure spilled to forge a nation together and free the slaves. Roosevelt spoke of and gave America a “New Deal” that has lasted over three quarters of a century, while Eisenhower cautioned an innocent nation to beware “the Military-Industrial Complex.” President Reagan, the truest and last important voice of the modern presidency in the 20th …