Photo: Getty Images North America
The transition from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution is arguably the key turning point in the birth and founding of the United States. It is an accomplishment that probably never would have happened without the selfless involvement of George Washington. Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier explores this topic in his new book, “To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment” (Mariners Books, released October 10th). He appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to discuss the relevancy in these trying times of the almost mythical human being that was our first president.
“We’re in a tense time. We’re in a partisan time, and I decided that this is a time to look way back, to the founding,” Baier told Berman and Riedel. “[It’s] how a leader gets to that point and what it means for us today, and this moment is after the Revolutionary War. The British are defeated, the country is moving forward, but we’re really coming apart at the seams… I argue in this book, and I try to put the reader in the room in the narrative, that, without George Washington, we really wouldn’t have a country.”
Baier establishes that it was Washington’s simplicity and lack of fanfare that made his countrymen rally around him. “He’s this thoughtful, steady presence, and from his battlefield experience, he’s just this reliable voice of reason, and he doesn’t say a lot. He’s not a grandstander and he doesn’t throw grenades rhetorically, but he is kind of the indispensable man in the room… He tries to find union, which is arguably a quality that we could really welcome in some leaders today.”
And what of today’s events? Baier offered his take on Joe Biden’s response to events in Israel. “His words over recent days have been well received there on the ground… I found it interesting, on the 60 Minutes interview, that they haven’t tied Iran to this attack, and that [answer] raised a lot of eyebrows in intelligence and foreign policy circles…but overall, what he’s saying about standing by Israel is getting well received.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images